16 Google Ads Features to Boost Your Performance + How to Use Them

Google Advertisements options are helpful instruments that assist handle and optimize campaigns. Listed below are 16 we use on daily basis together with the best way to use them.

16 Google Advertisements options it’s best to find out about:

1. Above-The-Fold CPM Bidding on the Display Network
2. Ad Scripts for automation and efficiency
3. Time-lag reporting
4. Dynamic product remarketing
5. Seasonality adjustments
6. Data exclusion
7. Account-level automated extensions
8. Your audience insights
9. Countdown ads
10. Google Analytics audience
11. Advanced audience segments for focused campaigns
12. Google Ads Editor for streamlined campaign management
13. Pmax Placement Reports
14. Value-based bidding
15. Value rules
16. Campaign-level broad match keywords

Amidst a whirlwind of digital promoting, with an astounding $190.5 billion earmarked for PPC ads in 2024, it’s a head-scratcher that many entrepreneurs nonetheless aren’t absolutely harnessing the capabilities of Google Advertisements. 

This information is your golden ticket to alter that narrative. We’re not simply skimming the floor right here; we’re diving deep into the lesser-known however immensely highly effective options of Google Advertisements, that includes professional insights from HawkSEM affiliate director of SEM, Rachel Corak.

 What are Google Advertisements options?

Google Advertisements options are a collection of instruments inside the promoting platform designed to help you in creating, managing, and optimizing your PPC campaigns. These instruments cowl all the pieces from the fundamentals (like key phrase focusing on and advert format choice) to the extra superior, like automated bidding and detailed efficiency analytics.

These options frequently evolve as Google refines its platform, unlocking new avenues to boost your advert campaigns and higher join together with your goal audiences.

 16 Google Advertisements options and the best way to combine them

It’s usually the hidden gems in Google Advertisements that may make it easier to create extremely aggressive, focused campaigns. Whereas the highlight usually shines on well-liked instruments, a treasure trove of lesser-known options can also be out there so that you can use. Listed below are a few of our faves.

 1. Above-The-Fold CPM Bidding on the Show Community

Above-the-fold CPM (cost-per-mile) bidding ensures your show adverts pop up in probably the most seen components of a webpage – the part seen earlier than a consumer scrolls (AKA above the fold). This function is a game-changer for campaigns specializing in model consciousness, because it maximizes your advert’s visibility.

Tips on how to use it

• Mix with focused show campaigns: Use Above-The-Fold CPM bidding with extremely focused show campaigns, together with video adverts, to make sure a related viewers sees your adverts.
• Use with remarketing lists: Pair it with remarketing lists to recapture the eye of customers who’ve beforehand interacted together with your web site, rising the percentages of conversion.

 2. Advert Scripts for automation and effectivity

Advert Scripts are an underrated instrument in Google Advertisements. These scripts, a mix of automation and effectivity powered by Google AI, allow you to automate on a regular basis duties, like bid changes or pausing campaigns primarily based on particular standards.

Over half of digital marketing agencies say their ad spend management has grown in the last year (2023). It’s essential to search for methods to automate and streamline workflows to take care of effectivity whereas the quantity of labor will increase – and the automation that advert scripts provide can do exactly that. 

With a little bit of JavaScript data, you may customise scripts to fit your distinctive marketing campaign wants, saving time and rising effectivity. Or you should utilize present scripts that different entrepreneurs have created and shared on-line.

Tips on how to use it

• • Automate routine duties: Implement Advert Scripts to deal with repetitive duties, like adjusting bids in your search adverts and buying adverts or scheduling adverts for peak occasions.
    
  • Customized scripts for particular wants: Develop customized scripts tailor-made to your marketing campaign’s distinctive necessities, reminiscent of scripts that alter bids primarily based on inventory ranges or promotional durations.
  • Make changes: Make adjustments to CPA, key phrase bids, budgets, and lots of different marketing campaign settings.

