Morning, marketing pals!

There is nothing like the frozen tundra of January in central Indiana to parse through multiple Google sheets of Google Ads data... 💤

I'm only half kidding.

These spreadsheet-diving sessions revealed something interesting about our client's Q4 results. It turns out that while everyone's chasing the next shiny marketing trend, it was the "boring" stuff that crushed it for our clients. Good old-fashioned SEO fundamentals paired with a smart paid strategy had traffic and leads flowin' like another 2-3" of snow in January 2025. 🫠

More on that in the blog below...

But before we get there, a quick poll question for the week:

📊 Leverage Google Ads data for more effective content marketing and SEO strategies

If you’re an ag marketing professional, you know that content marketing and SEO can take a while to show results. Think of these strategies as the steady drip-drip-drip of precipitation … that can eventually turn into geological change.

Meanwhile, Google Ads campaigns are more of a faucet that you turn on and off. When it’s on, you can pretty quickly figure out conversion rates, click-through rates, impressions of given keywords, and more — sooner rather than later.

That sound you hear is every ag marketing team cheering. 🍻

But marketing teams in agriculture don’t always glean as much as they could from their Google Ads campaigns.

For example, there are limitations to only using third-party tools to pull the information you need. In ag, there’s a seasonality that can skew data within these tools. If you’re only relying on these as your guide to optimize campaigns or build, you’re missing opportunities.

Because data from Google Ads campaigns doesn’t just help you optimize more ads. This data can help inform your entire content marketing or SEO strategies.

So how can you ensure you maximize the data from your Google Ads campaigns? And how can you use Google Ads data to stand out from competitors in the ag world?

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Step 1: Optimize your Google Ads campaigns

Okay, we’ll zoom out to general content marketing ideas in a bit. But first, the most important data you can gather from your Google Ads campaigns … is whether or not those campaigns are working. Duh.

• What are your conversion rates for given keywords?
• What’s your cost-per-click?
• Are you paying for certain keywords that aren’t actually garnering results?
• Could you potentially put more money behind the keywords that are driving results?

You need to be regularly reviewing this data to ensure your ad dollars are well spent. ‍

Think of these campaigns as a strong foundation of a house. You can’t build extra rooms and features on top until you have a solid base campaign strategy.

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Step 2: Find the keywords you’re paying for that you don’t yet rank organically for

Now for the fun stuff.

You’ll want to start looking for terms that you don’t currently rank for organically — but that you are receiving conversions and clicks for from Google Ads.

This can help you double down on campaign dollars that are getting you more ROI, as well as generate ideas for non-ad content.

If you’re using broad or phrase-match keywords within your Google Ads campaigns, you’ll likely bid on terms outside of your target keywords (as opposed to exact-match targets). For example, you might be targeting the keywords “tractor sales in Madison, Wisconsin.” But a broader match might be “Madison, Wisconsin farm equipment retailers.”

At a high level, you’ll want to analyze these terms that you’re receiving conversions for. Evaluate for relevance and search intent: are they relevant with a high commercial intent? (Like “cattle feed for sale in Kansas” or “farm equipment loans in Franklin County”). If so, consider adding these terms to your general content marketing strategy. Can you craft a Resource Center article or film a quick video to answer the questions customers are searching for?

If these terms are not relevant or don’t have a lot of commercial intent, stop bidding on them. Add them to your negative keyword list in your Google Ads campaign.

Quick tip: So, where do you find these keywords? From your Google Ads account, select a campaign, then an ad set you’d like to focus on. Under “Insights & Reports,” select “Search Terms.” Easy!

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Step 3: Dive deeper into your keyword analysis

From your Google Ads data, you’ll pull together a list of keywords (typically anywhere from 10 to 30). Analyze the content type and search intent behind the current search results for all those terms. For this, you can use a third-party tool like Semrush. Or, better yet, just test a few Google searches with those terms yourself.

What are the top three organic results for those key phrases?

For example, let’s take a key phrase like “ag loans for corn farmers in Nebraska.” What comes up when you Google this phrase?

And what kinds of content come up? Explanatory articles about how to apply for a loan? Loan calculator pages where producers can plug in their specific numbers and get an idea of their interest rates? News articles about the loan landscape after the passage of certain legislation?

This strategy can help you brainstorm some general content ideas, or other SEO phrases to target with future campaigns.

Should you lean more into blogs? Videos? What can you add to the conversation based on your organization’s unique expertise or positioning? Are there certain content types that are getting linked more often by reporters or bloggers within the sector?

‍You can start to answer all these questions by leveraging your Google Ads campaign data.

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Step 4: Find relevant tangents

Agribusinesses are often incredibly specific: it’s not like everybody in the state is searching for “combines for sale” or “finance software for farmers.” But the great news about agriculture is that it touches so many other industries and sectors. This means that your content opportunities are equally expansive.

When you do your keyword analysis, try to see if there are opportunities to target a shoulder industry. For example, a commodity company might benefit from content about supply chain logistics or shipping prices. Or, a crop insurance broker might create some content that pulls in the latest USDA data about farm profitability projections.

Get the most from your digital ad dollars

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Remember: You’re paying for digital ad campaigns. Which means you’re paying for Google Ads data. You might as well leverage it.

If you’re curious how to get the most of your digital advertising campaigns and build better overall content marketing strategies, shoot me a note, and we can chat.

Need a little extra help with all things content? Chat with us at Imagine Content to discuss how we help ag brands build trust, authority, and audiences. We've worked with 30+ ag brands on content strategy + execution, SEO, design, and content analytics. Get in touch to see past work and share where you're needing help.​

Or, do you need a little more design capacity? Subscribe to our simple, unlimited design service to support your existing graphic designers or utilize an outsourced team.

That's all for this month, folks!