Google Ads Search (2023)

Best practices for monitoring and optimizing the performance of a Smart Bidding strategy

+ Align your Smart Bidding strategy with your marketing objectives + Adjust your target to capture more volume + Avoid limited budgets + Account for conversion delay

How many ads should be implemented per ad group?

three to five

Which three of the following strategies could Bahati and her team use to optimize for customer value?

Connect with Similar Audience lists based on high-performing Customer Match lists Follow optimization score recommendations for bids and budgets Segment existing audience lists based on previous purchase behavior

The target ROAS for Bahati's campaign is 110%. What Google Ads marketing metric demonstrates that their campaign is performing successfully?

Conversion value/cost: $1.11

What strategy aligns with each marketing objective?

Drive action = conversion-based bidding Boost awareness = target impression share Increase traffic = maximize clicks

What is the key value proposition of Google Search campaigns?

Show your ads when a customer is searching for your product or service

How does Performance Planner forecast?

To give you the most accurate forecasts possible, Performance Planner takes into account billions of search queries and is updated every 24 hours. It simulates relevant ad auctions over the past seven to 10 days and includes variables such as seasonality, query growth, competitor activity, and landing page.

Budget optimization

To perform successfully, Target CPA and Target ROAS campaigns shouldn't be limited by budget. Refer to the Recommendations page for budget optimization suggestions to capture more growth and get additional conversions and conversion value at the same CPA or ROAS. You can also edit the optimization score budget recommendations to get an estimate of the conversion volume expected at different budget amounts.

Customer Match

Upload your online and offline data such as emails and phone numbers to reach and re-engage with your customers across Search, Shopping, Gmail, YouTube, and Display.

Which part of a Search ad isn't automatically generated by Dynamic Search Ads?

description line

Mix and match recommendations from both bundles

For more flexibility, marketers can select the individual recommendations from one or both bundles based on business goals. To select recommendations individually, simply navigate to the Recommendations page. Then, click the down arrow to expand the Maintain your ads and Grow your business categories. Select individual recommendations in the Ads & assets, Keywords & targeting, and/or Measurement categories. When finished, click Save in the top right-hand corner.

How does Google Ads generate responsive search ads?

Google Ads creates them based on existing high performing ad copy

Which two of the following Google Ads Smart Bidding strategies focus on growing conversion value?

Maximize conversion value Target ROAS

Which of the following factors wouldn't change an account's optimization score?

Renaming campaigns

Arrange the items below in order of hierarchy, beginning with the top level.

Account Campaign Ad Group Ad

Business data customization

Ad customizers adapt your ads at a scale to what your potential customers are searching for in real time. You can define custom attributes, such as product name and price, in real time and tailor ads at scale. Follow four steps to implement ad customizers for responsive search ads: 1. Open your business data. 2. Create your ad customizer (define the ad attributes). That's how you categorize the dynamic text. 3. Enter attribute details (assign values at the appropriate levels). This is the actual text that will appear. -Note: If you don't add values, the responsive search ad with the ad customizer can't be reviewed. 4. Customize your ad text (insert the ad customizer in your responsive search ad). Reminder: You can add one countdown customizer per ad in the headline or description fields. You also need at least three headlines without ad customizers for the ad to be created.

Ad customizers for responsive search ads

Ad customizers let you add real-time information to your ad to tailor your message at scale. Personalize your ad with a customized headline or description to show a relevant variation to each potential customer.

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA)

Add a remarketing tag to the code of your website to collect a list of users engaging with the site.

Why does creative customization matter?

Creating customized, relevant copy for Search ads is an important way to connect with audiences and motivate them to take action and achieve your objectives. Expert marketers know that personalization can significantly contribute to business profitability. So how can you further personalize your Search ads to grow your business? In addition to implementing relevant Search ad assets and optimizing the ad strength of your responsive search ads to serve compelling creative, Google Ads offers some advanced customization features you'll learn about in this module.

Bahati's company recently launched an apparel line focused on cycling apparel. What's a potential combined audience setup that would engage a relevant audience for this launch?

Customer Match list of high-value customers + Google Affinity audience of cycling enthusiasts

Which two of the following solutions can help you re-engage with users who have previously interacted with their business?

Customer Match lists and RLSA are audience solutions that allow you to reconnect and remarket to those who have previously engaged with your business.

True or false? With Performance Max, it's no longer necessary to focus on AI-powered Search campaigns.

False

Why does bidding optimization matter?

Google Smart Bidding solutions use advanced machine learning technology to set precise bids for every auction and unlock growth. Applying best practices to your campaign's Smart Bidding strategy can help you achieve your marketing objectives and business goals. As you create and manage campaigns, continuously check in on targets and budgets to make sure they match your marketing objectives. Several tools, such as the bid strategy report and simulators, provide guidance on how to optimize your strategy based on goals.

Which are the three required parts of a text ad?

Headline, description, and URL

Target optimization

If your campaign isn't budget-constrained, decrease your ROAS targets to capture more conversion value. You can refer to the recommendations page for the recommended target adjustment.

