Google Ads is one of the best online advertising platforms for reaching your potential customers. However, it can take a good amount of time to properly set up a Google Ads search campaign. There are so many little things that can make a difference including selecting the right audience, geographic locations, bidding strategy, and relevant keywords.
Once things are up and running it might take weeks to get everything just right. Google suggests making changes in two-week increments and with that in mind, patience will become your best friend. Once you are through the setup phase it will be time to maintain your account’s performance. A go-to way to do that is by refreshing your ad copy.
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Words Matter: Thoughts On Google Ads Copy
Fresh ads are an effective way to keep your search campaign’s gears greased and running smoothly but before we can talk about new ad copy let’s talk about your existing ads. If you think about it, settings, bid strategies, keywords, and budgets all determine how ads will be shown but it’s the ads themselves that speak directly to potential buyers.
As a general rule of thumb, I like to keep 2-4 ads running per ad group and for the most part, 3 ads are what works best for me. In this case, we are only talking about search ads but even search ads come in different types. It wasn’t too long ago that you could find yourself composing a “text ad,” but now text ads have been replaced by “Expanded Text Ads” giving you more fields to get your message across. What’s better than an “Expanded Text Ad”? How about a “responsive text ad” that allows you to enter several options for both the ad headline and ad body, ensuring the best combination of both is shown to potential buyers?
It’s true that selecting the correct type of ad is important and it is also true that having the correct number of ads is important but neither of those things will matter if your ad copy isn’t any good.
Make Your Conversion Tracking Data Work For You
If your PPC marketing campaign is running smoothly but you are starting to see a dip in conversions it may be time to refresh your ad copy. Heck, after 2-3 months you might want to consider refreshing your ads just so they don’t become stale.
Early I mentioned the amount of time it takes to set up a new campaign. At least 2 weeks of that time involves letting the campaign run and making changes. What’s great about these 2-week intervals is that they allow you to gather data. Now is the time to use that data to make informed decisions on your ad copy.
I spend a lot of time bouncing between the Google Ads online interface and WordStream. What I love about WordStream is that you can see your most popular keywords from the ad group you are working in. This is a great tool to use when determining the keywords you need to include in your headlines and ad body. What’s really great about this is that when you set up a campaign you might not have access to keyword performance but, once you’re up and running, the data you need is at your fingertips, so take advantage of it.
Using other keyword research tools can also be helpful. If you know what search queries people using, you can compose ads that read like answers to a buyer’s question. Serpstat offers a powerful keyword research tool that can aid in this process. You can also use Google Keyword Planner available inside your Google Ads account.
Excluding Negative Keywords
Just as important as targeting the right keywords is excluding negative keywords from your ads so they don’t appear in your ad group. Setting up a negative keyword list lets you filter out unwanted search terms from your campaigns so you can focus on only the keywords relevant to your customers. Better targeting can put ads in front of interested users, avoiding bad clicks and increasing your campaign ROI. Google explains how to add negative keywords here.
New Offers? New Google Ads
Another reason to refresh your ads might be for a simpler reason, your ads don’t make sense anymore. This happens often when you change your landing pages. If your ads were written to get people to download a WhitePaper and now you’re looking to get people to sign up for a webinar you will need to rewrite your ad copy to convey this new goal.
When you’re using Google Ads to advertise your business online, it is a good idea to keep your ads fresh to optimize your conversion rates. If you are struggling to get ad clicks or looking for new PPC ad ideas, feel free to reach out, and let’s see if we can get you moving in the right direction.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in July 2020 and has been updated with fresh content.