My friends, I am going to tell you exactly why your Google Ads are not working the same way they were 6 to 12 months ago.
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Transcript:
Hey, this is Lou. I’m a digital business consultant, and I help business owners grow online using ads, SEO, and by building beautiful custom websites.
So today, I want to talk about why Google Ads are not working the way they used to. I get the impression that a lot of folks are expecting Google Ads to work the way they did previously. And sure, back in the early days, you could put up an ad, clicks would be a couple of bucks, and you’d get leads and enquiries through your phone, contact form, or something like that.
What I’ve been finding lately—and what I’ve been hearing people say—is that their ads are not working. The enquiries they’re getting are either spammy, low quality, or from people looking for a job when it’s actually you who is looking to offer services to someone. And that’s not good. I don’t like that, and I feel it—it can be pretty frustrating.
What you need to know about the change
Here’s the thing, though: the Google ecosystem is changing. I feel like this is the right time for me to say this, even though it’s been happening for a while. When you do a Google search these days, what you see first is the AI overview and a whole bunch of other stuff that is not websites before you actually see search results. That’s one major change.
Another thing that is changing is consumer behavior when looking for a product or service. There’s a lot of AI-generated content, low-quality ads, and just a ton of people competing for ad space. And the cost of ads is going up—but I’ll come back to that. There’s more competition, less trust, and the ad platforms just want to get you a result. If that result is clicks and enquiries, and that’s how you set up your campaign, then Google will give you that—no matter what the quality of those enquiries are.
The levers to change when Google Ads are not working
So let’s talk about quality. How do we change that?
The way to change that actually involves a couple of components. One is who we’re delivering these ads to—our target audience—and what we say in the ad. We need to grab their attention and make them think, “Oh yeah, that’s what I want.”
But it’s not just the ad’s job to get you the sale or the enquiry. There’s another step after someone clicks on the ad—your website.
Now, some folks might say, “Well, I could just run a simple ad with my phone number in it.” Instead of clicking to go to a website, people just call directly. That can still work for some, but I’m seeing it work less and less.
Improving your website to get ads work
So, to get better-quality enquiries that actually match what you want to offer, we need to change things on your website.
Someone clicks the ad, they land on your website—then what happens? This is the make-or-break moment. Here’s the top-level view:
The website needs to reaffirm what the ad said—the offer, the messaging. [Related: Episode 036: Copywriting is more than just words, it’s persuasion]
There needs to be a lead form, and that form’s job is to filter out enquiries we don’t want to talk to—like job seekers or people who aren’t a good fit.
The copy on the page—the words, the media, the content—needs to help filter out low-quality enquiries as well.
And then there’s the ad setup. It may not be the best approach to just go for the highest number of leads at the cheapest cost. Some businesses only need four or five good leads to make their revenue goals. If you just open the floodgates and optimize for maximum leads, the quality of those leads is going to drop.
So yeah, this is a bigger-picture issue. It’s not as simple as it used to be.
Next steps
If you’d like to go deeper into this—crafting a page that not only makes the ads work but also converts visitors into the right kind of customers—I’d be happy to talk to you about that.
So, I just wanted to share this little tidbit: Ads aren’t working the way they used to. The customer journey is super important. You have to look at the whole big picture.
And if you need to grow and get new clients, maybe ads aren’t even the right move right now. Maybe there’s another part of your online presence we can tweak to get some wins before throwing money into ads where we’re not even sure they’ll work.
I hope this helps! If you’d like to know more, please feel free to reach out. I love having conversations with business owners—it’s my passion and pleasure to help.
I’m not just here to take your money and run some ads because you said so. I want results. And I’m sure you do, too. You don’t just want an ad—you want results. And I want to help you when your Google Ads are not working!
So if you’re serious about getting results, please get in touch. And if there’s something you’d like me to talk about, I’d be happy to do another recording or video on it.
It’s my pleasure to help, and I look forward to seeing you next time!
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