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Are you struggling to get conversions from your Google Ads Campaign? As someone whose had plenty of experience with Google Ads, I know how frustrating it can be when your hard work doesn’t translate into success. That’s why I’ve interviewed our own Paid Media Specialist, Tony, to find out the top 10 reasons why your Google Ads campaign isn’t converting.
There are a lot of factors that can impact the success of a Google Ads campaign. Discover 10 common reasons why Google Ad campaigns don’t convert and how to fix them in this article.
Poor Keyword Match Type Selection
When it comes to running a successful Google Ads campaign, choosing the right keyword match type is critical.
Poor keyword selection can result in your ads displaying to the wrong audience, or not displaying at all. This can lead to wasted ad spend and a lack of conversions.
More often than not, advertisers choose keywords that are too broad, which leads to their ads being shown to people who aren’t interested in their products or services.
Imagine you’re running ads for a vegan restaurant and you choose to target keywords like “food” and “restaurant”. These are far too general, and as a result, your ads might end up showing up for people who are looking for fast food restaurants.
In this example, it’s better to narrow your keyword search and use keywords like “vegan restaurant near me” because then your ad will appear to people actually looking for the particular service you offer.
On top of this, if you’re not using negative keywords, then this will hurt your performance. Negative keywords tell Google Ads when you DO NOT want to show up on search results. For example, if you add “fast food” as a negative keyword, when a consumer searches that on Google, your ad won’t appear. This helps keep your ad relevant and showing only to people who actually want your service or product.
Pro Tip: use Google Keyword Planner or SEMRush to find relevant and high search volume keywords.
If you make sure your keywords aren’t too broad and if you use negative keywords, you can ensure that poor keyword selection isn’t one of the reasons your Google Ads isn’t working.
Poor Ad Copy
Poor ad copy can turn off potential customers and lead to wasted ad spend. The goal of your ad copy should be to match the keywords you’ve selected and to compel potential customers to click on your ad.
For example, let’s say you’re running a Google Ads campaign for a new line of vegan protein powder and you’re targeting the keyword “vegan protein powder for women”. If your ad copy simply says “buy our vegan protein powder” it doesn’t match with your keyword. However, if you write “Buy Our Vegan Protein Powder for Women” you’re going to get more clicks on the ad.
Why is this?
Well think about the last time you did research for a product you wanted to buy. When you searched on Google, I’m guessing you were more likely to click on search results whose copy more closely matched what you were searching for.
The closer the copy matches the keyword phrase you’re targeting, the more likely it is that your CTR will be higher and your conversion rate will subsequently increase.
The second most important thing you’ll want to do is test different variations of copy. The more you test, the more Google has to work with, and the faster you’ll succeed on the platform.
Pro tip: You can pin the important headlines to entice your audience and convince them to read the rest of your ad.
So, to sum up, you’re going to want to make sure your ad copy matches your keyword terms closely and that you test multiple variations of your copy.
Ineffective Ad Targeting
As a consumer, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen ads that are completely irrelevant to me. It’s frustrating and, quite frankly, a waste of ad spend for the company. As a business owner or marketer running a Google Ads campaign, it’s important that your ads are targeting the right audience to maximise your ROI.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is targeting too broad of an audience. While it may seem like a good idea to cast a wide net to reach as many people as possible, this can actually hurt your campaign by showing your ads to people who have no interest in your product or service.
The best first remedy for this is to look at your keywords. Is your target audience searching for the terms you’re using as keywords? If not, you might need to update your keywords to reach the right audience.
Your next best tool in the toolbox is to utilise interests and behaviours in Google Ads to target audiences that are more likely to convert. Google Ads also offers audience insights, which can help you gain a deeper understanding of your audience’s interests, behaviours, and demographics so that you can refine your targeting settings.
As you generate results from different interests, behaviours, demographics, and keywords you can begin to increase the amount you’re willing to bid for each, which ultimately increases your results. Think of it like spending more of your budget on just the things that are working best.
