Advertising on Google Ads But Not Appearing in Organic Search?
Recently we have been carrying out a survey on businesses that are running Google Ads campaigns but are not appearing on the first page of Google organic search results and the results were remarkably interesting.
90% of the business running Google Ads were not appearing in the organic search results. Now you may not find this surprising as the reason that they are running Google Ads campaigns is to get onto the first page of Google.
Landing Page Quality
What was interesting was the quality of the landing page that the visitor landing on:
- Often the home page
- Sometimes the services page
- Even no page with a 404 error!
If a visitor lands on a page and does not find what they are looking for, especially having clicked on an advert, then there is a good chance that they will not hang around on the page and look elsewhere.
In using Google Ads there is a large dependency on User Intent. This means that:
- The keyword that the searched for
- The text in the Google Ad
- The page that they land on
will all contain the thing that they are searching for. Therefore, specific Landing Pages for groups of products and services are so important.
Furthermore, the cost of the click is heavily driven by the Quality Score of the keyword. If the keyword does not match the Ad and the Landing Page, then the Quality Score will be low, and the click will cost more than it should have done.
Landing Page Design
This post is not going into the detail of Landing Page design (a detailed explanation can be found here) but the page must contain information that helps the visitor, references to your work in this area and a truly clear call to action.
It is even possible to search engine optimise (SEO) your landing page so that the page appears in both the organic and paid results. Ironically, the searcher is 4 times more likely to click on the organic search results so then you will not even have to pay for the click.
Short Term vs Medium to Long Term Results
While Google Ads will get you to the top of the search results quickly:
- Only 20% of searchers will click on the Ad.
- As soon as the Ad is stopped then you will not appear anymore.
So, the wise money is building your website full of content that will rank on the first page of Google search so that you can use Google Ads for new services that you are promoting or special offers that you are making.
