Getting great results from a Google Ads campaign can be challenging. Google makes it real easy to waste your money – when you don’t know what you’re doing. And most people don’t so they won’t get the results they hope for.

I’ve been working with Google Ads for more than 20 years, after starting out as a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert. I was doing SEO before Google became the search engine of choice. I was optimizing for search engines such as: Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, AOL, Excite, Lycos, and, my favorite, Dogpile. It was a blessing/curse when Google became the dominant search engine because otherwise we SEOs had to try to optimize for each of the different search engines which each had their own algorithm. What a pain that was.

I am a Google Ads Certified Partner. I’ve learned how to get great results – here’s a case study on just one successful campaign.

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A home services company in Los Angeles who wanted to compete with Angie’s List (now Angi) provided a whole suite of home services – HVAC, plumbing, roofing, appliance repair, solar, etc.

And they hired me to go up against Angie’s List in one of the most highly competitive markets online.

Their management/marketing teams and I realized this would have to be a killer campaign, especially considering the competition.

After listening to them describe their goals, I developed a strategy that would get us to the finish line, and fast.

First step – RESEARCH

I do a ton of research whenever I work with a new client. And it’s that deep discovery and upfront work that I’ve found produces the best results for any marketing campaign, and especially for a Google Ads campaign.

One of the most productive exercises is to develop a Buyer Persona, or Avatar, or Customer Profile. How can you write ad copy, landing page copy, or email follow-up copy if you don’t know, I mean really know, who you’re talking to?

Over the years, I’ve developed unique research processes and techniques that help me get a powerful understanding who the Buyer is, what they’re worried about, what keeps them up at night, what they’re triggers are.

Second step – WRITING AD COPY

Once I know this, I can write ad copy, landing page copy, and email follow-up copy with language that resonates with the Buyer. When they read my copy, they say to themselves, “Hey, they get me. They understand what I’m going through. I bet they can help me.”

Writing ad copy that speaks intimately to the Buyer allows my campaigns to get higher Click-through-rates, typically 300 or 400 percent better that what Google considers average for that industry/market.

Third step – WRITING LANDING PAGE COPY

Landing page copy is CRITICAL. And it’s where the majority of people screw up. In my experience, most people will produce a campaign, write ads, and then just send people to their home page. What a waste! Why bother?

I make sure that my landing page copy fulfills the promise I made in the ad. If my ad offers HVAC repair, you’ll get sent to an HVAC repair page. If you’re looking for water heater replacement, you’re taken to a water heater replacement page. After reading this, you’re probably thinking, “DUH!” But most people don’t do this. And when they don’t, they get crappy results. Again, “DUH!” When I speak to these folks who want to hire me for marketing help, I’ll usually ask them if they’ve used Google Ads, and invariably they’ll tell me, “We tried it, it didn’t work.” No, it works, beautifully in fact, which I’ll tell you about, when it’s done smartly.

So now that I have my elements together, it’s time to launch the campaign.

I built separate campaigns for all of their services. This allows me to more easily monitor the campaigns and optimize them for best results. And having separate campaigns makes it much easier to test. And test. And test.

With constant testing of ad copy and landing page copy, the campaign can produce outstanding conversion rates.

And, boy, did we CRUSH IT!

In fact, too good. Yup, if you can believe it.

My ads drove in so many new leads that the home services company couldn’t find enough Roofers, Plumbers, Solar Installers, and HVAC technicians to do all the work. Imagine having that problem!

Their call center also had a hard time fielding the flood of calls – in fact, they did such a dismal job that the home services company fired them, and replaced them with another one.

They were finally able to get things back on track, but it was a frenetic scramble there for a while.

The point is, Google Ads can, and do, work when managed properly.

Stay tuned for my next case study when I produce similar results for a Beverly Hills law firm.