Driving qualified leads using Google Ads or other forms of pay-per-click advertising is an amazing way to generate more leads, but the road to success is often tricky to navigate.
For one thing, Google ad campaigns aren’t exactly the cheapest of marketing strategies, and the system itself is so complex that one tiny mistake such as using the wrong ad extension can prevent business owners from getting the results they want.
Here’s how to make sure your campaigns generate high quality leads every time:
How To Generate High Quality Leads For Your Google Ads Campaign
1. Improve Your Quality Score
The quality score is Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords and PPC ads. The system uses the quality score to determine your cost per click, as well as ad rank (where your ad gets placed in the search results).
There are a lot of different things that Google takes into account when determining your quality score for your search ads, such as:
- Your click-through rate;
- Keyword relevance for each ad group you run;
- Ad copy relevance;
- Landing page quality and relevance.
For Google Display Network ads, Google still calculates a quality score, but it does it a bit differently. Keywords and ad quality still factor in, but the history of your display ad holds much more weight when it comes to this value. So the more clicks your display ad gets on other sites, the more likely its quality score improves as each click is like a vote of confidence (and relevancy) from users.
Improving your quality score tells Google your ads are relevant and are therefore more likely to be delivered either in the search engine or as a banner on another site. If your quality score is low, your ads may not deliver well even if they are technically relevant for the users.
2. Keyword Match Type
Your Google search ads get activated when there is a user search query with keywords matching the ones you are bidding on, so a good place to look if you want to improve lead generation is the keyword match type.
This helps Google determine if your ads should be triggered or not. Some options you have are:
- Broad match – It will trigger ads even when the user makes spelling errors, uses synonyms, or the search is related to your offer, even if not 100% exact. You also have the modified broad match option where you specifically write down the variations you want to trigger your ads. Exact keywords, on the other hand, only trigger the ads when there is an exact match;
- Phrase match – like keywords, you trigger your ads when there is a close match with a phrase typed into the search engine. It’s a more restrictive option, and likely won’t show as many impressions.
3. Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are essential to ensuring your ads will only be delivered to the right audience. They tell Google to exclude certain keywords used in a search query.
For instance, if you’re interested in selling iPhones, you may want to exclude search queries containing “Android.” A smartphone is a smartphone, but users searching for Android devices aren’t generally all that interested in their alternative.
4. Improve Ad Copy
Ad copy plays an essential role in generating qualified leads. You can optimise how your ad is delivered by Google, and to which users, but it’s often the ad copy that helps you generate more qualified leads.
Consider using the keywords right in the copy. When a user sees that what they’ve typed in the search engine is also found in the copy, they are more likely to click on the ad and become a qualified lead.
5. Landing Page Quality
When a user clicks on an ad, they are redirected to a landing page you designate as part of your Google ads campaign. But the quality of the landing page itself needs to match Google’s requirements if you want to improve conversion rates as well.
This can mean different things:
- Making sure your landing page is optimised for mobile;
- Improve page load speed;
- Having a clear copy for your product or service that matches that of the ad;
- Having a clear and engaging call to action.
6. Optimise Placements for the Display Network
If search campaigns are all about keywords, display ads work on a slightly different principle. Here, Google will deliver your ads on the website part of its Display Network. Although you can still use keywords for that purpose, you have other options which may present more lead opportunities.
On the Display Network, you can tell Google to deliver your ads based on the topic of the website, and reach a broader audience. Here, you could choose to deliver your iPhone ads on all websites that relate to this topic, such as:
- Tech review boards
- Tech blogs, news sites
- Local merchant websites
- iPhone service businesses, etc.
With this strategy, you can leverage a wider audience that even if doesn’t type “where can I buy an iPhone” into the search engine, still have a real interest in what you’re offering, since they are visiting websites relevant to you. You can read more about how to target in the Google Display Networks in our previous blog post here.
Generate Qualified Leads Now
Are you looking to improve your lead generation efforts, boost conversion rates, and perfect your PPC campaigning? Australian Internet Advertising is the Google Ads partner you need to generate essential leads through your campaigns, and we’re here to help you and your business.
Book a free 30-minute strategy session with our Google Ads Experts now and we’ll give you a rundown of everything a good Google Ads campaign needs to take your business closer to your goals.