Google Ads platform offers an enormous opportunity to all, but it also throws a lot of challenges especially to small businesses if not managed properly. In today’s post, I walk through 10 common Google Ads challenges for SMBs and their solutions.
Ten common Google Ads challenges for SMBs (and how to overcome them)
Optimum use of Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is easier said than done, especially if you’re new to online advertising.
If you are a small business owner, the situation is more overwhelming for you. But the good news is - these initial challenges are common and are possible to overcome even you are new to Google Ads. Nurturing effective ad campaigns requires study, optimization, and a whole lot of patience. But with proper guidance and courage, you’ll eventually generate ROI for your business consistently through running Google Ads campaigns successfully.
Getting started with Google Ads is easy, but getting results (i.e. real leads and sales) is typically hard.
This is true - I know from my decade of experience.
But I also know how to overcome these common challenges -
You’ll need to assess your business situation, market condition, and Google’s suggestions to estimate these numbers when you’re just starting out, but you can connect actual outcomes with the campaign’s data as you go. Consider leveraging the Google Keyword Planner tool and focus on keywords with projected costs below your planned Max CPC.
If you are a small business owner, the situation is more overwhelming for you. But the good news is - these initial challenges are common and are possible to overcome even you are new to Google Ads. Nurturing effective ad campaigns requires study, optimization, and a whole lot of patience. But with proper guidance and courage, you’ll eventually generate ROI for your business consistently through running Google Ads campaigns successfully.
Getting started with Google Ads is easy, but getting results (i.e. real leads and sales) is typically hard.
This is true - I know from my decade of experience.
But I also know how to overcome these common challenges -
Challenge #1: Find the right audience for campaigns
A beginner-level slip-up when starting in Google Ads is to build out campaigns without knowing who your target audience is. Sure, you as a business owner have a fair idea but adding the right keywords to represent that same idea independently - is a challenge. In the worse case, you may end up with less than expected traffic or with lots of junk traffic!
Make sure that doesn’t happen by brainstorming with the free Keyword Planner tool found in Google Ads. You’ll find the suggestions for various relevant keyword terms along with supporting data for what you’ll pay per click.
Make sure that doesn’t happen by brainstorming with the free Keyword Planner tool found in Google Ads. You’ll find the suggestions for various relevant keyword terms along with supporting data for what you’ll pay per click.
Challenge #2: Overspending on clicks
Your competitors love making money from Google Ads just as much as you do. For new campaigns, I typically starting with high bids because I want to put my ads in a position to get more clicks, which leads to high CTR and ultimately, cheaper clicks. Bidding too high, sometimes though, exhaust your advertising budget which causes a negative return on your investment.
It’s a balancing act, but you can make it out with some simple calculation. Evaluate your maximum bid capacity with this formula:
It’s a balancing act, but you can make it out with some simple calculation. Evaluate your maximum bid capacity with this formula:
Max CPC = (average profit per customer) x (conversion rate of your online customers) x (1 – desired advertising profit margin)
You’ll need to assess your business situation, market condition, and Google’s suggestions to estimate these numbers when you’re just starting out, but you can connect actual outcomes with the campaign’s data as you go. Consider leveraging the Google Keyword Planner tool and focus on keywords with projected costs below your planned Max CPC.
Challenge #3: Keeping pace with competitors
As you know, one of the secrets in business is to stay one step ahead of your competitors whenever is possible if not always. The same is true in Google Ads.
To keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, I recommend using tools like SpyFu and Ahrefs. Sure, there are many other powerful tools available for use like SEMrush and Moz. I have used all these along with many others. SpyFu is one of the best I have ever experienced. Using this tool, you’ll be able to “spying” on your competitors’ work like ad copy variations, keyword combinations, and many more insights on their ad campaigns. This is valuable information you can use to improve your own campaign’s performance and get a competitive advantage.
To keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, I recommend using tools like SpyFu and Ahrefs. Sure, there are many other powerful tools available for use like SEMrush and Moz. I have used all these along with many others. SpyFu is one of the best I have ever experienced. Using this tool, you’ll be able to “spying” on your competitors’ work like ad copy variations, keyword combinations, and many more insights on their ad campaigns. This is valuable information you can use to improve your own campaign’s performance and get a competitive advantage.
