Google Ads Quality Score: Everything You Need To Know (2024)
Mastering quality score is essential if you want to pay less per click and outrank competitors.
In this article you’ll learn the 80/20 of what you need to know about quality score.
Let’s dive into it!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Quality Score Simplified
- How is Quality Score Calculated?
- How to audit your Quality Score?
- How to improve your Quality Score?
- Quality Score FAQ
Quality Score Simplified
Back in 2005, Google released Quality Score.
This is a number from 1-10 that Google created to determine how relevant your ads are to what people are searching for (1 being the lowest relevance, and 10 being the highest).
Google want’s people who search to find what they are looking for.
This way they come back to Google and search again in the future.
Quality Score is how they gamified the system to achieve this objective.
It’s the perfect trinity between advertiser, searcher, and Google:
- Advertisers are rewarded with lower costs when having higher quality scores
- People searching for answers on Google will now find more relevant information
- Because people find relevant information they use Google again in the future
Before Quality Score was introduced Google was filled with tons of irrelevant ads leading to a poor experience for searchers and ultimately less people using Google in the future.
(In my opinion) Quality Score was one of the most important features released that transformed Google into the most dominant search engine in the world.
The secret to improving Quality Score is relevance.
How is Quality Score Calculated?
Ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR are the three variables that go into calculating your Quality Score. Depending on how relevant each is to your keywords you’ll have a final score between 1-10 (1 being the lowest relevance, and 10 being the highest).
Ad Relevance
A metric that determines how relevant your keywords are to your ad copy.
Above average signifies great relevance, below average signifies room for improvement, below average signifies poor keyword and ad copy relevance.
Ad relevance is 100% in your control and below average ad relevance is usually the result of poor ad group structure resulting from too many keywords and/or few variations of ad copy.
Landing Page Experience
A metric that determines how relevant your keywords, ads, and post click experience matches the search intent of the user.
It’s not just about having your keywords on the page, it also takes into consideration page load speeds, page structure (ex: H1, H2s, H3s), and mobile optimization.
Above average signifies a great landing page experience, average signifies room for improvement, and below average signifies poor post click experience.
Expected CTR
A metric that determines the likelihood of someone clicking on your ads once seen in the Google search results.
In my experience auditing Google Ads accounts this is the #1 most common variable that drags down quality score for most accounts since it’s the least in your control.
This is Google’s perception based on historical and predicted performance on how well you believe your ad will be engaged with.
Above average signifies a highly engaging ad, average signifies room for improvement, and below average signifies poor ad engagement.
How to audit your Quality Score?
Once you understand the basics of quality score that it is a factor of relevance and three components that determine whether you’re a 1-10 the next logical question becomes:
What’s impacting my quality score performance?
Here’s how to run a Google Ads quality score to find what’s impacting your performance.
[EMBED YOUTUBE VIDEO]
Step 1 - Download a keyword report
Within your Google Ads manager navigate to the keywords section within your account:
Campaigns > Keywords (press G + K for a keyboard shortcut)
Modify your keyword columns to include:
- Quality Score
- Ad Relevance
- Landing Page Experience
- Expected CTR
Once completed download your keywords into a CSV.
Step 2 - Summarize your keywords into a pivot table
Pivot tables are great for summarizing large amounts of data.
Within Excel navigate to Insert > PivotTable to summarize your keyword report.
Once complete format your table as follows:
- Rows = Quality Score
- Values = Count of Keywords
- Filter = Quality score 1-10 (exclude —)
Step 3 - Drill down to understand Quality Score performance
With your table setup now you can easily see overall quality score performance and drill down into specific elements such as ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR.
Switch your rows to drill down into each element of quality score to diagnose performance:
- Ad Relevance; rows = Ad Relevance, values = count of keywords
- Landing Page Experience; rows = Landing Page Experience, values = count of keywords
- Expected CTR; rows = Expected CTR, values = count of keywords
How to improve your Quality Score?
After completing your Google Ads Quality Score audit it should be pretty clear which factor of QS is hurting your performance? (ex: ad relevance, landing page experience, expected CTR).
Here’s some recommendations on how to improve each QS factor:
Improving Ad Relevance
Below average ad relevance is a symptom of poor ad group structure.
If you have below average ad relevance, fear not! Because this is 100% in your control.
Here’s some tips to improve your ad relevance:
- Add more headline variations to your responsive search ads to include the keywords within your ad groups.
- Keep your ad groups tightly grouped with thematic keywords, for the keywords that can’t fit the theme consider putting it into its own group with relevant copy.