Lack of Conversion Tracking
As the saying goes, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” In the world of Google Ads, if you don’t track conversions, it’s equivalent to running a 10km race with your eyes closed…who knows where you’ll end up.
Conversion tracking helps to identify which keywords and ads are driving the most sales or leads, and it allows businesses to adjust their campaigns accordingly.
Without conversion tracking, you’re left in the dark about the effectiveness of your campaigns, which can lead to wasted ad spend and missed opportunities for growth.
If your Google Ads aren’t converting, I would highly recommend troubleshooting your conversion tracking and making sure it’s setup correctly. Most developers or Google/GTM Analysts will be able to help you with this. If you need further help on this, you can reach out to us.
Poor Landing Page Experience
So, you’re generating a tonne of traffic from your Google Ads campaigns and it seems that they’re working really well, but there’s one thing you just can’t seem to seize… conversions.
If this is you, then you’ve got a landing page problem. A poor landing page experience can make or break your campaign.
Have you ever clicked on an ad for a product you’re interested in, only to be taken to a landing page that was slow to load, difficult to navigate, and provided little information about the product itself?
I bet you were frustrated. And I bet you didn’t purchase whatever that business was trying to sell you. As consumers, we want an easy to navigate, fast to load, mobile friendly and highly informative website when we click on an ad.
That’s why it’s important to take time crafting your landing page.
To improve your landing page experience, consider making changes such as simplifying the layout, using high-quality images and graphics, providing clear and concise information about your product or service, and including a call-to-action that encourages users to take the next step.
If you want to learn more about this, you can read our article about the anatomy of a high converting landing page.
Misaligned Bidding Strategy
When you first started your Google Ads campaign, you probably had a clear goal in mind. However, if that goal isn’t aligned with your bidding strategy, then you’re in a snag.
Google Ads provides various bidding strategies that you can use to optimise your campaigns. Let’s take a look at a few:
- Manual CPC Bidding: This is a basic bidding strategy where the advertiser sets the maximum amount they are willing to pay for a click on their ad. The advertiser has full control over the bidding process and can adjust bids manually to optimise their ad performance.
- Maximise Clicks: With this strategy, Google Ads automatically sets your bids to help you get the most clicks within your budget.
- Maximise Conversions (Target CPA): This bidding strategy helps you to maximise conversions while keeping your cost per conversion within a set limit.
- Target ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): This bidding strategy helps you to optimise your campaigns for maximum return on investment (ROI). It sets bids to maximise conversion value while maintaining a target return on ad spend.
- Maximise Conversions: This bidding strategy automatically sets bids to help you get the most conversions within your budget.
If your goal was to generate sales revenue from product purchases on your e-commerce store, then your best bet would be to use the Target ROAS bidding strategy. On the other hand, if your Google Ads account hasn’t tracked any conversions yet and you’re starting out, then you’re probably more focused on traffic, in which case it might be better to pick a Maximise Clicks objective.
If your bidding strategy is misaligned with your business goals, you’re simply wasting your budget on clicks that won’t generate sales. Take the time to analyse your data, and adjust your bidding strategy accordingly to get the best results.
Not Enough Ad Spend
One of the most common reasons why Google Ads campaigns fail to produce the desired results is not allocating enough ad spend. It’s important to remember that Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, which means that you pay for each click on your ad.
If you make the mistake of setting a very low budget because you want to test the waters, you’re going to find that your ad campaigns won’t receive enough impressions and clicks, and therefore not enough conversions.
If you’re experiencing poor results with your Google Ads campaigns, it may be worth re-evaluating your ad spend. Consider increasing your budget to allow your ads to reach a larger audience and generate more clicks and conversions.
If you’re worried about spending too much, you can use Google Ads Keyword Planner tool to estimate your budget and ensure that you’re allocating enough funds to your campaigns. On top of this, Google Ads works with daily spend, so you can monitor your spend and results on a daily basis.
Competitor Activity
Competitors bidding for the same keywords as you will drive up the price per click. If the cost per click is higher, this also means that your CPA (cost per acquisition/conversion) will be higher, ultimately leading to less sales revenue with the same budget.
