Google Ads Audit for Electric Bicycles
Google Ads Ads Account Audit with Recommendations
297-919-6716 Fly Rides USA
Look Back Period: 2022
Special Questions: How to Better measure offline conversions?
A: Conversion Lift Study for Videos: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12003020?hl=en
Summary
There are several areas of improvement on the account. I have definitely seen accounts in worse off shape and the majority of spend (190K/338K) was in the Search Network with the remainder spread out over Shopping (70K) Display (8.7K) and Video (11.2K). The recommendations that follow are designed to improve the overall efficiency of what the account is already producing and also bring new elements online.
Quantitatively the account has generated 30 million impressions which have resulted in 245,000 clicks to the website and 1,950 recorded conversion actions. Total advertising cost was $323,000. Secondary metrics indicate that the overall click-through rate for the account is 0.82% , registering an overall conversion rate of 0.30% and average cost per conversion of $166. Average cost per click of $1.32. All of these secondary metrics seem very low to me, as 0.82% click-through rate is indicative of heavy video or display network use. Also, your conversion rate is very low and I do not think it represents reality. An average cost per click of $1.32 also seems very inexpensive and I think a more realistic CPC is going to be within the $2 to $4 dollar range based on a mid-high 4 figure revenue per product.
Performance benchmarks indicate that a minimum of 2% click-through rate and conversion rate should be observed for most Google ads accounts. Similarly the 0.30% conversion rate is very low compared to the overall activity on the account and ad spend levels. The first objective needs to be a conversion overhaul with GA4 followed by the recommendations that follow.
Campaign Structure & Bid Strategies- As presented today, the account has 16 Active Campaigns with 9 Search and 7 Performance Max Campaigns. The Performance Max campaigns are set to maximize conversion bid strategy. Most of the search campaigns are set to manual cost per click bidding with one campaign targeting LA and San Diego, set to Target Impression Share. Most search campaigns are limited to the search engine results page except for one. Search Campaigns do not have Ad Rotation Optimization enabled.We also see bid adjustments on some but not all search campaigns. There are no device targets for the search campaigns observed.
All together there are 181 Campaigns in the account and more than 16 accounts have Data for 2022, so it seems like there has been a lot of experimentation or different managers coming in and out of this account.
Recommendations: The first thing that jumps out to me, out of several things, is the fact that Ad Rotation Optimization is not enabled on the search campaigns. This is one of the Hallmark features of search and especially so for responsive search ads. Allowing Google to keep track of the best performing headlines and Ad copy and then running that copy more often, is a critical component of success when using Google search campaigns. This should be enabled.
We also see some other puzzling activity on the search side, specifically the fact that manual CPC bidding is still in use on the account. We typically use automated bid strategies for a variety of reasons, the most important being that of all the tasks to delegate to the computer, keeping track of the CPC market and acting in real time to make adjustments to our bids is one of the best uses of that technology. There’s no reason to be using a manual CPC bid strategy in 2023, we can never outperform the computer. Automated bid strategies allow us access to Google’s Black Box data which will take into account a users Behavior, such as things they have searched for, products and services they are in market for, or their personal preferences and affinities. We recommend going to an automated bid strategy such as Maximize Conversions or Target Cost Per Acquisition.
Some campaigns have more bid adjustments applied to more variables than others. It seems like a review of the campaigns for consistency should be carried out to make sure all campaigns are benefiting from the same bid adjustments.
We recommend sticking with a search first strategy but the effectiveness of the PMax Shopping Campaigns has got to be questioned, They are averaging 0.26% conversions compared to 1.38% conversions for Search. That money could be funneled into Video in conjunction with a Conversion Lift Study as will be discussed later in the document.
Networks- Network data has an interesting story to tell. Based on available data and acknowledging the current gap in offline conversions, it appears that, in terms of conversion production, the search network is delivering the best results in overall conversion production and lowest CPA. Google search accounted for approximately 27% of the impressions served last year, however that 27% generated 70% of all the clicks to your website and 88% of all the recorded conversions. Compare that data to YouTube for instance and we see that YouTube served about 45.8% of total Impressions yet resulted in less than 1/10 of 1% of clicks and no recorded conversion actions. Cross Network traffic is represented in green below, which is another way of saying this is what your performance Max campaigns are generating for you.
Recommendation: Clearly from this data we can see that YouTube is not necessarily an effective medium, however as indicated above we may have conversion tracking issues from YouTube that are causing this data to appear this way. This is a great opportunity for me to recommend the conversion lift study which , we have to reach out to a google rep in order to get one set up but it’s designed to study the enhancement of offline sales based on specifically videos being served on youtube and discovery networks. more information can be found at this link. https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12003020?hl=en
We recommend to continue to pursue a Search 1st strategy and to put most of your dollars and focus on the search side of the Google marketing platform.
