Whenever I talk to business owners about Google Ads, usually one of two things happen. Either he or she is ecstatic about Google Ads and think they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread or eyes are rolled, fists are clenched and obscenities are uttered.
If you fall into the second group (and most business owners do), it is because your Google ads campaigns are not setup properly. Sorry to be blunt but it is true.
Here’s the deal. Google makes everything more complicated than it needs to be and the most extreme case of this is Google Ads. What should be a very simple concept has suddenly required a PhD in statistical analysis to setup a campaign that won’t send you straight to the poorhouse.
That said, if your campaigns are underperforming there are usually one or two things that are not being done correctly. Most likely, you are sending visitors directly to your home page.
This is a major problem for a number of reasons but I’m only going to cover the two most important ones here. First, most home pages have dozens of links going to different places – videos, pictures, menu items, different services, etc. All of these distract the prospect from taking the action you want them to take.
Most likely, the action you want them to take is to review some of your work and reviews or testimonials and give you a call to discuss their needs. In other words, you want them to become a lead. The more options that a person has on the page, the less like he or she is to take the action you want them to take.
Fewer leads coming in from your Google campaign make it less likely to be profitable for you.
The other reason that you don’t want to send people to your home page is because a big factor in how much Google charges you per visitor (click) is something they call quality score. Basically, this is Google’s ranking between 1 and 10 of your keywords, your ad and your landing page and how congruent they all are.
I know this can get confusing so let’s go through a basic example. You bid on the keyword, “deck builder” and you set the location to a 50 mile radius (or wherever you service) around your business. Or even better, you choose the more affluent neighborhoods in which you’d like your ads to show.
Then someone searches Google for “deck builder” and sees your ad. What Google really wants is that user to have a good user experience. Google LOVES to throw this term around but it simply means that the ad should be about deck builders and the destination page (where the searcher goes after clicking your ad) should be about deck builders.
Make sense so far? The catch is that you can and should be bidding on dozens if not hundreds of search terms. Maybe pergolas, fences, composite decks, etc. If your ad doesn’t reflect the new keyword you’re bidding on or if your destination page isn’t about that particular keyword, Google is going to give you a lower quality score and you’re going to pay through the nose for your ads.
So the key really, is the destination or landing page(s) that you use. It needs to quickly give the searcher what he or she is looking for, build your credibility as a worthy contractor for the job and get them to contact you.
And of course, it needs to comply with all of Google’s unwritten rules that they’ll never tell you about.
If this all sounds complicated or daunting, don’t sweat it. Setting up custom landing pages falls within one of my specialties. I would be happy to setup a landing page for you for a very small investment. You can then simply switch out the url (landing page) you’re using now and replace it with mine. If it doesn’t improve your results, I’ll give you your money back.
Sound fair? Contact me to discuss.
