Google Ads 3 Ways to Improve Keywords ROAS with Audience Targeting (episode 134)

by Chloe Thomas

Nicki Eggie leads the Paid Advertising team at Reload Digital, Europe’s number 1 rated digital marketing agency for eComm and retail brands! Go team Reload!! Since 2009 the clients they’ve helped include everyone from Wrangler and L’Occitane to Emma Bridgewater and Harper Collins!

Nicki Eggie Reload Digital Google Ads

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The Role of Audiences in Improving Your Google Keyword Results

Automated bidding strategies may no longer have the impact it had on your campaigns before, but Nicki says you can take back control from Google by refining your keyword ad activities.

Audiences can boost keyword campaign performances, and Nicki has three ways to improve them with further targeting.

1. Increase Brand Campaign Conversions by Splitting New vs Returning Customer Audiences

Duplicate your branded campaigns, and have one of those campaigns target only users who have purchased in the past, and have the other campaign exclude those users.

This will allow you to take control back from Google, separate the two groups, and dictate the budget and bidding strategies you want to deploy for each user.

One thing that’s commonly overlooked is the tendency to add audiences at the observation level. Go to the targeted level because your CPCs, conversion rates, and other metrics are different for new versus returning customers.

2. Overlay Prospecting Audience on your Non-Brand Campaigns to improve ROAS

On a targeted level, this strategy is particularly useful for premium or luxury brands. Searches a luxury consumer would plug into Google might not differ at all from those of someone who wants to shop for a less expensive option.

Continue to bid on those broader queries, but add a targeted audience overlaid on to that campaign to filter down the audience. Google doesn’t know your customer as well as you do, so you have to refine that customer down and make the machine learning-side of things a little easier.

3. Take a Geographic Focus with your Non-Brand Google Ads Campaigns to improve ROAS

With unbranded campaigns, you will want to further filter them to specific locations or geos. This serves as a further refinement of what was discussed in the second section. 

Start by looking to target specific postcodes within your area. Do your research and figure out which of those postcodes tend to be of more affluent areas, then target them with your campaigns.

You can also have two separate campaigns: one that targets these prime locations and brings in good returns, and another that you can reduce the bids on.

Insider Tips

If we’ve inspired someone to take their first step with Google Ads – what do they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success?

Start with your goals and objectives and define them clearly. This will help you align all your activities and make sure they fulfill your business goals.

Nicki says you can look up the OKR model which is something they use at Reload Digital. It’s a framework where you set an objective and have key results that fall underneath it.

Once you’ve started of course you’ve got to ‘keep optimising’! So what’s your favourite way to improve Google Ads performance?

You have to do testing, and Google has made it easy to set up AB split tests directly on the platform so make full use of that.

Nicki also offers a second recommendation which is to collaborate with other channels. Work with your SEO team, and your creative team, and make sure they’re factoring in what the other units are working on.

If someone listening wants to learn more about Google Ads is there one cheap/free resource you’d recommend?

  • Google Skillshop, if you’re just starting out
  • Podcasts like Keep Optimising, PPC Hero, and Optmyzr’s town hall sessions that happen twice a month for those who want to go deeper on Google Ads

Crystal ball time – what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months that we should be getting ready for in Google Ads?

Nicki’s prediction is that keywords will become obsolete in the next couple of years, which is why one of her previous recommendations is to collaborate cross-channel.

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