How to use Google Ads to win leads & customers for your business

Many service businesses failed to win leads and customers on Google Ads (formerly Adwords) not because they didn't set up their campaign very well.

But because they failed to build a campaign that meets the intent of their target audience.

The key ingredient for building a successful Google Ads campaign is to build a campaign that meets the intent or expectation of your audience (keywords).

When you meet the intent of your target audience, they (audience) will be open to converting to a lead or becoming a paying customer.

And in this article, I'm going to show you how to build a Google Ads (formerly Adwords) campaign that meets the intent of your target audience.

But before I proceed, what is Intent and why is it very important?

Intent is what a searcher wishes to accomplish by conducting a search on Google.

Your keywords selection, ads copies, targeting, Adgroups, and landing pages should be geared towards meeting your target audience intent.

This is because when people search on Google, they have a need (intent) they want Google to satisfy immediately with very little or no effort on their part.

This need (intent) may be a question, market research or to buy a service.

If you build a campaign that meets the intent of your target customers not only will Google reward you with low CPC, your target audience will also reward you by converting to leads and customers.

How to build a campaign that meets the intent of your target customers

Now that you know what intent is and why it's important, lets moreover to how you can create or structure a campaign that meets the intent of your target audience.

#1 Send Google Ads traffic to the right page

This is one of the major reasons that cause a Google Ads campaign to fail.

When somebody searches for a particular type of your service on Google, sees your Ad that meets their intent and clicks on it, they don't want to be sent to a page that talks about another type of your service or worse still, to a page that talks about all your other services.

This process of building a campaign is called Ad scent or message match. It means your keyword intent matches that of your Ad narratives and your Ad narratives match the message of your landing page.

Remember, your potential customer conducted a search because they have a need your service could solve.

They saw and clicked on your Ads because your Ad promised to solve that problem with an offer.

So, when they get to your website, they expect to quickly see the promise and offer made on the Ad so they can be assured they are in the right place and quickly accept your offer.

Matching messages across your Ad and landing pages will dramatically reduce your cost per conversion and increase conversion.

How to build a campaign that has a strong Ad scent or message match

• Add similar keywords in the same Adgroup
• Avoid using broad match keywords
• Write separate Ad copies for each Adgroup
• Create a separate landing page for each Adgroup
• Add your target keyword in Ad copy title and description
• Add your target keyword in the title and description of your landing page
• Make sure the promise and offer you made on your Ad is also present on the landing page
• Below is an example of how it should be done.
• Somebody searches with the keyword "bathroom remodeling contractor" as shown in the image below.

And they see an Ad that has their searched keyword, promises to give them a dream kitchen and a free consultation as an offer.

They clicked on the Ad because they are interested in what the Ad offers.

Once they clicked on the Ad, they are directed to a landing page that is about a remodeling contractor that remodels bathrooms.

The landing page title contains the keyword searched for and the promise and offer made on the Ad which makes it meet the searcher's intent as shown in the image below.

Potential customers will convert more on the above landing page because it's message matches with its Ad copy and keyword intent.

#2. Add similar keywords in the same Adgroup

Some failed Google Ads account I reviewed failed to create different Adgroups for each variation of their target keyword.

If you put your keywords into the same Adgroup, you won't be able to create a campaign that meets the intent of your audience.

How to create Adgroups for your campaign

• Create Adgroups for each type of service you offer. Each of these Adgroup will contain keywords related to each of your services.
• Create a different Adgroup for each of your sub-services. Each Adgroup will contain keywords related to each of your sub-services.

#3. Avoid using broad match keywords

Most under-performing campaigns are failing not because they targeted the wrong keywords but because they associated their target keywords with a broad match modifier or type.

Making your keywords a broad match type will cause your Ad to show for keywords in other Adgroup which will defeat your purpose of building a campaign with multiple Adgroups.

#4. Create a separate landing page for each of your services and sub-services

Most business owners don't know what landing pages are. When you talk to them about landing pages they erroneously think it's their website home page or service pages.

Although a landing page is part of your website pages, it is different from your usual website pages.

It's a stand-alone page unrelated to your other website pages whose job is to convert Google Ads traffic to leads and customers.

What this means is that its structure is built not to meet the aesthetic of your website but to boost conversion.

When creating a landing page for Google Ads campaign, you need to create one landing page for each of your services and sub-services you're going to create an Adgroup for.

#5. Fulfill any promise or offer you made on Ads copy or landing page

Most businesses make the mistake of making a particular offer on their Ad copy but when you go to their landing page, the offer you see there is totally different from what is made on the Ad copy.

The same thing goes with your landing page. When you make an offer on your landing page, make sure you redeem it.

Below is an example with fairoffer.com landing page.

I so much love the fairoffer.com landing page because it's built to convert Google Ads traffic to leads.

But the biggest mistake they made with this landing page is that the offer they made on the landing page is different from the one on their form.

They asked potential customers to click on "Get Your Free Cash Offer Today" so that they can get a quick cash offer for their homes.

But when you click on the call to action button "Get Your Free Cash Offer Today", the headline on their form page contradicts the offer made on the landing page.

The headline on the form page says you will get an eBook if you fill the form instead of a cash offer.

This is different from the offer made on the landing page that prompted people to click down to the form page in the first place.

This type of error is a big conversion killer because when people click on your Ad or a button or link on your landing page, they did so because they are interested in what you are offering.

So, if they click and get to the next page and what you offer them in the next page is totally different from what made them take the initial action, they will hit the back button and leave your landing page and you'll be the one that lost because you spent money to get them to your landing page.

#6. Add the most important things on the Above the fold section of your landing page

The above the fold section is the first thing that appears on the screen of a device when somebody clicks down to your landing page.

The above the fold section is your hook. It's what makes a potential customer feel they are in the right place and continue interacting with your landing page.

If your landing page above the fold section is uninteresting to a potential customer, they will hit the back button and leave your page.

How to make your landing page above the fold section captivating

• Add your target keyword in the above the fold section preferably in your title or description
• Make the promise and offer you made in the Ad copy to also appear in the above the fold section
• Add your call to action button in the above the fold section 

#7. Write Ad Copy for each Adgroup

When writing your Ad copies, make sure you do it at the Adgroup level and not at the campaign level.

Writing your Ad copy at the campaign level will make your Ad generic and that is what you want to avoid.

Your Ad shouldn't be generic but unique to each of the Adgroup you're writing the Ad copy for.

Writing Ad copy specifically for each of your Adgroup will help you increase click-through rate (CTR) and relevancy score, and reduce cost per click (CPC)

Conclusion

Gone are the days when Google Ads advertisers can create a campaign and the leads and customers will start coming in.

These days, customers are getting savvier and will only interact with any Ad that answers their questions or provides a solution to their problems.

And they will only interact with a landing page that fulfills the promise made on the Ad copy without a fuss.