Ad Customizer: Countdown Customizer

Let potential customers know about sales or special events by adding a countdown to your ad text. Countdown customizers count down by day, then hour, then minute. Set it up: Step 1: Add the countdown customizer: Begin by setting up a responsive search ad. You can also edit an existing ad. Enter curly brackets around your sale ends time, and select Countdown from the dropdown. Step 2: Set the countdown date and time range In the Countdown ends section, enter the date and time you want the countdown to end. In the Countdown starts section, enter the number of days before your end date. If left blank, the countdown will start five days before the end date. Step 3: Set the time zone Select a time zone. The Account time zone counts down to the end time in your account's time zone. This is a good option for an event happening in a specific location. The Ad viewer's time zone counts down to the end time in the ad viewer's time zone. This is a good option for an event that's not geographically specific, like an online sale. Add any relevant copy before or after your countdown customizer, and select Apply. You'll see a preview of the countdown customizer in the ad preview section.

What are the key elements of automated bidding?

Performance Auctions User journey complexities

Which two people might see an ad with the keyword +black +shirt (set as broad match modifier)?

Someone searching for the term I want to buy a black shirt Someone searching for the term black button shirt

How responsive search ads work

The more headlines and descriptions you enter, the more opportunities Google Ads has to serve ads that more closely match your potential customers' search queries, improving your ad performance. After you enter headlines and descriptions, Google Ads assembles the text into multiple ad combinations to avoid redundancy. Unlike expanded text ads, you can provide up to 15 headlines and four descriptions for a single responsive search ad. Next, in any ad, a maximum of three headlines and two descriptions will be selected to show in different combinations and orders. Part of your ad text may automatically appear bold when it matches or closely matches a user's search query. Over time, Google Ads will test the most promising ad combinations and learn which are the most relevant for different queries.

Broad match modifier

The plus sign (+) is used to identify a broad match modifier. In this example, +kids' +soccer +cleats is a broad match modifier keyword.

Simulators

Use simulators to estimate changes to performance when you revise your target or daily budget. Find them under the Campaigns tab or in the bid strategy report.

Ad Customizer: Location Insertion

With location insertion, you can tailor the text of your responsive search ad to the user's location or a location they show interest in. Location insertion highlights the location in the ad's headline or description by mentioning the city, state, or country. Available locations are selected based on the campaign's location targeting setting. Set it up: -To begin, set up a responsive search ad. Adapt headlines and descriptions with location insertion when creating the new ad, or add the customizer when editing an existing ad. You need at least three headlines without location insertion, or you can use default text. --When you're entering ad text for your headline, surround it with curly brackets. Then select Location insertion from the dropdown. --In the Location format section, choose the level of granularity. --In the Default text section, enter the words you want to appear when the text can't be replaced by a keyword. This is an optional step. --Select APPLY.

Used with Smart Bidding, broad match helps marketers maximize performance

+35% more conversions: Advertisers who upgrade their campaigns using target cost-per-action (CPA) from exact match to broad match +25% more conversions: Advertisers who upgrade their campaigns using target CPA from phrase match to broad match +12% more conversion value: Advertisers who upgrade their campaigns using target return on ad spend (ROAS) from phrase match to broad match

best practices for setting a target CPA

-Account for conversion delay when analyzing the past 30 days of performance. -The target CPA should be set close to the current CPA to start, in order to maintain similar volume. -Review the Google Ads recommendation for the target CPA, which is based on historical conversion data. -If you're switching to a new conversion action, make sure you review the average CPA of the relevant conversion action to set targets

Best practices when monitoring and optimizing the performance of a Smart Bidding Strategy

-Align your Smart Bidding strategy with your marketing objectives -Adjust your target to capture more volume -Avoid limited budgets -Account for conversion delay

What three statements describe the value of Google Search campaigns?

-Allow your business to show up on Google search results when businesses similar to yours are showing up. -Enable your business to appear when users are researching and comparing different options on Google Search. -Allow your business to be there at the exact moment someone is looking for the kinds of products or services you offer.

What are the benefits of upgrading from DSA to Performance Max?

-Better performance -Better technology -Adaptive creatives

Which three of the following factors are considered by Ad Rank in its calculation?

-Context of a person's search -Auction-time ad quality -Ad assets

Which three of the following are important use cases for Performance Planner?

-Explore forecasted performance outcomes by adjusting campaign settings. -Understand opportunities in future seasonal periods. -Manage budgets allocated across accounts and campaigns.

Conversion Measurement

-Global site tag -Enhanced conversions -Consent mode

As the owner of a local pizza parlor in Toronto, you'd like to spend $340 per month to drive more orders from consumers within the city. Which two of the following campaign settings would you use?

-Location settings set to Toronto -Budget set to $10 per day

What are three ways in which regular budget planning can help boost campaign performance?

-Plan for seasonality and periods of increased sales or leads. -Forecast the impact of different budgets to understand how performance can change. -Identify opportunities to grow incremental conversions.

Responsive search ads best practices

-Provide 10 or more headlines. -Provide three or more descriptions. -Include at least three popular keywords in headlines. -Make sure your headlines are unique and don't repeat the same or similar phrases. -Use call-to-action words. -Try using descriptions to highlight additional information about your product or service. -Highlight unique selling points. -Unpin, if possible. -Assets can be shown in any order, so make sure they make sense individually or in combinations and don't violate policies or local law. -It's recommended to have one responsive search ad per ad group with at least 'Good' or 'Excellent' Ad Strength. There's a limit of three enabled responsive search ads per ad group. -If you have text that should appear in every ad, you must add the text to either Headline position 1, Headline position 2, or Description position 1.