Challenge #4: Defining business USPs
Why should consumers click on your ad over all the others?
To answer this question is to outline what makes your offers special. That may not be challenging; but this is, when I say, you must summarize that uniqueness in a very limited space in your ads. Focus your ad on whatever it is your business does better than everyone else, and construct ads around those USPs.
By doing this, you will influence your ads’ quality score which is another essential ingredient like CTR to be successful on Google Ads. The more relevant your ads are with selected keywords and landing pages, the better chances to receive high QS which eventually leads to high CTR and ultimately conversions.
A few months back, in a Google Office Hours hangout, Google’s John Mueller answered a question about why a site lost rank. Yes, it’s about SEO. John’s answer centered on the power of being different and how this quality can help a site ranking better. I believe, this is relatable to PPC too. In fact, for any form of digital marketing and advertising.
To answer this question is to outline what makes your offers special. That may not be challenging; but this is, when I say, you must summarize that uniqueness in a very limited space in your ads. Focus your ad on whatever it is your business does better than everyone else, and construct ads around those USPs.
By doing this, you will influence your ads’ quality score which is another essential ingredient like CTR to be successful on Google Ads. The more relevant your ads are with selected keywords and landing pages, the better chances to receive high QS which eventually leads to high CTR and ultimately conversions.
A few months back, in a Google Office Hours hangout, Google’s John Mueller answered a question about why a site lost rank. Yes, it’s about SEO. John’s answer centered on the power of being different and how this quality can help a site ranking better. I believe, this is relatable to PPC too. In fact, for any form of digital marketing and advertising.
Challenge #5: Limited characters space for ads
Your ads must be compelling enough to grab Google users’ attention, encourage them to clicks, and drive conversions. However, with standard text ads (one of the most used and most powerful ad formats), you only get 30 characters for your three headlines and 90 characters for your two description lines.
That’s not much space to work with, but not little too, especially when you are focused on:
That’s not much space to work with, but not little too, especially when you are focused on:
- Convey unique selling points (USPs)
- Offer custom deals and discounts
- Add a call to action (CTA)
Like all writing, the main step is to start. Once you have a few drafts, then you can compare, edit, and refine them to find the best 2-3 variations you want to try out first. Remember, no one knows for sure which ad copy will perform best so always run multiple variations and let the data guide you. Also, I am encouraging you to test ad copies until you reach an optimum level in terms of their performance. But refrain from unnecessary experiments with Google Ads.
Challenge #6: Right landing page selection for ads
It’s comparatively easy for us to do adjustments in our ad copy but this is not the right approach especially when you only focus on your ad copy rather than reviewing your ads and landing pages together.
Your Google Ads quality score can tumble over poor landing page experiences, resulting in fewer conversions and more expensive clicks. Google can even stop showing your ads over what it deems to be inappropriate landing page content a.k.a. false advertising. On top of that, you’re likely to end up with a bad user experience (UX) that might have otherwise converted.
Before altering your ad copy, first make sure that your plan, is well aligned with your landing page. If your revised ad offers pay on delivery, then people who click that ad should found that offer too after landed on your web page. Those irresistible offers play a massive part in bringing people to your site and journey to goal conversion, but if you don’t follow through on your landing page, neither will your prospects.
It is okay to edit your ads here-n-there based on data (or sometimes your gut feeling) without touching the associated landing page. But when changes are critical (in most situations), good to maintain the alliance between your ads, landing page, and keyword.
Your Google Ads quality score can tumble over poor landing page experiences, resulting in fewer conversions and more expensive clicks. Google can even stop showing your ads over what it deems to be inappropriate landing page content a.k.a. false advertising. On top of that, you’re likely to end up with a bad user experience (UX) that might have otherwise converted.
Before altering your ad copy, first make sure that your plan, is well aligned with your landing page. If your revised ad offers pay on delivery, then people who click that ad should found that offer too after landed on your web page. Those irresistible offers play a massive part in bringing people to your site and journey to goal conversion, but if you don’t follow through on your landing page, neither will your prospects.
It is okay to edit your ads here-n-there based on data (or sometimes your gut feeling) without touching the associated landing page. But when changes are critical (in most situations), good to maintain the alliance between your ads, landing page, and keyword.