- Consolidate your active keywords and remove below average ad relevance variations that are not receiving any worthwhile impressions or clicks.
Improving Landing Page Experience
Below average landing page experience is a symptom of poor post click experience.
If you’ve been neglecting your landing pages this is where it’s going to bite you.
Here’s some tips to improve landing page experience:
- Include your primary keyword in your headline 1 to match search intent and your ad copy.
- Run your landing page through PageSpeed Insights to find how you can improve the mobile and desktop experience.
- Follow on page SEO best practices and have proper headline, and content formatting. Remember Google will crawl your landing pages so make sure it’s technically sound.
- Install a session recording tool to see how users behave on your landing page, the insights here are invaluable at understanding gaps.
Improving Expected CTR
This is Google’s perception on how likely your ads will be clicked.
Unfortunately this aspect of Quality Score is the least in your control but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything you can do to improve it.
Here’s some tips to improve your expected clickthrough rate:
- Use as many ad extensions as possible (ex: sitelink, image, structured snippet, etc). Ad extensions provide more info to the searcher and make your ads larger.
- Test new RSA ad copy on a monthly basis to consistently try and improve your ad clickthrough rate performance on an ongoing basis.
- Monitor your account clickthrough rate trends month over month to combat negative trends. You can set up an automated rule within Google Ads to be notified automatically via email.
- Audit your search terms report and build your negative keyword lists. Block irrelevant impressions of your ads so that you can actually drive clicks.
- Experiment with dynamic keyword insertion to see if it positively affects your ad CTR.
Quality Score FAQ
How long does it take to improve your quality score?
Technically every time your keyword enters an auction quality score is recalculated to determine placement of your ad in relation to your competitors.
However in my experience it usually takes a month to see significant changes in your overall score.
Should you worry about low quality scores?
Yes, low quality scores should cause concerns but it shouldn’t be your initial priority. The first goal should be to drive relevant traffic and convert users.
If you’re not currently accomplishing this then stressing about quality score is pointless as it’s really only a factor of reducing your costs and improving visibility.
If you’re not already converting the visibility you do have, getting more of it won’t help.
What is a good quality score?
A good quality score will fluctuate depending on your keyword strategy but overall I’d recommend having 70% of enabled keywords in your account with a score > 7.
Just know this is highly circumstantial and if you’re running a competitive keyword strategy you will have lower quality scores by default given the difficulty of including your competitors in your ads.
Hope you found this article helpful! 🔥
Check out our video tutorial linked if you want a visual walkthrough.
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
Other Articles You May Enjoy.
4 Unique LinkedIn Ad Strategies To Drive More Webinar Registrations
Webinars can be amazing generators of pipeline and revenue.
They allow you to demo different use cases of your product, highlight success stories, and start actual conversations with your ICP.
But it’s hard to get prospects interested when you’re competing against a million different ads popping up in their feed.
Below are 4 unique LinkedIn ad strategies that I like to use to stand out and generate more registrations👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Strategy #1: Leverage your thought leaders
- Strategy #2: Boost high-performing social media content
- Strategy #3: Create a LinkedIn event
- Strategy #4: Use incentives
Strategy #1: Leverage your thought leaders
Ask your thought leaders who are participating in the webinar (from your company & other companies) if they’d feel comfortable posting about it.
If the answer is yes, draft a sample post for each of your thought leaders so that they don’t have to start with a blank page.
Ideally, they should post a couple weeks prior to the webinar date. After 4 or 5 days (once the organic reach has died down), you can boost the post to your ICP.
Example from DoWhatWorks
Strategy #2: Boost high-performing social media content
If your social media team posts about the webinar and it performs well organically, consider boosting this content and running it as an ad (instead of creating an ad from scratch). The benefit of boosting already high-performing content is the added social proof – prospects will take a closer look if a promoted post has tons of engagement.
Example from Uberflip
Strategy #3: Create a LinkedIn event
Most webinar ads take prospects to an external landing page, where they have to fill out a form to register. Although this can work well, a great alternative is to create a LinkedIn event (where people can sign up directly on the LinkedIn platform) and promote this event as an ad.
The main advantages of this approach are:
a) simplified registration (only takes a few clicks)
b) added social proof (event ads show how many people have already registered)
Example from Make
Strategy #4: Use incentives
A lot of companies use incentives for demo request offers, but few are using incentives to promote their webinars.
Give prospects an extra reason to register. Maybe by joining they’ll enter a raffle, get a free coffee, or gain access to certain templates.
