Stretch Your Google Ads Budget by Changing These 3 Default Settings

Google Ads is a pretty amazing platform. It’s an incredibly powerful and sophisticated tool for getting your coworking space noticed and driving new membership leads.

But sophistication also comes with complexity. And that can cause challenges for the vast majority of people who aren’t seasoned Google Ads experts. 

It doesn’t have to, though. When you equip yourself with a basic understanding of how to tap into Google Ads’ full potential, you can supercharge the efficiency of your ad spend. 

Let us explain.

Google Ads Default Settings Are Good, But They’re Not Perfect

As we mentioned, Google Ads is incredibly complex. And because of that, the platform operates on default settings unless it’s told otherwise.

See, when you go to kick off a campaign, you’ll provide Google with certain information and from there, it’ll make assumptions about who to target with your ad spend.

And as sophisticated as Google Ads is, the defaults don’t always get it one hundred percent right.

So, if you’re leaning only on Google’s default settings, you might find your ad dollars being spent less efficiently than their full potential or possibly your competition who may have better optimized accounts. 

Don’t get us wrong: you can still see decent lead generation from default settings. But when it’s your money on the line, do you want decent—or do you want great?

3 Ways to Tweak Your Google Ads Defaults to Make Better Use of Your Money

There are a ton of potential tweaks you can make to your Google Ads default settings. But that can get complicated.

Instead, we’ve compiled three simple settings you can easily tweak to improve your ad campaign performance without wading into deep waters.

1. Geographic Targeting Settings

At a high level, Google Ads targets people based on their location, demographics, and audience characteristics (for more, check out our article: Simple Targeting Tweaks to Optimize Your Google Ads Spend). 

And it helps these people find you based on two search parameters:

• Presence or Interest: People in, regularly in, or who’ve shown interest in your targeted locations
• Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations
• Search Interest: People searching for your target locations

This means that searchers can be physically in your radius or they could be searching for your location from a beach in Mexico, but either way, they can find your space.

Here’s where it’s getting interesting: by default, Google will focus on the location that you specify. Often, we find this to be too broad.  By default Google will use the Presence or Interest option outlined above.  But that may not be the setting you want to use.

For instance, you might want to target out-of-town travelers with meeting spaces or day passes. 

Or, you might be better off targeting hyperlocal people as a means to fill your office space.

Moreover, you might want to exclude people from certain regions if they’re unlikely to become members. 

In any case, Google allows you to alter your default settings to ensure that you’re targeting—or excluding—potential members based on the needs of your business and the desired outcome of your Google Ads campaign. 

And that means making sure you’re only spending money on clicks from quality leads that are likely to convert.

2. Shutting Off Search Partner Network

When you’re starting a Google Ads campaign, it’s intuitive to imagine that your ads would be going on—well, Google.

But in reality, Google automatically places ads on its search network affiliates—a long list of partner sites where Google also displays your advertising.

In typical ambiguous Google fashion, they don’t really disclose all of their search network partners.

But one thing’s for sure: if you’re on a shoestring budget, it’s a good idea to deactivate the search network default setting. After all, Google is where most of the searches take place. 

Until you’ve exhausted Google itself, you probably don’t want to be splitting your resources and energy across multiple platforms.

You’ll see a better ROI by focusing only on Google than you would by diversifying across the search network.

3. Switching from Smart Mode to Expert Mode

If you want to take greater control over your Google Ads campaigns, you can switch from the default Smart Mode to Expert Mode.

	Smart Mode	Expert Mode
Campaign Types	Create Smart Campaigns	Create all campaign types
Level of Control	Set your budget and goals, and Google Ads will take care of the rest	Control your settings and campaign type (App, video and more)
Maintenance Time Required	Lightweight maintenance (Google Suggests ~15 minutes per week)	Ongoing management required (Google Suggests 1+ hour per week)
Optimization	Assisted ad setup, optimized keywords and more	Powerful controls for keywords, bidding and more
Reporting Capabilities	Simple performance reports	Detailed, custom performance reports

The default, Smart Mode, is very rudimental in terms of what you’re able to do. Essentially, it’s like giving Google the reins, tweaking small amounts of customization options, and letting the platform do its best to figure out what you want it to do. 

Expert Mode, on the other hand, gives you more control over an ample amount of features and customization options. 

It’s worth noting, though, that Expert Mode is exactly that—expert-level control that can make or break the success of your campaign.

So, your best bet is to hire an expert to help you manage your Google Ads.

While these small changes to Google’s default settings are fairly simple, making them can help your campaigns produce much better results.

These tweaks can take your campaigns from bad to good or from good to great. 

If you’re looking for more insights to help bring in new members with Google Ads, speaking with a specialist can be incredibly helpful. And that’s where Spacefully can help. 

Learn how we can supercharge your lead generation by signing up for our Google Ads Blueprint today.