Google Search Ads campaigns, not surprisingly, are campaigns that show ads in Google search results when a person is searching for something. They are mainly based on a text ad format where you will create a selection of Headlines and Descriptions, and the ad will link to a specific page or set of pages in your website.

If you use some of the Google enhancement capabilities for this ad type, it might also include a logo image, phone number links, pricing tiles, store location links and a few more that you can select.

Reason 1: You are using Broad Match Keywords.

Despite the advice you may have from Google, Broad Match keywords are ideally avoided if you already know what kinds of keywords would work best for you. Google recommends Broad Match because it gives their system permission to spend time (and your money) discovering what does or doesn’t drive conversion for your website, according to the objectives you have set.

By using Broad Match keywords, many of the searches that show your ads may be less relevant, or even completely irrelevant, until Google learns, eventually. The learning process often never completes, so you may always spend money on irrelevant searches this way.

It means that using [exact match] keywords instead of Broad Match are most likely to both render the result you want AND avoid wasting time and money on discovery.

The only time we would suggest trying Broad Match keywords is when the actual number of monthly searches for your “service x” is very small. You’ll need to prove that with some research and testing first though. First up, assume you DO have market volume. You can always broaden your keywords later to experiment, and Google provides a system functionality to support split tests like this.

For the technically minded:

Our recommendations about using [exact match] keywords are subject to your budget reaching less than 80% Search Impression Share within the set of keywords you’ve selected. This is a tactical approach to maximise performance. If you’re not sure what this means, that’s what we are here for.

In summary: we think that using Broad Match keywords teaches Google at your expense. Avoid this if your market volume is bigger than you can reach with your existing budget. Use [exact match] as much as possible and supplement with “phrase match”.

Reason 2: You don’t have a valid conversion objective.

Objectives are critical. Your Search campaign must be able to achieve an objective of some sort, and generally just getting traffic isn’t good enough.

Traffic objectives will lead to Google showing your Ads to people who are most likely to Click. That sounds like it might be OK, but actually: the people most likely to Click are often not the same as the people most likely to Convert (Buy, Call, Fill in a Form etc).

For that reason, you ought to set some sort of Conversion objective for your Ads to work towards.

But herein lies some complications:

For any conversion to work as an objective in Ads, it needs to occur frequently enough to teach Google’s AI system who the right clicker is, and how to get them there. If it doesn’t occur frequently, or if there is no historical data about this conversion in your account, the tactic may not work.

Objectives that are too easy to achieve (like say viewing a page) are also too weak and again, really won’t help Google’s AI figure out who is best to send toward your true business goal.

Conversion objectives in a new Google Ads account, or new Conversions Objectives never used before may cause poor performance initially. Initial setup may require that you choose a different objective for a short while until you have some numbers in the account.

In summary: if your Google Ads Search campaign isn’t achieving what you want, it may be because your conversions are either inappropriately set, not occur frequently enough, or have no historical data.

Reason 3: You didn’t invest enough budget.

A common mistake we encounter is where Google Search Ads budgets are set without considering average Cost Per Click and Cost Per Acquisition data.

Before starting any campaign, you will need to understand roughly what your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is. This is the average dollar cost invested in Ads it takes to win a Conversion. If say your service is worth $1000, then it may take $100 worth of marketing to win a customer for that service. 10% of revenue spent on ads isn’t unusual – but it will vary from industry to industry. You’ll need to figure out what that cost ought to be for your business.

Let’s say your service was worth $5000, then you may need to invest at least $500 per month in Ads to win ONE customer.

Expecting to win 10 new customers from $500 per month invested in Search Ads would be unreasonable.

So, your investment in Search Ads must at least be in keeping with your expected CPA and the total number of customers you hope to win.

Unfortunately, because Google uses AI learning, low budget investment also works against you from a conversion frequency perspective. Not enough conversions mean not being able to learn how to deliver more. AI learning will work to your benefit in the right circumstances, but not without enough supporting data and investment.

Lack of investment also works against you when your average expected Cost Per Click is high. You should have enough budget to win at least 10 clicks per day at your average Cost Per Click for AI-assisted learning to be effective at that level too.

In summary: CPC and CPA are factors you need to consider when setting your budget for Google Search Ads. Both need to be enough and in keeping with the expected result.

There are more reasons why a Search Ads campaign might not work as expected. If you need help figuring out why, just reach out to RankPower Ltd.

We are best matched to support businesses and advertisers who invest between $50K and $4M in marketing on Google per annum. We are also happy to help with smaller projects as one-off training or consulting.