By the time you become a PPC pro, you’ve probably launched hundreds of Google Ads campaigns.
But even with all this experience, you can sometimes overlook key PPC fundamentals in a rush to get ads live — or when grappling with Google Ads changes and updates.
And naturally, this kind of thing is even more likely to happen to PPC newbies.
In today’s article, I’m going to hit on three fundamentals for launching Google Ads campaigns that PPC pros sometimes overlook — and that PPC newbies might not be fully aware of.
Fundamental #1: Think holistically
You want to think holistically when setting up and launching your Google Ads campaigns. Every component should hold together and support other components at every level.
All ad elements, for example, should make sense as a whole. That means the headline, body copy, sitelinks, other ad extensions and landing pages work together smoothly, no matter what combinations you put together or are automatically generated.
Separate your non-branded and branded search terms for the search network and carefully craft messaging for each.
Make sure your search and display ads complement each other so you have strong cohesive messaging across all Google Ads networks.
Getting this right means looking at your campaigns in granular detail and as a whole — as well as from multiple perspectives.
This requires careful forethought, attention to detail and great creativity.
Fundamental #2: Include brand awareness
Brand awareness is vital to a healthy Google Ads account — which is why many PPC pros will insist on dedicating a portion of budgets to it at launch.
But sometimes, that’s as far as things go.
This is a problem. When budgets get cut, brand awareness is often one of the first things to go. So your careful brand awareness planning at launch gets derailed.
Even when not subject to intentional budget cuts, the portion of the budget dedicated to brand awareness has a natural tendency to dwindle over time. It tends to get edged out by more exciting performance-focused activitiesor simply by branded terms taking up more of the budget.
Therefore, it’s not enough to assign a portion of your budget to brand awareness at launch — you also have to keep it that way.
One way to do that is to schedule a quarterly account overview where you double check (and re-set if necessary) the proportions you’ve budgeted to brand awareness activities.
Fundamental #3: Plan for optimization now — and in the future
Optimization might not be top of mind at launch, but it should be. If you don’t track what you’re doing now, how will you know how to optimize it in the future?
That’s why I like launching with all relevant audiences in “Observation” mode and continuously look for ways to improve.
For example, let’s say you’re selling office furniture. Add the in-market audience “Office Furniture” along with remarketing and any other lists you deem relevant.
As you start to collect data, you’ll be able to optimize.
But here’s the catch: It’s not enough to just set this up at launch. You have to remember to go back, analyze the data you’ve collected and make changes based on it.
Again, this is where a quarterly account review can come in handy. Put it in your calendar when you launch so you won’t forget.
Because after all, what’s the point of tracking data in observation mode if you never analyze that data and apply what you’ve learned?
Don’t Forget These PPC Fundamentals
Whether you’re a PPC pro or novice, it’s easy to overlook these PPC fundamentals.
But these fundamentals are “fundamental” to PPC success.
So don’t forget about them.
