Every week I review Google Ad accounts. I love it – there’s nothing better for me than digging deep into the data to unpick the untapped areas of opportunity in an account – Geeky I know 😊
It’s not unusual for the business owner to see anywhere between a 50% and 500% increase in lead volume from the discoveries I make in a Performance Review… and scarily, the accounts I review are often run by other agencies!
Today, I want to cover two metrics that can steer you off course because I realise that many Google advertisers are, either missing the data they need in their account… or don’t know which numbers to focus on.
A new client of ours recently emailed me a month-end report from their previous agency. Conversion stats were very low, so the focus was instead placed on the high volume of clicks and the super-low Cost Per Click that their activity had produced.
It all sounded very positive and the client had been ticking along like this for some time, before questioning why his revenue was on the decline.
There seems to be some real mixed thinking about Clicks and Cost Per Click, so I hope this helps you;
Clicks;
Clicks alone do nothing but cost you money. Clicks don’t pay the bills and they certainly shouldn’t be used as a barometer for success.
In fact, in the early weeks of a client working with us, they typically receive less clicks – shock horror! Why? Because we’re stripping out the crap. All those keywords that have been getting clicks, costing you money but NOT delivering conversions will be turned off or turned down.
This now gives us more budget to spend on the keywords and Ads that do convert 😊
Cost Per Click;
If you’re account has low competition, generic, non-converting terms in it – guess what – those keywords are going to be cheap… No one else wants to bid on them!
Quick question. What would you prefer – to spend £700 for 500 clicks (£1.40 cost per click) and receive 10 enquiries or spend £700 getting 400 clicks (£1.75 cost per click) and receive 16 enquiries? Of course, you want the extra leads.
Let your uneducated competitors fixate on the ‘vanity metrics’ while you out bid them and cash-in!
Here’s a Case Study from a client of ours;
Pixal inherited this client’s account around Christmas 2018. We quickly implemented improved conversion tracking and continued to run their previous agencies set up. This allowed us to gather more accurate data and get a true feel for the account’s performance – There’s no point steaming in, until you can first identify the fixes that need to be made.
It quickly became apparent that there was a lot of wasted spend occurring. We conducted a full Keyword export and trimmed out any underperforming Keywords.
For example, some individual Keywords had spent hundreds of pounds and only converted once, or not at all. This represented an unworkable Cost Per Lead for the client.
After going to work on the account, trimming a lot of fat, and weighting budget towards Keywords and Ads proven to convert, the stats all started to go in the right direction.
We focused heavily on fine tuning all bid amounts, Ad Schedules (to spend budget at the highest converting hours of the day – and days of the week), Demographic Performance (certain age ranges were better quality than others), Geo-Targeting and individual Device Bids.
The fine tuning was all based around Conversion data. Not on the amount of Clicks, number of Impressions or Cost Per Click.
Comparing those same Campaigns, January 2019 to January 2020, we had received just over one third of last January’s Impressions and just over half the number of clicks. Our cost per click was also higher. Bad right?… Wrong!
The important metrics paint a very different picture;
Our Click Through Rate had increased, due to higher quality traffic… This higher quality traffic improved Conversion Rates, and this in turn allowed us to exactly DOUBLE the month’s leads and enquiries (from 45 to 90) at a lower Cost Per Conversion than before.
Could we have doubled the monthly lead flow into this client’s business, by focusing on Clicks and Cost Per Click? Definitely not!
If you’re using Google Ads, it’s very likely you are tolerating a far lower return on your investment than you should be. Even if you’re using another agency to run it for you.
If you would like me to carry out a full and comprehensive Performance Review of your Google Ads activity, for FREE, just see our offer below.
Would like a FREE Performance Review of your Google or Facebook Ads activity, from a multi-award-winning expert?
We’ll give you good, honest feedback on your paid ads performance, including what’s good, what’s not so good and the untapped potential in your account, to get more customers each day/week/month… without spending a penny more on clicks!
Just call us on 01420 408054 or email Steve on steve@pixal.co.uk