Google Ads Coaching for marketing managers who’ve just about had it with Google’s nonsense

By Aldwin Neekon

The wasted money I saw during a B2B Google Ads lead generation account review I did today was 100% completely avoidable. And it wasn’t the marketer’s fault. It’s a design issue which I’ll explain in a bit.

But a little bit of Google Ads coaching would have prevented it.

This person, let’s call her Jen because privacy is under-rated, decided to book some free time on my Calendly saying she’s the marketing manager for a B2B digital services company. I got on the call, and Jen said her business was under a lot of pressure to generate leads but nothing they’d done so far had helped the dismal performance.

Jen had run some Google Search ads and a few LinkedIn ads and the results were so bad she was worried her boss would pull the plug on the whole project. That’s when she decided to call me for help.

She asked me to look at what they’d been doing with their digital marketing and tell them how to start to find the leads they were under pressure to book. They didn’t have an agency professional doing PPC or SEO strategies for them. She wanted to meet and get some personalized guidance and advice to understand what was going wrong with her campaign, how she should be managing her campaign, and how to get things working and get back to growth.

We booked an online review session where I asked her to share her objectives and performance so far, and to share her screen and take me through her Google Ads setup.

The “cash burning” settings were on

If you’ve worked with Google Search Ads for lead generation then you already know where I’m going with this. I talk about it a lot. Everywhere. Month in, month out. Here’s one of my comments from two days ago on LinkedIn.

The campaigns Jen was running were failing because she had followed all of Google’s recommendations.

But what she wound up with was basically an e-commerce campaign as if she was selling a product not a service, which is exactly the wrong thing for what her business needs to generate leads.

And that is very frustrating.

Could coaching (by me, naturally) have avoided this mess?

I’m not bragging, but yes.

Seriously, Google’s ad setup process is geared toward convincing your marketing manager to opt into all kinds of things that are often not what’s needed to generate leads for your business and in fact make it harder to generate leads and hurt overall performance.

But that wasn’t even Jen’s biggest issue

When we scrolled around inside the ads account, I noticed a healthy number of conversions, so I said “Well that doesn’t look bad. Some of the settings are wrong but you still generated a lot of leads”

Jen: “Where are they though??!!”

And it became clear that conversion tracking hadn’t been set up right either.

I’m not blaming Jen. She’s a thoughtful marketer. She just didn’t know the pitfalls to avoid.

This is the type of situation where little bit of Google Ads coaching would have avoided all the time, money, frustration, and loss of confidence that she had to go through.

More about that in a bit, but first a quick aside about conversions and why they can trip you up.

Aside: What’s a Conversion anyway?

This is an area where a little bit of coaching now can save you a lot of trouble later on.

It’s a problem area because the word “conversions” can mean different things to different people. To your marketing manager, a conversion means a lead. Logical, right?

But to Google, a conversion is any event that you tell it is a conversion.

Someone called you? That can be a conversion.

Someone visited a product page on your site? Conversion.

Someone clicked your ad? OK, sure, also a conversion.

If you don’t set it up properly, you get a situation like Joe did where Google Ads shows you book a ton of conversions but you still have zero leads.

And even worse, each conversion event is training Google Ads that it’s doing a great job even if its performance for your particular product or service is actually terrible.

Google Ads can be a bit like a dog chasing a stick. If you haven’t been training it to bring back only the stick you threw, who knows what it will bring back to you? And whatever it brings back, it’ll think to itself “Who’s a good boy? I am! Look at all these sticks!!”

OK, back to the Google Ads coaching conversation already in progress

What coaching can and can’t do

I spoke with one of the founders of Jen’s company and everybody’s looking forward to me coaching her on her Google Ads setup. It might be easier for us to just start fresh with brand new campaigns.

By the end of the first week I guarantee her campaigns are going to be in much better shape and on the road to generating the B2B leads her team has been pressuring her to produce.

What Google Ads coaching can’t do is fix a broken product, or a mis-aligned target market, or a lack of deep customer insights, which are all essential to having not just a successful Google Ads lead gen campaign, but a successful product or a successful business.

How Can a Coaching Business Target the Right Audience Through Google Ads?

