Google Ads Not Converting... Do this NOW!

Summary

In this informative video, Aaron Young from Defin Digital Academy outlines strategies to boost sales and conversions through Google Ads campaigns. He emphasizes the importance of optimizing three core areas: the Google Ads campaign itself, the landing page, and the pricing and offer. Aaron provides a step-by-step guide to analyze conversion rates across different marketing channels, refine search terms, and improve ad copy for higher click-through ratios. He also offers free access to an extended training session on creating high-converting landing pages, and benchmarks for service-based and e-commerce campaigns are discussed to help businesses set realistic goals for their Google Ads performance.

Takeaways

• 🚀 **Time and Effort**: Success with Google Ads requires time and effort invested in the right areas.
• 📈 **Three Core Areas**: For effective Google Ads campaigns, focus on three core areas: the Google Ads campaign itself, a high-converting landing page, and attractive pricing and offers.
• 🔍 **Check Conversions**: Use Google Analytics to check if conversion issues are specific to Google Ads or affect all marketing channels.
• 📊 **Benchmarks**: Aim for a minimum conversion rate of 5% for service-based businesses and 3% for e-commerce campaigns.
• 🔗 **Landing Page Quality**: Ensure that the landing page is set up correctly and is of high quality, as poor quality can negate even the best Google Ads campaign.
• 🔍 **Search Term Targeting**: Regularly review and refine your search terms to ensure that your ads are targeting the right keywords that lead to conversions.
• 🛠️ **Negative Keywords**: Add negative keywords to your campaigns to prevent spending on irrelevant search terms.
• 📉 **Performance Max Campaigns**: For Performance Max campaigns, use URL and brand exclusions to refine where your ads are shown.
• 👀 **Ad Copy Review**: Regularly review your ad copy to ensure it's high-converting and to maintain a competitive click-through ratio (CTR).
• 🔗 **CTR Importance**: A higher CTR means Google is more likely to show your ads over competitors', as they earn more from clicks.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the video script?

The primary focus of the video script is to address the issue of low sales and conversions in Google ads campaigns and to provide solutions to improve their effectiveness.

Why is it important to focus on more than just Google ads campaigns for conversions?

It's important because three core areas need to be set correctly for sales and conversions: Google ads campaigns, landing pages, and pricing/offers. All three are interdependent like the legs of a tripod.

What is the first step recommended to check if the issue is specific to Google ads or affecting all marketing channels?

The first step is to check Google Analytics to compare the conversion rates of traffic from Google ads with other marketing campaigns and direct/organic traffic.

What are the suggested minimum conversion rates for service-based businesses and e-commerce campaigns?

For service-based businesses, the minimum conversion rate should be at least 5%, while for e-commerce campaigns, it should be at least 3%.

How can one ensure they are targeting the correct search terms in their Google ads campaigns?

By reviewing insights and search terms data to ensure that the terms they are spending on are relevant and likely to generate sales and conversions.

What action can be taken if irrelevant search terms are found in search and shopping campaigns?

Irrelevant search terms can be added to the negative keyword list to prevent spending on them.

How does the process of refining search terms differ for Performance Max campaigns compared to search and shopping campaigns?

For Performance Max campaigns, you can't directly add negative keywords. Instead, you can use URL exclusions and brand exclusions to refine the search categories Google targets.

What is the significance of the click-through ratio (CTR) in Google ads?

CTR is significant because Google only gets paid when an ad is clicked. A higher CTR means Google is more likely to show your ad over competitors', as they earn more from it.

What benchmark is suggested for a good click-through ratio in search campaigns?

A click-through ratio of at least 7% is suggested for search campaigns, with the ideal being well above 10%.

What additional resource is offered for further training on improving landing pages?

An extended training session called '10x Google ads' is offered, which was conducted by a user testing expert who identified five core principles for high-converting landing pages.

How can viewers access the additional training on improving landing pages?

