Write Google Ads that don’t get clicked.
As you know, Google gets paid every time someone clicks one of your ads. The more people click ads, the more money Google makes.
Like any good business, Google has maximised their chance of making money:-
- They’ve filled the top of the search results with paid ads.
- They’ve made the ads bigger - longer headlines, more description text, call outs, links - and thus more likely to be clicked.
- They’ve made the ads look almost exactly like the unpaid organic links.
- And - most signficant for us advertisers - they've massively expanded the pool of people who are eligible to see your ads.
These changes have worked. Over the years the click through rate (CTR) on search ads has climbed from below 1% to more than 6%. And a torrent of money has flowed from advertisers to Google as a result.
But, while it's been good for Google - $238 000 000 000 a year worth of good - it's not been that good for advertisers. Advertisers are now paying 10, 20, 100 times more per lead than ever before.
Part the cost increase is because we're paying Google for clicks from people who can't or won't become clients.
I worked with a law firm that helps only disabled military veterans. People that weren't veterans kept clicking their ads but the firm couldn't help them.
They'd had some success in filtering out non-veterans using negative keywords but it wasn't enough.
Each click cost $50 to $100 and unless the person was a veteran it was a waste. By their estimate more than 70% of their ad budget was spent on people they couldn't help.
I suggested that they use the headlines in their ads to repel anyone that wasn't a veteran. Something like “Disabled Veteran?” or “Free Consultation for Disabled Veterans”. Or even even adding “Veterans only” to the ad.
In time Google would learn who was more likely to click the ad (a veteran) and show the ads to those people. This sets up a virtuous loop: The ads attract more of the right people who are more likely to turn into leads and then into clients.
Amy Hebdon wrote a good article on using ad copy to improve ad targeting. She says
What you really need is an ad that smartly qualifies each click. You want your ad to attract and convert your ideal clients while encouraging everyone else to pass by your ad.
The full article is worth a read here: https://searchengineland.com/transform-google-ads-headlines-anti-audiences-440004
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.
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The one tool I've used every single day since 2010 You know that feeling when you’re sooooooo frustrated that you have to smash something? Instead you channel that white-hot anger and solve the problem forever?
Length is a liability; value per page is an asset. This is a quote from Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick. His advice is perfect for lead-generation landing pages.
How the distribution of clicks by device can look like a conversion rate problem. We PPC people dream about the conversions graph going up up up to the right but sometimes the line looks like the side view of a cliff, with an account manager splattered at the bottom like Wile E. Coyote. I used to dread trying to figure out why a good campaign went bad. Then I learned a technique that lets me get to the real reason for a drop in conversions.
How to improve landing page conversion rates by increasing visitor motivation Here's how I doubled the conversion rate on some Google Ads lead generation landing pages by improving visitor's motivation.
Putting a little science into AdWords In the past I relied on a combination of the change history in AdWords, some rough notes and my memory to keep track of my testing. It worked but it wasn't great. It became more difficult as my business grew. I started to feel like I was losing control. I couldn't answer questions about an account without having to root around in Google docs, AdWords and email. Read on to see how I fixed this.
Google Ads: Automated vs manual bidding. The question: "How much of a performance gain can I expect with good manual tuning?" I decided not to answer the exact question and suggest an alternative to manual tuning.