Google Ads Specialist
Digital Spark Pro
Project Purpose
The adventure in a nutshell
The What:
During the last several months, I have been running Google Ads for clients in the real estate industry. I remotely worked under Digital Spark Pro, a marketing agency in Farmington Utah, for over 20 hours a week. I managed 3 total accounts, with a total monthly budget of $112,000
The Why:
I took marketing as my minor and have fallen in love with it ever since. I want to pursue a career as a marketing director, beginning with advertising. This experience not only got me plenty of experience with google ads, but also led to Digital Spark hiring me as a full-time employee.
The How:
I met with clients regularly to discuss their goals and budgets. Based on their feedback, I created google ads for them. Based on data that came in daily, I optimized the google ads account to boost performance. This included things like adjusting in different locations, audiences, and devices based on performance, running split tests on ads to gauge results, and adding negative keywords to ensure quality traffic.
Tools I Learned
The secret sauces
I spent over 200 hours working within the Google Ads interface. This involved adding negative keywords, building ads, running split tests, adjusting bids by location and audience, tracking conversion data, and reporting on results.
Using Google Ads Editor, I created over 6,000 ads among my 3 clients.
I used Semrush regularly to conduct keyword research and competitor keyword research.
Call Tracking Metrics is a tool I set up for clients to track call conversions or leads.
Poptin is another tool I used to create popups for desktop and mobile devices intended to keep visitors on the website and fill out a form before they went.
I used Zapier to connect API configuration between two or more tools for our clients. An example was connecting all the leads we get from website forms to automatically go to our clients Customer Relationship Managements (CRMs).
I created over 25 different landing pages for our clients through WordPress. I used several website builders including Elementor, Cornerstone, and Divi.
Challenges
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
One of the biggest challenges was communicating with clients when things weren’t going as well as they had hoped. The real estate industry has taken a hit, which has resulted in some slow traffic for our clients. As clients saw an increase in money being spent and few leads coming in, they would often get worried. I had to meet with them and address their concerns. This meant a lot of reassurance that we had everything in control, highlighting the positive things going on within the account, and sharing our new strategies with them.
I also managed many split tests. When ads weren’t performing well, it was my job to think of a new approach. It was a challenge to always be thinking of new strategies to be an on the spot problem solver.
Project Processes
A day in the life of a google ads specialist
-Weekly meetings with our team
-Updating client KPIs twice a week
-Client meetings to report results and answer questions
-End of the month client reports
-Created negative keywords
-Raised bids on high-performing keywords, locations, and audiences
-Lowered bids on low-performing keywords, locations, and audiences
-Creating new ads and testing ad language
-Configuring conversion data to our client’s CRMs
-Additional tasks from supervisors such as new campaigns, creating API configurations, etc.
Results
drumroll please…
Client: eXclusive Listings Group
Total Ad Spend: $10,293.95
Total Conversions: 22
Cost Per Lead: $468
Conversion rate: 5% – Industry standard (2.47%)
Client: Hope Tree Properties
Total Ad Spend: $6,601.47
Total Conversions: 35
Cost Per Lead: $188.61
Conversion rate: 14% – industry standard (2.47%)
Client: Tennessee Homebuyers
Total Ad Spend: $18,037.04
Total Conversions: 329
Cost Per Lead: $59.68
Conversion rate: 12%
CTR: 14% – industry standard 3%
*The campaigns I created within this account has been the top performing campaign since launch*
Takeaways
The experience
As much as I have learned about google ads through books and class discussions, there is no better way to learn than actually doing it. Getting to work with real clients trusting us with hundreds of thousands of dollars was a great experience. I learned the importance of communication between team members and clients. There isn’t just one way of doing things in the marketing industry, so being open to learn, adapt, and try new things is critical. Client’s expectations are often high, and it takes a lot of communication to succeed with them. I’ve found myself doing a lot of teaching towards our clients—be it new trends, potential problems with their ideas, and inviting them to trust us with more of their money. What I believed helped me the most was never feeling like I was above asking questions. I also noticed that my team members loved the new ideas I presented. I would often give a suggestion and volunteer to figure it out myself. I could feel their trust in me growing which led to more responsibility and even a full-time job offer. As a team, all have the same goal, and as long as we communicate well and are open-minded, those goals more often than not will be reached.