How to Optimize Google Ads Campaigns During Global Crisis

All of a sudden, coronavirus dramatically changed a lot of things in our lives, starting from daily routine and expanding to education and business. The circumstances keep changing day by day and they demand flexibility and determination from business owners who are forced to rethink the commercial process. Here at RecommendMe, we help companies to re-evaluate their advertising strategies and facilitate their adjustment to the demands of the corona time.

Marketing is especially sensitive to the challenges posed by COVID-19. In tough times, it’s quite natural that companies want their advertising budget to pay off. In this article, we will talk about different ways of optimizing your Google Ads campaigns so that you can effectively respond to the dynamic customers’ needs. The following pieces of advice will boost your marketing efforts during the pandemic.

Use Reliable Strategies

Google Ads keeps being a reliable instrument for maintaining your sales during the spread of coronavirus. However, in the time of crisis, the best solution is using Google Ads settings that have already proved to be effective for your business. Even if you had planned to experiment with your ads just before the pandemic broke out, you’d better put it off till better times. This period isn’t suitable for taking risks.

We would also recommend you delay introducing considerable changes in your marketing scheme. Involving a new target group or entering new markets may not work out at the time of the coronavirus outbreak. You can get back to experimenting with different approaches to investment and targeting when the pandemic goes down.

To reduce costs, it is reasonable to suspend any A/B testing. If it’s been already launched, you can finish it before the previously planned date. Another option here is to interrupt running the test and continue it when the situation changes for the better.

Focus on the Best Time and Place

Consumer behavior tends to vary depending on the day and time the user is searching for goods or services. To optimize your marketing costs, you might introduce Dayparting into your advertising strategy. Dayparting means scheduling the ads so that they appear at times of the day or days of the week, which are most relevant to your target audiences.

You can modify this setting according to key performance indicators or using basic information about your target audiences. The simplest example of Dayparting is turning off the ads for breakfast places after 11 am. You can also take advantage of the fact that people mostly make their weekend arrangements on Thursdays and Fridays. And, of course, the simplest option to reduce advertising expenses is to turn the ads off during the night.

Also, it is reasonable to compare the efficiency of your Google Ads in terms of different locations. Apparently, conversion rates would vary depending on the area. To maximize your advertising budget during the crisis, focus on targeting locations with the highest sales performance. Besides, you can temporarily exclude specific locations like universities or airports from the targeting.

Prioritize More Productive Devices

Apart from the time, location, and demographics, the level of your ads performance also depends on the type of user’s device. The good news is that you can control when and on what type of devices your ads are shown to your customer. To maximize the budget, you should take into account results achieved by targeting desktop and mobile versions and focus on that one that outperforms the other. You can adjust your bidding strategy to spend less on campaigns for devices that are marked by poor conversions. Another option is to completely exclude the low-performing device type from your advertising plan.

Go Smart

During the crisis, it’s worth reassessing your bidding strategy in order to ensure the maximum efficiency of your campaign.  If you are using Manual Bidding for your Google Ads campaign, we’d recommend you to switch to Smart Bidding. Smart Bidding automatically optimizes your ads in every auction to leverage your advertising investments. It uses data like ad creative, user device, and time to identify the highest probability of conversions and design the most effective strategy to achieve the best results.

In contrast to the Manual Bids strategy, you can’t control the process of managing bids within Smart Bidding. However, Smart Bidding focuses on the goal of your campaigns, such as paying a fixed price for each conversion or maximizing conversions. Your task is to establish a clear goal and the intelligent machine will work towards reaching it.

Be Responsive

Most people around the globe feel the impact of COVID-19. Facing the challenges of the pandemic is quite stressful. You should show your understanding while addressing your audience. Consider the values of your target groups and adjust your messaging to express your concern. Update your texts so that they will give users the feeling of safety and comfort, as well as solve their problem.

Also, try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and estimate your product in the context of necessity. During periods of crisis, people tend to put off buying things they could do without. So maybe it’s reasonable to pull up the campaign for such products. This way you will at least avoid damaging the name of your company.

Conclusion

All in all, it’s best to go on with your marketing efforts throughout the period of the pandemic. Stick to your goals and adjust your campaign to better cope with COVID-19. Proper analysis and smart modifications will keep your advertising campaign fruitful with reasonable investments.

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