Thriving with Google Ads is not that hard (in theory)

Yes, we ninjas do believe in ads. For obvious reasons, we can measure, optimize, automate, and eventually control them. You can do that as well, but you may prefer to pay some ninjas to do that for You, instead. But let’s say you at least want to know what you pay for. Not going into too much of detail, our go-to strategy with Google Ads is the following:

1. Don’t figure shh up, figure out!

To start, we need to know the Google Search keywords our target audience is using (and yes, you need to know Your target audience).


*Yes, you can add your own ideas about keywords. You may even find some keywords without competition, but usually, there is a reason nobody else is bidding on them.

2. Take Ads like… ads.

Google Ads (and Analytics) have greatly improved during the last couple of years in terms of dumb users’ ability to get stuff done. You know the keywords, the allowed number of characters, and what you offer or how you solve someone’s pain. Just write that. Don’t try to be smart about it or, my favorite, mysterious. Have you noticed the internet lately? Everyone out there is fighting for the very same—ATTENTION!


Don’t save those ads before you get them the best ratings based on tool suggestions. Just take your time and do them properly. Later, there is not much need to change them since the best ad sets may be a mixture of those versions.

3. UTM, those babies up!

Now you know the top keywords that bring You the most traffic (how much they cost and the competition on each keyword). So, separate them and add UTMs to their URLs (google it up; it’s not that hard) to measure how each keyword performs. Later, you can adjust Your ad budget and feed top performers.


Grand ninja bonus tip!
Depending on the business, you may want to go more granular than that. You can multiply ad sets with the same keyword for different weekdays or even within the same day (one message during the day, another after hours). This is also a solid way to optimize for competition and buy when traffic is lower, ads are cheaper, but overall cost per conversion is better.

4. Hardest part – don’t overdo it

Following these steps will most probably improve your ads and raise the quality of traffic to your landings or website. The kind suggestion is to optimize landings/websites BEFORE you start pouring that valuable ad budget into Google Eternal Tummy. That said, to optimize your site for conversions, you still need decent traffic.

You can always optimize your funnels for 10% better results. In terms of optimizing, ninjas believe in a 20:80 ratio. That also means we kindly refuse to spend that 80% of the time on that last 20% value. That said, this 80% would still be better than the current market standard.

Ok, that’s a wrap
Ninjas with L

Further reading