Example from ZoomInfo
Final Recommendations
In addition to testing out the strategies above, here are a few final tips to maximize the ROI of your webinar program:
- If you’re having trouble getting webinar registrations on your landing page, consider switching to native lead gen forms to minimize friction.
- Don’t just promote your webinar to a cold audience. Think about other groups of people that might be interested in the content (i.e. retargeting audiences, open opportunities, churned customers, closed lost companies, previous webinar attendees, etc.)
- If you’re getting started, try different types of webinars to see what resonates most with your audience (and double down on whatever works)
If you want more tips around event promotion check out this article by Kirk Deis.
Hope you found this article insightful!
Connect with me on LinkedIn, and reach out with any questions.
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
14 Tested LinkedIn Ad Ideas to Scale Demos
Getting demos isn’t easy, especially in B2B SaaS, with long sales cycles, lots of decision makers, and tons of competition.
In this article, I’ll break down the top 14 LinkedIn ads strategies you can use to break through the noise and capture existing demand.
(Irrelevant of order all ideas could be worth testing)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
#2: Name the top companies you work with
#3: Demonstrate why you’re better than competitors
#4: Highlight integrations with partner technologies
#7: Try hyper-personalized messaging
#10: Show how much better life would be with your product
#11: Test ads in different languages
#12: Announce a new product update
#13: List the features that your ICP would be most interested in
#1: Use testimonials
Testimonials are one of the most effective ways to build trust and get prospects who are on the fence to take the next step.
Example 1: Chili Piper
Example 2: Sendoso
#2: Name the top companies you work with
By highlighting well-known companies that already work with you, you can gain the trust of senior leaders much faster and accelerate the sales process.
Example 1: MarketerHire
Example 2: Mutiny
#3: Demonstrate why you’re better than competitors
This approach is powerful, especially when you target prospects who are currently using your competitors. Since they’re already in-market, if they’re frustrated with their current solution, they’ll likely end up switching over (or at least consider it).
Example 1: Apollo
Example 2: Apollo
#4: Highlight integrations with partner technologies
This approach is particularly effective if you have a seamless integration with a well-known technology. Do you work well with HubSpot, Salesforce, Sales Nav, Wordpress, etc.? Target a list of companies within your ICP who are using the technology you integrate with, and show them why you’re the best choice.
Example 1: Typeform
Example 2: Typeform
#5: Showcase your product
Many times, all prospects need to take the next step is to get a glimpse of your software. Also, this is an especially great approach because it sets the sales team up for success – when prospects jump on a demo call, they’ll already have some familiarity with the product.
Example 1: HockeyStack
Example 2: Loxo
#6: Stand out with humor
B2B leaders are still people. Humor that’s relatable and clearly highlights a pain point works better than corporate jargon 99% of the time.
Example 1: Chili Piper
Example 2: Cognism
#7: Try hyper-personalized messaging
This approach, often referred to as 1:1 ABM, relies on extreme personalization. You specifically call out the company that you’re prospecting into, and maybe you take it a step further and create a personalized video or asset just for them. CTRs will be super high and even if prospects don’t convert on an initial touchpoint, you’ll make sales’s job significantly easier by generating awareness within a target account.
Example 1: UserGems
Example 2: HockeyStack
#8: Use statistics
This isn’t the flashiest or most exciting strategy, but it works. Numbers give prospects a sense of security that they’ll get a positive ROI if they invest.
Example 1: UserGems
Example 2: Lavender
#9: Leverage Incentives
Incentives are controversial, which is understandable.
The concern is that by offering an incentive you lower the quality of your leads. But that’s only true if your targeting is weak. If it’s spot on, incentivized demo ads are amazing generators of pipeline and revenue – they serve as a tiny nudge to encourage leaders to find some time in their calendar.
Amazon or Doordash gift cards work well, but you can always get more creative with your offer.
Example 1: Metadata
Example 2: Cognism
#10: Show how much better life would be with your product
This approach clearly emphasizes the pain point your product will solve, leading prospects to take action.
Example 1: Motion
Example 2: Workvivo
#11: Test ads in different languages
A lot of B2B SaaS companies are hyper-focused on North America, and their content for Latin America, EMEA, and APAC is just an afterthought. Running high quality ads in the language of the specific region you’re targeting can be a game changer as far as driving pipeline and revenue.
Bonus: If you take into account regional differences in consumer behavior and product usage when creating ads for different regions, your content will end up resonating even more.
