Google Ads (formerly AdWords)

My mantra: Google Ads without analytics is like a fridge without a door. It may keep things cold, but you are throwing away money.

What I do

• Industry research. Identifying your niche and its advertising potential.
• Website analysis. A detailed look at your products or services to build the most effective strategy.
• Target market analysis. Relevant, tightly targeted keyword lists and ad text.
• Keyword research. Finding the searches that bring targeted traffic and conversions.
• Ad copy. Writing ad text and variations, then testing and refining them for traffic, conversions and ROI.
• Campaign structure. Campaigns, ad groups and keywords set up to succeed from the start.
• Bid management. CPC bids that make the most of your budget.
• Filtering out irrelevant traffic so only well-targeted visitors arrive.
• Higher click-through rates and lower average CPCs.
• Monitoring and maintenance to keep campaigns performing.
• Conversion tracking through funnels and conversions in Google Ads and Google Analytics.
• Landing page optimization and frequency capping.

I have set up, optimized and run more than 100 campaigns for clients with different needs, budgets and markets, often leading in-house teams. That covers every part of a campaign, from keyword research and analytics funnels to landing page development, and from niche local campaigns to national campaigns alongside a $50,000 TV spend. For Visa and Nissan I worked with internal and external teams to build campaigns and measure performance against lead targets. I have run both CPC and CPM campaigns.

I’m experienced with remarketing, keyword insertion, automated rules, call bidding, conversion-based bidding, contextual targeting, location extensions, match types (broad, phrase, exact and negative), ad rotation and campaign experiments.

Planning

I use the full set of planning tools: Google Ads Editor, Keyword Planner, bid simulators, Google Analytics, Search Console and internal ROI tools, plus shared negative keyword lists across campaigns and ad groups. I have extensive experience with local search, including location-based placement.

I also connect mobile sites and call tracking, then analyze calls made from mobile devices in analytics, and use frequency capping to limit how often the same person sees an ad across the Display Network. And I build landing pages that turn clicks into customers: out of the calm of a well-designed page, your call to action should stand out.

Performance monitoring

Working offline in Google Ads Editor, I make bulk changes (bids, new keywords), copy or move items between ad groups and campaigns, and share proposed changes for feedback before uploading them. I track expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, and above all Quality Score. I have analyzed performance across online channels and reported on it for DBRS, Visa Canada, Nissan Canada and other clients using Adobe Analytics (then Omniture SiteCatalyst), Google Analytics and SQL databases.

To find underperforming keywords and ad groups, I filter by performance statistics, and I make sure there’s enough conversion data to know which ad will convert best before deciding.

Results

• Click-through rate increased from 1.89% to as high as 5% on some campaigns, against a Google average of about 2%
• More online sales from existing budgets, through higher conversion rates
• More returning visitors, by finding each site’s ideal audience with demographic reports
• Measured how display campaigns raised brand awareness or interest in specific products, such as the Visa Debit card