Viewers can access the additional training by following the link provided in the video description.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Boosting Google Ads Conversions

The paragraph emphasizes the importance of not only focusing on Google Ads campaigns to increase conversions but also considering landing pages and pricing/offers. It likens the situation to a tripod needing all three legs to stand. The speaker offers a free training session on creating high-converting landing pages and suggests checking Google Analytics to determine if the issue is specific to Google Ads or affects all marketing channels. The goal is to ensure that the Google Ads campaign is not the weak link by reviewing and optimizing it.

05:00

🔍 Targeting the Right Search Terms

This section discusses the necessity of ensuring that Google Ads are targeting the correct search terms to generate sales and conversions. It outlines a step-by-step process for reviewing search terms within Google Ads, adding negative keywords to filter out irrelevant terms for both search and shopping campaigns. For Performance Max campaigns, the approach is slightly different, involving URL and brand exclusions to refine the targeting. The speaker demonstrates these steps through a screen share to help viewers understand how to optimize their campaigns.

10:00

✅ Reviewing Ads for Conversions

The final paragraph focuses on the importance of ad copy in Google Ads, particularly the click-through ratio (CTR). It explains that a higher CTR incentivizes Google to display ads more frequently over competitors' ads. The speaker provides benchmarks from Wordstream's annual report, suggesting a minimum CTR goal of 7% for search campaigns, with an aim to exceed 10%. The paragraph concludes with a recommendation to watch another video for more detailed strategies on improving ad copy to enhance CTR and conversion rates.

Keywords

💡Google Ads

Google Ads is a platform that allows businesses to advertise their products and services on Google's search engine and its advertising network. In the video, the speaker discusses how to optimize Google Ads campaigns to increase sales and conversions, emphasizing that while Google Ads is crucial, it's only one part of the overall marketing strategy.

💡Conversions

Conversions refer to the desired actions that visitors take on a website, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or signing up for a newsletter. The video focuses on increasing the number of conversions from Google Ads campaigns, which is a key performance indicator for the success of digital marketing efforts.

💡Landing Page

A landing page is the web page that users land on after clicking an advertisement. The video script mentions that a high-converting landing page is essential for successful Google Ads campaigns. The speaker stresses that even the best Google Ads campaign will fail if it directs users to a poorly designed landing page.

💡Pricing and Offer

Pricing and offer refer to the cost and the value proposition of a product or service being advertised. The video script explains that these are critical components that, along with the Google Ads campaign and the landing page, form the 'three-legged chair' of a successful marketing campaign. A compelling offer at the right price point can significantly boost conversions.

💡Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. In the video, the speaker suggests using Google Analytics to review the conversion rates from different marketing channels, including Google Ads, to diagnose issues affecting conversions.

💡Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are words or phrases that tell Google Ads not to show your ads to people searching for those specific terms. The video script provides instructions on how to add negative keywords to a campaign to prevent ads from showing for irrelevant search terms, thus improving the efficiency of the ad spend.

💡Performance Max

Performance Max is a campaign type in Google Ads that uses machine learning to find new customers and drive conversions across Google's entire network. The video script discusses the complexities of managing Performance Max campaigns, particularly in terms of refining search terms and the use of URL and brand exclusions.

💡Search Terms

Search terms are the words or phrases that users type into Google's search engine. The video script emphasizes the importance of reviewing search terms to ensure that the ads are being shown for relevant queries that are likely to result in conversions.

💡Click-Through Ratio (CTR)

CTR is the ratio of users who click on a specific link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or advertisement. The video script highlights the importance of a high CTR for Google Ads, as it indicates the effectiveness of the ad and influences how often Google will display the ad over competitors' ads.

💡Ad Copy

Ad copy refers to the text and images used in an advertisement. The video script suggests that optimizing ad copy is crucial for improving CTR and conversion rates. The speaker provides a link to additional training on crafting high-converting ad copy.

💡Wordstream

Wordstream is a company that provides tools and resources for online advertising. The video script cites Wordstream's annual Google Ads benchmarks report to provide industry-standard CTR benchmarks, which are used to assess the performance of Google Ads campaigns.

Highlights

Increasing conversions in Google ads campaigns is a solvable problem with enough effort.

Three core areas must be set correctly for successful Google ads campaigns: the campaign itself, the landing page, and the pricing and offer.

