3 Reasons Your Google Search Ads Aren’t Generating Results

Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords. 

However, all too often people come to us telling us they have set up a Google Ads campaign, but are not seeing the results that they had hoped for. We’ve spent hours analysing and refining Google Ads accounts, and the following are some of the most common mistakes that we see advertisers making. 

1. Your Ads Are Not Showing For Relevant Searches

If your ads have a high number of impressions, but a low Click-Through-Rate (CTR), the reason can be that your ads are not shown in the right context. If you haven’t targeted your campaign correctly, your ads may be showing for searches that are not relevant to your product or service. For example, a business that sells truck wheels, without accurately defined parameters, may receive a number of impressions from people who have no interest in their products. If keywords and negative keywords are not implemented effectively, people who are searching for everything from car wheels to bike wheels could see these ads. 

In order to ensure this doesn’t happen, it’s important to carry out comprehensive keyword research for each ad group. This will give you an indication of the terms that have good search volume but are also relevant to your products and services. For example, the business above would look for keywords and phrases that relate specifically to truck wheels and add them to their campaign. They would ensure any broader terms are excluded from the campaign and terms that refer to other types of wheel are added as negative keywords.

2. Your Landing Page is Ineffective 

In some cases, you may have a high click-through-rate (CTR) but a low number of conversions. In this instance, it is unlikely that the problem is with your ads, as searchers are actively engaging with them. The problem is more likely to be as a result of the landing page. This can be the result of a poor landing page design, or alternatively, a mismatch between what the user expects to see when they are clicking the ad and what is on the page. If the problem is a mismatch between the ad and the page, this can be easily fixed. All you have to do is change your ad copy to make it more relevant for what’s on the landing page when users click through. 

If the problem is your landing page, it may take more work to fix. Searchers who land on a confusing, overwhelming or complicated page are unlikely to convert.  There are a number of ways your business can optimise the campaign’s landing page to ensure it is more likely to generate conversions. In addition, it can be useful to find out where your clicks are coming from in terms of device. If you are getting a lot of clicks from mobile, but your site is not mobile responsive, it is likely that you will lose most of the traffic that you are getting almost immediately. 

3. Your Ads Are Not Showing at the Right Time 

Google Ads gives advertisers the ability to control when ads are displayed to an extremely granular level. This is because the timing of the ads is extremely important. It’s worthwhile to spend some time analysing Google’s ‘Time of Day’ and ‘Day of Week’ reports to identify what works for your business.  For example, some businesses may notice that they get more enquiries earlier in the week, and then it tails off as the week goes on. Other businesses may see more conversions during morning hours rather than in the afternoon. When you know what works, your ads can be optimised accordingly so that you can get the most out of your advertising budget. 

Another consideration is whether or not prospects may need to speak to someone in your business before converting, or whether they expect a quick response to their query. If this is the case and your ads are showing outside of business hours, you are potentially missing out on leads as they are failing to get in contact. If the searcher has tried and failed to get in touch with you, it’s likely that they will search again to find one of your competitors. If this is something that you think may be impacting your business, you can set up your Google Ads to only run at the times that you specify. This allows advertisers to ensure ads are only viewed at a time where a prospective customer has someone at hand to help them. 

Digital Squad specialises in online advertising. We have helped a number of clients successfully implement their Google Ads campaigns. For more information on how we can assist you, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team today.

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