Are you in need of a well-optimized Google Ads funnel that can attract and convert effectively? Let’s delve into the step-by-step process of building one to nurture leads and help them make informed decisions at every stage. Make sure that every dollar spent on ads yields measurable results!
What is a funnel in Google Ads?
A Google Ads funnel is a model that illustrates the potential customer journey from initial brand awareness to the ultimate goal of conversion.
It has three key stages:
- The top of the funnel (ToFu): This is where the target audience first becomes aware of your product or service as a potential solution to their problem. They often encounter your ads on Google incidentally. This aligns with the “attention” in the AIDA or the “see” stage in the STDC framework.
- The middle of the funnel (MoFu) corresponds with the “think” stage in the STDC framework. You can also divide it into two parts using the AIDA perspective. After leads have been engaged by ads, they may visit your website or read blogs, moving them into the “interest” stage. Here, you provide details, highlight benefits, and address common questions. As they consider your offerings against competitors and seek validation through reviews or demos, they enter the “desire” stage.
- The bottom of the funnel (BoFu): Finally, the prospects are ready to convert into paying customers, which signifies AIDA’s “action” or STDC’s “do” stage. In the latter framework, there’s also the “care” stage, where you nurture existing customers to foster long-term relationships and retention (also known as post-purchase engagement).
Let’s discover how to create your Google Ads funnel step by step.
How to create a Google Ads funnel
To create the Google Ads funnel, you’ll use search ads, discovery ads, display ads, video ads, and landing pages across different stages. Here’s a snapshot of each:
- Search ads appear on Google’s search results page when users enter specific keywords.
- Discovery ads show up in Google’s Discover feed, YouTube home feed, and Gmail promotions tab.
- Display ads are visible across the Google Display Network, including millions of websites, apps, and Google-owned properties like YouTube and Gmail.
- Shopping ads appear on Google’s search results page and provide some details of products sold.
- Video ads play on YouTube and across Google’s video partner sites.
- Landing pages are dedicated pages where users arrive after clicking on your ad.
Now, examine how you’ll uniquely apply these elements at each stage.
Top of funnel Google Ads
At the top of your Google Ads funnel, your aim is to reach out to potential customers who may not be familiar with your product yet. The objective is to spark their interest and motivate them to find out more. To identify this audience, you can employ two primary strategies:
- The theoretical method: Identify their interests, determine their location and age group, and understand their decision-making barriers.
- The empirical method: Analyze completed sales data from your CRM.
To reach a wider audience at this stage, consider factors such as demographics, interests/habits (also referred to as “Affinity segments“), life events, topics, and managed placements.
To maximize your reach, it’s best to keep the targeting broad and avoid using too many filters that could limit it. A good starting point is to combine location, age, gender, and Affinity audience. You should also exclude those who have already visited your site or follow you on social media to ensure that you reach new potential customers.
How to use ads and landing pages for ToFu
For lead generation, you’ll leverage search ads, discovery ads, display ads, video ads, and landing pages.
Search ads
Target individuals searching for solutions related to your niche. Use informational, how-to, and broad product keywords to guide them toward your brand without a hard sell.
Discovery ads
Reach cold prospects and create brand awareness across the Gmail, YouTube, and Google apps. Provide helpful, informative content rather than push for a sale.
Display ads
Like discovery, display campaigns help you reach a broad audience on websites and apps within the Google Display Network. Use static, interactive, or responsive ads to plant your brand in users’ minds.
Video ads
Launch video campaigns, primarily on YouTube, to convey your message more effectively than text and images. Attention-grabbing video ads can generate views and attract more qualified leads to your website.
Landing pages
You need to follow the principles of building a landing page to make it convert. Landing pages should have clear calls to action (CTAs) and offer valuable content, such as downloadable PDFs, interactive tools, cheat sheets, checklists, or workbooks. Use lead form assets to collect email addresses in exchange for this content so you can send personalized follow-ups. Your landing page should emphasize the company’s value and the product’s benefits, rather than just focusing on order placement details.