Landing page quality and offer pricing are crucial even with the best Google ads campaign.

Free access to an extended training session on high-converting landing pages is offered.

First step to improving Google ads is checking if the problem is specific to Google ads or affects all marketing channels.

Use Google Analytics to compare conversion rates across different traffic channels.

Benchmark conversion rates: at least 5% for service-based businesses and 3% for e-commerce.

If other campaigns are successful but Google ads are not, focus on Google ads optimization.

Review search terms to ensure ad spend is on relevant terms for sales and conversions.

Add irrelevant search terms as negative keywords to refine campaigns.

For Performance Max campaigns, use URL and brand exclusions to refine targeting.

Review ad copy to ensure high-converting ads are being used.

Click-through ratio (CTR) is a key metric; aim for at least 7% for search campaigns.

A higher CTR incentivizes Google to show your ads more frequently.

Update ad copy to increase CTR and conversion rates if it's low.

Wordstream's annual report provides industry-specific CTR benchmarks.

Aaron Young offers a video on improving Google ads ad copy for higher CTR and conversions.

Transcripts

if you're not getting the sales and

conversions that your business needs

with your Google ads campaigns the

biggest thing that you need to remember

is that getting and increasing the

number of conversions that you see with

your Google ads campaigns is a problem

you can solve so as long as you're

willing to put enough time and effort

into the correct areas you can start to

see great success with Google ads but I

do want to stress right at the start of

this video is that you do need to

remember that in order to get the right

amount of conversions that your business

needs with your Google ads campaigns you

don't only need to focus on your Google

ads campaigns because there's three core

areas that you need to have set

correctly in order to get sales and

conversions through Google ads campaigns

but through any campaign whether you're

running meta ads or any other type of

marketing and the way to think of it is

like a tripod or a three-legged chair in

that you need all of them to be work

working in order for the tripod or the

chair to work so one of those legs is

obviously the Google ads campaign but

then that Google ads campaign needs to

be sending people to a landing page

which is set correctly and that is a

high converting landing page and then on

that landing page you need that third

area set correctly or that third leg set

up correctly and that is your pricing

and your offer so even if you've got the

best Google ads campaign in the world if

it's going to a poor quality Landing

page with a poor quality offer it still

won't work so what I want to do right

now because obviously in this video I'm

going to be focusing in on the Google

ads side of this problem and taking you

through how to review and optimize your

Google ads campaign so that we know that

that is not the area which is causing

the issue but to help you further

especially with your landing pages and

getting your landing pages set correctly

I want to give you free access to an

extended training session that I ran in

my paid Google ads Community which is

called 10x Google ads and this was a

session that was actually done by a user

testing expert who had done over 10,600

real life user tests to find out the

five core principles that you need for a

high converting landing page and after

you've watched this video If you want to

get full access to that training all you

need to do is to follow that link in the

description below but right now as

promised let's get into how you can go

through and review and improve your

Google ads campaign so that we know that

it's set correctly so that you can get

more of those vital sales and

conversions that you need for your

business and the first important step is

that we need to check to make sure

whether this problem of no conversions

is only affecting Google ads or if it's

affecting all of your different

marketing channels so what we're trying

to work out here is that we want to go

into Google analytics and we want to go

through and review the conversion rate

of our traffic from Google ads campaigns

versus traffic from other marketing

campaigns like meta ad campaigns or Tik

Tok campaigns whatever campaigns you're

doing and then also line that up versus

your direct and your organic traffic now

if we're seeing no conversions across

the board so all of your different

traffic channels are not generating any

conversions or not many conversions at

all it's highly likely that the problem

is not actually Google ads the problem

is more on those other two issues which

is your landing page and also your

pricing and offer so if that is the case

it is still worthwhile going through the

other two steps of checks which I'm

going to take you through right now but

remember after you've watched this video

to go through and follow that link in

the description below so you can watch

that extra training on what you can do

to improve your landing page so that's

the first important check that we need

to do so that first check is actually

done outside of Google ads you want to

be going into Google analytics and as I

said what you're doing there is you're

breaking down the traffic channels to

see whether the problem is only

affecting Google ads so let's just say

you're getting conversions from all of

