5 Reasons Your Google Ads Aren’t Converting (And How to Fix Them) | EP 1

Summary

In this video, Ji Ro discusses five key reasons why Google ads may not be converting effectively and offers solutions. Topics covered include targeting the wrong keywords, poor ad copy, irrelevant landing pages, bad audience signals, and confusing conversion tracking. Ji Ro provides actionable tips for optimizing each area to improve conversion rates.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Targeting irrelevant keywords can lead to low conversion rates in Google Ads.
• 📈 Use different match types (broad, phrase, exact) to control how your keywords trigger ads.
• 🌐 Ensure your ad copy is relevant to the keywords you're bidding on to increase click-through rates.
• 📝 Dynamic keyword insertion can make your ads more relevant and improve conversion rates.
• 📍 Dynamic location insertion can add a personalized touch to your ads, increasing their effectiveness.
• 📝 Headline pinning can help control the order in which your ad headlines appear, improving ad performance.
• 📊 Landing pages should be directly related to the ad copy and keywords to avoid a disconnect with the audience.
• 👤 Researching your target audience's persona can help tailor your landing page to their needs and desires.
• 📊 Use tracking tools to analyze user behavior on your landing page and optimize it for better conversions.
• 🎯 Targeting the right audience signals is crucial; avoid targeting demographics that are unlikely to convert.
• 🔧 Clear and focused conversion tracking helps the algorithm optimize your ads more effectively.

Q & A

What are the top five reasons Google ads might not be converting?

The top five reasons are: 1) Targeting the wrong keywords, 2) Poor ad copy, 3) Landing page issues, 4) Targeting bad audience signals, and 5) Confusing conversion tracking.

Why is targeting the wrong keywords a problem for ad conversion?

Targeting the wrong keywords can lead to irrelevant traffic that doesn't convert because the users' search intent doesn't match the ad's offer.

How does ad copy affect Google ad conversion rates?

Ad copy that is generic or doesn't relate to the keyword can reduce click-through rates, leading to lower conversion rates.

What is the importance of a landing page in relation to ad conversion?

A landing page should directly relate to the ad copy and the keywords used. If there's a disconnect, the audience isn't likely to convert.

Why should you avoid targeting bad audience signals in your Google ads?

Targeting the wrong audience can lead to low conversion rates because you're showing ads to people who are unlikely to be interested in your services.

How can confusing conversion tracking impact the performance of Google ads?

If the algorithm is trained on multiple conversion events that don't align with the campaign's goals, it can lead to ineffective ad targeting and lower conversion rates.

What is the role of match types in Google Ads, and how can they affect conversions?

Match types help control which search queries trigger your ads. Using the wrong match types can lead to irrelevant clicks and lower conversions.

What are some tips for improving ad copy to increase conversion rates?

Tips include using dynamic keyword insertion, dynamic location insertion, and headline pinning to make ads more relevant to the user's search query.

How can you ensure your landing page is optimized for conversions?

Research your target audience's pain points, desires, and objections, and ensure your landing page addresses these to increase the likelihood of conversion.

What audience signals should you consider when setting up your Google ad campaigns?

Consider age, income, job titles, and in-market segments to target the right audience who is more likely to convert.

How can you refine your Google Ads targeting to improve conversion rates?

Refined targeting involves adjusting your ad schedule, location targeting, and using audience signals to reach the most relevant audience.

Outlines

00:00

🔍 Targeting the Right Keywords for Google Ads

The paragraph discusses the importance of targeting the correct keywords in Google Ads for better conversion rates. It explains the difference between broad match, phrase match, and exact match types, and how they can affect the relevancy of ads. The speaker, Ji Ro, emphasizes the need to prune search terms and add negative keywords to optimize ad performance. The goal is to match the keywords with the landing page content to increase the likelihood of conversion.

05:02

📝 Improving Ad Copy to Boost Conversions

This section focuses on the quality of ad copy and its impact on conversion rates. Ji Ro points out that generic ad copy can deter clicks and thus lower conversion rates. He suggests matching ad copy with the landing page and using dynamic keyword insertion, dynamic location insertion, and headline pinning to make ads more relevant and effective. These strategies are designed to increase click-through rates, which in turn should improve conversion rates.

10:03

🌐 Crafting a Landing Page that Converts

The speaker highlights the need for the landing page to be directly related to the ad copy and the keywords used. He stresses the importance of understanding the target audience's pain points, desires, and objections, which can be achieved through persona research. Ji Ro advises on making the landing page mobile-friendly and visually appealing, and then suggests using tracking software to observe user behavior and make iterative improvements to enhance conversion rates.