Middle of Google Ads funnel
At this stage, provide extended information about your product, offer various purchase options, and showcase customer reviews. You need to captivate the audience who have interacted with your initial top-of-the-funnel ads or are actively seeking solutions to their problems. These potential customers, known as warm leads, are considering making a purchase. The goal is to present your product as the ideal solution for their needs.
How to use ads and landing pages for MoFu
You can hit the target using search ads, shopping ads, display and YouTube Ads, and landing pages.
Search ads
Shift the focus of your search ads from purely informational content to more product-centric messaging. Warm searchers will likely type keywords comparing products, so your ad copy should emphasize the solution to their issues and provide details.
Put the following into practice:
- Informational queries that reflect user interest (e.g.,
how to…,what is…,...reviews, etc.) - General industry keywords
- Generic product keywords
- Product category keywords
- Comparison keywords
Search campaigns should target users who are in the process of evaluating their options using keywords related to product features or models. Convincing them of your product’s value can be achieved through product pages, comparison articles, or case studies.
Shopping ads work well in the e-commerce domain. They present your products directly and offer prices, which helps users compare options.
Display and YouTube ads
These ad types should now underscore your product’s benefits. They target warm audiences that are interested in your offerings but have yet to interact with your brand.
Aim for the following audiences:
- In-market audiences actively considering a particular type of product
- Lookalike audiences, i.e., those who have bought from you (based on CRM data)
- Custom Intent audiences making a purchase decision related to your product
Display and video campaigns can help you reach potential customers who are actively researching or planning. Since these individuals are more likely to convert, it’s advisable to increase your bids and budget at this stage and experiment with different ad messages.
Another application of these ads is remarketing campaigns. They are critical for re-engaging cold leads, such as visitors to your site or those who have interacted deeply with your content but not made a purchase. These campaigns should drive more interest and encourage valuable actions on your website. At this stage, focus on highlighting your product’s unique features that set it apart from competitors.
Landing pages
Make sure your landing pages clearly describe your product and its advantages compared to alternatives to address potential customers’ objections. Build trust by providing successful case studies and testimonials. Don’t forget to include calls-to-action (CTAs) such as booking a demo or signing up for a free trial to further engage your leads.
Bottom of Google Ads funnel
Your task at the bottom of the Google Ads funnel is to secure product purchase orders or sales. The target audience comprises individuals who are interested in making a purchase and are ready to do so immediately. The focus should be on users who engage with your MoFu ads and those who are actively searching with high intent.
Behavior scenarios vary at this stage. First, some users may visit your site and leave without completing a transaction – this can be addressed through remarketing. Others might visit your site and either contact the call center or make a purchase directly. You must convince them that your product is the best choice.
Learn more about the difference between marketing vs. sales funnel.
How to use ads and landing pages for BoFu
To achieve your objective, you can use display and YouTube ads, search ads, shopping ads, and landing pages.
Display and YouTube ads
Make sure your ad creatives highlight your competitive advantages. Utilize remarketing to reconnect with visitors who left items in their cart, visited a form but didn’t complete it, or frequently browsed your site and engaged with it. Also, target lookalike audiences based on CRM data and Custom Intent audiences using transactional keywords such as buy..., ...price, or ...cost.
Search ads
Emphasize the product, price, and special offers with phrases like guarantees, discounts, and price from.... Use transactional keywords that indicate high purchase intent, such as buy .... Employ search remarketing with bid adjustments to maximize efficiency.
It’s also important to segment queries to include search terms that mention the company brand, product brands, and categories of your goods or services. Furthermore, consider location-based keywords for seeking local solutions: ...near me, ...around me, etc.
Shopping ads: This format simplifies the final purchasing decision by highlighting critical details like cost and quality.
Landing page
Ensure that your landing page effectively highlights your product’s advantages over competitors. It should include details about discounts, bonuses, guarantees, and social proof through reviews and testimonials. Additionally, consider creating a sense of urgency through promotions. The purchase process should be convenient and straightforward, encouraging users to complete the transaction.
