How to Spend Less on Google Ads and Still Beat Your Competition

Google ads are one of the best ways to reach more people who are looking to buy. The good news is, when your online jewelry store appears in the results for direct searches where the intent is to make a purchase, the return on investment is outstanding. Unfortunately, this means that every jeweler out there is following the same strategy, and because Google ads work by showing the ads of the highest bidder, the more jewelers are bidding for lucrative keywords and phrases, the more you have to pay to be seen. 

Fortunately, there are a number of small adjustments that you can make to not only find these lucrative customers, but also keep your costs lower. The best part is, many online jewelers are not taking these strategies into account, which makes it much more likely that your ads will be seen by your prospective customers instead of theirs. Let's take a closer look.

Use Location Targeting

When creating a new campaign in Google Ads, you want to make sure that the location is set to your current country and not "All Locations", since it doesn't make sense to target anyone and everyone around the world. Google has surprisingly robust and detailed location targeting options that you can use to include locations that make the most financial sense and exclude those which would just be a drain on your budget. 

Although it would seem to make sense to use zip codes, ad platforms like Google don't have as good of a "map" in mind as we might. It does, however, do a great job of understanding where towns and neighborhoods are, so make sure to add in those names and click the advanced targeting box to choose "Those in my area" rather than "Interested in my area" to help nudge the needle a little more in the money-saving direction. 

Use Phrase and Exact Match Keywords

As search engines like Google become smarter and more adept at figuring out what it is we really want, keyword searches become less and less specific. However, for online jewelry stores, searches are still very specific, meaning you want to make sure that your online store appears when someone searches for a very specific product you offer, such as "18k white gold princess cut diamond engagement ring" rather than just "diamond engagement rings". 

Google will try to convince you that broad match is more effective, but still those people who are a better match will come from those more descriptive keywords and phrases, which means you should focus on both Phrase and Exact match keywords in your ad marketing campaigns. This also limits unnecessary spending on lower-quality, all-encompassing searches (like "diamond engagement rings")  which can eat through your budget without giving you much of a return, in return. 

Leverage Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are a great way to make your jewelry store ads stick out. There are a number of excellent options like image, sitelink, callout and more. Use each one as it makes sense to do so. Keep in mind that the ad extension won't always show in the search results even if you have it enabled, but many times it will, and that could be the difference between getting the click, or getting scrolled on by. 

Bid on Higher Intent Keywords

Oftentimes, jewelers will try to select very broad keywords in an attempt to be all things to all people. This means bidding on very expensive keywords like "diamond ring" and such. Make no mistake, the jewelry space is crowded, but at the same time, this gives you a great opportunity to stand out from the competition by advertising exactly what you have to offer. 

This also means bidding on higher intent keywords, like "diamond studded 14k gold earrings" rather than just "diamond earrings". Yes, the search frequency will be lower, but remember that your ad campaigns should be focused around quality, not quantity. 

With these tips in mind, you'll not only be able to create more compelling campaigns, but you'll also start to see a much higher return on investment for your efforts. Try these tips with your next campaign and watch your performance improve! 

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