As it turns out, we are suspending our Google Ads campaigns as of June 30th, so this will be the last web ads report card article for now. Overall, the Google Ads campaign has been successful. So it is not being discontinued because of a lack of success, but merely because resources are being moved to satisfy other needs.
In June, there were significant changes in ad groups that were more or less effective. Our Locations ad group was not as effective as the Specialties ad group, which was the opposite of the previous month.
Wonderful Machine uses Google Ads campaigns to promote our member photographers and our shoot production services. Our campaign consists of three ad groups (ad groups are subsidiary to campaigns), two of which are standard and the third dynamic. For the past year, we’ve been using both one standard ad group and one dynamic, but during the month of April we commenced with a second standard ad group.
The most basic type of ad is a search campaign, and this is what most people think of when they think of Google Ads. These are the advertisements that appear at the top of search results.
We’ve maintained a constant budget, but changed certain keywords, fiddled with the ad copy, and even employed images. These are the kinds of basic maintenance required when you have a Google Ads campaign.
Our campaign has three different ad groups: two “standard” ad groups and a dynamic ad group. Below are the results for each.
Our longstanding standard ad group is called “Specialties” and includes 26 of the 41 keywords that we use to identify our different photographer specialties: i.e., food photography, lifestyle photography, industrial photography, etc.
The specialties ad group was viewed 35,500 times, an +87% increase over May. These are called impressions, but do not include the number of times they were clicked on. The ad group received 1,770 clicks, a +125.2% increase over May 786 times. The CTR, or click-through rate, for this ad group was 4.9%, and the average CPC, or cost per click, was only $0.11. So definitely not shabby.
The locations ad group was viewed 39,366 times (impressions) and received 1,057 clicks. That is a CTR of 2.7%. Not as strong as the specialties group, clearly. The CPC for this group was $0.12.
We also run a dynamic ad group. A dynamic ad group creates advertisements based on pages from your website. So, instead of making your advertisement based on keywords, you provide Google with a series of pages that you want to draw traffic to.
In relation to the standard ad groups, the dynamic was seen fewer times (806 impressions) and received fewer clicks (30!), but in fact, had a higher CPR than the locations ad group, namely, 3.8%. With that said, each of those clicks (CPC) costs $0.14. So a little more expensive.
Interested in starting a campaign for your own site? Reach out and let us help.