Post-purchase engagement
Now it’s time to turn a customer into a loyal advocate who buys repeatedly and recommends your brand to others.
Strategies for post-purchase engagement include:
- Bonuses and gifts: Offer unexpected perks not discussed during the sale. This can create a positive impression and foster loyalty.
- Post-transaction service: Provide a personal account with a buying history and a bonus discount program. This makes it easy for customers to track their purchases and feel valued.
- Cross-selling: Introduce related products or services in the future to encourage additional purchases.
How to use ads for post-purchase engagement
Again, display, YouTube, search, and shopping ads will help you achieve your purposes.
Display and YouTube Ads
In order to reach your target audience, you can use user lists with phone numbers or emails, which can include people who have made purchases on the website as well as subscribers to specific pages. Additionally, you might consider creating ads that offer special deals, like promo codes, for users who are not yet registered.
Search ads
Remember to use discount ad modifiers to attract returning customers from specific audiences. It’s also helpful to adjust bids for collected audiences to ensure that your ads in the search engine reach those who have shown interest in the past. Additionally, consider using Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) to target broader cross-sell keywords. This will help ensure that your ads appear for customers seeking related products.
Shopping ads: Your product listings must be detailed and attractive, with special offers or discounts for returning customers.
Now that you know how to create your Google Ads funnel, check out how to analyze it at each stage.
How do you analyze your Google Ads funnel?
ToFu analysis
Analysis at the top of the Google Ads funnel is associated with metrics illustrating how effectively your ads generate awareness and interest:
- Impressions measure how often your ad shows up. A high number of impressions indicates that your ads are displayed frequently, which is crucial for initial awareness.
- Reach is the number of unique users who have seen your ad. This metric measures the breadth of your campaign’s reach and helps you understand the size of the audience you are engaging.
- Ad interactions include likes, shares, comments, video views, and clicks. They indicate that users don’t just see your ads but are also interested enough to engage with them.
- New sessions % demonstrates the proportion of visitors coming to your site for the first time. A high percentage suggests your ads successfully attract fresh audiences.
- Brand traffic growth is the uptick to your site that comes directly from brand-related searches. This increase signifies that your ads make more people aware of your brand and drive them to seek further information.
At this point, you can also utilize brand lift to assess the effect of ads on brand awareness and recall. Separate the audience into two groups: one that views the advertisement and another that does not. After a specified period, conduct a survey. Here are a few sample questions:
- Ad recall:
Which brands' advertisements have you seen recently?orWhich brand have you heard of before?These options help determine if the ad campaign has increased the brand’s visibility and recall.
- Purchase intent:
If you needed to, which store would you choose to buy appliances/products?This question assesses whether the ad has influenced the audience’s preference for the brand.
- Brand familiarity:
Which of the stores are familiar to you?Ask this to evaluate the general awareness and recognition of the brand among the audience.
By comparing the responses from both groups, you can measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns.
MoFu analysis
Now, you evaluate how well your campaigns nurture leads and move them closer to making a purchase. Here are the key metrics to focus on:
- Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of users who click on your ads after seeing them. A high CTR indicates that your ad content is relevant and compelling to the audience.
- User behavior, which covers the following:
- Scroll depth is how far down a page users scroll. It reflects their level of interest in your content.
- Pages per session is the number of pages a user visits in one session. This metric demonstrates their engagement with your site.
- Events are interactions with website elements, such as videos, buttons, and forms.
- Bounce rate is the percentage of users who leave your site after viewing only one page. A lower bounce rate suggests that users find your content relevant.
- Macro-conversions are significant actions that often lead directly to revenue, e.g., calls and form submissions.
- Micro-conversions are smaller, non-revenue-generating actions that indicate a user’s interest in your brand. Examples include newsletter or page subscriptions, registrations, and catalog downloads.
- Associated conversions are those that do not happen directly through your ads. Track how different channels and interactions contribute to conversions over time.
- View-through conversions occur due to impressions. They let you know the effectiveness of your ads even if users don’t click immediately but convert later.
