Optimizing a Google Ads campaign allows you to be more visible online and more frequently intercept potential customers searching for your products/services online. However, we are not talking about a simple process. Mistakes are very common, but there are several solutionsto solve the problems related to Google sponsorships.
Let’s start with a rule: there is no magic formula. There are always different analyses and choices to be made. However, thegoal is unique: to entice the user to take anaction of value to our business (sending contact form, newsletter subscription, release of personal data, calls, purchase of a product/service, etc.), at the lowest possible price.
In fact, a campaign is performing when it allows you, while spending relatively little, to:
- Appear on Google when users search for something related to your business (Search Campaigns);
- Be featured on other sites related to your business with graphic banners (Display Campaigns);
- Show your e-commerce products on Google (Shopping Campaigns);
- Intercept potential customers on YouTube and increase brand awareness (Video Campaigns).
So let’s find out together how to optimize a Google Ads campaign by answering 4 simple questions and some signs of a failed online advertisement.
The 4 questions to answer if you want to optimize a Google Ads campaign
Here are the 4 questions to ask yourself to improve a Google Ads campaign:
- Are there carelessness or inexperience errors in your Google Ads campaign?
- Is the target audience in line with the goal of the Google Ads campaign?
- Can your Google Ads campaign strategy be improved?
- Are Google Ads campaign conversions set up and tracked correctly?
We respond together, providing a more detailed overview below.
Are there carelessness or inexperience errors in your Google Ads campaign?
Checking your Google Ads campaign for errors due to carelessness or inexperience is the first thing to do. Start with these 2 steps:
- Check the date drop-down menu (top right), making sure you set it correctly.
- Verify that the announcement schedule settings are correct and that the announcements themselves are posted on the days and times set by you.
If all this is correct, here is what else could have gone wrong.
The campaign was not approved
Have you made sure your ads are approved and not restricted?
Google can block them for several reasons:
- Destinations not working – This is what happens when the url is not set correctly;
- Violations of advertising regulations (read them here) – These can be resolved by contacting the service department.
Budget and payment methods are not set correctly

Verify that budget and payment methods are suitable.
The daily budget must be adequate to take advantage of the SMART bidding strategies that Google proposes. In addition, the platform also allows you to check the Lost Impression Rate per Ranking, which lets you know how many impressions you are losing as a result of the inadequacy of your funds, and how many impressions you have instead lost due to the insufficient quality of the campaign.
In terms of payment methods, however, Google only accepts bank account and credit card. Prepaid cards are not accepted.
The keywords are in contrast to the ad
An additional check to be made is that there are no negative keywords that conflict with the ad. This could block sponsorship activation.
Check keyword matches:
- few exact-match keywords bring little traffic to your ads;
- Conversely, too many keywords with generic matches could generate too large a volume of low-quality traffic, unnecessarily dispersing the budget.
Is the target audience in line with the goal of the Google Ads campaign?
Do you have any idea who your ideal customer is? Have you conducted a thorough analysis to identify your target audience?
If you do not know who you are talking to, there is a good chance that the language used is incorrect (perhaps too general or, in the opposite case, too specific). Conversely, knowing the recipient of your message allows you to communicate it in the best possible way.
This is why it is essential to outline a buyer personas to whom you want to target your ads.
This concept indicates the depiction of a customer-type of your product/service, and such targeting is useful for:
- Know personal and socio-demographic characteristics ;
- Anticipate their behaviors;
- Making choices in terms of User Experience and User Satisfaction.
Basically, it is a fictional character delineated in its behavioral singularities that reveals its purchase intentions. The goal of this analysis is to bring out what the potential customer thinks and how he or she behaves when seeking a solution to a problem or need.
Is the communication strategy you have adopted the best one?
To fully understand whether the strategy you are using for your campaign is correct, you will need to conduct ananalysis from several perspectives of the company. Ask yourself these questions:
- What do you want to communicate?
- What is the corporate business?
- How are you communicating that?
- What is the positioning relative to competitors?
- Is the sponsorship on the correct advertising channel?
- What idea do potential customers have of the brand?
Define and try to understand the reasons why a user should choose your product/service, rather than that of a direct competitor. Next, worry about whether Google Ads is the appropriate channel for your business and whether the ad campaigns represent your items/services adequately.
But why should these directions be followed?
Because once you have the initial results, you can use them to monitor the progress of your chosen marketing strategy. In fact, to implement a winning plan, you need to test what you are doing. Testing allows you to understand what is working and what could be improved, or even if there is something that can be excluded from the strategy.
Ultimately, the results of your campaigns tell you for yourself if the work you are doing, is going in the right direction, or if there is some element that needs to be optimized.
Are Google Ads campaign conversions set up and tracked correctly?
Tracking the conversions of an advertising campaign is critical to:
- Control where valuable user actions are derived from;
- Verifying that conversion actions are working and active allows you to collect and analyze the resulting data.
Doing so is very simple. Just follow this path: Tools > Measurement > Conversions.
On this page(Conversions) of the Google Ads platform, there are conversion actions set directly by Google or imported from Google Analytics (you have more data with this mode). You can check whether your account is able to track a specific conversion in the ‘Monitoring Status‘ section. Instead, the ‘Include in Conversions‘ section allows you to understand whether data related to that action, is included in conversions.
To best optimize a Google Ads campaign, we recommend that you only include the final user conversion (such as a purchase, phone call, newsletter subscription, site registration, etc.). On the contrary, if you include micro-conversions, the algorithm will optimize campaigns on these, thus going to penalize your advertising action.
Some signs why optimizing a Google Ads campaign is a good idea

There are several reasons why a Google advertising campaign may perform below your expectations. Let’s look below at some of the most common signs that should set off alarm bells for you:
- There are few impressions. That is, the ads are not shown, or are shown very little
- There are few views – Your ads are not being clicked on by users and – as a result – are not bringing results in terms of conversions;
- Get few conversions – If the cost of actions taken by users on your site as a result of a sponsorship is too high, you are probably doing something wrong;
- For your chosen keywords, only the results of your competitors are shown – If the keywords chosen for your campaigns are wrong, your ads will not meet the needs of people searching for your products/services.
If you find yourself in any of these situations, go back through the reading and answer honestly the 4 questions we have asked you. If not, read on, and get an expert who can do this work for you.
Isola helps you optimize your Google Ads campaign
Have you figured out how to optimize your Google Ads campaign, but feel you lack the skills to do so? Isola di Comunicazione is the web agency that specializes in online advertising for businesses of all types and sizes. Leveraging the potential of digital advertising, we make your products and services known and connect you with users searching for them on the web.
If you want to get your business on the Internet, contact our Google Ads agency and ask us for a free quote or a consultation.
Instead, if you want to continue to learn more, read our article:
The benefits that will convince you to use Google Ads.