Effective Strategies for Recovering from Google Ads Performance Declines

Experiencing a drop in Google Ads performance can be disheartening, especially when your business once achieved great results.

If you’ve noticed a decline in your Google Ads performance or pay-per-click (PPC) service, addressing the issue promptly is crucial to get your campaigns back on track.

• 63% of People Have Clicked on a Google Ad
• 77% of marketers plan to increase their investment in Google Ads in 2023.
• Google Ads has a 29% share of global digital ad spending.
• Approximately 80% of businesses globally utilize Google Ads for their PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns as of 2024.

Maintaining Google Ads’ performance in this highly competitive world can be tricky. This guide is curated for people facing a sharp decline in their Google ads performance.

Possible reasons for a sharp decline in your Google ads performance:

Here are some common reasons are:

• A shift in the market dynamics
• Rising competition in the market
• A change in customer preferences

Other than these general possible reasons, some deep technical reasons may also cause a fall in Google ads’ performance. Those technical reasons are:

• Ad Fatigue

This is a term used for Google ads in which the business owners do not provide any new updates.

Repeatedly seeing the same ads may lead the consumer to boredom, and as a result, they may not respond to those ads as they did earlier.

• Seasonal Change in Trends–

Search queries for certain businesses may be affected by the seasonal shift in the preferences of its target customers.

A report published by the National Retail Foundation, USA, shows that retail sales recorded a massive $936.3 billion during the 2022 holiday season from November to December. 

So, any retail business with Google ads in the USA would have provided the best results during that time. However, continuing to run the same ads until January 2023 will unlikely yield the desired sales outcomes.

Given below are some simple yet effective tricks to push up declining Google ad performance

Analyze your Website

If your Google ads are not working fine, then it is high time for you to check your business website.

• Bounce Rate: A higher bounce rate can negatively impact user experience. This bounce rate can be higher because of any landing page issue. An expert from an SEO agency can help in this case.
• Page Speed: Slow-loading website pages will impact your business’ lead conversion rates.
• Website on the Mobile: If Google ads performance declines, it is important to check if there is a performance gap between the desktop and mobile websites.

Regularly review ad copies and creatives

First, check the relevance and quality of your ad copies and creatives. There is a high chance that your ad copy or creative has gone outdated and is no longer appealing to your target market.

• Run A/B tests on your ad copies, creatives, and even landing pages to identify which version performs better.
• Regular testing allows you to gather insights on user preferences and make data-driven decisions to improve engagement and conversions.

Keep A Check On Your Competitor

The business world is highly competitive these days. Therefore, monitoring and understanding competitors’ strategies to attract customers is very important.

Improve Landing Page Relevance

Make sure your landing pages are tightly aligned with the ad’s message. A strong correlation between the ad copy and the landing page content boosts your Quality Score, reduces bounce rates, and improves conversion rates.

Ensure the landing page has a clear call to action (CTA), a fast load time, and a user-friendly design.

Optimize Keyword Targeting

Continuously review and refine your keyword list.

Identify underperforming keywords eating up your budget but not yielding results, and either pause them or replace them with more relevant, long-tail keywords.

It’s also important to use negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic, reducing wasted spend and improving ad quality.

Let’s say you’re selling organic skincare products and initially target broad keywords like “skincare products,” you might get many clicks but few conversions.

After analyzing your search terms report, you notice irrelevant searches for non-organic or cheap products.

To optimize, you shift to more specific keywords like “organic face cream for dry skin” and add negative keywords such as “cheap skincare” to avoid irrelevant traffic.

This approach attracts more qualified users and improves conversion rates.

Consider Geographic Adjustments

Analyze the geographic performance of your ads. If certain locations are underperforming, consider adjusting your bids or excluding those regions.

Likewise, increasing bids for high-performing regions can help maximize the return on investment (ROI).

Leverage Ad Extensions

To provide additional information about your product or service, Google Ads offers various ad extensions, such as site links, callouts, structured snippets, and more.

Add these extensions. This will make your ad stand out and improve relevance, leading to higher click-through rates (CTR).

Focus on Audience Targeting

Google Ads allows for detailed audience targeting, such as remarketing, in-market, and custom intent audiences.

Segment your audience to focus on those most likely to convert, which can significantly improve the efficiency of your ad spend.

Use the “Affinity” and “In-Market” audience segments to focus on people actively researching or showing interest in your offerings.

Example:

If you run an online store for high-end fitness equipment, you can enhance your Google Ads strategy by using audience targeting features:

• In-Market Audiences: Target the “In-Market for Fitness Equipment” segment to reach users actively researching fitness gear, increasing the chances of conversions.
• Affinity Audiences: Select “Health & Fitness Enthusiasts” to engage people with a consistent interest in health and wellness.
• Remarketing: Implement a remarketing campaign for visitors who viewed specific products but didn’t purchase, serving them tailored ads with discounts or benefits.

By focusing on these targeted segments, you can effectively reach potential customers who are more likely to convert, improving your ad spend efficiency.

Adjust Ad Scheduling

Review the performance of your ads at different times of the day or days of the week.

For example,

If you notice a pattern of certain times performing better than others, adjust your ad scheduling to focus on peak times.

This can help make the most out of your budget by showing ads only when they are most likely to perform well.

Monitor Search Terms Report

Review the search terms report regularly to see what actual search queries triggered your ads. This will help you discover new keyword opportunities and identify irrelevant searches.

Adding irrelevant searches as negative keywords will prevent your ad from showing for unqualified searches, thereby saving money and improving performance.

Adjust your budget

While running a PPC or a Google ad, leave room for adjustment in the budget allocated to the digital marketing service provider agency.

A sufficient budget for the ad may lead to a decline in visibility, which will not be a good sign for the business’s health.

Related: What Are the Must-Know Google Ads Terms?

Conclusion

This guide has all you would need to understand regarding every important aspect that may help you with the push in the Google ads performance. By implementing these techniques, you can overcome challenges, optimize your campaigns, and drive meaningful results.

Remember, declines and rises in the performance of Google ads or any other digital marketing service are part and parcel of the digital marketing field.

Don’t be afraid to try new approaches and analyze your results to identify areas for improvement.

With perseverance and a data-driven mindset, you can achieve your business goals and maximize your return on investment.

Schedule a consultation with our digital marketing experts for a personalized assessment and to start implementing these strategies to elevate your Google ad performance.