Key benefits of Applying recommendations automatically

-Scale best practices -Improve performance -Boost efficiency -Visibility and control -No increase to budget

3 Components of Campaigns

-Targeting: Reach your audience by using audience solutions and keywords. The former are tools to help you better connect with consumers, and the latter are words or phrases Google uses to match ads with the terms consumers search for. -Ad formats: Use responsive search ads to get your business in front of consumers who are searching for products or services like yours. With responsive search ads, Google AI uses the headlines, descriptions, and images you provide — called assets — to create ads that are relevant to your consumer audience. -Bid strategies: Apply the bidding strategy that best fits your marketing objective. Google AI enables a set of bidding strategies called Smart Bidding, which help drive higher conversion volume or conversion value.

How to Create a new plan in Performance Planner

1. Access Performance Planner Navigate to Performance Planner via Tools > Planning > Performance Planner, then click the + icon to create a new plan. 2. Select campaigns that have similar goals and use the same budget 3. Choose a metric to maximize 4. Select the lookback window for conversion rate 5. Select a target or threshold 6. Look at past performance for guidance 7. Once you get to this view, play around with different budget and target scenarios

Steps to create a search campaign

1. Choose New Campaign 2. Choose a campaign objective (Sales) 3. Select a campaign type (Search) 4. Select ways to reach your goal (Website visits, phone calls, store visits, app downloads) 5. Choose a campaign name (Fall Jacket Promotion) 6. Bidding (If you focus on conversion volume, you'll have the option to set a target cost per action (target CPA). If you'd prefer to prioritize conversion value, you'll have the option to set a target return on ad spend (target ROAS)) 7. Networks (indicates where the ad will appear based on the campaign type chosen. For example, with the Search Network, an ad can appear on Google search sites and non-Google search sites. Those non-Google search sites, like CNN, are called Google Search Partners.) 8. Locations and languages (choose the language and targeted geographic locations or to consumers who select a targeted language as their browser's language setting) 9. Ad groups: Your campaign will contain one or more ad groups, which help you organize ads with a common theme and similar goals. You'll enter keywords, one per line. To use broad match, enter a keyword without any formatting. For example, Aria picked women's rain jackets. Then they used keyword suggestions to add more words. Under ad groups, you'll add headlines and assets, which include images, logos, sitelinks, and more. 10. Budget: select the average amount you want to spend each day on the campaign. After your campaign launches, you might see advertising costs a little more or less than what you entered. But don't worry! Over a month-long billing cycle, you won't be charged more than your average daily budget would've allowed for in an average month.

Best practices for building an effective keyword list

1. Think like your audience: When building a keyword list, think holistically about all the different terms a potential user could use to search for your advertiser's business. 2. Organize your keywords by theme. Having well-defined keyword groups makes it easier for you to manage and maintain your account and allow for more relevant ads. For example, if you own a shoe store, your campaign might be organized like this: Ad group 1: Running shoes -Keyword 1: Running shoes -Keyword 2: Running sneakers -Keyword 3: Sports shoes Ad group 2: Evening shoes -Keyword 1: Evening shoes -Keyword 2: High heels -Keyword 3: Dress shoes 3. Look at the Search Terms Report. This report helps advertisers see which queries triggered their ads to appear on the search network. 4. Use negative keywords. Negative keywords prevent an otherwise eligible query from triggering an ad for an irrelevant search. Adding negative keywords can help reduce undesirable traffic and keep your ads focused on the types of searches you want. For example, if you sell men's athletic footwear but don't sell soccer cleats, you could add "cleats" as a negative keyword. Be mindful when adding negative keywords to campaigns, as it can also limit additional searches that haven't been considered previously.

Broad Match

A search can be phrased many different ways, making it hard to predict every search. But with broad match, you're leveraging Google AI and state-of-the-art language models to increase your ad's reach, all while spending less time on keyword lists.

A marketer wants to know how much their conversion volume could grow if they increase their cost-per-action target or budget. How can they use Google Ads tools to estimate the impact of these changes?

Access the campaign bid simulator tool to understand forecasted performance at different CPA and budget levels.

Account level automated assets

Account level automated assets tend to boost ad performance, making your ads more likely to be clicked. When an asset is predicted to improve your ad's performance, Google Ads automatically creates and displays it below your ad. These assets can be created at the account level and shared across multiple campaigns. Most account level automated assets are eligible to show with all ad types; however, a few only show on desktop and laptop computers. Account level automated assets are compatible with campaigns and ad groups that also use manual assets. It is recommended that you use all manual assets that fit your business. The following assets are considered universal assets, as they are a great fit for most marketing objectives, including Consideration, Sales (Online), Leads Generation, App Install, and Sales (Offline).

Why do ad assets matter?

Ad assets are a product add-on that serve on your existing text ads. They highlight relevant information about your business and what you offer. Ad assets enhance user engagement and relevancy, which can lead to better ad performance. Here are some of their other benefits: -Stand out: Ad assets make your text ad stand out, leading to increased user engagement and a better click-through rate (CTR). -Drive efficiency: These added clicks often come at a lower cost-per-click (CPC), compared with the cost of moving up a position. -Boost conversions: Giving users relevant information upfront often translates into more qualified leads. When determining which ad assets to use, think about consumers and their journey. How would they typically search for your business? What information are they looking for? How can you best guide them to take an action you desire?

