Analyzing the Effectiveness of Customized Google Ads

by Daniel Matel-Okoh

We’ve been working on a Google Ads customization strategy for a client in the health and beauty sector and, with one subtle tweak, we improved their conversion rate by over 3x. We did some research into what may seem virtually subliminal in nature, and found the key to tripling our client’s sales.

If a customer was served with one of our client’s ads, the color of the product being showcased wouldn’t match the color of the products displayed in the accompanying creative assets.

This may seem like a small inconsistency from the brand’s point of view. But put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and you can see how an inconsistent ad experience can be off-putting. An ad should immerse the buyer in the desired outcome—in this case, showing off every feature of the product instead of showing glamor shots of red, black, or brown versions. Getting the product’s color wrong in the supporting creative assets isn’t just a matter of brand inconsistency. It may potentially inhibit sales.

Using Performance Max to Enhance Asset Customization

Performance Max provides advertisers the option to access their digital assets on any particular ad. This allowed us to draw from the entire campaign’s assets and essentially decide what the customer sees. In our client’s case, if the ad served a product in a specific color, Performance Max could pull up the appropriate asset and match for a more personalized experience.

Our change was simple. If a customer was viewing a product in brown, the asset (a photo of a woman wearing the product in brown) should match. There was consistency between the brand, the asset in the advertisement, and the product being advertised.

The results were drastic. In the first month, our client saw a 362% increase in their conversion rate (CVR) and a ROAS north of 1,200%.

Now, this wasn’t the only change made in the Google Ads campaigns. We also cut down on the number of products displayed, for example. But even on a simple, month-over-month basis, we saw drastic improvements with most of their products.

It’s plain to see that this approach has obvious implications for all sorts of advertising assets. Are there creatives and video combinations that can improve the product performance for each product? Do unique videos suit particular product colors? If these small tweaks could improve the conversion rate by over 3x, there’s no telling what further tweaks could do.

About the author: Daniel was born in Nigeria before moving to the US. He grew up playing football all through high school and college. He’s a sports fan and he’s also a big Marvel, video game, and anime fan. And, he loves his alone time, but also enjoys spending time with others. He’s very passionate about giving back & social justice.