Challenge #7: Targeting users on mobile
Most web developers today building websites that are equally functional on both mobile and desktop platforms. However, many small business websites are not mobile-friendly since were built before mobile took off.
Three things will happen if you advertise to mobile devices without a mobile-optimized website:
So choose to not advertise to mobile devices is not really a smart option anymore, especially if we know that an estimated 100 billion Google searches per month originate from smartphones and this number is growing!
Unfortunately, the world is now working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide. So mobile searches are expected to grow rapidly in the future. Accordingly, businesses should tweak the Google Ads plan.
Three things will happen if you advertise to mobile devices without a mobile-optimized website:
- Potential consumers will bounce because the page will not look or function properly on their mobile (a.k.a. you’ll lose sales)
- Your quality scores will suffer, which leads to higher costs and lower ad position
- Even if you are running campaigns and exclude handheld devices to display ads, you are missing out on a large portion of your probable customers which again adversely affect your ROI because your competitors are ON mobile
So choose to not advertise to mobile devices is not really a smart option anymore, especially if we know that an estimated 100 billion Google searches per month originate from smartphones and this number is growing!
Unfortunately, the world is now working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide. So mobile searches are expected to grow rapidly in the future. Accordingly, businesses should tweak the Google Ads plan.
Challenge #8: Goal conversion tracking
Enabling goal conversion tracking is an absolute necessity. Without it, you won’t ever know which keyword, ad, the campaign is driving the most leads and sales.
Get your conversion tracking code from Google Ads and embed it within the landing page of your website that indicates a completed goal. If your goal is to drive sales, then embed the code on your delivery confirmation page.
If you want to drive leads, then embed the code on the page that shows after your contact form is submitted a.k.a. thank you page. This code allows Google Ads to track when prospects complete your forms so you can see exactly which ads and keywords result in more conversions.
Additionally, if phone calls are important for your business, then don’t forget to set up call conversion tracking so you can see which ads and keywords are driving leads/sales over phone calls.
Get your conversion tracking code from Google Ads and embed it within the landing page of your website that indicates a completed goal. If your goal is to drive sales, then embed the code on your delivery confirmation page.
If you want to drive leads, then embed the code on the page that shows after your contact form is submitted a.k.a. thank you page. This code allows Google Ads to track when prospects complete your forms so you can see exactly which ads and keywords result in more conversions.
Additionally, if phone calls are important for your business, then don’t forget to set up call conversion tracking so you can see which ads and keywords are driving leads/sales over phone calls.
Challenge #9: Using ad extensions
Extensions are additional components in your ads that can make your ads much more enticing to users - especially those who are searching for local merchandise and services. Ad extensions include call extensions, site link extensions, callout extensions, price extensions, and more.
Google does show some extensions automatically, but you’ll miss out on the most useful extensions if you don’t set them up by hand.
Start with this feature under the “Ad extensions” tab in Google Ads and follow the directions to set up each extension.
Google does show some extensions automatically, but you’ll miss out on the most useful extensions if you don’t set them up by hand.
Start with this feature under the “Ad extensions” tab in Google Ads and follow the directions to set up each extension.
Challenge #10: Optimizing campaigns
Optimizing the campaigns is an ongoing struggle. From the day you launch the ads, you should always be split-testing ad copy, adjusting your bids, trying new keywords, stopping poor-performing keywords, analyze different targeting options, and split-testing landing pages - do all kinds of calculative experiemnts.
Successful campaigns eventually require less elevation and, like everything else with Google Ads, it gets much easier over time, and one of the prime reasons for that is from the learner, you also turn into an expert in due course.
When you attend my online/offline training, I’ll show you exactly how to profitably manage your Google Ads campaigns, so you minimize your ad costs, generate more leads and sales, and maximize your profits!
If you manage your own Google Ads campaigns, or if you manage Google Ads campaigns for clients or on behalf of others, you should definitely attend this program.
Successful campaigns eventually require less elevation and, like everything else with Google Ads, it gets much easier over time, and one of the prime reasons for that is from the learner, you also turn into an expert in due course.
When you attend my online/offline training, I’ll show you exactly how to profitably manage your Google Ads campaigns, so you minimize your ad costs, generate more leads and sales, and maximize your profits!
If you manage your own Google Ads campaigns, or if you manage Google Ads campaigns for clients or on behalf of others, you should definitely attend this program.
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