Google Ads Optimization: How we doubled the account result in six months with the same budget

Niche: car dealer.

Conversion: calls and a callback from call-tracking system Ringostat, forms.

Date of analysis: six months (1.01.20 - 30.06.20) and the corresponding previous period.

The result: +140.46% increase in conversions and a 63.41% cost reduction.

What we did:

Optimized conversion settings and GTM.

Imported conversions directly from the site to avoid the transfer of the extra link - GA - which appropriates part of the conversions to other sources due to the attribution of the last indirect click.

We changed the attribution model in Google ads to "linear" - best suited for products with a long decision cycle. In addition, this model provides stable operation of smart bidding. It can see the complete picture of the conversion path and divides it equally between all sources in the chain.

In addition, we extended the attribution window for 90 days because the decision process to buy a car, according to statistics, is taken about three months.

We set up "eavesdropping" on clicks and links in order to understand how users interact with the site, what they are most interested in, and where they click.

Basic cabinet and GA settings.

We divided the geo up to the districts of Kyiv and the radiuses. Then we changed the location settings to "people who visit or visit their target locations" instead of the recommended ones.

Also, we divided the showtime into separate intervals to understand when our audience was most active.

In addition to custom, we gathered new remarketing audiences to interact with site content, audiences of third-party traffic sources (organic, direct), and referrals (importers). 

Added Audience observation to each search campaign.  The same was done by topics for the GDN. It helps us understand who and what converts better. So, we gave smart strategies more "signals" for learning.

We created computational metrics and personalized reports for convenient, daily statistics analysis. 

Google Ads Campaign Structure.

We have redesigned the structure of the campaigns.

Search: 

Allocated general queries, commercial, brand, model, and wide keys;

We took as a basis the strategy of building an account - SKAg - 1 group = 1-3 keys by relevance, and in three types of the match: exact, phrase, and broad match modifier;

Also, we made cross-match negative keywords where necessary; 

Was rewritten ads with a commercial message and the required keyword in the title, path, and description;

And daily we have cleaned requests.

Display network:

We divided audiences of interested buyers, audiences of intent, interests, and demographic audiences into individual campaigns. In this case, necessary to care that the audience reach does not drag traffic to each other.

Remarketing: 

We segmented the site's audience by engagement and interaction and created Dynamic Remarketing for all car models.

• Added custom ads to all types of campaigns; launched promotions from importers; from time to time, changed messages and banners.
• Divided all campaigns into mobile and desktop traffic. We turned off those that converted less and cost more expensive.
• Each type of campaign had its own automatic bidding strategy. And most importantly, we allowed them to learn. We used a target impression share and a target CPA that generates more leads at a lower cost, as long as it has enough data to analyze the target audience.

Work outside the advertising cabinet.

Updated Google My Business and often shared with the audience with news and promotions. 

Once a month, we sent recommendations about the website's usability and trends in automotive.

The project team met monthly to analyze requests, test hypotheses, and implement new creatives.

Conclusion

The result was short in coming.

We received +140.46% more lead with a less cost of 63.41% in dynamics. 

At the same time, the account budget was not changed.

Now we continue to actively improve the work of the advertising cabinet and scale by increasing the budget. In the future, we will attract other traffic sources, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and actively work with b2b - corporate sales.