088 Google Ads: Building the Ultimate Conversion Funnel with Laura Hogan
by April Buencamino-dyLaura comes highly recommended for her Google Ads skills by the CEO of the UK’s leading Shopify agencies Blend Commerce – thanks for the tip, Adam! Laura is the owner of Sweet Digital a fully remote digital marketing agency and has over a decade of Google Ads experience.
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About Laura
Laura started out blogging and asking people to review products.
She got into Google Ads when her manager at the time introduced her to it, and let her play around with it. She learned the ins and outs of the online advertising platform by trial and error and testing, and she says that’s the way to go if you’d like to build your knowledge about anything.
Where Do We Begin?
Laura says she starts with a pen and paper and writes down what the business wants to sell on Google ads, and what the key themes and product categories are.
She mentions that using funnels in Google ads is good for retargeting users and getting them back. Set up a campaign that’s purely for retargeting and be aggressive with your bids.
Dynamic Search Ads
Laura explains that what dynamic search ads do is allow marketers to target by a landing page rather than a keyword.
If you have a high-performing category page, put that in as your targeting landing page and Google’s automation will show your ad for keywords related to that page.
In this way, dynamic search ads can direct potential customers to what they want on your website.
Keyword Mining
To get an idea of what people are searching for and how they do their search that’s relevant to your business, do keyword research beforehand.
With keyword mining, you’ll know what’s popular with your target audience. And with the insight you gain, you can create a campaign that would serve them best. The information you get can also help you build your funnels accordingly.
Customer Match
Customer match lets you use your existing list of email addresses and upload it in the audiences section in Google.
This is good for targeting specifically those people included in your email list and drive them to come back to your website and purchase again.
More Advice On Google Ads
Laura says just go ahead and try Google Ads.
Additionally, because Google changes things up all the time, make sure you keep up with what’s working, especially from a bid strategy perspective. So just continue trying and testing to find out what works for you and your business.
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?
When you get into something, things will go wrong and that’s fine. Learn from what goes wrong, try something different, and don’t freak out.
Once you’ve started of course you’ve got to ‘keep optimising’! So what’s your favourite way to improve Google Ads performance?
Laura says she likes changing bid strategies. Even when you find something that’s working, when you change it up, you’ll see even more improvements with it.
Right now, target impression share is a good bid strategy.
If someone listening wants to learn more about Google Ads is there one cheap/free resource you’d recommend?
Aside from podcasts like Keep Optimising, Laura’s a fan of local meetups, WhatsApp groups, and Reddit, where you can share your knowledge with people who are in the same industry.
So find a group of people you can have a good discussion with and bounce off each other.
Crystal ball time – what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months that we should be getting ready for in Google Ads?
Expanded text ads are being retired, so test responsive search ads now by having multiple headlines and descriptions and see which ones will do best when they’re pinned.
Interview Links
Laura on Social media:
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