Introduction
As the financial year draws to a close, businesses are focused on tightening their budgets and maximizing their returns. One of the most critical metrics for assessing the performance of your Google Ads campaigns is ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). If your ROAS isn’t meeting expectations, you’re essentially burning cash without seeing a substantial return. The last thing any business needs is inefficient ad spend when profits are on the line.
If you’re wondering how to fix your Google Ads ROAS before the financial year ends, you’re not alone. At Globelectra Digital Marketing Agency, we specialize in optimizing Google Ads campaigns to boost performance and ensure our clients get the most bang for their buck. In this blog, we’ll walk you through practical steps you can take to improve your ROAS and fix your Google Ads performance quickly.
What is ROAS and Why Does It Matter?
Before diving into the strategies for improving ROAS, let’s quickly revisit what it means. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is a metric used to measure the revenue generated from a Google Ads campaign relative to the amount spent on ads. It is calculated as:
ROAS = Revenue from Ads / Cost of Ads
For example, if you spent ₹50,000 on Google Ads and generated ₹150,000 in sales, your ROAS would be 3.0 (or 300%). A higher ROAS indicates better ad performance, whereas a lower ROAS suggests inefficiency and wasted ad spend.
A poor ROAS means your campaigns are not delivering a satisfactory return, and you’re wasting money on ads that aren’t converting. Fixing this issue before the financial year ends can save you money and help you close the year on a strong note.
1. Analyze and Optimize Campaign Structure
One of the main reasons for low ROAS is a poorly structured Google Ads campaign. To ensure maximum performance, your campaigns must be organized in a way that targets the right audience, aligns with your objectives, and optimizes ad spend.
Steps to optimize your campaign structure:
- Segment by Campaign Type: Break down your campaigns into specific categories based on your products, services, or customer segments. For example, if you’re running e-commerce ads, create separate campaigns for product categories like electronics, clothing, or home goods. This allows you to tailor the messaging and bidding strategy for each category.
- Utilize Negative Keywords: Make sure your campaigns are not showing ads to irrelevant searches. Adding negative keywords to your campaigns helps avoid wasted clicks and impressions, which can drastically improve your ROAS.
- Use Ad Extensions: Enhance your ads with ad extensions like site link, call, and location extensions. These not only provide more valuable information to the user but also increase your ad’s visibility, which can lead to higher click-through rates (CTR) and, in turn, a better ROAS.
- Ensure Proper Budget Allocation: Review how you’re distributing your ad budget across campaigns. Allocate more budget to high-performing campaigns, and reduce or pause spend on underperforming ones. This helps focus your resources on ads that generate the best return.
Benefit: By optimizing your campaign structure, you ensure that your ads reach the right people with the right message, improving conversion rates and ultimately increasing ROAS.
2. Improve Targeting and Audience Segmentation
Effective targeting is essential for improving your Google Ads ROAS. If your ads aren’t reaching the right people, you’re essentially wasting money on clicks that won’t convert.
Steps to improve targeting:
- Use Audience Segmentation: With Google Ads audience targeting, you can segment your audience based on demographics, interests, or behaviors. For example, target high-intent shoppers who have previously visited your website or engaged with your ads (remarketing). You can also create lookalike audiences that match the behavior of your most valuable customers.
- Location and Device Targeting: If your business operates in specific regions or areas, adjust your targeting to focus on location-based audiences. Also, monitor the performance of ads on different devices (mobile vs. desktop) and allocate more budget to the devices that perform better.
- Leverage In-Market Audiences: Google’s in-market audiences feature allows you to target people who are actively researching or planning to purchase products or services similar to yours. This can help you focus your budget on high-intent users who are more likely to convert.
- Optimize for High-Value Keywords: Analyze your keyword performance and focus on high-converting, long-tail keywords that are specific to your audience’s needs. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to identify profitable keywords with good search volume but lower competition.
Benefit: Better targeting means your ads will reach a more relevant audience, leading to higher click-through rates (CTR), better engagement, and more conversions at a lower cost, which improves your ROAS.
