Any advantage that a marketer can get over their competing brands is a bonus, and this is very important when it comes to all areas of PPC.
To help you with this, here’s a rundown of the 4 Google Ads tricks that are still working in 2019.
#1 – Bid on Competitor Names
The first trick that has been useful for years and is still worth pursuing is bidding on your competitors’ brand name.
A lot of people who I give this advice to will instantly respond with: “Wait, are you allowed to do that? Isn’t that against the rules?”
Yes, you’re allowed to do this without being punished. There’s absolutely nothing to stop you from using this tactic.
The exemption to this is if they have a patented word in their brand name which you aren’t allowed to bid on. Even in that scenario, I’ve seen people find legitimate ways of getting around that.
If you think about it, bidding on a competitor’s name makes a lot of sense. They will be ranking organically for their own name, so anyone who searches for them will see your ad at the top.
In addition, those same people will be at a later stage of the customer’s journey and are likely to be at the buying phase as opposed to other audiences who are around the research and price checking phases.
When someone searches for a keyword you’re bidding on that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to buy.
Most of the time they are going to be at an early phase whereas if they search for a specific brand, they already know what they want and are ready to spend money.
#2 – SKAGS (Single Keyword Ad Groups)
Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGS) are underused and are something I highly suggest utilising.
This is basically creating an ad group that consists of just one keyword. You can then make an ad copy including that same keyword.
What does this do? When someone searches a term, let’s say buy used cars online, they see an ad that says buy used cards online rather than something similar to the term.
Overall this helps to make ads much more relevant and can be beneficial to both advertisers and Google searchers.
I won’t dive into these ad groups too much but we published a blog post detailing SKAGS and everything you need to know about them.
#3 – Single Keyword Landing Pages
Third is a Google Ads trick that I’ve used personally for years, and it’s single keyword landing pages.
Basically, this is another variation of same keyword ad groups but for landing pages instead.
For this, all you need to do is reiterate what was used in your ad copy in the landing page. Doing this will convey a consistent and relevant message which in turn boosts your conversion rate.
#4 – Geotargeting
The last Google trick that still works in 2019 is geotargeting your ad copy so that it includes state and city levels.
Even if you still nationally make 50 ad groups that have 50 ad copies in them which mention the state, focus on them.
The fact is that people are more likely to click on their state when they’re searching for something, and this goes for almost any business.
Conclusion
There you have it – those are the best Google Ads tricks that still work effectively in 2019. I definitely recommend you start leveraging each of these now before their effectiveness wears off!
Alternatively, rather than worrying about which tricks still work or what your competitors are doing better than you, contact us and let our experts take care of it for you.