Example 1: Pandadoc
Example 2: Miro
#12: Announce a new product update
This is a great way to re-engage people who may have considered your solution in the past but weren’t fully convinced. By showing prospects how much better your product is after the updates, you can convince them to take the next step and request a demo.
Example 1: Zoominfo
#13: List the features that your ICP would be most interested in
As marketers, we’re always told to focus on pain points instead of features. But listing your top features can help prospects fully understand how powerful your product is, encouraging them to request a demo.
Example 1: Workvivo
#14: Host a live demo
Promoting a live demo is a great way to get qualified prospects to see your product without having to go through the traditional (and higher commitment) demo process.
Prospects who are interested in your product may not be ready to talk to the sales team right away – a live demo can serve as a bridge, moving them further down the funnel.
Example 1: Metadata
Example 2: Motion
Final Recommendations
If you’re trying to drive more demos, in addition to testing out these capture strategies, I recommend doing a comprehensive audit of your audiences. Ask yourself:
- Am I targeting my warmest prospects who have already engaged with my content in some capacity?
- Am I reaching prospects with the right company sizes, seniorities, job functions, job titles, and industries?
- Am I excluding the LinkedIn audience network and disabling audience expansion?
- Am I making all the necessary exclusions (interns, unemployed, competitors, customers, etc.)?
Without precise targeting, even the best strategies will fail.
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
How to Choose The Best Ad Platforms For B2B SaaS
Don’t want to make a mistake investing in an ad platform that won’t work?
Regardless of what you hear online, no one can promise you that ( including me).
But thankfully success leaves clues and we surveyed 60 B2B marketers to find the answer.
So regardless if you’re a new advertiser, startup founder, or agency owner reading this.
We’ve got you covered, let’s dive in 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Where can you advertise online?
- How to decide on the best ad platform?
- Which ad platforms are best for B2B lead generation?
- Which ad platforms are best for B2B awareness?
- Which ad platforms are most popular for B2B?
- Which ad platforms are most B2B marketers planning to invest in?
- Making your final decision on where to advertise
Where can you advertise online?
There is no shortage of opportunities where you can advertise online.
Most channels can be grouped into these five primary categories:
This isn’t an exhaustive list of every available ad platform but it gives you a sense of what’s possible.
Now that you’re aware of the various ad platforms available, how do you decide which to choose?
How to decide on the best ad platform?
When considering investing in a new ad platform here’s four key criteria to consider:
With these four criteria in mind let’s go through the qualitative results from our study and what B2B marketers have reported as their best ad platforms.
Which ad platforms are best for B2B lead generation?
After reviewing the responses from 60 B2B marketers here’s what we found:
- 52.7% reported Google Ads
- 38.2% reported LinkedIn Ads
- 3.6% reported Facebook Ads
- 1.8% reported Capterra Ads
- 1.8% reported Instagram Ads
- 1.8% reported Native Ads
Which ad platforms are best for B2B awareness?
After reviewing the responses from 60 B2B marketers here’s what we found:
- 56.1% reported LinkedIn Ads
- 12.3% reported Facebook Ads
- 12.3% reported YouTube Ads
- 10.5% reported Google Ads
- 3.5% reported Connected TV
- 3.5% reported Display Ads
- 1.8% reported Instagram Ads
Which ad platforms are most popular for B2B?
After reviewing the responses from 60 B2B marketers here’s what we found:
- 20.2% reported Google Ads
- 18.8% reported LinkedIn Ads
- 13.0% reported Facebook Ads
- 11.2% reported Instagram Ads
- 9.0% reported YouTube Ads
- 8.3% reported Microsoft Ads
- 5.8% reported Capterra Ads
- 5.& reported Display Ads
- 2.5% reported Reddit Ads
- 2.2% reported Native Ads
- 1.8% reported X (Twitter Ads)
- 1.1% reported Connected TV
- 0.4% reported Quora Ads
Which ad platforms are most B2B marketers planning to invest in?
After reviewing the responses from 60 B2B marketers here’s what we found:
- 13.5% reported YouTube Ads
- 12.1% reported X (Twitter) Ads
- 10.6% reported Reddit Ads
- 9.9% reported Connected TV
- 9.2% reported Audio Ads
- 7.8% reported Display Ads
- 7.1% reported Microsoft Ads
- 7.1% reportedFacebook Ads
- 7.1% reported Capterra Ads
- 5.7% reported Instagram Ads
- 4.3% reported Native Ads
- 3.5% reported Apple Search Ads
- 1.4% reported LinkedIn Ads
- 0.7% reported Tiktok Ads
Making your final decision on where to advertise
All in all take these survey results as suggestions to see what other B2B marketers are reporting is working for them and what platforms they’re interested in exploring.
Ultimately don’t forget the four key criteria when making your decision of where to advertise.
When you finally decide, run a small pilot of $100-$1,000 just to get your baselines.
From here you’ll have a better idea of if this channel will make sense.
Hope you found this article helpful!
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
How to Write Effective Responsive Search Ads in 3 Simple Steps
Google Ads responsive search ads (RSA) don’t leave a ton of room available.
With 30 character headlines, and 90 character descriptions.
It’s tough to write persuasive and effective copy.
In this article you’ll learn a simple 3-step framework to write responsive search ads.
Let’s dive into it 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- The 3-Part RSA Writing Framework
- The Anatomy of a Responsive Search Ad
- Should you pin headlines and descriptions in Google Ads?
- Advanced copy tips for writing Responsive Search Ads
The 3-Part Google Ads RSA Writing Framework
Here's a simple 3-part framework for writing Google Ads copy:
- The goal of headline 1 = match intent
- The goal of headline 2 = differentiate between other results
- The goal of headline 3 = provide a clear CTA
Keyword: b2b google ads course
- H1: Free B2B Google Ads Course (matches intent)
- H2: No Lesson Longer Than 10-Mins (differentiates)
- H3: Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers (clear CTA)
Here's what it looks like in practice (image below):
When writing, always assume the H3 isn't visible, and if only the H1 was displayed would they get it?
(Google is always testing different display variations)
From here you would write different variations per position.
With ensuring legibility between headline combinations.
Simple but effective ✌️let’s dive into each headline further.
The goal of headline 1 = match intent
You’ve got a fraction of a second for a prospect searching on Google to understand if your ad is relevant to their search term.
Don’t mess this up by being vague, asking rhetorical questions, or wasting valuable characters.
When it comes to Google Ads the headline 1 position would be eighty cents out of your dollar.
Maximize your headline 1 by adding the primary keyword in your copy to match intent.
This is such a simple thing to do, and equally not to.
The goal of headline 2 = differentiate between other results
Now that you’ve caught the searchers attention by matching intent it’s time to stand out.
Here’s a real example of what NOT to do from ads that appeared searching SOC2 compliance:
The sequence of which you write your headlines matter.
This is why I recommend following the 3-part framework as shown.
Use the headline 2 position to write a core benefit or outcome for differentiation.
The goal of headline 3 = provide a clear CTA
Finally in the third headline it’s time to provide a clear call to action.
This can be as simple as:
- Request a Demo
- See For Yourself
- Learn More Today!
When writing your H3 just assume it won’t be visible most of the time as Google is always experimenting with how they display headlines.
The Anatomy of a Responsive Search Ad
Now that you understand how to approach writing RSA copy.
Let’s discuss how responsive search ads actually function.
Character counts for Responsive Search Ads
- You can write up to 15 headlines, and 4 descriptions.
- 30 characters available per headline
- 90 characters available per description
How Responsive Search Ads work
The idea behind responsive ads is Google will take your 15 headlines and 4 descriptions and automatically combine them to find the optimal variations based on machine learning.
The promise is you can leverage Google’s AI to do the heavy lifting as it will take into account a multitude of factors including keywords, search terms, devices, audience demographics and more.
Google also tries to guide advertisers on how well their doing when writing responsive search ads with their Ad Strength metric 💩(which we’ll cover in detail shortly).
With each headline and description you have the opportunity to pin positions.
This is where you’re forcing Google to only serve those variations within that specific placement.
Should you pin headlines and descriptions in Google Ads?
The answer here is an unequivocal YES, because if your ads aren’t legible they won’t be clicked.
In a perfect world Google will automatically combine your headline and descriptions perfectly based on performance AND legibility but in reality it doesn’t happen.
Instead you end up with a bunch of variations like this:
I personally would LOVE ♥ ️ if Google’s AI can mix and match ads perfectly for performance and legibility but unfortunately the tech still isn’t there.
So in order to prevent this from happening I recommend strategic pinning.
How to pin Google Ads headlines strategically
In order to get the benefits of both Google’s AI to mix and match top performing headline/description combinations AND legibility you’ll need to pin strategically.
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
- Write 2-3 variations of Headline 1 and pin to position 1
- Write 2-3 variations of Headline 2 and pin to position 2
- Write 2-3 variations of Headline 3 and pin to position 3
- Write 2 variations of Description 1 and pin to position 1
- Write 2 variations of Description 2 and pin to position 2
This will give you the benefit of testing multiple variations per position but safely as you can control which possible combinations are matched for legibility.
What is Ad strength and does it matter?
Ad strength is a score created by Google to help advertisers optimize their ad performance ranging from Incomplete → Poor → Average → Good → Excellent.
Ad strength misconceptions to be aware of
- Ad strength has ZERO bearing on actual performance, it's just a predictor of it.
- Having a poor ad strength doesn’t mean your ad won’t actually perform well.
- Having a poor ad strength doesn’t mean your ads won’t receive impressions.
What determines if your ad appears is your Ad Rank.
Pin strategically with 2-3 variations of headlines and you’ll be ok, it’s also what Google suggests if you decide to pin.
Advanced copy tips for writing Responsive Search Ads
Now that you know how to write effective responsive search ads let’s wrap with some advanced tips you can implement to make your ads perform even better.
Implement Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)
Dynamic Keyword Insertion allows you to change your ad copy in real time based on the keywords that are triggering your ads in order to create more relevant experiences.
Currently there are 3 types of DKI available:
- Keyword Insertion = insert the keyword that triggers your ad
- Countdown = insert a timer that counts down to an event
- Location insertion = insert the location that triggers your ad
Test variations of your RSAs using relevant DKI parameters vs not to see if it impacts performance.
Leverage Business Name, Logo, and Image Ad Extensions
Now that Google allows you to highlight your business name and logo in your RSA, don't waste the characters anymore referencing your brand in your ad copy.
Save those valuable characters as you’re already getting brand awareness and instead maximize each character according to the 3-Part Google Ads RSA writing framework.
Ad extensions should always be used as a best practice but when it comes to writing effective Google Ads copy don’t forget to utilize your extensions to provide more information.
Hope you found this article helpful, best of luck on your next set of ads!
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
How to Create a Winning Google Ads Budget Strategy for B2B SaaS
Thinking about investing in Google Ads for your SaaS but not sure how much it will cost?
In this article I’ll break down how to create a winning budget strategy step by step.
You’ll walk away knowing how much you’ll need to invest on a daily, monthly, and quarterly basis.
And most importantly if Google Ads makes sense for your business.
Let’s dive into it 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- How much budget is required for a starting Google Ads budget?
- How to forecast a daily, monthly, and quarterly Google Ads budget
- How to allocate Google Ads budget by campaign strategy
- Frequently asked Google Ads budget questions
How much is required for a starting Google Ads budget?
This is the first question that usually comes to mind when considering Google Ads.
Which will then be met with a variation of questions such as:
- Is $10/day enough for Google Ads?
- Is $100/day enough for Google Ads?
- Is $1,000/day enough for Google Ads?
And so on, and so on…
When the reality is it’s all circumstantial based on the keywords you’re looking to target.
Equally important to how much is required is how many people are searching?
You could have a keyword that costs $0.01 per click but if only 5 people search is it really worth it?
So in order to answer this question you have to perform keyword research with the Keyword Planner.
Navigate to Tools > Planning > Keyword Planner within your Google Ads account to access it.
It doesn’t cost anything to open a free Google Ads account so anyone can access this tool.
Within the Google Ads Keyword Planner enter your dream keyword you want to research.
For example, I’ll use “google ads courses” as an example:
After researching I can see the following keyword costs and monthly volume estimates:
I recommend always using the top of page bid (high range) as your estimate.
I’ve never seen these estimates be 100% accurate and you’ll never know your real CPC until launch.
To account for this margin of error I recommend adding +20% on top of your top of page estimate.
This means in our google ads courses example:
- It would potentially cost me $13.7 per click ($11.42 +20%)
- I can receive up to 1,600 clicks per month in the USA.
Based on these two data points we can assume it’s possible to spend up to $21,920 per month on this keyword ($13.7 * 1,600).
Outside of the return on investment, don’t forget about return on effort.
If your dream keywords have very limited search volume (ex: < 100/month) it might not be worthwhile.
How to forecast a daily, monthly, and quarterly Google Ads budget
Once you know your estimated cost per click you’re ready to put together a forecast.
We’ve created a free Google Ads Budget Calculator tool that you can use to easily plan your daily, monthly, and quarterly budget.
You’re going to need the following information for the forecast:
- Your average cost per click (from the Keyword Planner or real data)
- Your quarterly sales goal
- Your average win rate
- Your average revenue per sale
With all this information at hand you’ll plug these different values into the calculator.
Based on your landing page conversion rates you can model a worst, moderate, and best case.
