I got a Google Ads pop quiz for you.
The stakes, though, are a bit higher than they were when you took your last pop quiz in high school.
You get this right…
You are on your way to being a hero for your client.
But if you get it wrong…
Then you’ll be lighting your client’s cash on fire
And you might be looking for a new client as well.
Using this basic Google Ad below as a reference, what is the most important asset to get right? Is it:
A. The Landing Page
B. The Headline
C. The Description
If you answered “A: The Landing Page”, congratulations! You get the rest of the email off unless you’re interested in how I prove this to the “B & C people”.
And, yes, “B & C people”, this can be proven.
Our bankruptcy lawyer from our ad above does NOTHING but bankruptcy law and he hires an agency to run Google Ads for him. Unfortunately, his new agency is lazy and they copy & paste ad assets (i.e. the Headline, the Description, and the Landing Page) they are using for an estate planning lawyer into his ads. As estate planning is the basic opposite of a bankruptcy lawyer, this is a recipe for failure.
Fortunately, though, the 3 ads they run for him only get one of the assets wrong and the other two right. So how do these ads do?
Change the Description to “Top Estate Planning Lawyer Rated By SuperLawyers. Schedule a Consultation Now. Payment Plans Are Available. Let Our Estate Planning…”
Leave the Headline and Landing Page unchanged.
In this scenario, the ad will work but not have as good a CTR as an ad with the correct description.
The ad is functioning, but far from optimized.
Change the Headline to ”Estate Planning Attorney – Affordable Payment Plans”
Leave the Description and Landing Page unchanged.
In this scenario, this ad will tend to be ignored by searchers.
The ad fails, but it is not costing ad spend.
Ad #3: The “Worst” Result
Change the copy and images on the Landing Page to Estate Planning Lawyer.
Leave the Headline and Description unchanged.
In this scenario, the ad is getting clicks but when searchers hit the Landing Page they realize that this lawyer doesn’t do bankruptcy law and they bounce from the page.
The ad fails AND it is costing ad spend.
Granted, getting your ads THIS WRONG is an outlandish proposition that isn’t happening (hopefully not!) in the real world.
But insisting on getting your Landing Pages right ain’t outlandish. Your Landing Page is where you close the deal.
Your Landing Page needs to ABC:
Always Be Closing!
If it isn’t then it’s a lose/lose. Costing you ad spend. Costing you potential business.
I could write a small book on the importance of Landing Pages, but what I’m going to right now is follow up next week with a second part to this email on some key points about Landing Pages that we have found from A/B testing hundreds of Landing Page designs.
And to close out this week, I’ll “ABC” my own shameless plug for PPC Reveal:
