How to Improve Your Search Ads in Google Ads

Search advertising means paying to appear among the search results when someone searches for words related to what you offer. The ads appear at the top or bottom of the results page, and you usually only pay when someone clicks.

According to StatCounter, Google accounted for 86% of search engine traffic in Sweden in October 2026 and Bing for just under 9%. That is why this post is about search advertising in Google Ads.

Why search advertising works

Someone who searches for digital marketing stockholm or performance marketing agency already has a need, and search advertising lets you appear at exactly that moment. My assessment is that it is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach new customers, because the ad appears when the interest is already there.

With cost-per-click (CPC) bidding you only pay for clicks. You set the most you are willing to pay for a click, and according to Google the price is often lower than that.

How search advertising works in Google Ads

In Google Ads you choose the keywords and write the ads. Every time someone searches, an auction is held for the ad slots. Placement is decided by Ad Rank, which is based on your bid and the quality of your ad and landing page, among other things. According to Google, a relevant ad can therefore win a better position at a lower price than a competitor who bids more.

This is what I look at first:

• Keywords: Keyword Planner shows how many people search for a keyword and roughly what a click costs. Add negative keywords so that your ads don't show for searches that never turn into business.
• Auction insights: The Auction insights report compares you with other advertisers in the same auctions. Among other things, it shows your impression share and how often competitors appear above you. That is a good basis for deciding bids and budgets.
• Automated rules: Automated rules change bids and budgets or pause ads when conditions you have set are met. They save time but do not replace a regular review of the account.
• Measurement: Conversion tracking shows which clicks lead to purchases or enquiries. Without it, you cannot know which keywords and ads are profitable. Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 4 are common tools. I explain how to see traffic from AI services as well in the guide to tracking AI traffic in Google Analytics 4.
• Assets: What used to be called ad extensions has been called assets since 2022. They include sitelinks and callouts as well as structured snippets. Adding them costs nothing, and according to Google they often bring more clicks.

How to get a better return from your search ads

The return depends on the whole chain from the keyword to what happens after the click. These are the parts I usually go through:

• Test your ad copy: Test different headlines and calls to action. I cover how to write them in the guide to writing good ad copy. If you want to compare two versions properly, there are ad variations and custom experiments under Experiments in Google Ads. My recommendation is to judge by conversions and not only by click-through rate (CTR).
• Reporting: Build your reports around the metrics that reflect the business. Cost per conversion is one example.
• Search advertising and SEO: They complement each other, because Google Ads delivers traffic straight away while organic visibility takes time to build. According to Google, ads do not affect organic rankings. Organic rankings are not part of Quality Score either. What helps both is the landing page. A fast page that answers the search gives a better landing page experience in Google Ads and also stands a better chance in organic search.
• Other channels: Let search advertising work together with social media and email. Someone who has seen you in another channel may search for your name later, and then you want to be visible.
• Dialogue with the sales team: If your goal is enquiries, you need a close dialogue with the sales team. This is especially true in B2B, where the salespeople know which enquiries turn into deals. That knowledge steers the advertising towards the right customers.
• Quality Score: Quality Score is a rating from 1 to 10 per keyword. It is based on three components:
  • expected click-through rate
  • ad relevance
  • landing page experience
  According to Google, Quality Score is a diagnostic tool and is not used in the auction. It still shows where the ad or the landing page can improve.
• Landing pages: The landing page should load quickly and answer the search, and the next step should be clearly visible. Consider testing different layouts to see what works for your audience.

Frequently asked questions about Google Ads

• How much does Google Ads cost? It depends on how competitive your keywords are. You set an average daily budget per campaign. According to Google, a campaign can spend up to twice that on a single day but never more than the daily budget times 30.4 in a month. My recommendation is to start from what a new customer is worth to you.
• How do you succeed with Google Ads? In my experience, what makes the difference is testing and following up all the time. Adjust your keywords and bid strategies in Google Ads based on the results, and make sure your ads match what you are offering right now.
• Should you talk to Google's own advisers? Yes, it can be useful to go through your campaigns with Google's advisers, whom Google calls Google Ads Experts. They work for Google, and my assessment is that their recommendations often favour Google's interests and do not always suit your goals and budget. So it is worth having an experienced consultant or agency review the suggestions. I cover what to ask of an agency in the post on choosing an SEM agency.
• How do you get the most out of assets? Assets make the ad larger and give more information. This is how to use the most common ones:
  • Sitelinks lead to important subpages.
  • Callouts highlight what sets you apart.
  • Structured snippets list your services or product categories under a heading.
• How can you improve Quality Score? Make sure the keyword and the ad copy match a landing page that loads quickly. Negative keywords do not raise Quality Score directly, because it is measured on exact searches for the keyword. They still save money by stopping searches that do not fit.
• What other campaign types does Google Ads offer? Besides Search campaigns with text ads, these are some of the options:
  • Display campaigns with image ads on websites and in apps
  • Video campaigns on YouTube
  • Shopping campaigns for e-commerce businesses that show product ads in Google's search results
  • Performance Max, which according to Google gives access to all of Google's ad inventory from a single campaign