Define Your Ideal Client

Begin by identifying the characteristics of your ideal client. Ask yourself:

• What are their demographics (age, gender, income, location)?
• What interests or hobbies do they have?
• What challenges are they facing that your coaching can address?

Knowing this helps in crafting more effective ads and setting the right parameters.

Utilize Demographic Targeting

Google Ads provides robust demographic targeting features. You can narrow down potential clients by selecting options such as:

• Age Range
• Gender
• Parental Status
• Household Income

By specifying these factors, you ensure your ads are shown to users who are more likely to engage with your content.

Leverage Interest and Behavior Targeting

Tap into Google’s extensive data on user behavior and interests. This allows you to create ads that:

• Align with users’ online activities and browsing patterns.
• Appeal to particular interests relevant to your coaching services, such as personal development, career growth, or wellness.

Use Keywords Effectively

Conduct thorough keyword research to understand what terms potential clients are searching for. Focus on:

• Long-tail keywords related to specific coaching niches.
• Keywords that reflect the problems your target audience needs solving.

Employ tools like Google Keyword Planner to find high-performing keywords and incorporate them into your ad copy and landing pages.

Implement Remarketing Campaigns

Not everyone will convert on their first visit. Set up remarketing campaigns to:

• Re-engage visitors who have previously interacted with your site.
• Show tailored ads to these users, reminding them of your services and encouraging them to return.

Monitor and Adjust Your Campaigns

Once your ads are running, keep an eye on their performance. Use Google Ads’ reporting tools to:

• Track key metrics like click-through rates and conversion rates.
• Test different ad variations and landing pages through A/B testing.

Regularly refine your strategies based on data insights to improve your ad’s effectiveness over time.

Targeting the right audience for your coaching business through Google Ads involves a fine balance of demographics, interests, keywords, and continuous optimization. By tailoring your ads meticulously, you enhance the chances of reaching users most likely to benefit from and invest in your coaching services.

There’s a lot more to this than I can cover here, but I have covered targeting in one of my Newsletter issues so send me a message with the form at the bottom of this page and I’ll send you the back issue.

Running Google Ads on a Limited Budget

Absolutely, you can run Google Ads even on a tight budget while effectively promoting your coaching business. But you should know that Google runs on data and data means clicks and clicks mean budget. So the smaller your budget the harder it will be for you.

Here’s what you can start with:

Set a Daily Budget

Google Ads allows you to establish a daily spending limit. By doing this, you can control costs and ensure you don’t overspend.

Focus on Targeted Campaigns

By honing in on highly specific keywords and audiences, you can stretch your budget further. Target potential clients who are most likely to be interested in your coaching services.

Continuously Refine Your Strategy

Regularly analyze your campaign performance to identify what works best. Adjust your keywords, ad copy, and targeting options to get the most value out of your budget.

Monitor and Optimize

Keep an eye on your click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI). Use these insights to fine-tune your ads and budget allocation progressively.

With these strategies, you can effectively run Google Ads on a limited budget, driving traffic and conversions even for small businesses like coaching services.

I’ve written about this in a lot more detail on my LinkedIn profile. If you can’t find the posts let me know and I’ll send you the links.

The Importance of Keywords in a Successful Google Ads Campaign for Coaching

The foundation of an effective Google Ads campaign hinges on the strategic use of keywords. Keywords act as the bridge connecting your services with potential clients searching for coaching support.

Here’s how they play a crucial role:

1. Relevance and Targeting: By identifying precise keywords related to coaching, you ensure your ads appear to individuals actively seeking the services you offer. This relevance enhances the likelihood of attracting quality leads.
2. Cost Efficiency: Effective keyword research can help you bid on terms with a high search volume but lower competition, optimizing your budget. Focusing on long-tail keywords, which are more specific phrases, often results in lower costs per click.
3. Ad Performance: Continuously updating and refining your keyword list is essential for maintaining ad efficacy. Regular optimization helps you track which keywords perform best, allowing you to eliminate underperforming ones and allocate more resources to those driving results.
4. Quality Score: Keywords impact your ad’s Quality Score, a critical metric used by Google to assess the relevance of your ads to the search queries. A higher Quality Score typically results in better ad placements and lower costs per click.
5. User Intent Alignment: Understanding the intent behind search queries ensures that your ads meet the users’ needs. Keywords that are closely aligned with the questions or problems your potential clients are searching for lead to more meaningful engagements and higher conversion rates.

