Before we get started. A word regrading broad match terms. Google wants you to use broad keywords when you set up your account to get you cheaper clicks however, broad keywords typically generate a lot of irrelevant traffic. When you have a tight budget the last thing you want to do is spend money on low quality traffic.
As an example; you don’t want to advertise on the word “termite” – it’s too broad. This term has no commercial intent behind it – meaning we do not know what the searchers intent was when they performed this search. When building out campaigns you want to be sure that the keywords you are using are service based. “pest control for termites” or “termite inspection services”.
You also want to use negative words such as “buy”, “DIY”, “how to” terms where the intent is NOT needing your service. This will prevent your ads from showing up for searches using those terms.
Here is a list of the most common reasons your pest control ads are not generating business for you.
Wrong bid strategy – Don’t start with a maximized bid strategy unless you have around 30 conversions per month in your campaign. Google needs conversion data in order to generate more conversions. In many cases you need to try a different strategy first (maximized clicks, CPC or impression share) until you generate at least 20+ conversions a month.
Low monthly budget – If you try and target too many keywords in your ad groups and do not have a sufficient budget you will not collect enough data. We need data on keyword performance to determine which keywords are good ones and which are wasting money. If your budget is too low keywords will not show consistency and therefore it will take longer to generate accurate data.
Broad keywords - If you go too broad with your keywords will cost you in the end. Keyword such as “bugs” will likely show your ad for searches that have nothing to do with hiring a pest control company. Be careful!
Not enough ad groups
- The rule of thumb is to have a least 1 ad group per service you offer. As an example; "termite services" and "termite inspections" are two different services. There should be an ad group for each topic.
All key terms in one ad group
– When keywords are all in one ad group you cannot write specific enough ads to appeal to a certain need. You also can not send users to the appropriate page based on their search query. This will impact your ability to generate conversions.
Poor quality score
– Google gives your ad group a quality score based on the keywords in the ad group, in the keywords in the ad and the keywords on the landing page. If your ad groups, keywords and landing pages are relevant to each other your quality score will be high. Higher quality scores equals cheaper clicks.
Not using negative keywords - Use negative keywords carefully. If you add the word “free” to your negative keyword list on the campaign level and you want an ad to run for “free termite inspection” your add will not run for that key term. Used properly negative keywords will save you money and weed out irrelevant searchers.
Too many distractions
- When sending users to your landing page you
want them to contact you. Everything else is a distraction. Social media icons, pop ups etc… all take away from the focus of generating leads. Make your preferred method of contact is the obvious choice and remove distractions. If that is not possible then create landing pages specifically for paid ads.
All traffic to home page – If you send every ad group to the home page you will have a harder time converting searchers into leads. If they search “termite inspection” and you send them to the home page you are not addressing that person’s specific problem.
Not retargeting - You should set aside a small budget to retarget everyone who has come to your website. You want to do this so that your ads show up on other websites. This reminds the visitor to come back and it saves you money. You pay less per click on a retargeting ad than you would if they were to search again on Google and click your ad.
Too many bid strategy changes
- When you add to or lower your budget or change the bid strategy Google will go through a new learning phase. This can take up to 5 days to kick in. Too many constant changes do not give Google the time it needs to collect data.
Other strategies to consider
Discovery ads to customers that visited competitors. Instead of competing for keywords on Google try using discovery ads to target customers who have recently visited your competitor’s website or based on their previous searches related to your business.
Use click to call only ads. Service based businesses
-Target customers on their mobile devices with call only ads. You can set these up yourself. We offer a
course that takes you step by step. One easy way to get onto Google quickly is to set up call only ads. If you would like to set them up yourself you can do so here.