 3. Time-lag reporting

This function presents insights into the time lag between a consumer’s first advert interplay and finishing an motion, reminiscent of a purchase order in your touchdown web page. Understanding this time lag is essential for refining your remarketing methods and bidding selections.

Tips on how to use it:

• Modify remarketing methods: Use time-lag insights to tailor your remarketing, particularly if knowledge signifies an extended decision-making course of.
• Bidding technique changes: Modify your bids primarily based on the common conversion time lag. For merchandise needing extra contemplation, contemplate rising bids for latest interactors.

 4. Dynamic product remarketing

Dynamic product remarketing is nice for ecommerce and creating customized promoting. It targets potential prospects who visited particular product pages in your touchdown web page however didn’t convert, making your adverts supremely related.

Tips on how to use it

• Optimize Google Tag setup: Be certain that the ‘id’ parameter in your Google Tag is on level for efficient remarketing.
• Collaborate with builders: Work intently together with your crew to make sure the Google Tag captures the right knowledge, significantly for ecommerce websites.

 5. Seasonality changes

Seasonality changes are an important instrument for entrepreneurs utilizing clever bidding methods. This function allows you to inform Google’s algorithm of anticipated adjustments in conversion charges on account of seasonal elements, guaranteeing that your bids are adjusted accordingly throughout these durations.

Historically, seasonality changes are utilized for Procuring campaigns. Nonetheless, for those who promote for a enterprise that experiences seasonality, (suppose snow elimination or pool cleansing) it might be helpful.

Tips on how to use it

• Anticipate seasonal traits: Make use of seasonality changes throughout occasions of anticipated conversion charge spikes, like vacation seasons.
• Knowledgeable changes: Base your changes on historic knowledge and market predictions to help the sensible bidding algorithm.

 6. Information exclusion

Information exclusion allows you to omit particular knowledge out of your total marketing campaign knowledge, which is essential when going through points with conversion monitoring or irregular conversion drops.

Tips on how to use it

• Establish anomalies in conversion monitoring: Use knowledge exclusion to omit durations the place you recognize your conversion monitoring knowledge is inaccurate, reminiscent of throughout web site downtime or monitoring outages.
• Stop deceptive bidding changes: By excluding this knowledge, you make sure that the sensible bidding algorithm isn’t making selections primarily based on flawed info, sustaining the integrity of your marketing campaign efficiency knowledge.

 7. Account-level automated extensions

These extensions can range from sitelinks and callouts to structured snippets, providing potential enhancements to your customary advert codecs. 

Primarily, Google makes use of its algorithms to investigate your web site and routinely create extensions that it believes will enhance your advert efficiency. 

Whereas automated extensions will be time-saving, they might not all the time align together with your desired messaging. Being aware of those automated extensions and tweaking them as mandatory can make sure that your adverts keep the supposed affect. Corak recommends customers flip this off to take care of extra management of messaging and branding.

Tips on how to use it

• Evaluate and customise: If you happen to preserve this function on, recurrently evaluation the automated extensions that Google generates and customise them as wanted to make sure they align together with your marketing campaign objectives and messaging.
• Steadiness automation with management: Whereas automated extensions can save time, it’s essential to take care of a stability between automation and handbook management, particularly relating to messaging and branding.

 8. Your viewers insights

Corak says she says that is one in all her favourite “obscure” options. The viewers insights report is a function that provides you a deeper understanding of your buyer base by analyzing knowledge collected by GA4 or your conversion tag. This instrument can reveal beneficial insights about in-market audiences and affinity segments, informing your focusing on and advert copy methods.

Tips on how to use it

• Analyze viewers segments: Dive into the “Your knowledge insights” part to know which in-market and affinity audiences you’re indexing extremely for. This knowledge can inform your focusing on and advert copy methods.
• Use the benchmarks: See how your viewers performs in comparison with a benchmark viewers.
• Apply insights to artistic technique: Use these insights to tailor your artistic and messaging, aligning your campaigns extra intently with the pursuits and behaviors of your target market.
• Perceive demographic knowledge: Acquire beneficial insights into your viewers’s demographics so you may alter advert textual content, bid modifiers, and extra.

