To be fair, asking why your google ads aren’t converting is a bit like how long is a piece of string. Google ads has a lot of moving parts and it can be something really simple as missing the one thing you should have turned off, like the auto apply recommendations. [Hot tip: turn it off!]
But more often than not, we see some really common issues throughout the different accounts we have worked with.
If Google says you’re good, you’re probably not good.
Your website isn’t pulling it’s weight
When thinking about where you send your traffic from Google Ads, take advantage of having them land *exactly* where they need to be to make that conversion.
Sending traffic to a homepage and having someone need to navigate to the product page they are looking for is risky. The risk lies in the many opportunities to get distracted by any other menu option and shiny things on the site. Opportunity for distraction is high and they may eventually forget what they were there for and leave without converting.
One of the biggest factors in Google Ads converting at a higher rate than organic is that you can push that traffic right onto the page where they convert. Ads can bring as much high intent traffic to your site, but they can’t make someone take that final conversion action.
We can’t stress this enough. Make it easy for them to convert with you. Here are some things to check if you suspect your website is letting you down:
🖥 Website speed. 53% of mobile traffic will leave a site if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds. Check your site speed here and make sure to check both desktop and mobile. The average industry benchmark is around 6 seconds. The quicker the better.
🖥 Are you seeing good traffic to your site with a low bounce rate? It sounds like you are getting the right traffic but there might be something stopping them from making a purchase. Things like a complicated cart process, unclear shipping details or high order value to obtain free shipping can all be factors in people not converting. User experience and the customer’s path to purchase are worth analysing to make sure you remove any barrier to purchase
🖥 Double check you have used the right url in your ads. There is a lot to do in a campaign build and it is super easy to accidentally put the wrong url in your build.
Surprise! You are converting, you just don’t know it.
This is the biggest error I see in ad accounts and it’s a fair mistake to make. Google Ads allows you to create conversion events that really reflect how your audience is interacting with your ads and business, which means there is more to configure.
It’s SO important to get this right. Being able to accurately track the performance of your campaigns not only helps you direct strategy, optimise and report, but it trains the algorithm of what action you want from your campaigns to achieve.
When setting up your ad account, take advantage of Google Ads support to guide you on this or chat to an expert and make sure you have google analytics set up. Google Analytics gives you another layer of data to cross reference and help solve the mysterious ways of the world wide web.
Make sure to think about the most important actions you want people to take on your website, these are the things you want to track.
Your relevance is poor
Relevance is really important in Google Ads. As an advertiser you place ads on Google to appear when the user is there, so thinking about how people find your business and if Google is the right place for you is important. Is google ads relevant to how someone may discover your business.
Message matching is also a really important element and underpins all good campaigns. Matching the search queries to the ad copy to the landing page increases the relevance to the person searching and also tells Google you are the right advertisers for the keyword and will rank your ad higher. Hopefully, your keyword strategy holds some brilliant high intent keywords, using your ad copy to match this query and then matching to the right landing page helps increase your relevance and conversions.
At each stage of discovery, remember to match your messaging to the search query and let people know you have the solution to their problem.
So, what now?
We see the huge advantages of including Google Ads into digital marketing strategies for our clients and it’s a powerful tool to connect with people in their moments of intent. There are many reasons that can be causing low converting Google Ads, so make sure you keep analysing and optimising.There is always opportunities for improvement.
Thankfully, there are many options to help your Google Ads if they are not converting and set your campaigns up for success!
Thinking about Google Ads for your business but don’t have the time to learn it? >>> Click here
But if you are interested in some serious upskilling, head right this way >>> Click here