15:05

🎯 Refining Audience Signals for Better Targeting

Here, Ji Ro talks about targeting the right audience to improve conversion rates. He mentions that targeting the wrong demographic or life stage can lead to poor performance. The speaker suggests using tools within Google Ads to adjust targeting, such as setting ads to run during business hours and targeting specific age groups and income levels. He also touches on using Performance Max campaigns to find lookalike audiences and target people in similar market segments.

🛠️ Clearing Up Conversion Tracking for Algorithm Efficiency

In this paragraph, Ji Ro explains how confusing conversion tracking can mislead the Google Ads algorithm, leading to a lower conversion rate. He advises cleaning up conversion tracking by removing unnecessary conversion events and setting clear, relevant goals for the algorithm to optimize. The speaker recommends using conversion tracking tools to feed back the value of leads to Google Ads, ensuring the algorithm works effectively to find the right customers.

Keywords

💡Google Ads

Google Ads is a platform that allows businesses to display advertisements to users on Google's search engine and its advertising network. In the video, Google Ads is the central topic, as the speaker discusses various reasons why ads may not be converting as expected and provides solutions to improve conversion rates.

💡Conversion Rates

Conversion rates refer to the percentage of users who complete a desired action after viewing an advertisement, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. The video's main theme revolves around improving these rates by identifying and fixing common issues with Google Ads campaigns.

💡Match Types

Match types in Google Ads determine how closely a user's search query must be to the keywords you've chosen for your ads to show. The script mentions broad match, phrase match, and exact match as different levels of specificity for targeting keywords.

💡Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are words or phrases that tell the Google Ads system not to show your ads when those words or phrases appear in a search query. The speaker suggests using negative keywords to prune search terms and avoid wasting budget on irrelevant clicks.

💡Ad Copy

Ad copy encompasses the text and visual content of an advertisement. The video emphasizes the importance of ad copy in attracting clicks and improving conversion rates, suggesting that generic or irrelevant ad copy can lead to lower performance.

💡Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is a feature in Google Ads that automatically inserts the user's search term into the ad copy. The speaker recommends using DKI to make ads more relevant to the user's search, which can increase click-through rates.

💡Landing Page

A landing page is the web page that users land on after clicking an advertisement. The video discusses the importance of ensuring that landing pages are directly related to the ad copy and keywords used to avoid a disconnect that can reduce conversion rates.

💡Persona

A persona represents a fictional character created to represent a segment of the target audience. The speaker advises researching personas to understand the pain points, fears, objections, and desires of potential customers, which can inform the content of landing pages.

💡Performance Max

Performance Max is a campaign type in Google Ads that automates many aspects of ad creation and targeting. The script touches on using Performance Max campaigns to target lookalike audiences and in-market segments to improve conversion rates.

💡Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is the process of following the actions users take after clicking an ad, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. The video explains that confusing conversion tracking can mislead the Google Ads algorithm, resulting in lower conversion rates.

💡Quality Score

Quality Score is a metric in Google Ads that measures the relevance and quality of an ad, landing page, and the search queries triggering the ad. The speaker mentions that clickbait can lead to lower quality scores, which in turn can increase the cost per click.