3. Refine Your Bidding Strategy
If your Google Ads bidding strategy isn’t optimized, you’re likely overspending for underperforming clicks. The bidding strategy you choose plays a critical role in improving ROAS.
Steps to refine your bidding strategy:
- Switch to Smart Bidding: Google’s Smart Bidding uses machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on the likelihood of conversion. Strategies like Target ROAS and Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) are ideal if you’re looking to optimize for maximum return. With Target ROAS, you can set a specific target return (e.g., 500%) and let Google optimize your bids to meet that goal.
- Manual Bidding for High-Value Keywords: If you have high-converting keywords that consistently drive sales, consider using manual bidding for those specific terms. By adjusting bids based on keyword performance, you can allocate more budget to the best-performing keywords, ensuring better returns.
- Adjust Bids for Time and Device: Use ad scheduling to adjust bids for specific days and times when your audience is most likely to convert. Similarly, increase or decrease your bids based on device performance (mobile vs. desktop) to focus spend where it delivers the best results.
- Test Bidding Variations: Experiment with different bidding strategies, especially if your campaigns are underperforming. A/B testing can help you identify the bidding strategy that works best for your goals.
Benefit: Optimizing your bidding strategy helps you pay less for high-value clicks while maximizing your chances of converting those clicks into customers, thus improving ROAS.
4. Improve Ad Copy and Landing Page Quality
If your ad copy doesn’t resonate with your target audience or your landing pages are poorly optimized, even the best targeting and bidding strategies won’t help you improve your ROAS.
Steps to improve ad copy and landing pages:
- Craft Compelling Ad Copy: Your ads should clearly communicate the benefits of your product or service, be highly relevant to the search query, and include strong calls-to-action (CTAs) like “Shop Now” or “Get a Free Quote”. Test different versions of your ad copy to see what works best for your audience.
- Create High-Converting Landing Pages: Ensure your landing pages are optimized for conversions. They should load quickly, have clear and concise messaging, and include easy-to-navigate forms. The design should match the ad’s messaging, ensuring a seamless user experience from ad click to conversion.
- Use A/B Testing: Test variations of your ad copy and landing pages to see which combinations yield the best results. Constant testing allows you to fine-tune your campaigns, improving ROAS over time.
- Add Social Proof: Incorporate customer reviews, testimonials, or case studies on your landing pages. Social proof builds trust and can significantly increase conversions.
Benefit: Better ad copy and optimized landing pages create a seamless experience for users, leading to higher conversion rates, which directly impacts your ROAS.
5. Track and Analyze Performance Continuously
Tracking and analyzing your Google Ads performance is essential for identifying underperforming areas and fixing them before it’s too late.
Steps to track and analyze performance:
- Use Google Analytics: Link your Google Ads account with Google Analytics to get detailed insights into user behavior after they click your ads. Track metrics like bounce rate, time on site, and conversion rate to identify where improvements are needed.
- Monitor Conversion Tracking: Set up conversion tracking to measure specific actions like form submissions, purchases, or phone calls. Without this, it’s impossible to know which ads and keywords are driving real business value.
- Refine Goals Based on Data: Adjust your goals based on the data you gather. If a particular campaign or keyword isn’t generating enough conversions, it may be time to tweak your targeting, budget allocation, or bidding strategy.
Benefit: Continuous tracking and analysis enable you to quickly spot issues and make adjustments, ensuring that your ads remain efficient and your ROAS continues to improve.
Conclusion: Fix Your ROAS Before the Financial Year Ends
As the financial year comes to a close, fixing your Google Ads ROAS should be a top priority. By optimizing your campaign structure, improving targeting, refining bidding strategies, enhancing ad copy and landing pages, and continuously tracking performance, you can stop burning cash and start seeing results.
At Globelectra Digital Marketing Agency, we specialize in creating data-driven Google Ads campaigns that maximize returns and minimize wasted ad spend. Contact us today to optimize your Google Ads and ensure you finish the financial year strong!