BoFu analysis
Next, you must understand how well your campaigns convert leads into paying customers and generate revenue. At this step, critical metrics include:
- The conversion rate is the proportion of users who purchase after clicking on your ad. A high percentage indicates that your advertisement and landing pages persuade users to buy from you.
- The total purchases made through your Google Ads campaign provide a clear picture of the business volume that your ads drive.
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total cost of your Google Ads campaigns divided by the number of new customers acquired. It shows how much you spend to acquire each customer, which is essential for budget management and profitability.
- The share of incomplete purchases is the percentage of users who initiate but fail to complete the purchase. A significant figure may indicate issues with your checkout process or a need for additional incentives.
- Revenue includes all sales and other monetary benefits directly attributable to your ads. It’s a primary indicator of your campaign’s success.
- Profit is the total Google Ads spend subtracted from your total revenue. It provides a precise measure of the financial return from your campaigns beyond the revenue generated.
- Return on investment (ROI) is profit divided by your total ad spend and multiplied by 100. A higher percentage implies better performance and a more profitable campaign.
Post-purchase engagement analysis
Lastly, you will analyze post-purchase engagement, which is crucial for long-term customer relationships and sustained business growth. In this stage, you should concentrate on metrics that indicate customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ongoing value.
- Repeat purchases are the number of customers who make additional purchases after their initial transaction.
- Testimonials and recommendations significantly influence new potential customers. Monitor the volume and sentiment of these to evaluate the effectiveness of your post-purchase interactions.
- Customer retention rate is the percentage of customers who continue to purchase from your business over a specific period. A high customer retention rate indicates that your customers are satisfied with your products and that your efforts to engage with them are effective.
- On the contrary, customer churn rate is the percentage of those who stop doing business with you within a given timeframe. Track this metric to identify potential issues with your products and highlight areas for improvement.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV) estimates the total revenue a customer is expected to generate over the course of their relationship with your business. It assists in determining the appropriate amount to invest in customer acquisition and retention, ensuring that your digital marketing efforts are cost-effective.
Dashboard templates for Google Ads funnel analysis
Google Ads dashboard
Are you looking to simplify your marketing funnel analysis? Use Coupler.io’s Google Ads reporting dashboard. It allows you to export your advertising data and turn it into visualized insights.
This dashboard lets you easily view aggregated numbers for essential PPC metrics, including cost per click, amount spend, conversion rate, and others. You’ll be able to analyze campaign performance across various devices and demographic parameters, and compare results to previous periods. Additionally, you can filter your data by specific time periods, types of campaigns, individual campaigns, ad groups, and even countries.
The template is available in Coupler.io, as well as a template in Looker Studio, Power BI, and Google Sheets. Choose the version that fits your reporting needs and try it for free right away.
Google Ads dashboard in Google Sheets
Evaluate the performance of your PPC campaigns launched on Google and use these insights to optimize budgeting and conversion.
Google Ads dashboard in Looker Studio
Get a detailed overview of the performance of your Google ads advertising campaigns to achieve your marketing goals better.
Google Ads dashboard in Power BI
Overview the performance of your advertising campaigns in Google Ads and track monthly dynamics of key metrics.
PPC multichannel dashboard
If you’d like to analyze funnels across channels, check out a PPC dashboard template. It lets you draw meaningful conclusions based on data from Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads, Quora Ads, Microsoft (Bing) Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and X (Twitter) Ads.
Track your ad performance over time, review click data from various sources, and examine spending patterns across different campaign types, among other insights.
This dashboard is available in Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Power BI, and Tableau. Choose your version and try the template immediately!
PPC multichannel dashboard in Google Sheets
Use a PPC dashboard designed for Google Sheets to track the performance of your campaigns across multiple advertising platforms.
PPC multichannel dashboard in Looker Studio
Get a comprehensive PPC reporting tool to track the performance of your campaigns launched at multiple advertising platforms.
PPC multichannel dashboard in Power BI
Use a Power BI PPC dashboard for tracking and analyzing your advertising campaigns across multiple platforms.