Highlights

Five reasons why Google ads aren't converting and how to fix them

The misconception between the job of the ad and the job of the landing page

Importance of targeting the right keywords for ad conversion

Explanation of Google's different match types for keywords

The significance of exact match keywords for precise targeting

Pruning search terms to optimize ad budget and conversion rate

The impact of irrelevant keywords on conversion rates

The role of ad copy in conversion rates and how to improve it

Tips for creating effective ad copy that matches landing pages

Using dynamic keyword insertion to enhance ad relevance

The benefits of dynamic location insertion in ad copy

Headline pinning to control ad presentation and improve CTR

The importance of landing page relevance to ad copy and keywords

Researching a Persona to understand pain points, desires, and objections

Tweaking landing pages from top to bottom to improve conversion

Targeting bad audience signals can lead to low conversion rates

Ways to refine audience signals for better ad targeting

The confusion caused by multiple conversion tracking events

Advice on tracking conversions correctly to optimize the algorithm

Recap of the steps to improve Google ad conversion rates

Transcripts

hey guys welcome back to the conversion

clinic today we're going to talk about

five reasons your Google ads aren't

converting and how to fix them so this

is a big big Topic in the you know

Google ad space uh what we find is that

businesses out there are understanding

that your Google ads are meant to bring

sales right and there's big

misconception out there on the job of

the ad and and the job of the landing

page okay and we're going to get through

that later but let's go through the top

five reasons if you don't know who I am

my name is ji Ro and I've helped

generate millions of dollars from my

clients by fixing their ad conversion

rates a part of that has been learning a

lot on what works what doesn't across

different niches and not being naive

enough to think that just because it

works in one area doesn't work mean it

works for another and that's what I've

found um over the last several years so

let's go through them together let's not

waste time what are the top five reasons

your ads aren't converting so number one

it's usually because you're targeting

the wrong keywords relevant keywords so

if you don't know how it works already

Google uses different match types to

basically separate keywords and what

they do what that means is if you had a

lawn care company and you wanted to bid

on a keyword called lawn care services

if you set that to a broad match you're

ideally going to be targeting anything

under the sun related to the topic of

lawn care services so if a university

student is researching you know what are

Lan care services what are the things

around it even semantics it doesn't have

to say that exactly Lan care services it

could be a separate brand or anything

that you're going to enter in auctions

for it's really ridiculous right how

broad match Works phrase match is

becoming a little bit silly recently

it's starting to go outside of auctions

behaving kind of like a broad match at

the moment and whereas exact match the

third type um is basically if you got

lawn care services you only want to bid

on uh auction like enter your ads into

auctions where the term lawn care

services is exactly used in that exact

phrase right the idea here is to at the

start of creating your ad is to have a

really educated guess on if someone were

to hire me tomorrow what are the things

that they would type into Google exactly

and sometimes you might argue like oh

yeah they're looking for a lawn care

company or whatever and in that case yes

you could probably B on that stuff but

it's also they're using near me keywords

like la care services near me or stuff

like that right so basically you want to

start there and if you're budget

conscious then you might want to set

them all to exact match and if you find

that you're not getting enough

Impressions then release the exact match

and switch them all over to phrase until

you get to a point that you're tweaking

the heck out of them now from there your

only goal from there is to keep pruning

your Search terms so in the insights tab

in Google ads at least where it's moved

to at the moment it's in um search terms

and you'll see what people are actually

typing into Google to trigger the

keywords that uh you're bidding on and

so basically you want to prune these and

to make sure you're adding as much

negative keywords as possible so that

you're making the best use of your

budget and not wasting too much money so

how that how that works to your

conversion rate well when people are

typing in lawn care company near me and

they're going to a landing page that

says lawn care company near me and it's

everything to do with that well chances

are that that that person is going to

convert higher than going to another

generic landing page about you know some

blog or lawn care services and it's not

exactly matching you get the idea right

so that's the main thing um irrelevant

keyword so if the more you can tweak

that and refine your keywords over time

to like make it more silky smooth

finding the right people who are typing

the exact thing that you offer that you

sell then the higher likelihood your

conversion rate is going to go right up

the second reason is shitty ad copy so

what I mean by ad copy It's usually the

content in your ads what your ads say

the headlines descriptions all that kind

of stuff even things like site links and

that extracurricular stuff that you

don't really think about when you're

starting ads for the first time now this

is your Prime real estate you have a lot

of control over your ad copy if it's

generic as hell and it doesn't relate to

the keyword you're bidding on then

chances are people aren't going to click

on the ad and when people don't click on

the ad it lowers your conversion rate

well to the point that you're not going

to get as many sales in general right so

the idea here is to match the ad copy

the words that you use on your actual ad

and match that to the landing page try

to make it exactly the same as possible

so what I mean by that is if you're

trying to sell lawn care services right

then you'll probably want to make sure

the landing page is all to do with lawn

care services it's got a great offer

it's like answered all the objections

people have around your service um you

might go through uh you know to relate

to the audience's problem about wanting

the best Curb Appeal on the block or you

know want really healthy grass All

