How to Use the New Google AdWords Budget Change to Your Advantage
Kelley Schultz — October 17, 2017 — October 17, 2017
Did you hear?!? If you advertise on Google AdWords, you could see your campaigns spend up to 2x the average daily budget. This update was released suddenly last week, and currently there is no way for advertisers to opt out. Google’s main reason for this change is to give advertisers the opportunity to achieve more clicks and conversions.
Even though this change sounds alarming, you won’t be charged more than your monthly charging limit. Google explains that, “Internet traffic is like an ocean. Some days, there will be small waves. Other days, there will be great big ones.” On low traffic days, fewer ads show up; therefore Google will help make up for this by showing more ads on days when traffic is higher.
Curious how you can use this new daily budget feature to your advantage? Here are four tips to get you up to speed:
1. Increase bids for the ad extensions that drive your best conversions.
If you are spending more on your search campaigns, then you want to make sure your best ads and ad extensions are showing constantly. For most lead generation companies, one of the best (if not THE best) conversion is the inbound call. Lucky for us, the new AdWords user interface has a feature that allows advertisers to add a bid adjustment for call extensions. I have mine set at +100% to make sure the call feature is on every ad since ads with call extensions convert at the highest rate. If Google is going to be spending more of my budget, I want to make sure those dollars get the strongest ROI possible.
Example: SnapCap uses call extensions in paid search ads to drive more call conversions.
2. Break out your top converting keywords into their own campaigns.
This is a tip I have been promoting for the past 5+ years. One of the most effective ways to optimize your AdWords campaigns is to identify your top performing campaigns and adjust your strategy. To create this ideal campaign structure, you need to break out your top converting keywords into separate campaigns with a dedicated budget and bid strategy.
Most of us have 80% of our conversions coming from 20% of our keywords. By creating a structure based on “high value” keywords, you can ensure you never cap on your budget for your best keywords. When Google sees a high traffic day and decides to go above daily caps, having this structure in place will yield your strongest ROI.
3. Update your negative keywords – do this weekly!
If you are running broad match keywords, and most of us are in some capacity, make sure you are continually updating your negative keyword list. By identifying negative keywords, you can choose specific search terms you wish to exclude. The below example shows you how to select negative broad match keywords. You can get even more specific by selecting negative phrase match and negative exact match keywords.
Running keywords on broad match allows a much wider reach to capture search volume, but those keywords can also lead to poor quality traffic. If Google allows up to 2x daily budget on a day when a broad match keyword matches a search query not as relevant to your brand, you could see some high cost with low conversions.
4. Match your other digital efforts to “spike” on the same days for a fully integrated digital strategy.
The great news about the daily budget increase is that Google will automatically allow your ads to show more often when there is a spike in search volume on your keywords. This creates a great opportunity to generate more business. Another way to capitalize on these spikes is to increase your advertising presence on other digital channels such as Facebook, Instagram and in even display.
To further boost ad performance during times of increased traffic, use an integrated approach by pushing out ads that contain content that aligns with the keywords that are seeing a spike. Don’t forget to measure revenue from these spikes to ensure you can prove the impact of your digital spend, especially when it is increased.
Keeping these tips in mind, you can get ahead of other digital advertisers and take advantage of Google’s new daily budget.
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