Devices- Device data indicates a clear bias towards mobile devices with 76% of impressions, clicks and 75% of conversions coming from mobile devices. tablets are also present, however computers are the most interesting story here. Computers are slightly more efficient in terms of clicks/conversions. The screenshot below outlines the waterfall between Impressions clicks and conversions from a variety of devices. We can also see click-through rates, conversion rates and cost per conversion in the second graph which ,again, highlight the effectiveness of computers. Mobiles aren’t performing bad per se however it may be worth a test to see if focusing on computers gets us more conversions at a lower cost.
Recommendation: In addition to being more efficient in the sales funnel , computers are generating the highest click-through rate at 2.4% as well as the highest recorded conversion rate. Putting bid adjustments on users coming from computers seems like a solid recommendation given these facts. This is worth a test at the very least and may lead to long-term results if we continue to shift our impression share and click volume to come from desktop devices rather than mobile devices.
Location Targeting- Location targeting seems to have a heavy bias towards California; we are seeing significant bid adjustments of 40% on many California locations. We also see the vast majority of conversion production coming out of the Golden State.
Recommendation: We need to understand more about your objectives and strategies utilized thus far before we can make appropriate decisions here, It seems like California has been a focus for a reason. We would recommend looking at your other acquisition sources for Geographic data, specifically where do most of your organic sales happen.
Typically we let keywords drive search results and keep geo-targeting broad, at the national level for eCommerce.
Ad Scheduling- The graphs below indicate the difference between when users are clicking on your ads and coming to your website and when they are actually converting and purchasing products. You can see in the first graph, that you’re basically running ads around the clock with no ad schedules currently enabled on the account. Contrast that to the second graph which shows a clear preference for the middle of the day during regular business hours as the ideal time that a user converts.
Recommendation: At the very least we should do a test to see if limiting our ad delivery between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. for a period of a month results in more conversions, since we will be delivering more ads at the time of day when users are more likely to result in a conversion action, as supported by account data. Keep in mind this doesn’t account for offline activity and there may be other reasons to continue running ads around the clock.
Keywords – Top producing keywords seem to be firmly within the sphere of brand and model names only. It looks like there’s been some experimentation with product descriptions in terms of e-bike or electric bike and those have not been successful. It makes me wonder if not having ad rotation optimization enabled has artificially impacted the success of the keywords related to product description.
Negative Keywords?There are over 1,500 negative keywords in the account.
Recommendation: There should be some opportunity to generate conversions outside of brand and model specific keywords however clearly those have been most effective for you so far. We would recommend keeping what works as well as experimenting and testing with some phrase-match electric bike related keywords, to see if there’s some potential there when utilizing the full force of google search ads.
Conversions – Conversions seem like they need some work. I can’t find an active Purchase Conversion coming into the account, I see some old ones but nothing new and registering. I also do not see any GA4 conversions.
Recommendation: Another urgent priority is to get Google analytics 4 installed with a configuration tag as well as event tracking tags on your website. Any other Integrations that have to happen from your website for conversion value reporting should also be looked at now. The cut off date for Universal analytics is July 2023, after that point you will not have data from your old Universal analytics dashboard and everything will have to go through Google analytics 4. It’s typically a 4 to 6 hour process in order to switch these tags over and set up a new account .
Ads – Expanded Text Ads are found in the account. This is not uncommon and most of them have RSA’s (Responsive Search Ads) that are also enabled in the same Ad Groups. I do not see any Call Only Ad Groups, These are ads that are designed specifically for mobile and prompt users to call the business immediately. If you have the ability to field phone calls this could help drive volume for calls for you to convert directly.
Recommendation: Review Active Campaigns to make sure RSA’s ( with auto rotation enabled) are in place to support any deprecated Expanded Text Ads. Call Only Ad Groups if you want to drive phone sales.
Extensions – It looks like there’s a full array of extensions in use on the account. We are seeing everything from site links to call outs, structured snippets, calls, location extensions, price extensions and finally promotional extensions. This looks like an excellent use of extensions in the account there’s nothing that we would really add to it other than to review that the extensions were enabled and all the appropriate campaigns.
Recommendation: Image and dynamic image extensions are really the only thing missing from this list however this is a very good list and is exploring the full range of extension options available within Google ads. No further recommendations.
Search Impression Share – Search impression share over 2022 was impressive, welcome to the top of the market with 14.19% of impression share for your keywords in your Geographic targets. You can see that your absolute top of page rate, meaning when your ads were shown in the number one position was 48.53% of the time, while your ads were displayed in positions 1 – 3 , 81.98% of the time. competitors in your realm include lectricbikes.com, radpowerbikes.com, specialized.com and amazon.com.
Recommendation: Impression share is generally correlated to overall ad spend and budgets you seem to have no problem there we have no further recommendations when it comes to your impression share.