Seasons um throughout the year whatever

it is whatever their pain points are in

you've researched make sure that's on

the landing page but also in the ad copy

with that said um there are a few

pointers in order to make really great

ad copy that increases your conversion

rate because it's highly relevant to the

keyword you're using so the first tip I

have is to make sure you're using

Dynamic keyword insertion look it up if

you don't know but basically you can um

swap out headlines dynamically based on

the keywords you're bidding on really

really cool stuff right so basically if

someone's typing in lawn care services

then it's going to automatically add the

term lawn care services into your actual

ad my second tip is to use dynamic

location insertion so on top of the

keyword insertion you can dynamically

pull the person's IP address right

Google's smart enough to do this for you

and understand which city or suburb that

they live in or country and uh it can

automatically add that to the actual ad

copy itself it's really really cool my

third and final tip for the ad copy and

to make sure that you're increasing the

conversion rates is to make sure that

you're using headline pinning okay so

there's this thing with responsive

search ads where you can change the

pinning of headlines this doesn't apply

to Performance Max it applies to search

campaigns so you can use pinning

headline pinning in the way that you

dictate to Google in what order the art

should present itself okay so if in the

first pinning um you might have the

dynamic keyword insertion so that

because again I said people read left to

right in the western world if you're

targeting Western countries that might

apply to you but let's say they see the

keyword as the first thing on the left

hand side then ideally that'll increase

the clickthrough rate so you could set

that as the pitting one so it's always

in the first position of the headlines

in the second position you could have

that location one I spoke about right

and then you know that combo just having

those two headlines already increases

your click-through rate dramatically

which in turn your conversion rate so

with that said number three the pinning

of three doesn't always show up okay so

you might find that um you know you have

really great headlines in the third

pinning position but um you know in

certain orders it doesn't show Google

decides when to show them or not but

still good to have them in that case now

the whole reason why you'd want pinning

in the first place is so that you're not

wasting as much Budget on different

variations of the headlines cuz Google

if you don't set any pinning Google will

basically dictate to itself and it's

going to swap between those headlines

until it finds ones that work but the

other reason of not wasting all your

budget is that if you can imagine that

Google swaps all your headlines over and

you don't dictate in what positions then

it's going to do it forever like lots of

different times and can you imagine how

many what we call permutations like how

many different variations that's going

to swap between like 15 headlines times

four

descriptions how many different versions

coupled together is that going to make

and so you can imagine that's going to

take ages especially on a short small

budget to work out what works so let's

into the third reason why your

conversion rates aren't as good as you

expected with your Google ads and that

is your landing page and I want to start

with this but the other two were super

important so it might be an obvious one

now after we've kind of gotten through

this whole thing your landing page needs

to directly be related to the ad copy

and the keywords that you use it's a

trio if the keywords you're bidding on

don't relate to the landing page itself

then you know there's going to be a

disconnect you're not going to

conversion rate you want because the

audience is expecting to see something

else it's like clickbait right you don't

want to do clickbait on Google ads you

get penalize it you get lower quality

scores and guess what if you have lower

quality scores you have to pay more for

per click compared to another competitor

we'll go through that another episode

maybe so the best advice that I could

give you with your landing page is to

research a Persona so a Persona is

basically Research into the pain points

fears objections desires of some someone

who is looking for in the example lawn

care services and basically you're

trying to find what are their pains in

relation to wanting lawn care services

like what is that trigger event that's

wanting them to type that into Google to

find someone like a provider to fix

their problem what are the desires what

do they want out of it better curb

appeal do they want a green fresh lawn

all year around do they want somewhere

for their their pets and kids to play on

that's really nice you know what other

those desires and if they actually

decide to go ahead with you what are

their objections you're too pricey you

don't have a payment plan you guys seem

like you're a oneand done um you know

you guys seem new you don't know what

you're doing you know there's not enough

social proof for testimonials so these

are all the things you go through with a

Persona and there are a lot of scripts

out there I've got a YouTube video on

how to do this as well but basically you

want to understand a Persona so that you

can understand what to write on the

landing page it basically gives you

everything that you need to to right

okay so let's say you've got all that

down pack your landing page is fast on

mobile it looks great Etc then what you

want to do is keep tweaking from top to

bottom so what I mean by that is when

you've got everything down pat and your

conversion rate still hasn't improved

then start tweaking the first section

keep tweaking that headline and use some

tracking software like hot jar or you

know um there's quite a few software out

there for this where you can see what

the person is doing when they land on

the page

like it's records their screen and you

can watch where they bounce off okay so

if you keep tweaking that header section

and you notice that the more sections

you're tweaking you know one section at

a time you keep running ads to it test

it for a week and then you edit the next

section below that and you're seeing

that people are scrolling more and more

and more down the page on average then

you know your conversion rate goes up

you know because the more people spend

on your page the more time they spend on

your page the higher likelihood that

they are going to convert so the fourth