From here you can see how much it will cost to acquire a customer and the budget required to hit your sales volume target.
I highly recommend paying attention to the number of clicks required per lead, this will help frame expectations on how much traffic you’ll need and if your search volume is sufficient.
As you’ll see, your landing page effectiveness is essential at reducing costs 💥
With this forecast at hand you’ll know exactly how much to invest.
How to allocate Google Ads budget by campaign strategy
You should be clear on how much you’ll need to invest in your Google Ads campaigns.
Now the next step is to figure out how you’re going to allocate your budget.
In my experience managing Google Ads campaigns for B2B SaaS companies, there are five proven campaign themes to invest in; NonBrand, Brand, Competitive, RLSA, and Content.
Here’s my recommendation on budget allocation by each if you want to maximize volume.
Use all of these as starting points and modify the amounts based on your data/nuances.
NonBrand = 40% of total budget
NonBrand campaigns are where you’re bidding on high-intent keywords that don’t include your brand, for example google ads courses would be non brand for us at AdConversion.
Think about your keywords you’d like to cover that problem aware prospects would search for.
NonBrand keywords typically contain high-intent modifiers such as:
- Software
- Platform
- Tool
- Technology
- Solution
If you have enough search volume on non brand keywords there’s no easier way to drive conversions than showing up for people looking for solutions to their problems.
Brand = 20% of total budget
Brand campaigns are commonly referred to as “defense” campaigns where you’re bidding on your own brand name to outrank competitors bidding on yours.
You can make the case that people searching your branded terms would convert anyways and it’s not worth the investment.
This is why I recommend no more than 20% of the total budget on this campaign initially.
I’ve seen exceptions here with some of our clients where they saw net new revenue decline significantly from pausing their branded campaigns.
Let your data guide your allocation.
Competitive = 25% of total budget
Competitive campaigns are the opposite of brand where you’re bidding on competitors' names to appear for their existing customers and prospects.
These campaigns can be really hit or miss depending on your execution.
Make sure you’re doing it in a classy way and have dedicated comparison pages.
This theme can be really powerful at driving qualified traffic as these searchers are solution aware.
RLSA = 10% of total budget
RLSA stands for remarketing list for search ads.
This just means search remarketing, anyone that searches your keywords AND is part of an audience.
For example, anyone that has been to your site in the past 90 days and is searching your keywords.
RLSA campaigns can be really powerful when you have enough site traffic and are dealing in competitive niches.
Depending on your available remarketing audience sizes you can decide if this makes sense initially.
Given the limitation of size we typically only allocate 10% here to begin.
Content = 5% of total budget
Content campaigns are great for supporting SEO efforts.
If you have certain keywords you’re struggling to rank for, content campaigns are worth investigating.
This is where you’re going to bid on longtail content related keywords that typically have much lower cost per click prices and drive that traffic to a blog or relevant content piece.
Depending on your content strategy I’d give this some consideration.
Hope you found this article helpful! and now know how to create a winning Google Ads budget strategy.
Frequently asked Google Ads budget questions
Does Google Ads work on a small budget?
Yes, and no. Small is relative to your average cost per click prices.
I’d recommend being able to afford at least 100 clicks per month.
Does Google Ads work for B2B SaaS?
Absolutely, intent is what makes Google Ads so powerful.
The biggest challenge for B2B SaaS is scale.
What is a good Google Ads budget?
A Google Ads budget is one where you can support your business objectives.
Using the following information you can create a forecast to understand what is good:
- Your average cost per click
- Your quarterly sales goal
- Your average win rate
- Your average revenue per sale
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)
14 Powerful LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Strategies Worth Testing
Everyone knows that B2B buying has changed.
People trust people more than they trust companies, making thought leadership ads more important than ever before.
If you’re looking to use thought leader ads in your LinkedIn ad strategy but aren’t sure how to get started, this article is for you.
Here are 14 thought leader ad plays and examples you can test.
Let’s jump into it! 👇
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Play #1: Announce new product features, integrations, and partnerships
- Play #2: Highlight the main problem your product solves + the solution it provides
- Play #3: Highlight a case study featuring your own company
- Play #4: Highlight a case study featuring one of your customers
- Play #5: Generate buzz before attending an in-person event
- Play #6: Stay top of mind after an event
- Play #7: Promote your own event
- Play #8: Promote an upcoming webinar
- Play #9: Promote your newsletter
- Play #10: Celebrate Customer Wins
- Play #11: Demo different use cases of your product
- Play #12: Share long-form content with insights that your ICP would be interested in
- Play #13: Provide practical advice based on insights from your platform
- Play #14: Leverage social proof from existing customers
Play #1: Announce new product features, integrations, and partnerships
🔑 to success: Trust your audience. Target the experts and speak to them like they’re experts. Show them all the cool things they’ll be able to achieve with your product.
