Lowering your Google Ads CPC (cost per click) is probably a constant goal if you’re running PPC advertising on Google Ads (Google Adwords). Efficient campaigns generate a better ROI, which can maximize your profits or allow you to scale your advertising efforts to new heights. So, it’s important to tweak your setup to achieve lower CPCs rather than setting up your Google Ad campaigns and forgetting about them.
For expert insight about reducing Google Ads CPCs, we spoke to one of the marketing consultants with a wealth of experience in this field. A PPC expert, he has spent the last decade working with startups and Fortune 500 companies to grow their businesses through paid search and social.
In this article, we will give you advice on how to get a lower Google Ads CPC and show you how you can use the insights you gain from competitor analysis to improve the performance of your PPC campaigns and reduce your CPCs.
Learn effective strategies for analyzing your competition to reduce your Google Ads CPC and maximize the efficiency of your ad spend. Start increasing your ROI today!
How to Lower Your Google Ads CPC: 3 Key Strategies to Follow
There are many theories on how to reduce Google Ads CPC. But according to our expert, relevance is the key ingredient. Only if you can match the user’s search intent throughout the funnel will you reduce your CPC.
Optimizing the user experience is in Google’s interest, and this is one way to ensure you are rewarded for making it as positive and seamless as possible.
“In most cases, achieving alignment between your target keyword, ad copy, and landing page is the first step to lowering your Google Ads CPC. Ultimately, if you can effectively match search intent with your solution, your cost per click will drop,” says our expert.
So, let’s examine the recommendations for creating this relevant user experience. We’ll also see how competitor analysis can provide insights that can help you lower your average CPC on Google Ads.
Use Hyper-relevant Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs)
The first piece of advice is to use Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs). This means targeting only one keyword per ad group. As a result, your PPC campaign will be hyper-focused on individual keywords and will naturally result in a highly relevant set of ads and ad groups with very specific headlines and ad copy.
In turn, our expert says that this will keep your campaigns “fully aligned with the intent of the searcher,” with relevance being a key factor in improving the quality score and, as a result, reducing the cost per click.
Additional Benefits of Using SKAGs Include:
- You’re likely to see an improvement in your click-through rates (CTRs) because of this increased relevance; every search term is aligned with the keywords and ad creatives. Better CTRs also improve your quality score. This means higher average positions, a higher share of impressions, and lower Google Ads CPCs.
- You can still use different match types (i.e., exact match, phrase match, broad match) for each keyword (e.g., card readers). You can also set up another SKAG if you discover a long-tail phrase (e.g., card readers for cafes).
Note: In your original SKAG, make sure to add the long tail terms (e.g., café/cafés) to the negative keywords. This ensures that your ad groups are closely aligned with your keywords and that you mop up long-tail searches without taking impressions away from more relevant ads and landing pages.
- You’ll gain more granular control over your Google Ad campaigns and have greater visibility—not only of ad and landing page performance but also of revenue generated. Reduce waste and invest in the most profitable keyword ad groups.
- Because you’ve already pre-qualified their exact intent through your SKAG, you can optimize (personalize) your landing pages to appeal more directly to the searcher. This will improve your conversion rate. It will also reduce your overall cost per conversion.
Research Competitor Keywords, Ad Groups and Campaign Structure
When planning your SKAGs and campaign structure, it’s helpful to know what keywords your most profitable competitors are targeting and how they’ve built their ad groups. You can access these insights using the iSpionage Competitive Research feature.
Access the full range of PPC advertising keywords they’re bidding on (and what they’ve done in the past) by simply searching for a competitor’s URL:
The Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) metric indicates whether a keyword is profitable. It is based on the length of time the competitor has been targeting the keyword and the date it was last seen. The fact that a keyword has been consistently targeted indicates that your competitor is getting good returns, so you may want to consider using it in your campaigns if it is relevant to what you offer.
Within this dashboard, you can see the history of ad copy used to drive clicks in paid search results by drilling down into each keyword to see which ad it triggers:
Study The Google Ad Structures of Your Competitors
If you scroll down to the ‘Ads’ tab in the top menu, you will be able to see the full list of your competitors’ PPC ads. You can see how your competitor has structured their PPC ad groups—and whether or not they’ve used SKAGs—by clicking on the ‘Group That Triggers The Ad’ column and expanding the list.
But if you’re in this niche, take the most profitable keywords and set up SKAGs to target them with targeted ads and landing pages. Keeping your CPC as low as possible will help you compete in the PPC SERPs.
The competitor feature on tools like iSpionage allows you to search by keyword to find the best-performing advertisers (at a national level). You can either have a look at each competitor in this list or enter a specific competitor’s URL into the tool and see how they’ve set up their Google Ad campaigns. This will inform your strategy and help you with your campaign planning.
The KEI metric helps you identify what appears to be the most profitable keywords for competitors and helps prioritize your single-keyword ad groups.
