Effective Google Ads will help you get more clicks and leads. That, in turn, will help you grow your business. For a low competition niche, there’s a good chance you can advertise and get some sales with the right targetting.
If you’re in a medium to high competition niche then your chances of making a direct sale dwindle significantly.
That’s where you need to get smarter than the competition in how you approach Google Ads.
You’ll likely be targetting the same people but after reading this you’ll stand out from the competition. You’ll be running more effective Google Ads.
Who Can Use This Strategy?
You’re the perfect fit for this strategy if you’re in a medium to high competitive industry. Even with a niche sometimes competition is a little heavier than your analysis told you it would be.
If you’re in a competitive space then many others are bidding on your same keywords. That means the required bid to reach people can get quite high.
You have to set yourself apart from the competition if you’re bidding against them and your ad is mixed in with other competitors. Sometimes that means you’re not going to be able to put an ad up that hard sells.
With a little creativity and work on your ad and strategy your ad will stand out and you will have more effective Google Ads.
The chance you’ll increase your clicks and lead conversion will increase.
People searching terms where your ad shows up are looking at a lot of other companies. If you don’t do something to stand out then you’ll be lost in the ocean.
If you understand that a quality lead is better than an instant sale that you’re not likely to get then this strategy is for you.
Before we get into the strategy you have to understand what someone who clicks on your ad is likely seeing before they click.
What They’re Used To Seeing
When someone searches Google they’re bombarded with a big block of ads before anything else.
Many searches have up to four ads before anything is shown on the page. Not only that but there’s three more at the bottom of the search results.
No matter where your ad shows up it’s not easy to stand out.
That is, you won’t stand out if your ad is just like every other ad on the page.
It doesn’t help that nearly half of people can’t tell the difference between paid ads and organic search results (WordStream).
From glasses to business consultation there are ads for everything trying to sell you on something.
Don't want people to click on your ad? Do what everyone else is doing. Click To TweetIf you want to blend in and never stand out then stick with the same strategy everyone else is using (and getting frustrated it’s not working).
If you want to stand out, though, and make a lasting impression then you need to do something different.
The Effective Google Ads Strategy
Effective Google Ads always come down to helping. Almost everything in sales and marketing comes down to helping rather than closing or selling.
Your strategy will always start with trying to capture attention just as you would with interesting organic search results.
Intrigue
It all starts with intriguing the searcher so they want to click on your ad instead of your competitors.
While your competitors are busy trying (and failing) to sell directly to searchers with their ads you can do it differently and stand out.
Intrigue people by offering something different that offers to help them with the reason they searched.
If you’re trying to target the keyword “business consultant” then you’re sure to see a lot of others telling the searcher how awesome they are. That and they’ll try to sell you their services directly.
Not much stands out here because they’re all taking the same approach. They want you to buy or learn why they’re the best.
OK, maybe they’re not trying to sell you but they’re trying to get you as a lead so they can sell to you. The problem is that people know that’s what they’re doing so it doesn’t look helpful at all.
What would intrigue more than a straight sale ad?
Intrigue by offering something different
Helping someone in their search for “business consultant!”
You know, something like “What To Look For In A Business Consultant.”
This is just an example but you need to do something to help people in their search for a business consultant. No matter what stage of the search they’re on that’s likely to be something they would like help with.
If you’re selling glasses don’t try to sell the glasses. Promote something that helps people pick out the right pair of glasses. See how that performs as an ad over a direct sale to a product page.
Once you capture them with intrigue your ad is more likely to get clicked on than any competitors. Having effective Google Ads does come down to competition. The higher your click-through rate the better your ad performs compared to others.
You win.
There’s more though because getting the click is only half the battle.
Help with a motive
Now that you got the click your effective Google Ads aren’t truly effective until you actually convert that click into something.
If your ad offers valuable help for someone in need then you better help them.
It’s time to blow them away with content that genuinely helps them accomplish their goal of finding what they were looking for in the first place.
No sales pitches, no sales goals, just genuine help.
Yes, you’ll have to do some work for your ad by creating content for it. A good ad that leads to good content is a winning solution though.
Convert helpful content into leads
If you’re offering help then how do you get any business out of it?
This is where it gets interesting.
Don’t just create helpful content that answers all their questions. Create helpful content that helps them but offer even more comprehensive helpful content in exchange for an email address.
Just as helpful content helps you build your business in organic search results, it can help in advertising too.
Helpful content is great but if you do it right then it gets them hungry for more. That’s where you get them.
Give searchers more than what they're looking for and you're likely to capture a valuable lead. Click To TweetGo back to the glasses example. You could advertise helpful content to make it easy for people to understand the different styles to look for.
In exchange for an email address, you could offer a printable style list with an easy reference document to reference the different styles.
Now you have an extremely valuable lead in your email list that you can nurture into a valuable customer. Whether you get the initial purchase or not you have a lead that you know wears glasses.
That’s a valuable lead which is different than any other type of lead.
My case study
I was able to advertise a helpful article I wrote about what to look for in a good web designer. With my call to action towards the top (download the quick reference guide) it captured more clicks and leads.
My ad was regularly getting over 8% click-through rate as opposed to a direct sale ad that would only get just above 2%. Not only that but I would capture valuable leads in my email list and yes, I got clients through it!
These two strategies can help you create effective Google Ads that get more clicks and capture more leads for you.
Now the problem is to scale your ads into something bigger.
Scaling Your Campaign
When you’re starting out with a content-driven Google Ads strategy it’s good to start out small.
Target the right search terms in a geographic area you’re closely familiar with. That means around where you live. Starting small does help.
Understanding your audience is the most important part. Scaling your audience to different regions can be a challenge.
If you scale too fast then you’re likely to lose track of where things went wrong if your campaign performs worse. Find what works for a smaller audience and regional scale. Once you find what effective Google Ads look like for you and they start working, don’t get too excited.
If you find something that works, don't rush it and scale it up fast. Take your time. Click To TweetWhen you find what works for a certain area proceed with caution and expand it slowly. Between each time you scale your audience wait a few weeks to see if anything goes out of whack.
Seeing a change in your ads sometimes takes a bit just as it may take a few weeks to see ads start working.
If you make some changes and after testing decide the changes weren’t positive, back up a bit to what you started with. If you move slow and keep track of each change then you can reverse course if something goes bad.
Not everything will always go perfect either so be sure you don’t assume it will always go well even if it has for the past five tests.
As soon as you stop tracking your changes and waiting between is when something will go wrong.
This slow and intentional scaling up of your ad to reach more people will help you scale up your effective Google Ads.
Content Helps
Yes, good content on your website helps not only your organic search results but also how effective your paid ads are.
No matter what you’re advertising people want to know about your business and if you’re trustworthy.
There are a lot of different factors that go into being seen as trustworthy online. A well set up and active social media profiles is one way. A professional website that has good content on it is another way.
Before you venture too far into Google Ads, learn how we turn your Google Ads strategy into a financial success.
What are some effective Google Ads strategies you’ve seen work successfully?