Once upon a time, people searched for businesses in the Yellow Pages.
The Yellow Pages enabled businesses to get in front of people while they were actively searching for their product or service (be it for a new set of tyres, a therapist or a pizza).
Now they use Google.
As in the past, this hyper-targeted, extremely hot audience, proves to be a gold mine for many businesses.
However, just as with Yellow Pages, many businesses find Google Ads can cost far more in ad spend than it makes them in profit. Unfortunately, not being found in Google is also costing them – in lost sales.
So, how to make Google Ads profitable?
Following are a few of the critical strategies we use with our clients to do just this…
1) Ensure your site is optimized to convert. This may sound obvious, yet over 95% of websites we see are not designed for conversions. Many look pretty, but looking good is not the same thing as converting well.
If your site does not convince a significant percentage of its visitors to take a sale generating action (buy, call you, fill in a form etc), then you are sure to lose money with Google Ads.
2) Segment your campaigns. Don’t just dump a pile of keywords into a single ad campaign. Break down keywords into small, targeted groups.
This allows you to write ads for each campaign to match exactly what people are searching for, and reduces the cost you pay for each click. (Google rewards hyper-targeting.)
3) Build dedicated landing pages. It is important to not just segment your campaigns, but to also segment the pages that you drive leads to.
For example, as an accountant, you may offer a range of services, including GST returns, bookkeeping, auditing etc. If you send everyone to your home page, there is a high probability that visitors will leave before seeing the information they are looking for. By directing them to a dedicated page that matches their search term, you will increase sales dramatically.
4) Follow up. Every good salesperson knows that the majority of customers won’t buy on their first exposure to your product or service. And so it is online, few people will buy on their first visit to your website.
By following up leads, you have a much better chance of converting them to a customer. This can be done by either capturing their email address and using an autoresponder, or with retargeting ads.
5) Track everything. With proper tracking, you can find out which keyword searches convert, which ads work and which don’t, as well as how much you can afford to pay for each.
When you track properly, you will know which campaigns to switch off and which to scale up. This takes time; but unless you do, you won’t know whether you are making money or losing money.
BONUS TIP: Many businesses have a fixed budget for advertising. With Google Ads (and most other forms of marketing for that matter), this is crazy. If your ads are working (ie, they make more than they cost), why would you limit them? And, if they are not making you money, then why are you wasting money on them?
Your budget should be defined by how much business you can manage, or the size of your market. Sadly most businesses set their budget based on how much they are comfortable losing (which in many cases is not much).
If you are serious about growing your business then you should be serious about Google Ads. And, if you are going to use Google Ads, then make sure you do it properly. Otherwise, you might just dismiss them, allowing your competition to walk away with the customers instead.
For more information, visit https://www.ethicallymad.co.nz/how-to-setup-google-ads.
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