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Are you wondering if it’s time to hire a Google Ads expert to manage your campaigns?
It’s sometimes tricky to know when it’s worth paying someone to take on something you’re already doing, even if you know it could be done better. Trust is a huge part of outsourcing so knowing who to hire, for example for services like social media management, VA services and accounting, is crucial.
Here are 12 key signs you need to hire a Google Ads expert, and I hope these will help you decide whether this is something you need to outsource.
Sign #1 – No Time To Manage Your Campaigns
As a business owner, it’s impossible to do all the things. Sell products or services, invoice, chase payments, reconcile your accounts, market your business online and offline, schedule social media posts, write blogs, reply to emails, answer the phones – the list is ENDLESS. Especially if you are a solo operator or have a very small team to support you.
If you don’t have time to dedicate to regular management of your campaigns, they can end up wasting a lot of your marketing budget when not monitored.
Sign #2 –You Don’t Understand How To Use Google Ads
Google Ads is not the simplest platform to get your head around. Don’t get me wrong, you can certainly learn how it works and use it to your advantage, but if you don’t take the time to learn the system and how best to use it for your business, it could be a drain rather than a way to grow your business.
Sign #3 – Google Has Set Up Your Campaigns
Has Google helped you set up your campaigns? Chances are it’s not running as well as it could.
Getting Google to set up your campaigns is like to giving the casino your money to gamble on your behalf. Remember that Google is a business – they need to make money.
Hiring a Google Ads specialist to manage your campaigns means you have someone on your side who wants to make you money, not just take it.
Sign #4 –No Conversions Are Being Tracked
Are you seeing any conversions? There is usually a column at campaign, ad group, and keyword level (if you don’t see this, you can edit your columns to add it) to show conversions.
No conversions means you have no idea what’s actually resulting in sales or leads.
And Google Ads should be all about return on investment (ROI), so you NEED to know what’s getting you new customers.
Sign #5 –You’ve Got Hundreds Of Conversions
On the other end of the scale, if you’ve got hundreds of conversions showing, this could be another red flag for you.
Sure you could be getting hundreds of leads or sales, and if so that’s great – you might not need a Google Ads expert then!
But more often than not, seeing hundreds of conversions is a sign that you’re not really tracking things that actually bring you business. These conversions are usually things like page views (when people have been to specific pages on your website), or smart goals automatically created by Google (that sadly aren’t that smart).
Sign #6 –Your Ads Are Disapproved
Have you got ads showing a status of ‘disapproved’?
This is not something that people check regularly and if your ads are disapproved that means no-one is seeing them. So it can definitely be useful to get a Google Ads expert on board to help you get things running again.
Sign #7 –You’re Not Using All Of Your Ad Space
When’s the last time you updated your ad copy? I audited an account recently that had been set up in 2017 and never touched besides being turned on and off.
It was still running the old style text ads and was at a complete disadvantage as new ad types have been rolled out and given preference to these older ad types. All their ads were absolutely identical as well – the whole point of writing multiple ads is to make them different and test what works best!
Expanded text ads allow you to make use of up to 3 headlines, 2 description lines, as well as 2 path URLs where you can add keywords.
Responsive search ads allow you to have over 10 headlines, and up to 4 descriptions.
Why wouldn’t you want to use all the space you can to advertise your business?
Sign #8 –No Ad Extensions Set Up
Are there any ad extensions in your campaigns? No? Time to call me then!
Ad extensions are one of the quickest changes you can make to drive your campaign results up. You can add sitelink extensions to specific pages on your website, price extensions to show how much your products cost, callout extensions to highlight features and benefits of your business, and now even image extensions which is super cool (well I think so anyway!).
These elements help your ad to appear bigger on the search results page and give people even more opportunities to click on your ad and visit your website, and hopefully to buy from you.
Sign #9 –You Want To Grow Your Business
Do you want to grow your business? OK it might sound like a stupid question, who doesn’t?
Google Ads can be a great way to grow your business, get more eyeballs on your website, get people to know your brand and what you offer. But if it’s not set up properly or managed regularly, it can be a complete waste of money and time and effort.
It can also lead you to think that Google Ads doesn’t work – which just isn’t true. If Google Ads didn’t work, it wouldn’t have been around for over 20 years!
Sign #10 –Constantly Outranked By Competitors
If you Google your brand name, or the products or services you offer, where does your website show up?
Is it at the top of the ads, top of the organic results, or do your competitors almost always appear above you?
If you’re losing out on the results page to your competitors, especially in the ads section, it could be helpful to get a Google Ads expert to review your campaigns to see what you can do to appear above your competitors.
Sign #11 –No Negative Keywords
When’s the last time you checked your negative keywords in your account or campaigns?
If there are no negative keywords in your campaigns, that’s a clear sign that your accounts are not being managed effectively.
You will never be able to have an exhaustive negative keyword list, so this is something that should be constantly expanding, especially since Google started being less stringent about keyword match types.
I’ve seen other Google Ads specialists sharing that they’ve been running keywords like ‘fridge repairs’ and Google has been showing their ads for the search term ‘oven repairs’. Those are two separate things so unless you add ‘oven’ to your negative keyword list, your ads could show for keywords that aren’t relevant to your business.
Sign #12 –Nothing In Your Change History For Months
This one is especially important if you’re paying someone to manage your Google Ads.
In your account, there is a section called ‘change history’. In here, you’ll see what changes have been made on your campaigns and by whom.
If you’re seeing no changes for weeks or months at a time, it’s a clear sign that there’s more that can be done to monitor your campaigns and make improvements. Set up of campaigns is only half the work, the rest comes with regular management.
Now, here’s your homework – log into your Google Ads account and have a look through my points above.
If you’ve got any concerns about how your Google Ads account is set up, tracking or being managed, get in touch with me today and let’s get your account back on track for success.
