Google Ads Aren’t Working For You? (here’s why) – Top 5 Mistakes

If Google Ads aren’t working for you, it’s probably because they’re set up to waste money on one of these 5 mistakes. In this video I show the top 5 mistakes people make when generating leads from Google Ads (and give a solution to fix each one).

Mistake #1: Relying too much on Automations

Google is a marketplace. It has thousands upon thousands of advertisers. Some advertise smart. Some… not so smart. Google gets paid in any case.

In reality, Google AI is not that advanced to handle your campaigns as effectively as a human would. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a need for ad management services.

So if you want to make your campaigns profitable, you need a human to manage them. Can be you, can be your ad manager, or you both – the key is to keep an eye that your ad system is on track, and that it’ll not fall apart.

What can you do now?

Do yourself a favor & pause all your “automated” campaigns. And don’t start new ones until you (or your ad manager) start regularly checking in with your campaigns.

Mistake #2: Stuffing lots of different keywords in one ad group

When researching keywords, you’ve likely tried to find all the relevant ones from moment one. And although it’s good todo that during research, it’s not good to “just throw them all together in your account & start running”.

Here’s why: Not all keywords are the same. Some represent people who want to make a transaction, others represent people who want information. Some have a higher Cost Per Click, some have a lower Cost Per Click. Some are relevant to your ad message, some are less relevant.

You get the the gist… If you stuff them all together & bid equally on all of them – it’s like inviting homeless people to a client meeting. (Yes, they’re all people. But it’s not the best idea to have them all in one room).

Start your campaigns from only the most relevant keywords. Make them work, and slowly add others later.

Mistake #3: Showing generic ads to different prospects

Let me ask you: do all your customers buy for the same reason? Do they have the exact same life situation? (probably not..)

If different keywords represent people in different life situations & with different reasons to buy, isn’t it logical to make your Ad call out a specific type of prospect in a relatable for them manner?

Well, it is logical. But too many times I see people showing the exact same generic message to different customer avatars across different campaigns & ad groups.

Here’s what you can do: Identify which keywords represent different customer segments & create ads addressing key pains & desires of that segment.

Mistake #4: Sending people to a poor landing page

The problem here is the similar to what I’ve described in the previous point, only with one addition…

Apart from making sure the landing page message speaks to your prospective customer, you also need to make sure you’ve structured the page for in a way that makes it easy for that person to take action then & there.?(You want to exclude information & links that are irrelevant to getting a decision from that user).

Solution: look up on Google or YT “elements of high converting landing pages”. Then look at competitor pages in your niche. Bookmark the best ones, so you can use them as reference when creating your new landing page.

Mistake #5: Not keeping track of your Google Ads results & experiments

In point #1 we’ve discussed how important is regularly checking in with your campaigns & optimize for performance.

And to make your optimizations really effective, you need to not only know which keywords, ads & landing pages bring you the best leads, but also keep track of your experiments over time (so you can see which experiments, optimizations & message angles you’ve tested, and what patterns you recognized).

Solution: use a Google Doc to log in comments about performance each week. You can refer to this doc when optimizing next week (or when delegating campaign management).

Summary:

1. Relying too much on Automations.
2. Stuffing lots of different keyword in one ad group.
3. Showing generic ads to different prospects.
4. Sending people to poor landing page.
5. Not keeping track of your results & experiments.

Closing thoughts:

At this point you may be thinking that it’s all because you don’t have enough time to learn Google Ads & test this stuff.

The solution? Use a shortcut!

Instead of spending weeks on learning this stuff & then testing on your own ad budget, go speak to a Google Ads expert which already found a way to make this work. It'll help you get a return much faster than any online guide.