Top 5 Reasons People Quit Google Ads

Paid Search 4th, Jun 2013

By:

A lot of people quit Google Ads because they don’t get the kinds of results they want. However, nine times out of ten, the problem is with their approach to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, not with the medium itself. Granted, sometimes PPC just isn’t right for their business, but more often than not it’s a lack of know-how that’s to blame.

1. Too many clicks, not enough on conversions

A lot of beginner PPC marketers fall into this trap. Marketers are used to trying to get their brand out there, aiming for as many clicks and impressions as possible. However, with PPC every click that doesn’t end in a sale is a net loss. As these costs add up, many people quit PPC.

However, instead of quitting, PPC marketers should just narrow their focus, by utilizing exact match, phrase match and negative keywords. Far too often do people set their keywords to broad match and call it a day, only to see their budget evaporate into thin air. Using appropriate match-types and building a negative keyword list makes it more likely that anyone clicking on an ad will convert into a lead.

2. Trouble with Quality Score

PPC ad rankings are determined by two different values: ad bid and ad Quality Score. Quality Score is a measurement of how useful your ad would be to potential consumers. Google calculates Quality scored based on a number of factors including:

  • Bounce rate
  • Alignment of ad copy with landing page content
  • Landing page ease of use

All three of these areas are often ignored by beginner PPC marketers. Bounce rate is a chronic problem for many websites. Additionally, many web designers neglect to create focused and transparent landing pages for all their ads to link to.

The result is that some PPC ads with high bids can rank low. Marketers sometimes quit at this point, because they can’t afford a higher bid and can’t get a handle on their quality score issues.

3. Disorganized Ad Groups

Ad Groups are needed to keep ads as aligned to their keywords as possible. However, they can quickly become disorganized without a lot of attention. Disorganized ad groups can result in ads running on searches for which they’re not aligned, driving bids up and driving beginners to quit.

4. Unlimited bids and too many keywords

A lot of marketers have no idea just how unlimited that unlimited bids can get. Sure, it’ll guarantee rankings, but unless a website has an astronomical conversion rate, there is no way that they’ll break even. Rookie PPC marketers tend to quit when they see their budget vacuumed up by unlimited bids. They should have at least set some limits: if a marketer needs an unlimited bid limit to rank, that marketer is targeting the wrong searches.

Instead of pruning their keyword list to get rid of underperforming keywords, many marketers just let their keyword lists run on and on. This drains their budget with poorly performing searches. Instead of adapting, novice PPC users just take a look at their average cost per conversion and quit.

5. No Conversion Tracking

Probably the biggest reason marketers don’t stick with Google Ads is that they don’t have conversion tracking enabled. Conversion tracking is configured by placing a script on your conversion page. This is often the “thank you” page that someone sees after they’ve filled out a form. Without conversion tracking it’s impossible for the PPC marketer to know their CPL (cost per lead). And why you don’t know your return on investment it’s very difficult to make the decision to prove it out.

By: Steve Toth

2 thoughts on “Top 5 Reasons People Quit Google Ads”

  1. This is so true. I would like to add that people really should spend more time doing Google Ads training before they actually start investing real funds. The lessons they learn will be much less expensive than those get thru “Flying by the seat of their pants.”

  2. This is a very good post and for me what I have heard and experienced is that Trouble with Quality Score is often caused by too many keywords. I have found that focusing on a few good keywords just makes it easier to design the add track the add and keep good quality scores because the bounce rate is much much lower. Tons of keywords may get good impressions but badly damages your bounce rate. I must add that using Google Analytics can really enhance your Google Ads campaign but I think a lot of people never consider the factor of tracking effectiveness. But nice post and really does point out the majority of reasons for people abandoning Google Ads.

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