Ad strength

Ad strength measures the relevance, quantity, and diversity of your responsive search ad content. Combined with actionable feedback, ad strength makes it easy for you to improve the effectiveness of your ads even before they serve. You'll see one of the five different ad strength ratings when you work on your responsive search ad: incomplete, poor, average, good, and excellent. Along with these ratings, you'll see action items to improve the effectiveness of ads. Advertisers who improve ad strength for their responsive search ads from poor to excellent see 9% more clicks and conversions on average, according to Google internal data.

What are three ways marketers can help Google AI maximize business impact with responsive search ads?

Add assets to responsive search ads. Pair responsive search ads with broad match keywords and Smart Bidding. Use asset performance labels to enhance assets and improve ad strength.

Your client, the marketing manager for a bank, created a Search campaign to help drive sign-ups for the bank's new credit card. Her campaign has been running for a few weeks, and she's looking for ways to improve performance. Which two of the following strategies could she use to help boost the performance of her campaign?

Add negative keywords to eliminate any unnecessary traffic. Use the Search Terms Report to identify keywords that are performing well.

3 ways to optimize your responsive search ads with Optimization Score

Add responsive search ads: The recommendation shows a suggestion for a responsive search ad using expanded text ad (ETA) assets. Review the suggested ads, and make adjustments if needed (such as improving ad strength). Add assets to responsive search ads: The recommendation shows a suggestion for improving responsive search ad assets by adding image assets. Improve responsive search ads: The recommendation shows a suggestion for improving responsive search ads ad strength, which is recommended because some of your responsive search ads have an ad strength below "Good."

Types of recommendations

Ads and extensions: Improve existing ads and ad groups , and show your best ads most often. Examples: -Use optimized ad rotation -Improve your responsive search ads Keywords and targeting: Connect with more people who are interested in what you offer. Examples: -Add new keywords -Remove conflicting negatives Bids and budgets: Find the right bid strategy to meet your business goals Examples: -Bid more efficiently with Maximize conversions using a target CPA -Adjust your ROAS targets

Your client's business is focused on growing online sales, but your client wants to do so at an efficient cost-per-action. What three optimization strategies can help achieve this marketing objective?

Applying a target CPA bid strategy to campaigns Reaching an audience of previous visitors who didn't convert Using Smart Bidding simulators to identify how a budget and cost-per-action will improve performance

Automated bidding

Automated bidding is a bidding method that uses Google AI to set bids for your ads based on that ad's likelihood to result in a click or conversion. Each type of automated bid strategy is designed to help you achieve a specific goal for your business. -Automated bidding takes the heavy lifting and guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals. Unlike Manual CPC bidding, there's no need to manually update bids for specific ad groups or keywords. -Different types of automated bid strategies can help you increase clicks, visibility in search results, conversions, or conversion value.

Factors to ad rank

Bid: When you set your bid, you tell Google Ads the maximum amount you'll pay for a click on your ad. You often actually end up paying less, and you can change your bid at any time. Ad Rank threshold: To get high-quality ads, ads must meet minimum quality thresholds to show in a particular ad position. Context of a person's search: With ad auction, context matters. Ad Rank gets calculated based on the search terms a person enters, the person's location at the time of search, the type of device they're using (e.g., mobile or desktop), the time of search, the nature of the search terms, other ads and search results that show on the page, and other user signals and attributes. Asset impact: When creating your ad, you can add extra information to the ad, such as site links and images. These are called assets. Google Ads estimates how assets and other ad formats impact an ad's performance. Auction-time ad quality: Google Ads looks at how relevant and useful the ad and website it links to are to the person who sees them. The assessment of the quality of your ad is summarized in your Quality Score, which you can monitor and work to improve in your Google Ads account. Quality Score is a reporting metric that differs from auction-time ad quality and isn't used in the auction. The competitiveness of an auction: If two ads competing for the same position have similar ad ranks, each has a similar opportunity to win that position. As the gap in Ad Rank between two advertisers' ads grows, the higher-ranking ad is more likely to win, but it may also pay a higher cost-per-click (CPC) for the benefit of the increased certainty of winning.

Choosing additional assets based on your marketing objective

Call assets Location assets App assets

Which three ad assets can serve automatically?

Callout assets Structured snippets Sitelink assets

Callouts and dynamic callouts

Callouts allow advertisers to highlight relevant, impactful selling points about your products or services that can be shown alongside your search text ads. Dynamic callouts allow Google to automatically surface relevant selling points to complement your search text ads. Benefits Callout assets are used to highlight information about value-adding attributes of the business, products, or services. They can boost user engagement and increase click-through rates. Best practices Keep callouts as short and specific as possible to highlight what makes your business unique. Include at least six callouts in campaigns. Callouts are available at the account, campaign, and ad group levels. You can opt-in to dynamic callouts at the account level.

Automatically created assets

Currently in beta, automatically created assets are an opt-in, campaign-level setting. Enabling the setting will help you generate additional assets (headlines and descriptions) to be used in combination with the assets you input for your responsive search ads. These new assets are generated based on your ad's unique context, which includes your landing page, existing ads, and keywords in your ad group.

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) has provided significant value to advertisers. It helps them capture more conversions from relevant search queries through scaled landing page-based targeting and creative generation for Search ads.

Keyword match types: Phrase match

Ex. "tennis shoes" Ads may show on searches that include the meaning of your keyword. The meaning of the keyword can be implied, and user searches can be a more specific form of the meaning. With phrase match, you can reach more searches than with exact match and fewer searches than with broad match, showing on the searches that include the meaning of your keyword. Example: A search for "tennis kids' shoes" would show for "kids' tennis shoes," "children's tennis shoes," or "buy kid shoes." Benefit: This makes sure the core concept of your keyword is present in the search term while reaching more volume than what exact match keywords would provide. Set it up: Add quotes " " around the term.

