Everyone loves organic search traffic. Getting visitors to your site through organic search feels like ‘free’ traffic, although you have probably invested plenty of time and effort into your SEO endeavors. Of course, for most businesses, organic traffic alone is not enough, and paid ads will be needed to create a full lead generation pipeline.
In this article, we’d like to present 4 tips on how you can generate more leads for your business using Google ads. It’s easy enough to get a paid ad campaign up and running, but it’s another thing entirely to actually turn a profit with those ads. Let’s take a look at some of the key pieces of a successful campaign.
Tip #1 – Thorough Keyword Research
Keyword research is the foundation of a quality campaign on Google Ads. Simply put, you need to know which keywords to target based on what your ideal customers are likely to enter in the search bar. This task can be a little intimidating if you have never done it before, but there are plenty of tools for you to use as you get started.
Perhaps the easiest place to start is within the Google Ads console. Utilize Keyword Planner to find the right terms for your business. In addition to learning what keywords you may want to target, you can also determine what keywords you want to block.
Aside from what is available directly from Google, there are plenty of free and paid keyword research tools available today. Some of the most popular options include Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush, and many others. There is a small learning curve associated with any of these tools, but you should get the hang of them with just a bit of practice.
Tip #2 – Design Your Campaign Carefully
Early in the process, spend some time designing a logical structure for your overall advertising efforts on Google. Keeping the layout of your ad campaigns as clean and logical as possible is a best practice that will pay off in the long run.
The architecture of your campaign is important for a couple of different reasons. First, designing your ad process carefully will allow you to target a specific group of keywords with each ad group. You don’t want to toss too many keywords into any one group, so try to limit yourself to three or four at a time. This is going to make it easier to track your results and you’ll have an easier time adjusting your plan as the results start to roll in.
The other advantage of a clean structure is quickly tightening up your ad spend when certain groups – or entire campaigns – don’t perform. Letting too much time pass while a poor ad group continues to run is only going to drain your budget, and it will become more difficult to turn a profit in the end. Diligently designing and tracking your campaigns will allow you to ‘trim the fat’ and keep only the ad groups that are working well.
Tip #3 – Respect the Importance of Ad Copy
With keyword research completed and a nice ad structure in place, you might feel like you have this project well under control. Unfortunately, this is actually when the hard work begins. You’ll need to write compelling ad copy that will entice Google users to click on your ads and learn more about your products or services.
It would be easy to argue that your ad copy is the most important part of this whole process. Create copy that not only gets attention, but also gives users a meaningful reason to click. Remember, all businesses are about solving problems, so make sure your ad copy clearly conveys how you can solve the customer’s problem – whatever that problem may be.
One of the most powerful things about using Google Ads is the opportunity you have to test different types of ad copy. Approach this challenge from a few different perspectives and run small campaigns to test the performance of those various ad copy styles. With minimal ad spend you can get real-world feedback from the market to learn which of your ads is striking the right tone.
With some data in hand, you can then adjust other ads to mimic the style of the copy that is performing so well. Or you can simply eliminate the underperforming copy and direct more of your spend to the ads that are proving themselves to be successful.
Tip #4 – Develop a Worthy Landing Page
With so much great work done by this point, it would be a shame to drop the ball now. The last piece of the puzzle is to create a quality landing page where your ad clicks can be directed. This is the first interaction that this new lead will have with your business, so you need to make sure that it’s a good one.
You don’t need to do anything complicated to create a solid landing page for your ads. Here are a few important points to keep in mind –
Make it easy to contact your business. The whole point of your ads is to generate leads, so you don’t want those leads to have any trouble getting in touch with you. Not only should you display your phone number prominently on the page, but you should also have a form or email address available for those who don’t want to call.
Keep it quick. A slow-loading landing page is going to have your potential leads looking for the ‘Back’ button right away. That would be a shame, as you would have paid for their click only to have them leave before even seeing your information. Make sure this page loads quickly so you don’t lose some of your leads prior to making your pitch.
Give it personality. People love doing business with actual people rather than faceless corporations. Feature pictures of your team, or the business owner, prominently on the landing page to make a connection with your audience.
Conclusion
There is a lot to learn when launching your first Google Ads campaign, and it can be intimidating. As with any other big project, the key is to take this one step at a time. Work through the various stages of the paid ad process carefully and you should have a well-organized campaign ready to go sooner than you expect. Good luck!
Matt Buchanan is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Service Direct, a technology company that offers local lead generation solutions for service businesses. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University. He has 15+ years of expertise in local lead generation, sales, search engine marketing, and building and executing growth strategies.