By meticulously selecting and managing your keywords, your Google Ads campaign can effectively connect with your target audience, fostering higher engagement and ultimately, driving conversions.

And just as important: Regularly review the search terms report and add irrelevant terms to your negative keyword list so they won’t trigger your ad to be shown in the future. And if you have certain keywords you already know indicate irrelevant traffic (e.g. “cheap” or “budget” when you’re offering a premium product) add those to your negative keyword list too.

How Can Blogging Help in Converting Ad Traffic Organically?

Blogging as a Conversion Tool Blogging is a powerful tool to convert ad traffic organically. The key is to start by building an audience through compelling, SEO-optimized blog posts. By consistently posting valuable content, you attract and engage readers who are genuinely interested in your niche.

Steps to Convert Through Blogging

1. Content Creation: Regularly publish well-crafted, SEO-friendly blog posts. These articles should address common questions, solve problems, and provide valuable insights related to your industry. Quality content naturally draws traffic and builds credibility.
2. Engagement and Lead Generation: As your audience grows, so does the opportunity to generate leads. Encourage readers to take action with well-placed calls to action (CTAs). For example, invite them to book a discovery call, sign up for a newsletter, or download a helpful resource.
3. Data Collection and Analysis: Monitor which blog posts are driving traffic and engagement. Tools like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager can help you understand user behavior and identify high-converting pages.
4. Keyword Refinement: Use your findings to refine your keyword strategy. Identify the keywords that are driving the most traffic to your high-converting pages and incorporate variations of these keywords into your content.
5. Ad Strategy Integration: Once you have a solid understanding of what works organically, you can confidently invest in paid ads. Create ads that target the keywords and topics you know perform well, leading traffic back to the blog posts that have proven to convert.

The Benefits of This Approach

• Reduced Risk: By starting organically, you minimize the risk associated with paid advertising. You invest in ads only after you’ve identified what works.
• Higher Conversion Rates: Blog visitors are already engaged and informed, making them more likely to convert when targeted through ads.
• Sustainable Growth: Organic traffic can grow exponentially over time, providing a steady stream of potential leads even without consistent ad spend.

Blogging can effectively help you convert ad traffic organically by creating a foundation of valuable content, understanding your audience through data analysis, and strategically targeting high-converting keywords with your ads. This method not only optimizes your ad spend but also ensures a higher return on investment.

But if you’re going to blog, also post on the social media channels that are most meaningful to your clients. For me, that’s LinkedIn. You can find my posts here: linkedin.com/in/aldwin

If you are looking for a Google Ads Coach with over a decade of B2B lead generation experience who is easy to work with, who has a background in product marketing and can help you get those crucial marketing elements in place before you get started, book a free call today.

“Aldwin has dramatically increased our number of leads. He has also paid attention to converting the leads to sales. Our company is definitely better for having worked with Aldwin.”

Alan Carson, CEO, Carson Dunlop

Get Google Ads Search Certified Yourself

Check out Google Ads Search certification on Skillshop, and take that training for yourself. Google’s courses are free, fully online (of course), the training is not very difficult and you’ll learn a lot about how Google wants you to run ads, which in the end may not be how you’ll need to run ads for whatever product or service you’re promoting, but it’s excellent background.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re beyond annoyed with a lack of results and don’t mind me taking a quick look at your Google Ads account on a screen share, like I did with Jen’s, give me a call at 647-49-5856. I’ll be happy to hear from you.

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P.S. Because of how Google Search works, I bet some of you are here because you searched for “lead generation for coaches”. I am working with coaches (and motivational speakers) so give me a shout if you’d like to talk about how to get yourself in front of more of your potential clients either through digital lead gen coaching in PPC (think Google or LinkedIn ads) and SEO. I’ve been in consulting as a one person show for years and I know how hard it can be to find your next client. Let’s book a call to talk about it.