Pete Bowen's site

Why I never use reCAPTCHA on Google Ads landing pages

Preventing fake leads from submitting your contact form using something like reCAPTCHA is popular but, I think it's wrong when you're paying for online advertising.

Preventing fake leads submitting the form hides the problem. It’s like putting a sticker over the check engine light on your dashboard. No light = no problem. No fake leads = no fake traffic.

If you’re paying for online advertising you need to know how much fake traffic you’re paying for. (I’ve seen suggestions that between 10% and 35% of Google Ads clicks are not from people interested in what you sell.)

A better way is to allow anyone - legit or not - to submit your form and then filter the junk out. It’s the only way to you know if you’re paying for fake leads. This is how we do it in GhostBlocker.

If you’re concerned about fake leads you’re welcome to use GhostBlocker. It'll pay for itself from the savings you'll make from the fake leads you're currently paying for.

Need some help with this?

I offer 1-to-1 mentoring and consulting. You’ll get help, advice, support and answers without having to commit to a long-term contract. Details here.

95% of leads never turn into customers. Want to fix that?

Over the last few years I've done deep work with a handful of clients to increase the number of sales they made from their Google and Facebook leads. I've put what I've learned into a 9-lesson email course.

You’ll learn:-

  • How to identify opportunities for improvement.
  • How to generate more than enough ideas for improvement using the 2-magnets concept.
  • How to apply those ideas in your business.
  • How to measure the results of your work (so you can do more of what's working and less of what's not).

My experience has been that it will deliver more sales if:-

  • Your business receives leads from online advertising like Google or Facebook.
  • Your sales process happens offline. A lead arrives and there is a quote, assessment, demonstration etc before the sale happens.
  • You have the capacity to handle a few more sales in the short term without having to hire or invest in new equipment.
You're already paying for leads. Now turn them into sales.
Privacy policy. Unsubscribe at any time.

Related articles

How I help my clients get great testimonials Most people don't have a library of great testimonials. They either don't ask for them, or the testimonials they get aren't very effective. Here's how to fix this.

Why we lost sales. Losing potential sales always hurts. But, if you know why you lost the sale you can make changes that'll help you win more sales down the line.

"Forget about reducing the CPC" In money terms my client paid Google about $1 400 per client he contracted with. He could live with spending $500 per new client. Here's how we're going to hit that target.

An easier way to sell services. Bigger value projects take a lot of work to sell. You have to have the discovery calls, meeting notes, customised proposals and quotes. And, you often need several follow-up meetings. There is another way.

Why I don't just delete fake leads from my inbox If the only thing you do with fake leads from Google Ads is delete the lead delivery email you risk getting swamped by fake leads. Here's why and what to do to improve lead quality.

What to say on the first call to an internet lead. Calling leads back fast is the best way to ensure you get a sale if there is one going. Here's what to say on that call.

More sales are lost because of inertia than price. Most of your potential clients want what you sell but haven't handed over the money because they've run out of steam. Here's how to keep them moving towards a sale.

How to win more quotes without lowering your prices In a perfect world you'd win every quote but the reality is that most quotes don't turn into sales. It is possible to turn a lot more quotes into sales without lowering prices. Here's one way.

You could be shooting yourself in the foot if you send quotes in Excel or Word. There is a problem with emailing quotes in Word or Excel: There is no guarantee that the quote will look like it should.

Is your sales process chaotic? I was surprised when three small business owners used the same word - chaos- to describe how they currently handle leads.

The weak link that might be causing you to lose leads Some of your leads never make it from your website to your inbox. And, there is a good chance you don't know about the missing leads.

Leads ghosting you? A business owner complained that his leads were ghosting (ignoring) him after initially showing interest. As we worked together we uncovered a mismatch between lead temperature and his response.

60 leads a week and no sales Their first instinct was to change the adverts. It sort of makes sense. Adverts aren’t producing sales so the adverts must be broken. Fix the adverts and you'll get more sales. But, they could change their ads, spend a load more money and get no sales. This is because the adverts might not be the real problem

Google Ads delivers leads not sales What’s the most important problem in your industry? In my industry the most important problem is that Google Ads delivers leads but doesn’t deliver sales. Here's what I've been doing about that...

How to get leads from different sources into your CRM automatically I’ve got a client in the motor trade who gets about 2 000 leads a month from 22 different online sources. Here's how we put them into his sales engine automatically without expensive computer code.