When more PPC budget doesn’t equal more leads

More PPC budget doesn’t necessarily mean more leads. If you concentrate your budget on capturing existing demand while cutting the channels that build awareness and trust, you can end up limiting the demand your search campaigns depend on.

When lead capture becomes the entire PPC strategy

Let’s start by looking at a hypothetical situation.

A new CMO came onboard with his own ideas about paid media and how to do lead generation. The paid media team recommended he maintain his current budget allocation, which included a well-rounded mix of campaign types that covered the customer journey – from awareness and reinforcing brand trust to lead capture.  

He didn’t believe in the value of building awareness and brand trust, however. He cut almost everything, paid social, video ads, demand gen campaigns, and moved all budgets into lead capture via Google search ads and Local Service Ads (LSAs). 

The team strongly recommends that he not make these changes and explains why, but he overrides them and instructs them to make the changes. Skip ahead a full year, when year-over-year performance is flat, and business is tight. The CMO and his team are panicking.

Their competitors, meanwhile, have continued to advertise locally on CTV. They run YouTube ads, Demand Gen campaigns, and Local Services Ads (LSAs). And that’s only what’s happening online. A team member goes to visit family in one of their competitors’ markets and reports back, “OMG, [competitor]’s billboard ads are everywhere!”

This isn’t a new story. We’ve seen it play out over and over. The old playbook doesn’t work anymore.

The change in discoverability

These days, people aren’t only discovering you by searching via a non-brand keyword. Instead, they’re being exposed to your brand online in places like Reddit, ChatGPT, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. They’re watching videos and reading customer success stories. They’re learning about your brand long before they ever type a search query.

As the CMO learned, relying on search-only in a multichannel world is legacy thinking. Forward-thinking brand marketers consider the entire landscape and budget accordingly.

Take, for example, a generic keyword such as “collaborative robots.” How will a text ad make your brand stand apart in a sea of ads with the same keyword headline?

If you’re a known and trusted name or brand that’s done the hard work, your text ad is simply a reassuring trust signal for prospects. They’ve seen you at the trade show (and talked to their colleagues about you at the after-hours party), downloaded a white paper and case study, watched videos, and maybe even attended a LinkedIn event you hosted.

They’re leaning toward your brand but want to make sure they’ve done their due diligence before committing to a sales conversation. So they do a few final searches just in case they’ve missed something.

For competitors who aren’t trusted names, haven’t been to a trade show, or have slim content offerings, their text ad may get clicks, but will have very little conversion. It’s not because they’re being outspent. It’s because the known brand has done the hard work of consistently showing up where their prospects will find them. They’ve built awareness and trust. The positive lead gen outcome is a no-brainer.

Dig deeper: Stop looking for the perfect PPC budget split

Google Ads is harder than ever

I’m constantly hearing that Google Ads doesn’t work anymore.

My response? Google Ads works. Your strategy doesn’t.

Many factors have made paid and organic lead generation on Google feel more difficult than ever. AI Overviews, for example, are compressing what people see at the top of the page. Depending on your industry, the competition can be brutal.

We’ve all taken calls from clients about their performance being down and questioning the efficacy of our agencies. When you look under the hood, however, you learn the entire budget is in Google search ads.

If your entire lead gen strategy consists of targeting brand and non-brand keywords, you’re limiting growth.

If you’ve seen a decline in keywords converting, it’s not because Google Ads stopped working. It’s because old strategies don’t cut it anymore.

When a client sees a performance issue, the immediate response is to focus on minor improvements like updating and testing new headlines or targeting new keywords.

These actions are PPC 101 and will only result in small performance improvement. A text ad won’t help to build trust. It doesn’t help your brand’s image, and it won’t make you more visible online.

To stand out and be seen, you have to go beyond search.

Dig deeper: AI Overview optimization guide: How to rank in generated results

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Bidding on brand does not build your brand

Let’s take a look at a real-life example of what I mean. A medical device company my agency works with launched awareness campaigns to promote a new product — $40,000 for four months — but with disappointing lead performance. The team had bought into the misconception that more spend equals more leads.

After a review, my agency recommended they spend a steady $4,000 to $5,000 a month to build awareness of the product — and, most importantly, trust — over time.

The key to major performance improvements is to consistently show up where your prospective customers will find you. Companies build huge booths at big-name industry conferences and exhibitions guided by one simple principle: They have to be there. The demos, the conversations, the socializing — all are key actions in the buying journey.

The principle of showing up in front of your prospective customers or clients functions similarly when it comes to building your brand across the web. Prospects see your posts on social or business forums. They watch your videos on YouTube or scan a press release or article in a business publication.

Your prospects are vetting you, and this process can take weeks, months, or a year.

It’s why you’ll sometimes hear marketers complain about the process being a slog. They’re right! It is!

But the companies consistently tackling it are the ones that report on the new leads they got from LinkedIn that converted to won sales. Because it works.

Getting multiple leads from a social platform that resulted in purchase orders didn’t just happen. That company worked for it. Consistently. For months.

To keep your lead flow humming, look at the entire marketing landscape. Where are your prospects, and why?

Dig deeper: Own your branded search: Building a competitive PPC defense

What’s your next step for budget?

If your $50,000 PPC budget isn’t working, take a look at what you’re bidding on. Remove the non-brand, generic keywords and then allocate this budget to campaigns that prepare your brand for what’s ahead. The times are changing, and you need to be ready to change right along with them.