We often hear from clients that they are working with an agency to create CPC campaigns to drive downloads of one asset or another. This is usually in the context of complaints that they aren’t seeing conversions. We find ourselves telling them that we think their content doesn’t match the search intent – the importance of which cannot be overstated. Think about how frustrated you get when you make a very clear, concise Google query and end up on some page that doesn’t remotely answer your question. (Incidentally, this is exactly why Google has moved away from keyword stuffing and toward prioritizing authoritative content.) Importantly, we also think going straight to the “big ask” – in this case, exchanging contact info for a download – is not ideal. We usually suggest promoting free content first, but rarely does anyone listen. People often get so hyperfocused on generating leads that they can’t see the forest for the trees. So we decided to test our own theory, and see if we could develop Google Ads strategies for success on a small budget. 

Here’s what happened.

Google Ads experiment: The setup

At the beginning of November, we created a Content Marketing Checklist for download to promote via Google Ads. We designed this campaign with the goal of connecting with new clients, and to understand the most compelling way to ask for customer information.

Rather than push people exclusively to the download page, we also gave them the chance to build trust with our brand by exploring some of our blog content first – and promoting the checklist within the posts. Our hypothesis was that we would see better results from the ads pushing blog posts than ads promoting the checklist only.

We tested our theory by comparing the performance for three different ad campaigns: one ad immediately prompted the user to download our Content Marketing Checklist and the other two ads were for blog posts on content marketing and B2B marketing strategies, with the checklist linked on the bottom. The three campaigns all had a budget of $5.50/day and ran for 44 days – a tiny budget but when you’re running an experiment for fun, you have to be miserly. 

All three campaigns had two components: a search ad and a display ad. The Google search ads appear at the top or bottom of Google search results when users type certain keywords into their browser. These cost-per-click ads only use budget when users click on our ad after searching certain keywords – in our case, phrases such as “Content Marketing Checklist” or “Content Marketing Strategy.” We decided to exclusively target users with 12 keywords related to each individual landing page. We then set our campaign to use the remaining budget on the display ad component of the individual campaigns. The display ads appear through the Google Display Network, often as banner ads or at the beginning of a YouTube video. Our display ads targeted a broad demographic of users, based on factors such as age, location, and household income.

Google Ads experiment: Our results

Search ads

As predicted, the search campaign that performed best was a blog post, specifically “Content Marketing for B2B Startups.” It had 16% more impressions and 22% more clicks than the search ad for the “Content Marketing Checklist” landing page. The landing page with the most targeted info relevant to our target audience effectively performed the best, followed closely by our broader blog post, with the “hard ask” ad bringing in the least impressions and interactions for the same budget. 
It’s important to note that because we’re newbies – and everything Google does is confusing, except for that simple search box – our conversion tracking didn’t run smoothly, so it’s impossible to say for sure where our downloads came from. However, over 44 days with a very tight budget, we drove 16 downloads. We consider this a success in comparison to what we’ve seen from clients.

We believe that the trend for higher impressions and interactions was the result of a compelling ad that closely aligned with niche keywords and matched the content on the landing page. The landing page that immediately asked for users' emails had very little copy, which made it difficult to create a compelling ad and find niche, high-value keywords that could deliver results. 

Display ads

Our three display ads performed relatively similarly in this 44 day trial – which is not surprising given their targeted audience settings were identical. Our display ads had roughly nine times the impressions and four times the interactions, while being ⅕ of the price per click as our search ads. However, these clicks were lower value for us, since our display ads appeared for a much wider audience who were not actively looking for the information we provided on our landing pages.

Other Google ads observations worth noting

When the Google Ads campaigns were active, our website traffic increased significantly – 1154% to be exact. But we saw a decrease in the quality of engagement – this was no surprise as we tell clients all the time that organic traffic and/or engagement is worth far more than paid traffic/engagement. Users did not spend nearly as much time on our website or read through our different web pages in comparison to organically-generated users. 

• The number of sessions per user decreased by 7% 

• Pages per session decreased by 34%

• The session duration decreased to an average of 28 seconds, in comparison to 1 minutes 28 seconds previously

Ultimately, our Google Advertising was like happy hour at a restaurant – it brought a higher number of potential clients in the door, but converting those clients requires an enticing menu that matches what customers are expecting from your restaurant. In our case, in order for users to convert, they need to be captured by a well-written, compelling landing page that matches what they expected when they clicked on the ad. 

Our Google Ads recommendations

• Don’t go for the “Hard Ask” right away. Not only is it more difficult to convince users to give you their information without understanding what they can expect from you, but it is much more difficult to receive a high quality score for your Google Ad with little information on your landing page. The higher your quality score, the more likely Google will prioritize your ad in its Search/Display network, giving you higher conversions and using your dollar effectively. 

• Maximize your budget by writing about niche, highly searched topics. Get users to convert by giving them the information they are actively searching for. Users who searched “Content Marketing” weren’t necessarily looking for a B2B Content Marketing Checklist, but those who searched “Content Marketing Strategy” found a blog post that more accurately aligned with their search intent. The more specific and niche you are able to get for any targeted audience, the better your ad will perform. It's more effective to write multiple landing pages and ads for specific, in-demand topics instead of one ad for a highly-saturated, broad topic.

• Consider your marketing goals. Do you want to increase general brand awareness? If so, the display ads are your best friend. If you are looking to maximize a minimal budget and capture demand instead of creating it, stick with the search ads. 

• Do you have the budget? With a limited Google Ads budget, your search ads will be ranked lower than competitors, perhaps even on the bottom of the search results page. If you’re competing for high-demand keywords, then you must have the budget to pay for the top spot. Google Ads can still work with a limited budget if you choose to go with medium or long-tail keywords and more niche topics, as long as your keywords, ad copy, and landing page are all in alignment. Make sure to keep that quality score high when limited by budget! 

Before you begin your Google Ads campaign, ask yourself if you have the budget and time to make your ads stand out. Google Ads and Google Analytics are complex, time-intensive platforms. We’ve found that targeting people through LinkedIn – especially for B2B companies – is a better value. You can get more specific with your targeting – right down to the companies you want to target – and the analytics don’t require a Ph.D. to decipher. But before starting any ad campaign designed to get more eyes on your content, make sure you do the following:

• Have content is actually valuable to your target audience 

• Your content is well-aligned with the keywords you plan to target

• Your landing pages are keyword rich and match the intent of your potential users

If you need help getting started on your content marketing journey, may we suggest our Content Strategy Checklist?