the other channels and your conversion

rate in Google ads is significantly

lower we then know that we need to go

through and rectify these next two steps

now in terms of some very rough

benchmarks and I want to really

highlight that this is very much a

starting Benchmark and you should aim to

have your conversion rates much higher

than this but at a starting level for

service-based businesses so these are

for campaigns where you are looking at

getting an online inquiry whether

through a phone call or an email or form

inquiry you'd be wanting to get at least

and as a at least a 5% conversion rate

whereas for e-commerce campaigns you'd

be wanting to get at least a 3%

conversion rate now as I said you want

to be getting much higher than that but

they're just base level metrics that I'd

be looking at that if you're not

achieving those you know you've got some

core issues within your Google ads

campaigns or those other two areas so

that's the first step we're really

looking at isolating and answering the

question is is the issue of not getting

enough conversions from your Google ads

campaign is that Google ads only

specific or is it running across all of

your different traffic channels and

marketing campaigns but if your other

campaigns are working really well and

it's just Google ads we know that we've

got some serious issues in Google ads

that we need to go through and rectify

and that's where you work on these next

two steps and the next step is is that

you want to make sure that you actually

targeting the correct Search terms so

what we're wanting to do here is we're

wanting to go through and we're wanting

to review our insights and our Search

terms data and we want to make sure that

where we're spending the money if this

is actually the type of terms that are

going to generate sales and conversions

for our business so what I want to do

right now is I want to take you into a

screen share so I can show you how you

run this check and how to fix this issue

for your search shopping and performance

Max campaigns so let's jump at that

screen share right now so what I've done

right now I've bought you into a Google

ads account which is running performance

Max search and shopping campaigns so

that way in the one place we can check

all of these things so firstly what I

recommend is that I do recommend that

you do this campaign via campaign so I

know you can go through Straight to

insights and reports and look at this

data for all of your campaigns but I

much prefer to do it at a campaign level

so what you want to firstly do and we're

going to go into a search campaign now

we've got a branded and then a

non-branded so I'm going to go into the

non-branded and what you want to be

looking at here is you want to go into

insights and reports and then you want

to go into your Search terms and what

you're looking at doing in through here

is you're just looking at going through

these Search terms it'll automatically

filter down by Impressions do it by

Impressions or cost and what you're

looking at through here is that where

you're spending the money are you happy

with these Search terms now because this

is a client account I've had to block

out those Search terms but you can see

the process where you're going to

campaign insights and then search terms

so once again it's campaigns insights

and reports and then into Search terms

now if you do find any of these Search

terms which are not relevant now for

this campaign now because this one is a

little bit more of a we're targeting

some newer areas for this business

business so this isn't taking the main

amount of this account spending we're

looking at expanding their Market but

there are some Search terms I can see in

here that we need to add at to the

negative list so what we do we just

select them and then straight away you

can go through and add them as a

negative keyword so that's the process

of how you do that for a search campaign

let me now jump into the shopping

campaign and now in the shopping

campaign you actually go into the same

area once you're in the shopping

campaign you go into insights and

reports and then search terms once again

what we're looking at here is we're

looking at the Search terms and we're

looking to see are there any Search

terms which we're spending a high amount

of money on that are not relevant and if

we do see any of these all we need to do

is we just go through select a couple

here and we go through and click on that

add negative keyword so with your search

and your shopping campaigns straight

away you can go through and add in some

extra negative keywords to refine those

Search terms when it comes to

Performance Max it is a little bit

trickier and what I just want to show

you here so now I've shown you how to go

through and review your Search terms for

search and shopping campaigns and with

both of those campaigns you can add in

negative keywords directly to block out

or to limit any search turns which are

not relevant for performance Max it does

get a little bit trickier and the reason

for that is because with performance Max

campaigns as you may very well know

you're very much dealing with giving

Google suggestions and it's going out to

try and find more conversions for your

business but the way that you do do this

is go into that conversion action go

into that campaign and then from there

we want to once again go into insights

and reports and what we want to do

through here is we want to go into the

consumer Spotlight search term insights