On top of this, if a competitor is bidding or spending more than you, or if they have better quality scores and optimisation levels across their campaigns, they may show up more often than you in the search results (and higher up than you in the search pages). This means more conversion opportunities for them and less for you.
What can you do about it?
First, make sure that your campaigns are optimised as much as they possibly can be (in particular focus on bidding, spend, targeting and quality score metrics). Then, focus on improving your ad copy and relevance scores. Finally, tighten your keywords and get super specific.
Unfortunately, if you have many competitors bidding for keywords in your space, there isn’t a lot you can do about the cost per click being high, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in front of your competitors.
Not Enough Testing
Test, test test, test. Alright, have I made my point?
If you’re not testing your ads regularly, you’re not giving yourself the opportunity to optimise your campaigns for better performance.
To conduct effective testing, you need to have a clear understanding of what you’re testing and why. This will help you to identify which elements of your ads are performing well and which ones need improvement. You can test different ad copy, landing pages, and targeting options to see what converts.
Google Ads Campaign Experiments tool is a great way to conduct testing. With this tool, you can create multiple versions of your campaigns and test them against each other to see which one performs better. This tool allows you to test different ad groups, keywords, bids, and targeting options to find the best combination for your business.
You can also run the tests manually if you prefer that. Either way, you need to have an obsession with testing, and if you don’t, you might just be wasting your money.
Not Using Ad Extensions
Ad extensions can help improve the performance of your ads by providing additional information to users.
Ayushi, Paid Media Specialist at RedPandas
Ad extensions are additional pieces of information that can be added to your ad, such as a phone number, address, or links to other pages on your website. These extensions can provide valuable information to potential customers and increase the likelihood of them clicking on your ad. Ultimately, they’re a great way to increase CTR, reduce CPC, and ultimately drive more sales.
Here’s a brief overview of different types of ad extensions:
- Sitelink Extensions: These extensions allow you to add additional links to specific pages on your website, giving users more options to explore your offerings.
- Callout Extensions: These extensions allow you to highlight key features or benefits of your product or service, such as free shipping, 24/7 customer service, or a money-back guarantee.
- Location Extensions: These extensions allow you to display your business address, phone number, and a map of your location, making it easier for local customers to find you.
- Call Extensions: These extensions allow users to call your business directly from your ad, which can be particularly effective for businesses that rely on phone calls for leads and sales.
- App Extensions: These extensions allow you to promote your mobile app directly within your ad, making it easier for users to download and engage with your app.
- Price Extensions: These extensions allow you to display your product or service prices directly in your ad, which can help attract customers who are actively searching for specific products or services.
- Promotion Extensions: These extensions allow you to highlight special offers, discounts, or promotions in your ad, which can help incentivise customers to take action.
If you’re not using ad extensions in your Google Ads campaign, you could be missing out on valuable opportunities to connect with potential customers and increase the performance of your ads. Take the time to explore the different types of ad extensions available and consider how they can be used to enhance your ads and improve the user experience.
Is it the strategy or the tactic?
As a marketer myself, I know firsthand how frustrating it can be to have a Google Ads campaign that just isn’t performing as expected. I’ve spent countless hours trying to optimise campaigns, adjust bids, and tweak ad copy, all in the hopes of improving performance. But the truth is, sometimes the issue isn’t with the little details, but with the overall strategy.
That’s why it’s so important to understand the various bidding strategies available in Google Ads, and how they can impact your campaign. By choosing the right strategy for your goals and budget, you can maximise your return on investment and achieve the results you’re looking for.
But it’s not just about choosing the right bidding strategy – it’s also about having compelling ad copy, targeting the right audience, tracking conversions, and continuously testing and optimising your campaigns. All of these factors work together to create a successful Google Ads campaign.
So if you’re struggling with your Google Ads campaign, don’t give up hope. Take a step back, re-evaluate your strategy, and consider implementing some of the tactics we’ve discussed. With persistence and a little bit of creativity, you can turn your underperforming campaign into a success story.
If you need assistance with your Google Ads campaign, get in touch with us.
