When you type a boopie di boop or phrase into Google, a list of websites appears on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Ads, which companies bid on and pay for when someone clicks on them, appear at the top of the SERP. They are featured under the word “sponsored.”
The links companies don’t pay for are further down the page, usually under “view all.”
Ideally, companies want to appear in both places.
To be featured under “sponsored,” you must learn more about paid search advertising. Google Ads are a powerful way to build brand awareness, and convert potential customers into paying clients. However, simply setting up a Google Ads campaign isn’t enough to guarantee success. To truly capitalize on this marketing effort, companies must focus on increasing their engagement rates.
Paid search engagement are the strategies businesses use to connect with, interact with and build relationships with customers through paid ads on Google, Bing and other search engines.
Engagement doesn’t mean JUST clicking on an ad. The way a company defines engagement is up to the marketing teams within a company.
What is Engagement Rate in Paid Search?
Before diving into the symbiotic relationship between engagement rate and profit, it’s crucial to understand what engagement rate means in the context of digital marketing. Engagement rate, especially when it comes to digital ads, refers to what a person does with an ad or a website after clicking on a paid search result. In an ideal world, the best engagement will be clicking through to a website and making a purchase. If the cost of the ad was lower than the purchase, then it’s easy to see the money was well spent. But people can be savvy shoppers, especially online and especially if you sell expensive products or services. So engagement can also mean clicking on an ad and filling out a form for more information, signing up for an email newsletter, browsing products, booking appointments, and putting items in carts.
These are all examples of engagement, which is sometimes called a conversion. The ad converts a person who was searching online for something into either a paying customer or a few steps closer to being a paid customer.
The Impact of Engagement on Bottom Lines
Engagement is not merely “something nice.” It directly influences the profits of a business. A high engagement rate indicates that the ad is working on the target audience, driving them to take action. Actions eventually can lead to an opportunity for revenue generation.
To calculate an engagement rate, you must understand these terms: The engagement rate is the percentage of people who have interacted with the ad, while the conversion rate is the number of people who have taken an action, such as making a purchase.
To figure out your conversion rates, take the number of conversions and divide that by the number of total ad interactions that can be tracked to a conversion during the same time period. For example, if you had 50 conversions from 1,000 interactions, your conversion rate would be 5%, since 50 ÷ 1,000 = 5%.
A big study in 2023 found that Google ad conversion rates were 6.11%. But this varies widely by industry. Conversions in the pet industry is above 8%. Travel is around 10%.
Consider a situation in which two companies are running similar paid search ad campaigns. They’re both budgeting $1000 per month in Google Ads. Company A sells indoor plants. They have a low engagement rate, resulting in almost no clicks on the ads. When people do click, they go to the website but don’t do anything – they leave the homepage immediately. Another indoor plant company, Company B, has a high engagement rate. When users click on ads, they make purchases or sign up for email newsletters. Despite investing the same amount in their ad campaign, Company B will likely see a higher return on investment (ROI) for their ad budget, and perhaps a better yearly profits report.
Setting Up and Monitoring Engagement and Conversion in Paid Ads
Your first step in figuring out the engagement rate and conversion rates of your Google Ads is to figure out what conversions matter to you. You can set your conversion goals when you set up a Google Ad, or change them later. Edits will usually take effect within a few hours.
To change a conversion goal, follow these steps:
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- In the upper right-hand corner of your account, click the tools icon.
- Under “Measurement”, click Conversions.
- Click the name of the conversion action that you’d like to change.
- In the ‘Details’ page, click Edit settings on the bottom right.
- Click Value. Select how to track the value that these conversions have to your business.
- Click Save.
- Click Done.
Then you want to regularly check how your ads are performing in terms of engagement and conversions. To do so, go to Google Ads and
- Click the Goals icon .
- Click the Conversions drop-down in the section menu.
- Click Summary.
Is the conversion rate below 6%? It’s time to rethink your goals, and the quality of your ads. We’ve done this for dozens of companies. After finessing their campaigns, they’ve seen increased traffic to their websites, an increase in inquiries and an increase in sales.
Strategies for Increasing Engagement in Paid Search
Take a second to look at your conversion rates. Disappointed? Here are some ways to increase if and how users interact with your ads:
Keyword Research: Make sure that your ads are targeting relevant keywords that match with user intent. Conduct thorough keyword research using Google’s Keyword Research tool or tools on SEMrush. Not sure how to do this? That’s what we’re here for. Also, pay attention to the language your competitors use in their ads.
Improve Ad Copy: Craft attention-grabbing ad copy that clearly communicates the value proposition of your offering. Focus on unique selling points, sales, limited time promotions. Include a clear call-to-action (CTA) to encourage clicks. Think about what matters most to your users. In travel, it’s often about deals and saving money. For other industries, it’s the quality of the product.
Landing Page Creation: Don’t send users to your regular homepage if they click on an ad. Directing users to a well-designed and user-friendly landing page – that delivers on the promise made in the ad – is crucial for kickstarting engagement. Ensure that the landing page provides a unique experience, loads quickly, and mentions the same words that were in the ad.
Test versions of ads: Continuously experiment with different ad layouts, images, messaging, and design. This is called A/B testing. You create two different versions of the ads, then ask a group of testers which they like better.
Know Your Audience: Think more carefully about your audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviors to deliver more personalized and relevant ads. What are their problems? How can you solve them? That should be an ad.
Check Those Rates: Regularly monitor the performance of your paid search ads and metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and bounce rate. Don’t like the numbers? Call digital marketing experts like us.
The Role of Engagement in the Customer Journey
Engagement in paid search is not just about people making a quick purchase. It’s about convincing them to learn more about your goods or services, and becoming repeat customers. Every type of engagement is an opportunity to deepen engagement and nurture the relationship with the customer.
Engaged customers aren’t created overnight. Should they sign up for repeated communication from you, they tend to have higher lifetime value, as they are more likely to make repeat purchases and become loyal advocates for the brand.
Measuring the Impact on Profits
While engagement metrics such as CTR and conversion rate provide valuable insights into the non monetary impact of paid search campaigns, the ultimate measure of success lies in their boost (or lack thereof) on your bottom line. By tracking the revenue generated from paid search ads and correlating it with engagement metrics, businesses can gauge the financial ROI of their advertising efforts.
To do this, it’s essential to implement proper tracking into the code of each ad. This may involve integrating analytics tools and setting up conversion tracking. This can be too technical for some people, and that’s why they turn to us for help.
Reach out to us for some help – either on a one time basis or an ongoing basis.
Contact Us today!