On the surface, search ads seem to be simple enough. However, if you’ve ever put together a search ad campaign, you’d know there are a lot of moving parts. As one of America’s top conservative ad agencies, Arena has placed its share of search ads for political campaigns and advocacy clients.
In this post, we’ll break down the best practices and strategies Arena uses to run successful search ad campaigns for our Republican campaign clients. Before we get into best practices and strategy, let’s clarify what search ads are and how search ads work.
What are Search Ads?
Key Elements of a Search Ad
How Much Do Search Ads Cost?
What Determines When and Where Search Ads are Displayed?
Best Practices for Search Ad Campaigns
Search Ad Campaign Strategies for Republican Campaigns
What are Search Ads?
Search ads—often referred to as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads—are digital, text-based advertisements that appear on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for platforms like Google and Bing.
These text-based digital ads appear the same as any organic search result, with the exception that the word “Sponsored” appears in bold above the search ad.
Search ads typically consist of a headline, description, and display URL. If the information is added when building a search ad campaign, ad extensions may also display that can include phone numbers, organization location, ratings, etc.
Did you know: Google’s search engine market share is 93%, making it the go-to platform for search advertising.
In addition to text-based ads, shopping and video ads are other popular forms of search advertising. However, text search ads are by far the most popular format.
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Key Elements of a Search Ad Campaign
Before building a search ad campaign, there are several key elements that should be carefully considered:
- Keywords
- Negative keywords
- Search ad targeting
- Campaign bidding and budgets
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What are Keywords?
Keywords can be single words or multiple-word phrases. Keywords are used in many forms of digital advertising to help platforms like Google and YouTube serve your ads to people searching for the same keywords.
In search ads, keywords are your main form of targeting (more on that below). Your search ad campaign can list as many keywords as you determine you need.
So, for example, if a Google user searches for “Montana US Senate Candidates,” your ad will display if that exact keyword phrase is included in your campaign’s list of keywords.
Note that keywords also play a significant role in SEO for websites. Search engines like Google crawl your site and read your site content. The keywords in your content inform search engines what your site is all about, so it can include your web pages on SERP organic searches.
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Negative Keywords
When building a search ad campaign, Google also allows you to list negative keywords. Negative keywords act as a filter to prevent your ads from showing when those keywords are used in a query.
For example, a Republican candidate may have a common name like John Smith. If there happens to be a John Smith Ford dealership, adding “John Smith Ford” as a negative keyword will ensure that you don’t potentially waste your ad budget or confuse users.<<
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Search Ad Targeting
For Google Search Ads, you can use a variety of targeting options to ensure your ads reach the right audience. Here are the main types of targeting:
- Keywords – As previously mentioned, the most common form of targeting used in search ads is keywords
- Location – Target users based on their geographic location, which can be as broad as countries or as specific as cities, ZIP codes, or radius targeting. You can even target users who are physically in a location or express interest in it, or avoid showing ads to users from certain areas
- Audience – This type of targeting allows you to target users based on their interests, behaviors, or demographics. For example, you can target users based on general interests, reach users actively researching products or services, target audiences based on specific keywords, URLs, or apps they interact with
- Remarketing – Search ads can also target audiences using uploaded first-party remarketing lists. Remarketing shows ads to users who have previously interacted with your website or app
- Demographics – Include or exclude audiences based on demographics such as age, gender, household income, and parental status
- Device Type – Control when your ads appear based on the user’s device type: mobile devices, desktop computers, tablets, or Smart TVs
- Scheduling – Show your search ads at specific times of the day or certain days of the week
- Language – Display search ads based on the language settings of the user’s device or Google interface
- Contextual – Instead of targeting what users type in directly, contextual targeting focuses on topics and concepts relevant to your content
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Campaign Bidding & Budgets
Search ad bidding is the process of setting a maximum amount you’re willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad. There are other less common events that can trigger payment (e.g., ad views, conversions, etc.).
The amount you’re willing to pay is only part of the equation that determines when and where a search ad appears on a SERP.
A search ad budget is the amount of money you allocate for your search ad campaign over a specified period of time. This can be as short as a per-day budget or longer.
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How Much Do Search Ads Cost?
Google offers several pricing models, including:
- Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
- Cost-Per-Mille (CPM)
- Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) and others
The most common model for determining the cost of search ads is the CPC model. With this model, advertisers only pay when a user clicks on their ad.
With CPC, advertisers bid on filling positions available on a SERP when specified keyword phrases are used in a query. Popular keyword phrases are more competitive and, as such, are more expensive.
Typically, shorter keywords are more popular and more expensive. For example, “Wisconsin Primary” would likely be more expensive than “Wisconsin Republican Senate Primary.”
While you can’t determine the cost of a single ad, there are also tools that will estimate the cost of each ad, based on the popularity of the keyword that triggers your ad display.
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What Determines When and Where Search Ads are Displayed?
When a user makes a Google query, the first thing that determines if your ad will be served is whether or not your keyword matches the user’s query.
When there is a keyword match, Google then determines what page position, or rank, your ad will receive by multiplying your set bid price by your ad’s Quality Score.
Ad Quality Score (1-10, with 10 being highest) is a metric search engines like Google use to rank the relevance of your search ad as it relates to the content of the landing page your ad links to. For example, you will get a low quality score if the keywords in your headline and description are related to selling cars, but your landing page content focuses on motorcycles.
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Best Practices and Strategies for Search Ad Campaigns
In this section, we’ll discuss the best practices and political strategies that set Arena apart from other conservative advertising agencies.