Keyword match types: Broad match

Ex. tennis shoes Ads may show on searches that are related to your keyword, which can include searches that don't contain the keyword terms. This helps you attract more visitors to your website, spend less time building keyword lists, and focus your spending on keywords that work. Example: Searches for "tennis shoes," "tennis sportswear," "used tennis shoes," or "top-rated tennis equipment" may show this ad. Benefit: It allows you to reach the most possible consumers searching for your product or service while saving you time from adding a variety of keywords. Broad match works best with automated bidding strategies. Set it up: Broad match is the default match type that all your keywords are assigned, so you don't have to specify another match type (exact match, phrase match, or a negative match type).

Keyword match types: Exact match

Ex. tennis shoes Ads may show on searches that have the same meaning or same intent as the keyword. Of the three keyword matching options, exact match gives you the most control over who sees your ad but reaches fewer searches than both phrase and broad match. Example: A search for "tennis shoes review," "red tennis shoes," or "tennis sneaker" wouldn't show this advertiser's ad; only a search for "tennis shoes" would show this ad. Benefit: It offers more control over the search terms that ads match to, although volume may be limited. Set it up: Add brackets [ ] around the term.

Auction-time ad quality

Expected clickthrough rate: That's the prediction of how often an ad will be clicked on when it's shown and controls for ad position. Across Google, user feedback is important for driving decision-making, and user clickthrough rates (CTRs) show what users respond to. By allowing users to vote with their clicks, millions of people help decide which ads are best for each search query. Ad landing page experience: Users want ad landing pages that help them find what they're looking for. A highly relevant landing page yields a higher score. A high-quality landing page should have appropriate and original content that helps the user complete their task. It should be easily navigable and transparent about the nature of the business, how the site interacts with the user's computer, and how it intends to use their personal information. Ad relevance: Ad relevance is a measure of how well an ad matches what the user is searching for and helps make sure that only useful ads are shown. It also prevents businesses from simply paying their way onto a search that's unrelated to their product or service.

Smart Bidding

Google knows that your business has unique goals. Equipped with your data, an AI-powered, smart bidding strategy can help you optimize your budget for return on ad spend (ROAS) or conversion value based on your business and marketing objectives.

Broad match: One-click experiment apply

How does this option work? One-click experiment apply creates an experiment automatically. It uses a control arm (the current campaign) and an experiment arm (broad match). It adds broad match keywords in addition to the existing phrase match or exact match keywords. What are the steps to complete? 1. On the Recommendations page, find the recommendation for Add broad match keywords. 2. Find the campaign you want to experiment with, and select the three dot menu on the right-hand side. 3. Select Apply an experiment. 4. In the dialogue box, select Save.

Broad match: implementation through the Recommendations page

How does this option work? With this option, marketers can add broad match keywords to the same ad group as the exact match and phrase match keywords in their campaigns. What are the steps to complete? Navigate to the Recommendations page, and select Apply all.

Aria owns a clothing boutique and has been using Google Ads to increase awareness and drive revenue. She wants to get more out of her campaigns and make sure she's using the right features based on her settings and goals, but does not have extra time for manual tasks. She would like to see her optimization score increase but is also concerned about budget. How can opting-in to automatically apply recommendations help her improve account performance?

It regularly implements best practices on the account without automatically increasing the budget.

Marketing Objectives

Leads: Boost conversions by encouraging people to take action. For example, an insurance agency that's focused on driving requests for quotes on their website. Sales: Grow online, in-app, in-person, or over-the-phone sales. For example, a chain of bicycle stores that wants to increase sales of bikes and accessories at their retail locations. Website Traffic: Get the right people to visit your website. For example, a new hotel that's hoping to drive brand awareness by increasing the number of visitors to their website.

The owner of a water sports equipment rental company knows the holiday season is approaching, and many competitors will open their doors to capture the increase in tourism and rental demand. The owner wants to use ad assets to make his ads as relevant and engaging as possible. His customers can book rentals on his website, over the phone, and in his shop. Which two assets are most relevant for his marketing objective of driving bookings?

Location assets Call assets

Four Layers of Organization in Google Ads

Manager Account: Some advertisers manage multiple Google Ads accounts. To easily view and manage these Google Ads accounts in one place, advertisers can choose to create a manager account. That saves time with reporting, access control, and consolidated billing Account: An account is a collection of campaigns. It's associated with a unique email address, password, and billing information. Looking to manage more than one account for your business? Campaign: A campaign is a collection of ad groups. It has its own budget and settings, which determine where ads will appear. Ad group: An ad group contains a set of similar ads and keywords (the words and phrases that trigger ads to appear).

Manual Bidding

Manual CPC bidding is bidding method that lets you set your own maximum cost-per-click (CPC) for your ads. This differs from automated bid strategies, which set bid amounts for you. -Manual CPC bidding gives you control to set the maximum amount that you could pay for each click on your ads. -You start by setting a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid for your entire ad group (called your default bid), but you can also set separate bids for individual keywords or placements. For example, if you've found that certain keywords are more profitable, you can use manual bidding to allocate more of your advertising budget to those keywords.

