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

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