You, of course, know that generating a lead from Google Ads takes 3 steps:-
- The searcher sees an advert - an impression.
- They click the ad.
- They fill in the form on the landing page - a conversion.
We lose people at each step. 1 000 people saw our ad, 100 people clicked it and hit the landing page. 10 filled in the contact form to become a lead.
We measure this with CTR and conversion rate. And, we optimise the campaign and landing page to lose as few people through the process as possible.
Converting a lead into a customer also takes a series of steps. These are the steps for a law firm I work with.
- The searcher sees an advert - an impression.
- They click the ad.
- The fill in the form on the landing page - a conversion.
- A call centre operator calls lead.
- The lead answers.
- The operator offers the lean an appointment at one of the offices.
- The lead accepts appointment.
- The lead attends appointment.
- A lawyer evaluates lead’s case.
- If the case has merit, lawyer offers to take on the and tells the lead how much it will cost.
- The lead accepts the offer and pays deposit.
We lose people at each step. 10 leads arrive. The call centre calls 8 but only 4 answer.
We measure this too. We have an 80% called rate and a 50% answered rate. And, we can optimise the lead-to-customer process to lose as few people at each step as possible.
Now, before you tell me that your job stops when you deliver the lead, let me let you in on a secret.
Optimising a business is very profitable.
You can give your client a much bigger ROI by optimising their business than almost anything you can do in their Google Ads account.
Here's why.
Each of the busineses I've worked with converted about 1 in 20 Google Ads leads into a customer before we started optimising. Put another way, 19 out of 20 leads didn't make it through the steps needed to become a customer.
What happens when a business goes from losing 19 out of 20 leads to losing 18?
You don’t have to increase your ad budget because you’ve already paid for those leads. And you probably don’t need a bigger office or more phone lines. You don't need to hire another janitor. You don't need more staff in accounting. Your insurance and property tax doesn't go up. You don't pay more for electricity, water and internet.
The fixed costs stay the same.
And when sales go up and fixed costs remain static it means higher profits. A better ROI.
Optimising a business is easier than optimising a mature Google Ads campaign.
Think about a brand new campaign.
Given the budget and traffic you'd expect meaningful increases in the CTR and conversion rate in the first few months. But, as the campaign matures those improvements are harder.
You can still make small gains by tinkering with keywords and ad copy but they're incremental, not earth shattering. And they get harder to reproduce each month.
The next big jump in ROI is yours for the taking when you help your client go from losing 19/20 leads to losing 18. And if you can get 18 you can get to 17 or 16. I know this because I've done it over and over since 2017 and I'm no smarter than you.
I've turned my experience optimising my client's businesses into an approach called Map Measure Maximise. It fits in well with the skills you already have from managing Google Ads accounts. I’d love to share it with you.
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