Best Practices for Search Ad Campaigns
Arena has an in-house, full-time media buying team with a lot of experience building political campaign search ads. This team helps our account management team build, monitor, and optimize effective search ad campaigns using the following best practices:
Search Ad Headlines and Descriptions
When building search ad campaigns, Google gives you the option of adding multiple headlines and description variations. Google will mix and match these variations —think AB testing—and ultimately give preference to the headline/description combinations that perform the best.
When building client search ads, Arena likes to provide as many headline and description variations as Google allows. In a bit, we’ll discuss how Arena uses this information to optimize search ads.
Ultimately, the headlines and descriptions that are not performing well will stop running. This gives our media and account teams the opportunity to replace the poorly performing headlines and descriptions in an effort to increase performance.
Keywords and Landing Page Content
In order to keep users engaged with the platform, Google wants to answer search queries as quickly and accurately as possible. As such, ads with keywords that are contextually related to your landing page content are given a higher quality score.
When Arena puts together a search ad campaign for a Republican client, we take into consideration the landing page(s) intended. Arena will recommend edits to, or creation of, landing pages if necessary, to ensure that the search ads are relevant to the landing page content. This improves the search ad’s quality score, which, as discussed, increases the likelihood of a better SERP position and CTR.
Using Negative Keywords in Search Ads
When researching the subject, our content marketing team discovered that a lot of political media buyers don’t use the negative keyword option that platforms like Google offer. This could be so, because they are not aware of the feature. More likely, it’s because adding negative keywords takes research that can add quite a bit of time to placing the ad order.
Arena has researched negative keywords that most often negatively affect search ad results for Republican campaign clients and conservative advocacy groups. We apply these boilerplate lists to the appropriate ads, and also research negative keywords for specific clients.
Optimizing Tracking and Measuring the Success of Search Ads
With search ads, advertisers get access to metrics that can help optimize their campaigns and continually improve performance. These metrics include:
- Impressions are how many times your search ad is displayed on a SERP
- Clicks are how many times users click on your search ad
- Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of impressions that receive clicks
- Conversions tell you how many times a user actually took the desired action (filled out a form, signed up for your email, etc.)
Building, monitoring, and optimizing search ads properly takes time and expertise. A lot of political agencies will place search ads for campaign clients, then move on.
Arena typically reviews and optimizes every search ad as needed on a weekly basis until the campaign ends. During this period, we provide clients with reports on a schedule and format that works best for each individual client.
Creating Good Search Ad Content
Google documentation states the core approach to their search is to “deliver the most relevant and reliable information available. If the ad headlines and descriptions are not relevant to the keywords, search engine algorithms will stop delivering that ad for the specific search.
As such, the ad copy and keywords in digital search ads should be crafted to align with the user’s search intent and should include a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that encourages a user to click and engage with the ad.
When the user clicks on the CTA, they should be taken to a landing page that is also relevant, in that the page should quickly provide the users with exactly what they expected to find.
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Search Ad Campaign Strategies for Republican Campaigns
Here are a few political strategies our account team uses to help our conservative campaign clients win with search ads:
Capitalize on the Absentee or Mail Ballot Drop Date
Voter search activity surges when ballots arrive in mailboxes. This moment represents your final—and often most cost-effective—chance to persuade undecided voters.
Since it’s challenging for a relatively new campaign website to organically rank at the top of search results, paid search ads are the best way to secure prime visibility. To maximize impact, launch your search campaign at least one week prior to the ballot drop date.
Target Your Opponent’s Name and Keywords
If voters are searching for your candidate, you can bet they’re also searching for your opponent. This creates a prime messaging opportunity—whether to reinforce your strengths or raise contrast points about your opponent.
Always include your opponent’s name and key issues in your keyword list. It’s a smart, strategic way to shape voter perception while they’re actively seeking information.
Use Geo-Targeting to Maximize Relevance
Search ads can be hyper-targeted by geography—down to ZIP code, district lines, or even city blocks. This is especially useful in primary or local races where boundaries are tight.
Focus your spend where turnout will matter most, or where you need to close the gap with key audiences.
Own the Issues That Matter Most
Search ads aren’t just about candidate names. Identify the issues your voters care about—like inflation, border security, crime, or parental rights—and bid on those search terms.
This positions your campaign as the leader on issues voters are actively seeking answers on.
Don’t Forget About Election Day
Voters will continue to search for polling locations, endorsements, and candidate information on Election Day itself.
Make sure your ads are still running and updated with the appropriate keywords to provide relevant info and reminders to vote for your candidate.
Use Long-tail Keywords
Google search ads allow you to use multiple headlines and descriptions for each ad. Using long-tail keywords results in fewer impressions but a higher CTR. Longtail keywords are not as competitive and, as such, are cheaper to acquire.
A great strategy would be to include a mix of long-tail keyword combinations. As you track your ad performance, plan to replace the low-performing long-tail keywords with other variations. Eventually, the performance of your campaign will improve.
Using long-tail keywords will result in a slower budget spend. You can always increase your daily budget or increase the duration of your campaign.
Let Arena Help You Win With Search Ads
As a conservative advertising agency, Arena believes informed campaign clients make well-reasoned decisions. Running effective political search ad campaigns is a lot of work and takes expertise to do them properly. Arena has that expertise, and we’d love to put that to work for you.
Take a few seconds to contact us, and we’ll schedule a brief call to answer all your questions about how to launch a winning search ad campaign for your conservative cause or campaign.