Align Landing Pages With Your Google Ads and Target Keywords
A critical component of your quality score is the relevance of your landing page to the keyword you’re targeting, which in turn has a direct impact on your average CPC. That’s why it’s important to keep your landing page offer in line with the problem (the keyword) and the promise (the ad copy). This will keep your Google Ads CPC as low as possible.
Of course, the conversions that make your PPC campaign profitable come from the landing page. It’s your best chance to convince them you have the solution.
Depending on your niche, offer, and audience, your optimal PPC landing page design will vary. For example, for B2B software, users might be directed to a free trial, whereas for an e-commerce store, users might be directed directly to a product or category page.
Similarly, a recruitment agency might use its online job board to get users actively involved, but an insurance provider might provide the user with a calculator form to work out their rates. For example, an emergency plumber might have his phone number prominently displayed. This would allow the user to get in touch with someone immediately to explain the problem. Each business is unique.
However, all effective landing pages are consistent with the source (i.e., what the copy promised) and demonstrate a clear value proposition.
Check out your competitors’ PPC landing pages if you’re looking for inspiration when creating PPC landing pages. We always look at the best landing pages from a variety of niches, including local government, taxes, automotive, medical and rehabilitation, insurers, educators, financial, and more.
Track Competitor Landing Pages & SEM Campaigns
iSpionage is among the best only PPC competitive intelligence tool that includes full user journey dashboards, including visual snapshots of each competitor’s landing page.
Without having to navigate away from the tool, the iSpionage Competitor Research feature allows you to run competitor URLs to see how they are aligned at each stage of the process. The use of an interactive calculator CTA is also worth noting from a conversion perspective.
With SEM Campaign Watch (paid subscription, 30-day risk-free), you can also see how competitors are targeting their landing pages with local SEO campaigns. By tracking a specific competitor targeting a specific set of keywords, you can monitor the results of your A/B testing of ads and landing pages.
Knowing this will help you understand which messages work best. This can then be the basis of your strategy for effective PPC user journey design.
Improve CTR by Continually Testing Multiple Ad Variations
This will contribute to a better quality score if you can improve the click-through rate (CTR). And a higher quality score will help you lower your Google Ads CPC. Therefore, it is important to optimize your CTR when looking for a reduced CPC on your campaign(s). You need a continuous testing mindset to achieve this.
What exactly is the meaning of this phrase? Well, according to our expert, it means: “Never be satisfied with the performance of an ad.”. You can test different offers, ads, and call-copy, and try extensions like site link extensions, rating extensions, and call extensions to move the needle in terms of CTR.
To put it simply: PPC marketers should play the game of trying to beat their previous best CTR by constantly testing and varying their ads. When it comes to testing, knowing what the competition is up to can do some of the learning for you, so there’s no better advantage than knowing what the competition is up to.
How to track the A/B testing of your competitors’ ads
As mentioned above, SEM Campaign Watch allows you to track A/B testing of landing pages when tracking specific competitors and keywords over time. For competitor ads, you can do the same.
Chase is testing different ads for the keyword “business bank account,” and these tests are running in parallel. Looking at these variations, we see Chase testing different joining fees ($200 vs. $300) and different customer service benefits, e.g., 4,900 branches vs. 24/7 customer service.
iSpionage keeps track of which variation is the winner (i.e., which is the most profitable). This can inform your testing process if you’re targeting the same product keyword.
Most competitor research features on tools (available with a free account) can also provide insight into competitor ad variations. If you run a competitor’s URL through the tool and navigate to the PPC Keywords tab, you will be able to expand the list of keywords to see what ads are being triggered by it.
If you’re researching direct competitors targeting the same commercial keywords, these insights allow you to skip the learning curve and start your A/B testing from a stronger foundation.
You can make your copy snappier with key benefits in the headline, much shorter description text, and the use of variations.
Top Takeaways: How to Get a Low Google Ads CPC
There is no magic bullet for achieving a low cost per click with Google Ads, according to our experts. Instead, we should be focusing on improving the quality score by optimizing ad and landing page relevance and continually testing different variations to move the needle on CTR.
Many tactics can be used to lower the Google Ads CPC. These approaches are all part of the continuous testing mindset:
“For example, you can—and should optimize your geo-targeting and scheduling to focus on the locations and times of day where you can achieve the best CPC. You can try site link extensions and test different callouts. After improving your quality score, you can even try lower bids. It’s about finding the most influential factors for your audience and minimizing waste,” he says.
With tools like iSpionage, you have access to competitor data that can help you in your quest for Google Ads CPC reduction. Discover the most profitable keywords. See how some of your leading competitors are structuring their Google Ad Manager accounts.
Learn from competitors’ experiments and test your PPC campaigns one step ahead by tracking A/B testing of ads and landing pages. Explore strategies for competitor analysis to reduce your Google Ads CPC, enhance ROI, and effectively maximize your advertising budget.
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