reason why your conversion rate isn't

working as well for your Google ads is

because you're targeting bad audience

signals so this could be anything from

you know if you're selling loan care

services it's probably likely that you

know you don't have teenagers and and

young adults uh hiring you for the

services they're more so diying or maybe

you don't have the lower income

households uh the bottom 50% or

something that are going to you know

take you up on your services but you're

targeting them with your ads anyway so

are there are ways to switch all that

stuff off there are ways to turn your

ads off during nighttime so that you're

not getting overseas spam traffic coming

to your ads you know so this is a big

reason why your conversion rate is super

low is because you there's still a lot

of metrics in your ads that need fine

tweaking with regards to that check when

your ad schedule is running are you

running at 24/7 can you change it to

your business hours so you're targeting

relevant audience um with the uh age

group so you're targeting the right age

group so you're targeting people who are

probably over 25 who likely are a bit

more mature bit more money um they can

hire your services for that way are you

targeting people who are 65 plus that

are probably in like a a home right and

uh they don't need your services like

you know what I mean like you keep going

down this little um audience in terms of

understanding who your main Persona is

who these people on average what do they

what criteria do they fit are they like

between 35 and 44 years of age uh are

they between the top 10 to 40% of higher

income households and then going even

deeper you can change audience signals

with like stuff like performance Max

campaigns and Display Network campaigns

where you can Target people who are

similar to the people who already filled

out a form with you or converters right

so you can find people who are kind of

like those converters on your website

and Target lookalikes and different

asset groups for performance Max so

which is really fun you know you can

test these things out but basically if

you your conversion rate is super low

it's because you haven't spent enough

time tweaking those audience signals to

find really great people so if all

things being equal your landing page is

great your your ads are great your

keywords are great if if we're talking

you know um search campaigns not that we

are right now um then yeah you do need

to refine the heck out of your audience

signals for performance Max in this case

so it's kind of like our reason number

one which was irrelevant keywords but

it's you're doing audience signals

instead so you're targeting even things

like other competitor websites you're

targeting people who genuinely visit

those websites as well you could be

targeting people who search for similar

things to your search campaign keywords

you know you can create different

audience signals you can Target people

who are in market for Home Improvement

um you just play around with it keep

tweaking it keep testing it right

there's really really cool things that

you can do you can run new experiments

inside of performance Max but yes that

is a reason why your conversion rate

would be low the fifth and final reason

is because your conversion tracking is

confusing the algorithm so what I mean

by that is sometimes you'll have lots of

different conversions YouTube

subscribers um web forms click to calls

click to emails actual phone calls

recorded and sometimes when you're

setting up a campaign um you might find

that all of them are triggered by

default or you haven't purposely

selected different ones and so the

algorithm is trying to be trained on

multiple conversion events or triggers

which is really bad it confuses the heck

out of the algorithm so you might have a

a subscriber on YouTube which is like

two bucks and then you've got a web form

that costs $400 to get filled out let's

say let's say that was the case um and

so can you see how that would be

confusing to the algorithm so if the

algorithm is trying to learn more and

more of who our ideal customers are and

what kind of psychographics they have if

you've got a YouTube subscriber over

here as a conversion event for your

campaign and you've got a lead form as

well and they're totally different

people at totally different stages then

you got to tweak your conversion

tracking get rid of all those

rudimentary you know really basic um

conversion events that are really

tricking your algorithm into thinking

that it's all these types of people when

it's not and uh you know basically that

a lowy conversion rate simp because you

don't have the algorithm working at its

best okay so definitely go through all

your conversion events your conversion

actions get rid of all the ones that you

know don't make sense for you to even

track or optimize the algorithm with for

all the other ones that you think are

cool to track but aren't necessary for

the algorithm to find better people then

just set them as secondary that's it um

but for the rest of it definitely track

your um conversions correctly track the

forms if you're using something like

what converts you can actually train the

conversion value so how much a lead was

worth to you how much money you made

from that lead and you can feed that

back to Google ads using software like

that highly recommend so as a quick

recap let's go through some of the stuff

we learned today so in order to improve

your conversion rate for your Google ads

and how to fix it we've gone through

irrelevant keywords for search campaigns

we've gone through ad copy and some tips

and tangible actionable items on how to

actually fix that your landing page

having a look at you know why it's not

converting and the steps in order to

take to improve the conversion rate for

that some tracking tools there audience

signals mainly around display and

performance Max and the different inar

market segments and you can even go into

job titles and things like that and then

you've got your conversion tracking

which is actually quite an important one

you know a lot of these should be reason

number one but they're all equally

important and you know these are just

the steps you've got to take in order to

troubleshoot all of that so you know at

the end of the day these might seem like

small adjustments um but they make a

huge difference when you're looking at

your conversion rate is probably the

most important metric for you to focus

on and so definitely take the time to go

through each of these and yeah good luck

let me know how you go and I'll see you

in the next episode thanks