Example 1: Dreamdata
Example 2: Gong
Example 3: UserGems
Example 4: Dreamdata
Play #2: Highlight the main problem your product solves + the solution it provides
🔑 to success: After prospects read your content, they should be able to clearly articulate the problem your product solves + the solution it provides. If they can’t, you need to simplify your messaging.
Example 1: Apollo
Play #3: Highlight a case study featuring your own company
🔑 to success: Show how your team is using YOUR tool to reach YOUR goals – your company can serve as its own case study.
Example 1: UserGems
Example 2: Apollo
Example 3: Sendoso
Example 4: Salesloft
Play #4: Highlight a case study featuring one of your customers
🔑 to success: Clearly articulate how you’ve been helping an existing customer achieve their goals.
Example 1: Lavender
Example 2: Loxo
Play #5: Generate buzz before attending an in-person event
🔑 to success: Use an ABM list of attendees or ABM list of companies + key job functions to make sure you’re getting in front of the right people.
Example 1: HockeyStack
Play #6: Stay top of mind after an event
🔑 to success: Have an attendee post a recap after an event so that your brand is staying top of mind in the following weeks. The idea isn’t to push your product, but to keep raising awareness within key accounts.
Example 1: Sendoso
Play #7: Promote your own event
🔑 to success: Have your event speakers announce their participation on their personal pages and boost the posts to increase overall reach. This is a win for the speakers and for your company – speakers will feel supported and your event will get more registrations.
Example 1: Gleanin
Example 2: Gleanin
Play #8: Promote an upcoming webinar
🔑 to success: Clearly highlight the value of the webinar for your audience – what will they learn by attending? Make sure to tag the speakers to generate more interest.
Example 1: Sendoso
Example 2: Copy ai
Example 3: DoWhatWorks
Play #9: Promote your newsletter
🔑 to success: Keep it simple & highlight what people will get out of subscribing.
Example 1: Motion
Play #10: Celebrate customer wins
🔑 to success: Highlight customers when they win an award or achieve something big. This strategy provides social proof to help with prospecting efforts, but it’s also a great retention play, as it makes existing clients feel supported.
Example 1: Sendoso
Example 2: Lavender
Play #11: Demo different use cases of your product
🔑 to success: Have a senior leader – from your own company or one of your customers – educate prospects on how they can use your product to achieve their business goals.
Example 1: Dreamdata
Example 2: Clay
Example 3: Clay
Play #12: Share long-form content with insights that your ICP would be interested in
🔑 to success: Don’t tell everyone how great your product is – instead, show them the insights they could have access to if they used it. Also, make the content industry-specific. For example, content about conversion impact or email subject lines in B2B SaaS will be much more powerful than content about conversions or email in general.
Example 1: HockeyStack
Play #13: Provide practical advice based on insights from your platform
🔑 to success: Don’t provide generic advice that people have heard many times. Instead, give advice that your ICP may find surprising, and always back it up with data from your platform. This strategy is powerful because potential buyers will be grateful for the thought leader’s recommendations AND they’ll also relate the thought leader’s content to your organization (and hopefully be interested in learning more).
Example 1: Lavender
Play #14: Leverage social proof from existing customers
🔑 to success: Promote content from respected customers within your target industry highlighting the use cases and overall impact of your product.
Example 1: UserGems
Example 2: Clay
Putting LinkedIn Thought Leader ads into action
If you’re excited about thought leadership ads and want to start running them right away, here’s what I would recommend:
1. Find a few people at your organization that would be great thought leaders. They don’t need to be influencers with 50K followers – they simply need to have a deep understanding of your product and your ICP (bonus if they also enjoy writing).
2. Once you’ve selected your thought leaders, choose the top 3 strategies from this playbook that you’d like to begin with. I don’t recommend starting with all 14 strategies at once, since that could get pretty overwhelming.
3. Have your thought leaders post a few times per month and boost their content to your ICP.
That’s all you need to get started.
P.S.
If you’re starting out with thought leadership ads, I recommend using the engagement objective to build your retargeting audiences in a cost-effective way.
And if you want a complete masterclass on LinkedIn ads objectives, ad types, and bidding strategies, I highly recommend checking out this article by Ali Yildirim.
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.
Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
✅ 100% free access.
✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.
✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)