What are two reasons the Maximize Conversion Bidding strategy is a good fit for Gordon's goal? (Goal = to increase their leads coming from digital marketing channel)

Maximize Conversion Bidding is good for advertisers who don't want to optimize toward a target CPA target just yet. Maximize Conversion Bidding is good for advertisers who want to maximize the number of conversions for a campaign within a set budget.

Broad match

No symbols are used to identify a broad match keyword. In this example, kids' soccer cleats is a broad match keyword.

Can I activate recommendations automatically applied at the campaign level?

No. Automatically applied recommendations are activated at the account and manager levels. This feature is turned on for all campaigns within an activated account.

Will all recommendations that surface in my account be applied automatically?

No. When enabling automatically applied recommendations, you'll choose the recommendations for which you'd like to opt-in to from a menu. Only the recommendations you select will be eligible to be applied automatically.

Will recommendations automatically applied increase my account spend?

No. While any account changes, including those made by applying recommendations automatically, could result in an increase or decrease in ad spend, these changes will never exceed your chosen budget. This feature is meant to help you get the most clicks, calls, and sales from your account while leaving you in control of your overall budget.

Potential score uplift

On this card, you can see that adding audiences could increase this account's optimization score by 3.1%.

Select a set of recommendations from bundles

One way to apply recommendations automatically is to choose one of two bundles. A bundle is a set of pre-checked recommendations, categorized by a goal. Selecting a bundle will apply its recommendations anytime they're available. The two bundles are: 1. Grow your business. This bundle can help you scale your business, optimizing targets and improving ad performance. Recommendations include maximizing conversions with Smart Bidding, and upgrading keywords to broad match 2. Maintain your ads. This bundle will help keep campaigns up-to-date with best practices, including foundational keyword and targeting recommendations.

Optimization Score

Optimization score is an estimate of how well an advertiser's Google Ads account is set to perform. An optimization score is a value between 0 and 100, and higher scores indicate a campaign or account is better optimized and has fewer available actionable opportunities. Optimization score uses a combination of statistical models, simulations, and machine learning to identify the optimization uplift potential of each recommendation. If a recommendation is more closely tied to performance, it's given more weight for the overall score. Recommendations with a higher uplift percentage have a larger impact on advertiser performance.

Broad match: Best practices

Organize your ad groups by a common theme. Follow creative best practices. Be mindful of negative targeting. Consider brand restrictions in broad match.

Why responsive search ads work

Pair broad match keywords and Smart Bidding with responsive search ads to help you reach new, high-performing queries and optimize your bids in real time. Advertisers who adopt responsive search ads in campaigns that also use broad match and Smart Bidding see an average of 20% more conversions at a similar cost per action, according to 2021 internal data. Smart Bidding: Uses billions of combinations of signals to set the right bid for each query and auction based on your return on investment (ROI) goals. Smart Bidding can help you stay on top of market trends and rapidly shifting demand by optimizing your bids in real time. Broad Match: Finds new, high-performing queries and emerging trends to reach more consumers and drive better performance. Google continuously improves broad match by considering new signals — like user location or recent search activity — improving relevance for keyword variations and matching holistically with all keywords in your ad group. Responsive Search Ads: Responsive search ads can automatically assemble the most relevant creative for every auction and even help you show for new queries. Supply up to 15 headlines and four descriptions as your creative assets. The system uses those assets to automatically create new ads tailored to each query based on auction-time signals.

Performance Planner

Performance Planner is a tool in Google Ads that lets you plan for upcoming periods of up to 18 months. You can forecast how optimal target and budget adjustments can positively affect key metrics and overall return. Use Performance Planner on a monthly basis to make sure you're setting the right budgets and campaign-level Smart Bidding targets to capture demand for your business. With Performance Planner, you can do the following: -See forecasts for your campaigns -Explore outcomes by adjusting campaign settings -Understand opportunities in seasonal periods -Manage budgets across accounts and campaigns

Optimize targets and budgets to improve performance

Performance Planner: Use Performance Planner to forecast target and budget scenarios across campaigns up to 18 months ahead Tip: Use profitability as a guide to set the right budgets and ROAS targets with Performance Planner. A higher target ROAS doesn't always yield more profit. Simulators: Use simulators to forecast the impact of budget and target changes on key metrics. Optimization score: Use optimization score recommendations to quickly identify opportunities for growth. Portfolio bidding and shared budgets: Use portfolio bidding and shared budgets to allocate bids and spend across a group of campaigns with similar performance goals.

Best Practices for Performance Planner

Plan 18 months ahead: Performance Planner allows you to plan up to 18 months ahead across all campaign types: Search, Shopping, Local, Display, Video, Performance Max, and App. Check in regularly: After you create an 18-month plan, check in on a monthly or quarterly basis to make sure your plan can be implemented based on the past seven to 10 days. Plans will reflect shifts in the market during that time, along with any typical upcoming seasonal shift. You can create plans in Performance Planner more frequently than usual to account for unpredictable changes in the market and your business. Google can't guarantee that forecasts will reflect additional uncertainty in market changes.

Dynamic Image Assets Best Practices

Prioritize high-impression volume ad groups: -Image assets perform best when closely relevant to queries within the ad group. -Images should convey useful information to the searcher and match the experience they'll find on your landing page. Have at least four unique images per ad group: -Put your important content in the center 80% of the image. -Provide both 1x1 as well as 1.91x1 aspect ratios to maximize serving for the Image Search experiment. Opt into dynamic image assets: -Provide image assets at the ad group or campaign level to supplement coverage and allow for greater control over image relevance and customer brand guidelines.

