50% more leads… and still fired

A small business hired me to run Google Ads for them.

I always build landing pages for any Google Ads campaign, because the ad and the landing page are two halves of the bridge between stranger and your business:

• The ad grabs attention and gets the click.
• The landing page takes that click and turns it into a lead.

You can’t separate them. If you have a great ad and a poor page, you pay for clicks that don’t convert. If you have a great page and poor ads, the right people never see it.

That’s why I approach the ad and landing page as a single unit.

And it works. I’ve generated more than 2 million leads through landing pages I’ve designed. This client was no different. Treating the ad and landing page as one got them about 50% more leads than before. I was pleased with the results and thought we’d have a solid long-term partnership.

I got fired.

The business brought on a brand voice consultant. She convinced them that they should look and sound like a multinational. She insisted on scrapping my landing pages and replacing them with corporate drivel.

But I don’t work that way. I told them I couldn’t be held responsible for ad performance if they took away the tools I use to achieve that performance.

The brand voice consultant had the client’s ear, and I got fired.

I have to admit I was bitter at first. Being a Google Ads guy is hard. Google Ads is measurable. You can see how many leads you got and the cost per lead. The numbers don’t lie. You’re either making money or losing money.

Brand voice changes are nothing like this. They might improve performance, they might not. Nobody knows right away. Often nobody ever knows. But the consultant still gets paid.

Getting fired for good work stings. Thanks for letting me rant.

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