How to kill AdWords with conversion data

Posted by Dave CollinsGoogle Ads

Warning: this blog post may offend the short-sighted.

Our company has worked with a large number of online businesses over the years. And most understand the basic principles of how Google AdWords works.

We advise most of our AdWords clients to use conversion tracking, as this provides a useful gauge as to how well different parts of the account are working.

Note my wording. AdWords conversion tracking is a gauge; not that different from the RPM gauge on your car dashboard.

When you see that your RPMs are high, you don’t panic or celebrate. You simply factor that in to how and where you’re driving.

When you see that your RPMs are low, you don’t abandon your car, call the breakdown service or experiment with using milk as gasoline.

RPMs are measured on a scale. There’s a reason why your car doesn’t use a simple GOOD or BAD indicator for the purpose.

And like RPMs, conversion tracking data is useful. But it’s far from definitive, and far from accurate.

If the person buying your product is different from the person who clicked your ad, the conversion won’t register.

If the purchase takes place more than 30 days after the ad was clicked, the conversion won’t register.

If the PC used to order your product is a different one, the conversion won’t register.

I’m shocked by how many people I read about who slash their budgets or even close their AdWords accounts when they think it isn’t working for them. And guess which metric they use to reach that conclusion?

I’m shocked by the number of software developers who offer a 30 day trial, then wonder why conversion data doesn’t show up within five days of activating their campaigns.

Most of our users buy within the first seven days” they say.

But AdWords visitors aren’t most of your users. They’re a new set of different users with different ideas and buying patterns. That’s why you’re using Google AdWords to reach them.

Don’t get me wrong. Questioning your account performance is vital, as is striving to improve ROI and efficiency.

But interpreting conversion data as rock-solid evidence of failure (or success) may be as sensible as cutting-off your head, arms and legs to cure a headache.

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