PPC multichannel dashboard in Tableau
Track and analyze the performance of your advertising campaigns across various platforms using a one-stop PPC dashboard in Tableau
Once you’ve analyzed the Google Ads funnel, you want to optimize it to boost your results further. Let’s discuss this below.
How to optimize your Google Ads funnel
Top of the funnel
At the start, it’s important to keep an eye on the cost per 1,000 impressions to see if your budget is being used efficiently. You may need to adjust how you allocate your budget based on this. Also, look at the click-through rate (CTR) for different ads, audience groups, and demographics. By figuring out what makes people engage more, you can improve your campaigns to attract better leads.
Middle of the funnel
In the middle, prioritize audience engagement and conversion rates. Identify and turn off audiences that show consistently low engagement with your site. Dedicate your PPC efforts to those who actively interact with your content, as they are more likely to progress toward making a purchase.
At the same time, analyze conversion rates to identify audiences that are not converting. Adjust targeting strategies to focus on those who are more likely to complete your desired actions.
Bottom of the funnel
Your main goal here is to maximize return on investment. Turn off audiences that don’t result in conversions and identify those that do lead to purchases, even if they are expensive. One way to improve your campaigns is to concentrate on ROI-driven metrics, like associated conversions, and assess profitability.
Cross-stage optimizations
Adopt a strategic approach to experimentation and improvement across all Google Ads funnel stages. First, test different bidding strategies tailored to each stage to optimize performance and efficiency. Second, continuously experiment with audience segments to detect the most responsive groups. Third, test and refine ad creatives to boost engagement and conversion rates. Finally, optimize landing pages to enhance user experience and relevance.
Find optimization and benchmarking tips in the article PPC advertising statistics.
Google Ads funnel optimization requires the appropriate tools to analyze and act on your data, so let’s dive in.
Top tools to optimize your Google Ads funnel strategy
Here are three essential tools to help you:
Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) allows you to gain a deep understanding of customer behavior across different touchpoints and devices. It provides advanced tracking capabilities, predictive metrics, and improved data visualization to help you make informed decisions about your campaigns. With its strong event-based data model, GA4 offers valuable insights into user interactions, enabling you to refine your advertising strategy.
Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity is a tool that shows how users interact with your website. Its heatmaps, session recordings, and user journey analytics help you identify friction areas and improvement opportunities in your Google Ads funnel. This data is necessary to enhance the user experience and improve conversion rates.
Coupler.io
Coupler.io is an advanced solution for data analytics and reporting automation. It allows you to turn raw data into meaningful reports. You can collect data from Google Ads and other advertising platforms, such as Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Amazon Ads, and more. Do you want to aggregate this data with information from GA4 or other apps? Coupler.io lets you easily do this!
Query the extracted data on the go and import it into destinations, including spreadsheet apps and BI tools. This will save you time and reduce the risk of human errors, allowing you to focus on data analysis instead of reporting. Additionally, you can utilize Coupler.io’s PPC report templates in Google Sheets, Looker Studio, Power BI, and Tableau for analytics and Google Ads optimization.
Why it’s crucial to analyze your Google Ads funnel
There are several vital reasons to analyze your Google Ads funnel, namely:
- Developing a marketing strategy: This comprehensive approach enables you to approach a product’s advertising strategy in a sophisticated, goal-oriented manner. It avoids focusing too much on ad campaigns aimed at existing internet demand and instead encourages a more holistic view of your advertising efforts.
- Stage-by-stage improvement: By using analytics, you can enhance the effectiveness of each stage in the funnel and hence customer decision journey. This allows you to identify areas for improvement and maximize the impact of your campaigns within the existing budget, or justify increasing budgets for specific stages.
- Idea generation and experimentation: A well-analyzed Google Ads funnel can inspire new ideas for experiments and improve the outcome of ad campaigns. For instance, if a campaign performed well for a specific audience segment, you can try targeting just this segment instead of the entire audience. This tactic can result in more efficient use of resources and improved campaign performance.
Try out Coupler.io for free to turn your Google Ads data into insights and use them to optimize your funnel analytics!
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