There’s a good possibility that you work hard for your money if you’re reading this essay. You undoubtedly try to avoid wasting it on exorbitantly priced goods and services, and you don’t want to spend money on ineffective marketing strategies. So, seeing your cost per click increase more quickly than summer gasoline costs can be annoying.
I think you’re essentially dealing with the equivalent of movie theater snack rates in digital marketing. Do you realize? Like when you brought a bunch of munchies to the movies and had to take out a mortgage to pay for a little bag of popcorn and a Coke. But seriously, why is the tiny popcorn just 25 cents cheaper than the large popcorn with unlimited refills?
Truth Behind CPC Reduction in Google Ads
In any case, despite using Google Ads for a while, you Reduce CPC. Perhaps you’ve even seen it gradually rise while your spending and outcomes remained the same. You are now beginning to doubt whether Google Ads are profitable for your company. Because your cost per click in pay-per-click advertising can make or break your business. After all, most businesses can only afford to spend so much on customer acquisition before they ultimately give up on becoming successful. This could be $10 or $10 million, depending on your sector, product, or service, but almost every company needs a budget.
You may be able to relate to this situation if you’re like most marketers. Even if you’ve been using Google Ads for a while, there’s a decent probability that you’ve, at some point, struggled to Reduce CPC.
This article will give you some tried-and-true methods to Reduce CPC, no matter where you are in your Google Ads journey.
What is the Cost Per Click (CPC)
The abbreviation CPC stands for cost per click. The most popular bidding technique and the default method on most pay-per-click platforms is cost-per-click bidding.
The phrase “CPC” can be used in various circumstances and is used across the Google Ads platform. It can be used as a displayed metric in your Google Ads reports or to define maximum cost-per-click bidding.
You’ll need a firm grasp of the language to Reduce CPC and steadily improve performance. The most frequent CPC terms are defined below to help you understand everything.
- Average: The average cost per click for your Google Ads campaign, ad group, advertisements, keywords, audiences, etc., is known as CPC.
- Keyword max CPC – The most you’re ready to spend on a single keyword click.
- Ad group default max CPC: Indicates the highest possible cost per click for all the ad group’s keywords. The ad group’s default will be overridden if the keyword level max Cost Per Click changes.
- The anticipated bid amount required for your ad to appear at the top of the first page of search results is the top-of-page CPC.
- First page CPC – The approximate bid price you’ll probably need for your ad to appear on the first page of search results.
- The suggested bid to appear first in search results is the first position Cost Per Click. This estimate is based on the competitiveness of other marketers and the quality score of each term.
- These succinct definitions ought to get you going. If you’re unsure, you can look up the official definitions on Google.
Reduce CPC Without Lowering Bids
Let’s start our collection of CPC reduction advice by dispelling a few myths.
First, cutting your cost per click doesn’t guarantee that other, more crucial measures, like cost per acquisition (CPA), will improve.
Second, there are other ways to Reduce CPC and lower your maximum Cost Per Click bid. Lowering your maximum CPC bid actually ensures that you’ll spend less per click. I’m done now. There is nothing more or less.
For some reason, PPC marketers often fixate on achieving a reduced CPC. However, they want a cheaper CPA (cost per acquisition). I retract that. You really want to spend less, earn more, and become more successful. So, your crazy CPC appears to be the problem, and you may be correct, but cutting your bids in half may not be the best course of action.
This error is relatively simple to commit. You think, Hey, I’m paying approximately $10 per click and have a 10% conversion rate. My CPA is now about $100. My conversion cost will decrease to $50 if I lower my maximum Cost Per click to $5, am I right?
Maybe, but Google considers a few additional considerations when determining how much to charge you for a click. So, let’s examine how Google determines how much to bill you.
How is Cost Per Click Calculated?
It took some pretty excellent math to determine the cost you pay when someone clicks on your advertisement.
Here’s how it works: Google subtracts your quality score from your competitor’s ad rank and adds one penny to the result. Therefore, it appears somewhat like this:
But really, I detest math just as much as you do, so I’ll keep this straightforward. To maintain fair and profitable auctions for advertising, Google operates a discount. You won’t always be required to pay your maximum cost per click. According to Google, being in the top spot will only cost you $0.01 more than ranking in the second position. All seven potential ad ranks follow the same general rule. This brings us to our following topic.
How is Ad Rank Decided in Google ADS?
Your ad’s placement on search engine result pages (SERP) is determined by its ad rank. In other words, your ad will be ranked higher than one with a low ad rank if it has a robust ad rank. You should, therefore, pay close attention to how Google determines ad rank.
Google Ads starts by multiplying your maximum CPC bid by your quality score. The results are then contrasted with all other advertisers placing bids on the same keyword. But unlike you and I, Google completes all of this quickly.
This is significant to comprehend for several reasons. Specifically, it clarifies why you can’t just cut your bids to get a reduced CPC. Because if you drastically Reduce CPC, you will completely disappear from the search results. Additionally, cheaper bids might merely be covering the issue with a bandage. Make sure you’ve taken into account every component because ad rank is calculated based on a variety of variables.
You see, most PPC platforms, including Google Ads, have what is known as a pay-to-play minimum, or what you might refer to as the industry average cost per click. Any keyword or keyword phrase fits this description. The bids of your rivals determine the cost per click for that keyword. To rank, your bid must fall within the range of your competitors’ bids, even if you have the highest quality score possible.
In light of this, the question that still begs a response is…
How to Reduce CPC in Google Ads
If you’ve been reading this post, you already know what Cost Per Click is, how it’s calculated, and why ad rank matters. Any misunderstandings you may have had regarding earning a Reduced CPC with Google Ads should have been dispelled by the information above.
You’re now prepared to learn some tactics that are 100 percent certain to increase your cost per click and get better outcomes.
Restructure Your Google Ads Account
Yes, you did read that correctly. You must be more relevant if you want to Reduce CPC in Google Ads. The ideal way to do this is through single keyword ad groups or SKAGs. You’ll need to restructure your account to use just one keyword per ad group if you’re not already using SKAGs.
Just pause for a moment. Not as horrible as it seems. It won’t take as long as you think unless you have a large account with hundreds of keywords. I assure you that we even have some tools that will make restructuring simple.
What is a Single Keyword Ad Group (SKAGs)
I’ll give you a fuller explanation now because it’s crucial that you set everything up correctly. Nearly all significant metrics, including click-through rates and Reduced CPC, are improved with SKAGs. That’s mainly because SKAGs lessen gaps between the adverts you show users and the search terms they enter.
You may find high-performing long-tail searches and set more precise bids by being more granular. On the other hand, you’ll discover problematic keywords faster.
Here is how to configure SKAGs.
Your ad group should be named after the term it will utilize.
• There will be just one keyword per SKAG, but there will be three match kinds.
(Exact match)
“Phrase match”
broad modified match
• For A/B testing, you’ll make two commercials for each ad group.
The title of your ads should include your keyword.
Make your keyword part of the path.
If your keyword, for instance, is “accident attorney,” your ad group would be called “Accident Attorney,” and your SKAG’s keywords would be:
• [Accident lawyer]
The term “accident attorney.”
• Accident lawyer
]
Remove problematic keywords
You know those annoying keywords that work well, too—at least in generating clicks. The only issue is that they are far more expensive than you are willing to pay. You now have a choice between two things.
- Spend money on a few clicks on this pricey, fiercely competitive term and cross your fingers that they result in sales.
- Reduce CPC for the term significantly or stop using it completely.
- I kid you not! You have a third choice, which is a blessing, and I strongly advise trying it before choosing one of the first two.
- Use negative keywords to cut down on the number of clicks that aren’t necessary and drive up your Cost Per Click.
This is the procedure. Investigate the search phrase report for the pricey keyword and add all the absurd search terms to your list of negative keywords.
Negative keywords are vitally essential if you want to Reduce CPC in Google Ads. Here are a few methods to determine whether a search term belongs on your “naughty list,” er, “negative keyword list.”
• Another SKAG in your account and the search query are similar.
• Google considered the keyword to be relevant, although it’s not…
• It receives a lot of clicks and impressions, but very few conversions.
You might come across a few instances where broad match changed keywords yield too many irrelevant search terms to be helpful if you’re utilizing SKAGs, which you should be. In this situation, you could stop using the keyword altogether. The remaining keyword match types should then be enhanced using negative keywords.
You can Reduce CPC and avoid squandered ad spending if you regularly add negative keywords to your search terms report and keep an eye on it.
Learn How to Understand Your Quality Score
Your quality score influences your ad position inside Google Ads and your cost per click. Raising your quality score is a surefire strategy to attain better outcomes. Fortunately, finding out your quality score and working on raising it is simple.
To view your keyword’s quality score, hover your cursor over the status column next to it. You can see the three major categories Google considers when calculating your total quality score in the pop-up at the bottom right.
• Expected clickthrough rate: This statistic tells how likely someone will click on one of your adverts. This is based on how that keyword has performed in the past. Across all advertisers that have used the same keyword, not just on your account.
• Ad relevance is a metric that expresses how relevant your advertising is to the terms it represents. This is why you must employ your keyword in ad headlines as much as possible.
• Landing page experience – Based on visitor behavior, this metric determines how effective your landing page is. Users’ bounce rates and their stay on your site are deciding factors.
Gain a Higher Quality Score
Do you recall the last time you attempted to cut corners on your weekend housecleaning? So you decided to forgo sweeping and go right to mopping. The only drawback was that you wasted twice as many Swiffer pads and didn’t save time.
Okay, maybe that was simply a personal issue for me. Anyway, I believe you understand the gist. Sometimes, such “shortcuts” don’t save you time or money; they cost you more. When managing your Google Ads campaigns, the same holds. You must sweep before you mop to reduce CPC and raise your quality score.
Are you sick of all the metaphors for cleaning? Okay, I’m trying to say that if you want a Reduce CPC you need to follow the first two steps in this article. The most crucial thing is to use single-keyword ad groupings.
The wonderful thing about SKAGs is that they solve 90% of your quality score problems. You will be ready once you incorporate a few quality score enhancers.
Always Run A/B Tests on Your Ads
Avoid testing more than one or two variables at once. It is challenging to identify the modification that led to the performance improvement when too many variables are being tested.
You’ll need to use math to identify which advertisement is the winner. Just make sure the correct columns are visible and it’s straightforward. The results should next be checked to see if they are scientifically significant using a calculator. Although it sounds fancy, it just means you can access enough data to select the winning advertisement. You might choose the losing ad if you make adjustments too soon and without enough data. Don’t do that; it’s like shooting yourself in the foot.
Enter the clicks and conversions for each advertisement into this calculator. There will be two outputs. The first result is a sophisticated statistic called “P-value” showing the likelihood of your hypothesis being significant. This calculator also provides us with a second result called “Significance.” You need to focus on this one outcome if it indicates “Yes! Then you are ready to travel. Now that you know you made the right choice, you can stop the losing advertisement and start a new test.
Improve the Experience on Landing Pages
Your landing page experience contributes to a portion of your quality score in Google Ads. Therefore, keep reading for this next section if you genuinely want to increase your quality score and see Reduce CPC.
Although a solid landing page will increase your quality score and Reduce CPC, it does so much more. More crucial than everything you could do in your Google Ads account is having a well-designed landing page optimized for conversions.
We were recently approached about taking over for a global health and fitness organization. They had been improving their Google Ads performance for the previous seven years, but they were still sending sponsored search traffic to their homepage.
Interested in how that came about? You got it correctly if you said bespoke landing pages. Yes, we used SKAGs to restructure their account. Sure, we are A/B testing their advertising, and sure, we added additional negative keywords. These factors matter but only contribute to a small fraction of their success.
I’ve provided a list of several quick fixes for landing pages below.
- Create specific landing pages, not just your homepage.
- Ensure that your landing page and ad messaging are consistent.
- Put benefits rather than features in your headlines.
- Check to see if your landing page is mobile-friendly.
- Reduce page load times. While a smart landing page won’t always be able to Reduce CPC in half, it can reduce your CPA to a tiny fraction of what it once was.
Make use of DKI, or dynamic keyword insertion.
Your landing pages can easily include dynamic keyword insertion if you use a page builder like Unbouncy.
Using dynamic keyword insertion, you can substitute words and phrases on your landing page with information from URL parameters. This, among other things, enables you to directly incorporate the user’s search word into the headline of your landing page. When Google discovers the visitor’s keyword is on the page, this will raise your quality score. You’ll benefit from a higher ad rank and Reduced CPC.
Upon logging in, select the account settings page in your Google Ads account. Next, duplicate it and paste it into the Tracking template area.
Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)
The dynamic keyword insertion on your landing pages can now be set up. Check out the official Unbouncier instructions on using dynamic text replacement for a comprehensive approach.
Change Your Attention
The Pareto principle, popularly known as the 80/20 rule, is something we at Linear attempt to incorporate into everything we do. According to the Pareto principle, nearly 80% of your success comes from 20% of your entire labor. You may significantly enhance your performance in less time if you can pinpoint that 20% and give it attention.
With so many indicators at your disposal in Google Ads, it’s simple to miss what’s important. After all, you don’t care about your cost per click. You want to increase conversions, enhance the quality of your leads, and stretch your budget further. Therefore, it only makes sense that a Reduced CPC will aid your progress, and frequently it does. That isn’t always the case, though. It could hurt you if you become overly preoccupied with lowering your cost per click and lose sight of what is essential.
For example, scroll back up and look at those outcomes again. You may have noticed that the cost per click decreased by almost $1. Although there has been a noticeable drop, it does not come close to the gains in other, more significant variables. Conversion rates more than doubled, while the cost per conversion decreased by 53%. In other words, the campaign’s overall improvement is not entirely attributable to the modest Reduce CPC.
To Reduce CPC and enhance results, it may be best to refocus on more crucial facts. These statistics can help you improve your overall outcomes while also Reduce CPC
Utilize specialized landing pages to increase conversion rates.
• Using multi-step forms to improve conversion quality.
• Utilized SKAGs to raise CTR and traffic quality.
Scheduled Bid Adjustments in Place
When was the last time you watched Netflix on your couch at three in the morning when you suddenly felt the need to go online and buy a $5,000 fireplace for your living room?
Having trouble with my fireplace metaphor? How about this, then? Would you set a bedtime for your five-year-old or let them remain up all night?
I agree, so let’s not run your advertising nonstop. Give your campaigns a curfew and begin setting aside money for crucial times. With less competition during certain hours, you can lower your maximum CPC bids by setting scheduled bid adjustments. Typically, there is lower-quality traffic and less conversion activity during these times. You can Reduce CPC and conserve ad expenditure by lowering your bids overnight.
Simply lowering bids, though, is not always sufficient. There are instances when you must stop all advertising at particular hours or even specific days of the week. Use a bid adjustment script or the built-in ad scheduling tool.
CPA Explanation
First, go to your ad schedule tab and apply a filter to find the days and hours that perform poorly. Reduce your bids on days and hours when your CPA is exceeded or when there are few impressions and no conversions.
Here is a filter to locate days and times when conversions are nil but costs are higher than your desired CPA. Simply substitute your desired CPA for $80.
Find the days and hours that require no conversions.
This filter will display the days and times when your CPA was exceeded in conversions.
Find the days and times when conversions cost more than the CPA you want.
Make sure you have enough information to make a knowledgeable judgment before arranging an ad schedule or making scheduled bid revisions. Typically, this will be at least 90 days of performance history, though your monthly ad expenditure may change this.
Set new location preferences.
Scroll down to the locales section in your campaign settings. Then select Location options by clicking there. You need to observe something similar.
Stop people who are not in the areas you have targeted from seeing and clicking on your adverts.
People who are in or exhibit interest in your targeted locations will be the first option that Google Ads defaults to. This implies that Google can display your advertising to anyone in Kyrgyzstan interested in your goods or services (no offense intended to anyone from Kyrgyzstan). The problem is that you most likely don’t want people in nations other than those you are targeting to click on your adverts. Therefore, you should typically choose the second option, People in your chosen locations.
Your CPC may have significantly improved if you previously used the default location settings.
Make Geographic Bid Adjustments
I will hit you with a money-saving narrative problem, as this article is all about saving money. Test your ability to solve it:
“Johnny needs to fill up his automobile with petrol. petrol costs $3.00 per gallon at the petrol station five minutes to the east. The petrol station 5 minutes to the west charges $10.00 a gallon for fuel. Which petrol station will Johnny go to if he is not a fool?”
When adjusting geographic bids, the same theory can be used.
Your cost per click may skyrocket in some states or nations while failing to deliver the outcomes you desire. If so, you can eliminate those locations or add adverse bid modifications to them to save money.
Put an end to automated bidding.
If you want to Reduce CPC, this is a requirement. Your management routine will require more time, but the reward is worth it.
Every campaign in your account likely uses an automated bid strategy if you’ve ever spoken to a Google Ads representative and followed their advice. So, logically, you would conclude that it must be right since a Google representative encouraged you to do something.
Wrong?
Automated bidding techniques, as you can see, don’t provide you enough power to influence your bids. If Google’s algorithm determines that a conversion is likely, it may increase your request as it deems fit. This, in principle, makes sense, but in practice, it doesn’t always work out that way.
You have more control over when your ads show and how much you spend per click when you use manual bidding. This is typically the most effective bidding approach to reduce CPC and enhance performance.
You don’t have to spend all day looking up bids, either. You can start by establishing manual bids at the ad group level because you should use the SKAGs structure. Later, you can utilize data to change bids at the keyword level over time.
Use accelerated delivery instead.
Standard delivery, which is just another type of automation, will be the default setting for your Google Ads account. Using standard delivery, Google can choose when to show viewers your ad and when not to display them. If you select the default Standard delivery type, Google may decide not to display your ad if it believes you will exhaust your budget before the day ends. Google might thus decide to only show your advertisement during the most expensive period of the day. This will raise your Cost Per Click and prevent you from taking advantage of many cheap clicks and conversions during less busy hours of the day.
When a keyword matches a user’s search, your advertising will always be displayed thanks to accelerated delivery. This does not imply that you must leave your advertisements running nonstop. Simply said, it allows you more discretion over when your adverts are displayed. To Reduce CPC during underperforming hours and increase CPC bids during profitable hours, you can implement scheduled bid changes. However, you can now be sure that your advertisement will run when you choose.
Accelerated delivery, in our opinion, resulted in better outcomes. However, there are a few things you should pay closer attention to. Considering that rapid delivery aims to display your adverts more quickly. If you don’t set aside enough money each day, you risk running out of money before the week is done. This will cause the budget notification to appear and prohibit your adverts from running as frequently as they otherwise would. Ensure you establish the appropriate daily or monthly budgets for each initiative to avoid this.
Reduce CPC Through Keyword Expansion
You should constantly look for new keywords to bid on and develop new SKAGs from top-performing search phrases for which you already appear. This is crucial if you work in a specialized sector where keywords cost $50 or more per click.
You might need to use your imagination in certain situations. Look for long-tail keywords with greater intent levels and Reduce CPC
Here are some resources we’ve found helpful for this:
- Spiff PPC Analysis Tool
- Keyword planner for Google Ads
Google Suggestion
Finally, broad match keywords can be used to mine for Reduce CPC but compelling keywords. Setting up a fresh campaign with a few broad-match keywords is all that is required to do this. Then, begin routinely skimming over your search terms report. High-intent long-tail keywords are frequently found, and they can Reduce CPC and increase your revenue.
Activate Search Partners Opt-In
Websites Google partners with, such as Amazon, AOL, Ask Jeeves, the New York Times, and many others, are included in the search partner networks. Using the search partners tool, Google can display your adverts on its partner websites.
These websites frequently have Reduce CPC. That’s because there won’t be as much rivalry on these websites as on Google. Your CPC will nearly always go down overall as a result of this. Nevertheless, it’s crucial to watch out for a rise in your CPA as a direct consequence. That can occur if the traffic from the partner sites isn’t converting. So, when making the transfer, keep an eye on your CPA.
Give Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) a try.
By enabling Google to target more pertinent search queries automatically, Dynamic Search Ads can help you focus your advertisements on ideal customers and clients. In other words, Google Ads will automatically select a landing page on your website and create an ad for you when someone searches for anything using terms closely related to titles and phrases on your website.
Considering that Google will pick the most pertinent pages and create a title for you, this should raise your quality score. As a result, your engagement should increase while your cost per click should decrease. You will, however, relinquish practically all of your control.
You can, however, decide to focus on a few of your website’s pages solely. This can be a terrific approach to enhance traffic to essential pages of your website while reducing the scope of the net Google Ads can cast. Additionally, you can utilize it to identify fresh, high-intent keywords that you can SKAG out in the future.
Final Wording
It’s a constant war, but you don’t have to lose it to Reduce CPC. Consistency is essential when attempting to Reduce CPC, as with other things. Therefore, avoid trying to change everything immediately and giving up after a week. It takes time to track your progress and make wise adjustments, but the outcomes will get better when you do it regularly.
Concentrating on the most excellent needle movers first can make the most of your time and resources. Create a solid landing page, and set up your account with SKAGs. Then, switch to manual bidding, enable rapid delivery, and start testing A/B variations of your advertising. Use the other tools and tactics discussed in this post once you’ve established a solid routine and noticed improvements.
Speaking about the tools and techniques discussed in this post, let us know in the comments whether they helped you Reduce CPC and get better results. Please get in touch with us.