Phrase match

Quotation marks (" ") are used to identify a phrase match keyword. In this example, "kids' soccer cleats" is a phrase match keyword.

Filter

Remember that you can filter by section to view specific recommendations. For example, if you need to reach more customers, look at Keywords & targeting to add more keywords that may increase conversions.

Google Ads Editor recommendations

Responsive search ads can be created and optimized with Google Ads Editor. You can pin a headline, check the strength of your ad, and receive recommendations on ways to improve. Make sure you have the latest version to see the option to create responsive search ads.

Sitelinks and dynamic sitelinks

Sitelinks allow advertisers to deep-link users directly to specific pages within your website. Dynamic sitelinks allow Google to curate high-quality sitelinks for you based on the content of your website. Benefits Adding sitelinks can boost the average click-through rate for an ad. You also reduce the steps to conversion by bringing users directly to the right page. Best practices Add as many relevant and useful sitelinks as possible, but eight to 10 is ideal. Link to popular or high-converting sections of the site to help consumers navigate to these pages more easily. Make sure there's enough content on the website to have at least two sitelinks; otherwise, the sitelinks won't show. Sitelinks are available at the account, campaign, and ad group levels. You can opt-in to dynamic sitelinks at the account level.

Google Ads Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is a subset of automated bid strategies that uses machine learning to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction—a feature known as "auction-time bidding." It adjust bids automatically to help you connect with the right customers at the right time, optimizing for the best results within your budget. Smart Bidding strategies for Search campaigns focus on two main performance goals: conversions and conversion value.

Exact match

Square brackets ([ ]) are used to identify an exact match keyword. In this example, [kids' soccer cleats] is an exact match keyword.

How to find metrics

Step 1: From the left menu, select Campaigns Step 2: From the menu above the table, select the Columns icon, then choose Modify columns Step 3: Select the Conversions dropdown, and choose the column options that reflect your objectives. Select Apply

Steps to access Smart Bidding simulators

Step 1: From the leftmost menu, select Campaigns Step 2: Identify the campaign you want to simulate and locate the Budget column. Select the simulator icon. Simulators can also be accessed in the bid strategy report Step 3: Review the Campaign Target CPA Simulator table and graph to see how setting different targets or budgets can impact key KPIs, as well as the clicks and cost. The table also models different budget scenarios that may unlock additional opportunity for a campaign Step 4: Choose a new target from the table. Select APPLY

How to set up your bid strategy report

Step 1: From the leftmost menu, select Campaigns Step 2: In the Bid strategy type column, select a strategy to open the bid strategy report Step 3: Review the performance metrics on the Performance history card Step 4: Select Conversions on the Performance history card to view insights into conversion estimates for a specific time period

Steps to run good experiments

Step 1: Set it up Check the Recommendations page for campaigns with Match Type Recommendations. Campaigns should run with conversion-based Smart Bidding and Exact or Phrase Match enabled. Apply the experiment to add broad match keywords to existing keywords. Step 2: Observe Let the experiment run for at least four weeks or until it's reached statistical significance. The experiment should have open budgets and not be modified during this period to get clear results. Step 3: Analyze the results Note how many additional conversions are realized with broad match. To get clear results, exclude the ramp-up period at the beginning of the experiment from analysis and consider any conversion delays from the result evaluation.

Structured snippets and dynamic structured snippets

Structured snippets allow advertisers to highlight specific aspects of your products or services in a structured format based on a set of available headers. Structured snippets are shown for relevant queries as an additional line of non-clickable text in the form of a Header: Value 1, Value 2, Value 3, etc. Dynamic structured snippets allow Google to surface useful, structured information automatically. Benefits Use structured snippets to get more qualified leads. When users get more specific information about what's being offered before they visit a website, they're more likely to convert after clicking. Best practices Make sure the headers selected provide information that's useful and attractive to users. Structured snippets eligible at the ad group level will serve over the campaign and account levels. Structured snippets eligible at the campaign level will serve over the account level. Dynamic structured snippets are an account level opt-in.

Bahati's campaign employs a Maximize conversion value bid strategy. What does the key performance metric for the strategy of conversion value measure?

The total online sales revenue generated from Google Search ads

Value ingestion

There are three main ways to ingest or integrate value in Google systems. -Global Site Tag: Conversion tracking and value fires via website tag following online activity (One Google Tag, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics 4, enhanced conversions for leads (.ECL)). -Import: Conversions are passed directly into the platform via import (OCI, conversions API, offline conversion adjustment, store sales improvements). -Google Tracked: Conversion events are tracked in Google's systems (store visits, EVCs, call measurement, and local actions).

What are two reasons why Target ROAS is the recommended bid strategy for Bahati's new campaign objectives?

They are tracking conversion values. They want to hit a desired return on investment.

What are three reasons why Maximize conversion value is the recommended strategy for Bahati's objectives?

They don't have specific ROI goals. They are tracking conversion values. They want to maximize the value of their sales within a given budget.

Optimization headroom

This example account score is 73.5%, which means this account has 26.5% of optimization headroom. You can read through the listed recommendations to understand where you can find the most impact.

True or false? Broad match is most effective when used with conversion-based Smart Bidding.