what I like to do is change it to the

last 28 days and then what you want to

do is you want to click on this view

detailed report so what this would do is

it this brings up search term themes but

it does have all the data around clicks

clicks conversions so what you can do

here is you can actually see once again

where you're spending the money making

sure that it's also giving you that

conversion value now for a performance

Max campaign you can't just go in and

add negative keywords but if you do have

a a theme that you don't want to spend

any money on there's two options that

what you can do here so what you can do

is that you can click to the site and go

to settings and when you're in the

settings what you can do is that if you

see here you got automatically created

assets you can go through and add in

some URLs to exclude so what that means

is let's just say you're running an

e-commerce site what we've got here on

our exclusion list we've got some things

in and around other brands that we want

to exclude or different products that

you want to exclude so that is one way

that you can exclude the traffic and

what you're doing there is you're

setting your campaign and you're saying

to Google of all of my 50 pages on my

website you can only target these 20 web

pages for the performance Max campaign

the other way that you can do it is once

again when we're in settings you go into

brand exclusions and then from there you

can add in some Brands to exclude now

this only works if if you've got people

searching different brands so competitor

brands or even your own brand you can

add those brand lists to exclude those

branded search exclusions so that's the

second step that you need to go through

and check so what we're wanting to do

there is we're wanting to go through and

look to see where are we actually

spending the money in Google ads and

then we're looking at if you've got

search or shopping campaigns adding in

those negative keywords so you can stop

spending money in those wasted areas or

if you're running that performance Max

campaign you can't put in those exact

negative keywords but what you can do is

you can use those URL exclusions and

also brand exclusions to really help

refine the search categories which

Google is targeting in your campaigns

and once you've done that that then

brings us to step three for running the

checks on what to do if you're not

seeing those conversions in your Google

ads campaign and this third and final

step is all about reviewing your ads so

your ad copy and actually checking are

these high converting ads and the first

Benchmark that we're looking here is we

actually want to be looking at your

clickthrough ratio which you'll see in

your Google ads dashboard is a CTR score

and what this is ranking is this is

ranking how many clicks you're actually

getting versus the amount of people that

have seen your ads so if your ad has

been shown a th000 times and you get 100

clicks you've got a click through ratio

of 10% now the reason for why this

metric is so important is because you

need to remember that with Google ads

Google only gets paid when someone

clicks on your ad so Google gets no

money at all for when someone sees your

ad so the reason for why that is so

relevant is because if you can have a

higher click-through ratio than your

competitors Google is more incentivized

to show your ad versus your competitor's

ad and the reverse is then true if

you've got a lower clickthrough ratio

than your competitors Google is going to

show your competitor's ad more often

than yours because they know they're

going to get more money from showing

that ad so that is why your

click-through ratio is a highly

important metric and to give you an idea

on some benchmarks now great data

company for Google ads called wordstream

runs an annual report every single year

and in

2023 their Google ads benchmarks report

showed that the click-through ratio

across all Industries was

6.11% so at a bare minimum I let

everyone know that you should be

shooting for a clickthrough ratio for

your search campaigns of at least 7% but

I like to have all of my search

campaigns well above 10% and the reason

for that is is that that way I know that

I'm giving Google every little bit of

incentive to show my ads over my

competitor's ads now what I'm going to

do here because that data is different

for all different business niches in the

description below I'll also include a

link to the latest report from

wordstream and if you want to go through

and follow that link it's free to view

that way you can go through and you can

actually see and get a benchmark of what

your competitor is are going to be now

it's not going to go all the way down to

your business level but you will get a

fair idea for your business Niche and

then if you do have a low clickthrough

ratio what you need to focus on is you

need to focus on updating your ad copy

so that you can increase your

click-through ratio now because this is

such a big topic if you want to learn

more about the core principles that you

need to incorporate into your Google ads

ad copy to increase your clickthrough

ratio and conversion rates I want you to

go through and watch this video right

here once again thank you for joining me

my name is Aaron Young from defin

Digital Academy and I'm your 15,000 hour

Google ads master and I look forward to

seeing you right now in that video about

how you can improve your ad copy for

Google ads in 2024 see you