While digital marketers are always on the lookout for new and innovative methods to communicate with customers, there’s no denying that good old-fashioned Google Ads are still at the top of the pile.

Just look at the revenue that the California search giant generates every year. We’re talking hundreds of billions of dollars.

Are you struggling with Google Ads? Here are five tips to up your game in 2020.

Tip #1: Improve your ad copy

Did you know that Google judges your ads based on the quality of your ad copy? It turns out that the search giant is much more likely to display your ad if it abides by its ad copy rules AND is relevant based on the keywords you choose. In other words, you need to ensure that you’re targeting the right users.

There is no magic formula for creating great PPC ad copy, but in general, you want to make sure that it is relevant and specific. In short, users should get ads that are relevant to their searches and provide accurate information on the products and services beyond.

Tip #2: Know your negative keywords

Some keywords are like ticking time bombs, lurking in the background ready to destroy the performance of your ads. Usually, these are keywords semantically related to your chosen keywords, but not actually anything to do with your product. You need to actively weed out these keywords and tell Google you don’t want it to display your ad for them. If you neglect this aspect of PPC, you’ll hurt the overall performance of your ads.

Tip #3: Time your ads

While you can tell Adwords to bid for ad space whenever a user types in a relevant keyword, we wouldn’t advise it. Most businesses need to target customers at a specific time of the day. A pizza shop, for instance, would do better creating targeted ads that display from late afternoon onwards, not early in the morning.

Tip #4: Add extensions

Extensions are additional elements that you can add to your advertisements to provide further reasons for users to click. Typically, users are quite resistant to clicking paid search ads, so adding extensions can help tip the balance in your favour. What’s more, many extensions increase the physical size of your ad on the screen, upping visibility.

Use the following ad extensions to make your advert more clickable:

• Review extensions that show what people think about your products and services
• Site-link extensions that allow people to click through to your home page
• Location extensions showing where you are on a map
• App extensions providing links to in-app services

Tip #5: A/B test your ads

Keep A/B testing different ad copies through time, refining the text as you go. You may find that small changes in the choice of words in the title can have profound effects on clickthrough rates and conversions.

If you want to find out more about how to win at Google ads in 2020, follow Digital 24 on Instagram @wearedigital24 for all the latest in the world of digital marketing