True

Keyword insertion

Use keyword insertions to update your ads to include the keywords that triggered the ads to show. For example, when someone searches for "CRM software," the ad's headline can include the term "CRM software." Set it up: Step 1: Add keyword insertion: Begin by setting up a responsive search ad. You can also edit an existing ad. Enter curly brackets around the ad text, and select Keyword insertion from the dropdown. Step 2: Enter your keywords: In the Default text section, enter the words you want to appear when the text can't be replaced by a keyword (e.g., athletic shorts). Step 3: Choose how you want your keywords to be formatted: Choose title case, sentence case, or lowercase. With title case, the first letter of all keywords will be capitalized (Running Shorts). With sentence case, only the first letter of the first keyword will be capitalized (Running shorts). With lowercase, no letters will be capitalized (running shorts). Add any relevant copy before or after the keyword insertion section. Select Apply.

How does value-based bidding work?

Uses billions of combinations of signals to predict the conversion value Online sales: Maximize the conversion value of online sales within budget and (if applicable) ROAS targets. Omnichannel sales: Set an average value of a store visit conversion to let Smart Bidding maximize sales across all channels, both online and in-store. Lead generation: Improve the quality of leads by differentiating how much an online quote is worth through your lead-to-sale journey.

Value definition

Value definition depends on your ability to capture or calculate the value at the time of conversion. That's highly dependent on the business model and timing or when the value is realized. The definition can be broken into three categories: -Actual: Value is realized at the time of conversion (revenue, omni/offline value, profit). -Proxy: A general value is understood at the time of conversion (lead scoring). -Predictive: A predicted value is calculated at the time of conversion based on signals captured (propensity, survival/churn, lifetime value).

value-centric measurement (VCM)

Value-based bidding depends on VCM, which represents the prerequisite steps that enable the expression of value to Google. VCM breaks down into two areas: -Value definition: What's the conversion's worth? (propensity, LTV, lead scoring, etc.) -Value ingestion: How can you integrate those values into Google's systems? (OCI, content management application programming interface, etc.)

Value-Centric Measurement (VCM)

Value-based bidding depends on VCM, which represents the prerequisite steps that enable the expression of value to Google. VCM breaks down into two areas: Value definition: What's the conversion's worth? (propensity, LTV, lead scoring, etc.) Value ingestion: How can you integrate those values into Google's systems? (OCI, content management application programming interface, etc.)

Value-based bidding

Value-based bidding is a Smart Bidding strategy that uses machine learning to maximize conversion value, bidding for conversions that drive business objectives. It uses billions of combinations of signals to predict the conversion value, letting you better qualify the conversions your campaign budget is driving. Value-based bidding lets you bid to either static or dynamic values that matter to your business. Examples of dynamic values include first-party conversion-level data like profit, propensity scores, and predicted lifetime value.

A retailer is looking to drive additional revenue from his campaigns next year. Why would value-based bidding be the right solution for him?

Value-based bidding uses AI to maximize value within the budget and target ROAS.

About ad strength

What it is: A tool that analyzes the relevance, quantity, and diversity of your responsive search ad content according to best practices. When to use it: During the creation of your responsive search ads. Impact: Doesn't influence ad serving or ad performance. Components: Headline quantity Headline relevance (keywords) Unique headlines Unique descriptions

About asset performance

What it is: Asset performance labels measure your asset's performance relative to other assets in the ad. They update as user search behaviors change, impacting the query mix, ad position, etc. When to use it: After your responsive search ads serve. Impact: Reflects performance after being served. Components: Weighted mix of performance metrics with statistically significant confidence.

Search terms

When people search for a product or service, they naturally use different combinations of words to describe what they want or need. Those words, known as search terms, lead to different search results. For example, if Linda works for a company selling sneakers, she might add "running shoes" as a keyword in her Google Ads campaign. When someone enters the search term "running shoes" on Google, a number of factors lead to whether her ad may show on the search results page. Let's examine how that works.

Responsive Search Ads

When you provide high-quality assets—like headlines, descriptions, call buttons, location information, and more—Google AI uses them in your responsive search ads to create compelling ads for the audiences you're targeting. Responsive search ads also work with your other assets, like sitelinks and images, to make your ads more engaging.

Ad builder (Search Ads 360) recommendations

With ad builder, you can add new assets to thousands of ad groups in a few clicks. Easily update ads from a single screen, and customize the ads for each ad group with smart automation.

Can I reverse changes made once recommendations are applied automatically in my account?

Yes. In the same way you'd make any changes or updates to your Google Ads account, just sign in and change your settings back to what they were prior to the automatically applied recommendations. If you can't reverse changes from the change history page, you'll need to go to the specific campaign(s) to reverse the change made (e.g., individually remove keywords).

In the past, you've decided to dismiss all your KEYWORDS & TARGETING recommendations. But now your company's goals have changed, and you want to see those suggestions after all. What should you do?

You can see dismissed recommendations by selecting the Dismissed filter and choosing the option to un-dismiss.

Based on the above 73.5% optimization score for example account above, how could you boost their score by 14.8%?

You can select APPLY ALL in the Bid more efficiently with Target CPA card.

The performance marketing director of an athleisure brand is using keyword insertion to promote a new line of athletic tights. She wants the ad text to dynamically adjust to match queries like "running tights," "yoga tights," and "workout tights." But if the keyword can't be replaced, she wants the ad to serve the default phrase "athletic tights." How should she set up this keyword insertion?

{keyword: athletic tights}