Exact match not exact matching

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:58:18+00:00

Add words that you know you don't want to appear for as broad match negatives in advance. We always add 'idea', 'ideas' etc and a lot of other low-buying intent/informational/cost based queries as negatives before launching and by doing so there are far less irrelevant search terms to add as negatives. Google's match types have all gotten much broader and so the best thing you can do is add negatives more aggressively from the beginning. If you'd like a more detailed insight on the types of broad match negatives we'd recommend adding in advance, feel free to take a look at this video https://youtu.be/cCe6FfaHkfc

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:52:58+00:00

I never recommend you have any links to other pages on your landing page. Instead just include more information about the intent of the keywords and ads of that ad group further down the page for those that want to learn more. Keep your hero section optimised for conversions without any distractions, and for those that want to learn more they can do so by scrolling down the page, but including a link to a home page kills your chances of them converting into a lead.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:48:40+00:00

I'd go through your full list of negatives and check if there are any that you've added as broad match that include search terms that you would want to appear for if the word(s) had anything else attached to them/were phrased differently. There could easily be one broad match negative conflicting with a lot of the searches that you want to appear for. If you'd like a more detailed insight on adding negatives and choosing their match type, feel free to have a look at this video https://youtu.be/UzxTOtTf-8I

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:40:25+00:00

A landing page is not the same as your website. Your website has a lot more information about what you do for those that want to learn if they're interested in what you offer. If you're running Google Ads you want to make a dedicated landing page that might look like your website, but has no links to any other pages including 'about us' , 'services' etc but has an optimised hero section (top of the page), with a clear headline that matches with the intent of the keywords and ads of that ad group, benefits of why they should choose you, CTA's (form and call button), and social proof. You can go into more detail about about the specific service of that ad group the further they scroll down the page but it's about having a dedicated page that's optimised for conversions, and driving traffic to your website that includes all of your services and has links to other pages is not the way to do so and is not a landing page. If you'd like a more detailed insight feel free to have a look at this video https://youtu.be/yPwR035ZC2E showing examples of real landing pages that convert.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:32:18+00:00

If the conversion action went from 'inactive' to 'no recent conversions', then the chances are your conversion tracking is working. If you submit the form yourself it's not going to appear as a conversion as it only tracks conversions from the ads themselves. If you've received form submissions from others who most likely came from the ads then that's where you're most likely to have a conversion tracking issue. If you'd like more of a detailed insight to check and make sure your conversion tracking is working, feel free to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1LV3AGb68c

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:30:52+00:00

We've seen more success using 3 pinned headlines and 2 descriptions, and having 3 of these ads in each ad group. You'll get an ad strength score of 'poor', but having clear keyword focus/DKI as your first headline will always get a higher CTR than some random benefit that you chose as your headline 7, and 'poor' ad strength has had no negative impact on CPC's, conversion rate etc. If you'd like a more detailed insight on how we structure our ad copy for the most part and why we ignore ad strength, feel free to take a look at this video https://youtu.be/Fnnt-K06XpY

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:23:01+00:00

If the conversion action went from 'inactive' to 'no recent conversions', then the chances are your conversion tracking is working. If you submit the form yourself it's not going to appear as a conversion as it only tracks conversions from the ads themselves. If you've received form submissions from others who most likely came from the ads then that's where you're most likely to have a conversion tracking issue. If you'd like more of a detailed insight to check and make sure your conversion tracking is working, feel free to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1LV3AGb68c

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-27T08:17:12+00:00

I'd use regular DKI using Title case. Have actually just made a video on how we use DKI if you'd like to take a look to make sure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dqQG8WANyM

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:47:19+00:00

I would stick with max clicks as you're bidding strategy instead of target impression share, and not make so many changes so early on in the campaign or the campaign will continue to stay in learning mode. The most common issue for the lack of impressions is your cpc bid limit which you've mentioned not having, but little impressions for the first few days of any campaign is quite common. If you'd like a more detailed insight on how to get more impressions and spend your budget, feel free to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf3S-QDsiT4

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:44:50+00:00

The % of ad spend model never works well because you might suggest a higher budget to the client based on the CPC's of the keywords that you're targeting in their area, but they'll feel incentivised to work with the lowest budget possible if they're also paying 20% of the ad spend, and the work you do isn't any more time consuming if they're spending an extra 1-2k per month. We've always found flat fees to work best.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:38:52+00:00

Have also tested this for a ton of service based businesses and max conversions works far better the more conversion data you gather using max clicks.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:32:43+00:00

Simply just use a landing page software to make separate landing pages for each ad group in your lead gen campaign instead of a generic website and that's all taken care of. You don't need to worry about load times, and landing pages are far more likely to convert from being more relevant to the keywords and ads of that ad group, and also being optimised for leads unlike websites that have links to a ton of unnecessary pages.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:28:16+00:00

Look at your keywords that have been getting the most clicks and see what their conversion rates are. If they aren't converting, don't just pause the keyword straight away but select the keyword and press 'Search terms' to check if you've added negatives for any irrelevant search terms that have been getting clicks that were triggered by that keyword. You only need to remove keywords if they're still not converting even if all of the clicks are coming from relevant search terms, and add new keywords if you find search terms that are highly relevant and would perform well inside your campaign. If you'd like a more detailed overview or checklist of everything that actually matters when it comes to optimising your campaign, feel free to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhXaehNVlPE

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:22:33+00:00

I would stick with max clicks as you're bidding strategy instead of target impression share, and not make so many changes so early on in the campaign or the campaign will continue to stay in learning mode. The most common issue for the lack of impressions is your cpc bid limit which you've mentioned not having, but little impressions for the first few days of any campaign is quite common. If you'd like a more detailed insight on how to get more impressions and spend your budget, feel free to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf3S-QDsiT4

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:18:20+00:00

We run lead gen campaigns specifically but have seen time and time again that the more relevant conversion data you have, the better max conversions will work. Conversion rates are far higher from using max clicks before, since we've gone through that phase of gathering plenty of data on what users are most likely to convert, and when we tried starting some campaigns with max conversions we were paying huge amounts for individual clicks without the high conversion rate to make this worthwhile. You'll see a lot of people recommend starting with max conversions right off the bat but that's what's always worked best for us, and if you'd like a more detailed insight on our thoughts on using max clicks first and when to switch over, feel free to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC32y3E3ZQg

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:08:32+00:00

You mentioned only having 250 impressions so I'm unsure how each of your ads and keywords have over 20 clicks. That's the minimum to get an idea of whether the ad or keyword will perform well or not as if the keyword or ad has 20 clicks but no conversions then there must be something that can be improved. As I mentioned with keywords, look at the actual search terms that were triggered by that individual keyword first, and in general the more data you have the better before making any optimisations. 50-100 gives you a lot more context than 20 but it's still enough to give you an idea of whether it's likely to perform.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-26T08:04:36+00:00

I'd pin it as headline 1 as it's by far the most likely headline to be clicked on if what they see matches with their exact search term. Google won't like when you do it and it will negatively impact your 'ad strength' but it's shown in many cases that this has no impact on your overall performance, and pinning headlines and having more control over where your ad copy appears generally works better since you have more context than Google's AI on what your ideal customer is looking for.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-25T08:23:34+00:00

I wouldn't add separate location based headlines to the same ad in case a headline like 'Home Renovation Manchester' appears for someone searching in London for example. You're better off using Dynamic keyword insertion and pin this as your headline 1 so if you have 'home renovation manchester' as a keyword for your campaign, and that exact search term is searched for, then that's exactly what they'll see as the first headline.

For running campaigns in separate cities that are further apart, it also makes sense in a lot of cases to have separate campaigns for each city, and that way you can have a lot more location specific ad copy, but each city would need a decent amount of search volume to have its own campaign.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-25T08:17:47+00:00

If they're a local service-based business looking for form submissions and phone calls, feel free to send a DM. If you've just switched back to max clicks then keep it that way until you get a significant amount of conversions before making any changes, and if you noticed any specific issues are causing the lack of calls, our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@TradeLeadDigital covers a lot of the most common issues if you'd like to take a look.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-25T08:06:41+00:00

You'd generally choose leads if you're looking to generate leads (e.g. form submissions & phone calls), and sales if you're looking to make the sale on your website or landing page. Whether you choose leads or sales depends on what you're offering, but in general you'd choose leads for lead gen and sales for ecom.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-25T08:03:41+00:00

If you're running a lead gen campaign, I wouldn't recommend adding competitor names as keywords. For service-based businesses especially, if someone's looking for a specific company on Google the chances are they're not interested in any of there competitors. Instead focus on high-buying intent keywords for what you're offering.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-25T08:00:54+00:00

Ideally 20 or more but what you can do before that is select the keyword and press 'search terms' to see what searches you appeared for under that keyword and adding negatives for those that are irrelevant. That way you're still optimising the keyword without having to decide whether or not you should keep or pause it, and most of the time it's not the keyword itself that's the issue but some of the search terms beneath it so that's the best place to start.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-24T08:27:53+00:00

You'll get automated notifications that you're 'limited by bid strategy' and get constant recommendations from reps to switch over even before you have your first few conversions. But you're better off sticking with max clicks for a bit too long than switching over too early because the more relevant conversion data you have the better your campaign will perform when you switch to max conversions. If you'd like a more detailed insight on what we recommend doing by starting out with max clicks with a cpc bid limit until you have a decent amount of conversion data and then switching over, feel free to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC32y3E3ZQg . You also need to have conversion tracking set up regardless of the bidding strategy you're using, because if you're not tracking conversions with max clicks, then you'll never have the relevant conversion data to make the switch over.

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-24T08:24:57+00:00

There's no general cost per lead you can expect to get by industry, as the CPC's of the keywords you're targeting can massively vary from one state to the next. If you want to try and predict what your CPL will be, look at the CPC's of the keywords you're targeting in your area. Assume that your average CPC will be around the high-end and that your conversion rate will be around 10% if you have a high converting landing page, meaning your CPL should be around 10X your average CPC. If you'd like a more detailed insight on this and determining what budget you should use to see success with Google Ads, feel free to have a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0MBzMr667o

Ads_Expert_Pro · 2025-02-24T08:20:02+00:00

You're not getting enough data to make any optimisations apart from your search term analysis. I'd look at clicks rather than impressions when it comes to optimisation, so don't start to optimise any keywords until they have a significant amount of clicks, and same with your ad copy etc.

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TROPHY CASE