Right here’s the best way to get there. “[Navigate to] Instruments & Settings → Viewers Supervisor → Your Information Insights. You may view how your viewers compares to benchmarks in response to Google,” explains Corak.

(Picture: GA4)

(Picture: GA4)

 9. Countdown adverts

Countdown adverts are an revolutionary advert modifier that creates urgency by counting right down to a particular time and date. This dynamic format is especially efficient for selling time-sensitive occasions like gross sales or particular promotions. You may solely add these to responsive search advert and dynamic search advert varieties.

Tips on how to use it

• Spotlight limited-time presents: Use countdown adverts to emphasise gross sales or promotions, compelling customers to take motion earlier than time runs out.
• Improve seasonal campaigns: Leverage these adverts throughout peak buying seasons or for particular occasions to capitalize on elevated client curiosity.
• Experiment with countdown durations: Check totally different countdown lengths to seek out the best time-frame for driving engagement and conversions.

 10. Google Analytics audiences

What’s the Google Analytics integration?

Google Advertisements lets you use Google Analytics to create detailed, targetable audiences in your campaigns. This integration allows you to construct advanced audiences primarily based on consumer conduct and interactions over a number of periods.

Tips on how to use it

• Create behavior-driven personas: Use Google Tag Supervisor and Google Analytics to trace detailed consumer interactions and construct personas primarily based on these behaviors.
• Develop customized audiences for focused campaigns: Create customized audiences in Google Analytics primarily based on particular consumer behaviors and import them into your Google Advertisements account for extra centered marketing campaign focusing on.
• Use in-market and affinity audiences: Use In-Market and Affinity audiences to focus on or exclude customers primarily based on their on-line behaviors and pursuits, permitting for extremely customized promoting.

 11. Superior viewers segmentation for centered campaigns

Leveraging audiences in Google Advertisements campaigns is usually underutilized, significantly in B2B advertising. Superior viewers segmentation entails creating distinct teams, reminiscent of previous converters, the highest 1% of shoppers, and all guests. These segments enable for extra focused and efficient bidding methods.

• Create a number of segments: Develop at the least three distinct viewers segments for an all-encompassing strategy. This could embody segments like previous converters, the highest 1% of shoppers, and normal web site guests.
• Layer audiences on present campaigns: Apply these segments to your present campaigns. This methodology permits for nuanced bid changes and focused visibility.
• Use ‘Focusing on vs. Statement’ settings: Select between ‘Focusing on’ for direct viewers engagement or ‘Statement’ for insights-driven technique enhancement. This readability in settings can considerably affect your marketing campaign’s efficiency on Google search engine outcomes pages (SERPs).
• Bid adjustment primarily based on viewers interplay: Modify bids for particular audiences, reminiscent of those that have beforehand interacted together with your model or watched your YouTube movies. This centered strategy can result in larger conversion charges and improved high quality scores.

 12. Google Advertisements Editor for streamlined marketing campaign administration

The Google Advertisements Editor is a complete administration instrument for Google Advertisements campaigns. It’s designed to assist with bulk adjustments and optimizations throughout a number of campaigns and key phrases, making it an important instrument for efficient pay-per-click marketing campaign administration.

Tips on how to use it

• Bulk edits and changes: Use the instrument for bulk adjustments, reminiscent of bid changes, CPCs, or advert copy updates throughout numerous campaigns and advert teams.
• Enhanced group and effectivity: Arrange your campaigns and advert teams effectively, guaranteeing that new campaigns will be arrange and present ones will be managed with ease.
• Machine-specific bid changes: Benefit from device-specific bid changes to cater to the rising significance of cell site visitors.
• Search and filter capabilities: Make use of its search and filtering features to seek out and modify particular marketing campaign components rapidly.
• Batch uploads for time effectivity: Use batch uploads for quicker implementation of adjustments, which is essential for agile marketing campaign administration and speedy response to market traits.

 13. Pmax Placement Report

Corak says we shouldn’t overlook the Pmax placement report. Inside this report, you may see your whole advert placements in a single place. Why is that essential? This marketing campaign sort exhibits throughout all of Google’s networks, which embody Gmail, YouTube, Show, Uncover, and Search, so there are various placements you may seem on.

At present, you may solely see impressions, however Google is including new metrics to studies on a regular basis, so that you’ll doubtless see much more knowledge sooner or later.

Tips on how to use it

• • Model safety: Use the info to remove irrelevant placements and shield your model.
  • Funds conservation: A greater understanding of your placements will let you alter your finances effectively.
  • Create new adverts: If you higher perceive placements, you may craft your copy for these placements.
  • Content material suitability: Primarily based on what you see within the report, you may select to exclude apps, particular placements, and even alter content material themes or varieties.

To get there, “Go to Insights & Experiences → Predefined Experiences → Different → Efficiency Max Campaigns Placement. You may exclude these placements for higher high quality adverts, though it’s a handbook effort,” Corak explains.

(Picture: GA4)

(Picture: GA4)

 14. Worth Primarily based Bidding

Value based bidding helps you give Google extra details about your conversions. You can provide extra knowledge to machine studying so it may study which conversions imply probably the most to you. Sharing offline conversions with values will give a greater image of your prospects. The values you assign will play immediately into how properly the bidding technique, Maximize Conversion Worth, works.

“Worth-based bidding is a function that may be very helpful for lead technology because it helps information the algorithm towards understanding your highest-priority conversion actions,” explains Corak. “This lets you construct stronger funnels and ship Google better indicators to enhance focusing on inside machine studying.”

Tips on how to use it

• Weigh conversions: Inform Google which conversions you worth most by assigning values to your conversions. This may be executed for lead gen and never simply ecommerce.
• Enhance efficiency: Giving Google extra details about what actions you worth will drive higher efficiency.
• Buyer segmentation: Present Google with knowledge about probably the most beneficial prospects in order that your campaigns will drive extra conversions.

 15. Worth guidelines

You can also make campaign-level changes to exclude or assign worth to gadget, location, or viewers section. Consider it as bid changes for sensible bidding.

Tips on how to use it

• Exclude poor performing segments: As an example, cell gadgets don’t convert properly; you may inform Google they’re not very beneficial.
• Give extra weight to segments: If an viewers section converts properly, you may improve the worth adjustment to focus extra on the viewers.

 16. Marketing campaign-level broad match key phrases

Hidden within the marketing campaign settings is a setting that swaps all key phrase match varieties to broad match key phrases in the whole marketing campaign. That is used with conversion and conversion worth sensible bidding.

Tips on how to use it

• Scaling campaigns: If you wish to scale your campaigns, you may use this to find new key phrases. Nonetheless, you’ll have to look at your search question report like a hawk and add unfavourable key phrases recurrently.
• Low quantity phrases: If the key phrases you’re focusing on have low quantity, you may use this to alter the match varieties and solid a wider internet. Consider it as a discovery mode permitting machine studying to take over and discover your viewers.

 Google Advertisements is all the time evolving

Top-of-the-line issues about Google Advertisements is that it’s not a static platform. It’s all the time evolving to fulfill each advertisers’ and customers’ wants. As an example, worth guidelines attribution fashions, Sensible Procuring, and expanded textual content adverts have all been phased out and Efficiency Max and Demand Gen campaigns have come into play.

“Google is often forward of the curve on this planet of PPC and usually leads the cost when it comes to innovation,” says Corak. “At present, Demand Gen campaigns are new and distinctive to Google. Their algorithm and machine-learning capabilities on the whole are way more superior than most platforms.”

The takeaway

By delving into the lesser-known and new options, you may unlock a wealth of recent instruments to boost your campaigns. Whether or not it’s leveraging the immediacy of countdown adverts, the precision of Google Analytics audiences, or the strategic use of Above-The-Fold CPM bidding, every function presents distinctive benefits to refine your advert technique.