Solved: Improving Lead Quality from Google Ads Campaigns

Hi there,

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on your Google Ads lead quality issue. It sounds like you're experiencing a fairly common problem, and there are a few things we can look at to try and improve the situation. I'll give you the main areas to investigate, that should help you significantly.

We'll need to look at the conversion tracking setup...

First, it sounds like your current conversion tracking might be a bit too broad. You're optimising for consultations booked, which means Google is primarily looking for people who are likely to book consultations – not necessarily people who are genuinely interested in your services. I'd recommend tracking a downstream event instead, like when someone actually signs up for a paid appointment (or a series of appointments).

Think of it like this: booking a consultation is a relatively low-commitment action. People might do it out of curiosity, boredom, or even by accident. Signing up for a paid appointment, on the other hand, requires a much higher level of intent and commitment. By tracking this downstream event, you're telling Google to focus on finding people who are truly ready to invest in your services.

I remember working with a software client where we reduced their Cost Per User Acquisition from £100 to £7 for a medical job matching SaaS, by optimising the conversion tracking.

I'd say you should review your ad extensions and forms...

Next up, let's take a look at your ad extensions. Are you using lead form extensions? If so, these could be contributing to the problem. I recall a client, a software company, who were seeing a lot of low-quality leads.

The quality was poor as the forms are easy to fill out on mobile, with everything pre-populated. This meant that they were attracting tyre kickers not real paying customers. So my advice would be to try turning off your lead form extensions (if you're using them) and see if that makes a difference to the quality of your leads. It might be worth testing this out for a week or two to see if things improve. You could also test a different type of form or landing page if you're still wanting to collect leads directly from your ads.

Alternatively, you can look at adding some form validation to ensure only valid email addresses are submitted. You could also add in a honeypot field to block bots from submitting.

You probably should tighten up your geo targeting...

Another potential issue could be your location targeting. Double-check that your targeting isn't too broad. It's important to make sure you're only targeting the specific geographic areas where you offer your services. If you're targeting too wide an area, you're likely to attract leads from people who are outside your service area. This can lead to wasted ad spend and a lower overall lead quality.

It's a common mistake. Ensure you have the correct settings selected for your location targeting, if set to "Presence or Interest" it will target people outside of your local area who are interested in it. We often recommend setting this to "Presence" to limit the number of people outside of your local area who are seeing your ads.

You should also use location exclusion to ensure you're not targeting any areas you don't want to reach. For example, if you only serve a specific city or region, you should exclude all other areas from your targeting. Also, are you making sure you're targeting the right area/state? It's worth double checking just in case!

You'll need to investigate the advert copy and website...

Something else to consider is the messaging on your ads and landing pages. Are you being specific enough about your ideal client? Are you clearly communicating the value proposition of your services? It's possible that your current messaging is too generic, and it's attracting the wrong type of leads.

Try to be as specific as possible about who you're trying to reach and what you can do for them. Use language that resonates with your ideal client and highlights the unique benefits of your services. For example, instead of saying "We offer mental health services," you could say "We help trauma survivors heal and reclaim their lives." This type of specific messaging is more likely to attract qualified leads who are genuinely interested in your services. The more clearly you specify what you are offering and who you are offering it to, the more likely you are to attract the right people. For instance, adding "virtual appointments only" might help people weed themselves out if they are looking for in-person appointments.

Also, take a look at your website landing pages. Are they optimised for conversions? Do they clearly communicate the value of your services? Do they make it easy for people to schedule a consultation? If your landing pages are confusing, cluttered, or difficult to navigate, you're likely to lose potential leads. If you offer a limited amount of appointment slots, you could also specify that to encourage people to convert while they can.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

These are just a few initial thoughts, of course, and there might be other factors at play as well. Ultimately, the best way to improve your lead quality is to experiment, test different approaches, and track your results carefully. It can take time to find the right formula, but with persistence and attention to detail, you should be able to significantly improve the quality of your leads and get more value from your Google Ads campaigns.

Scaling PPC campaigns can be a tricky business, especially in the B2B sector where things tend to be a little bit harder, and for high ticket offers. This is where expert help really comes into it's own, someone to come in and look under the hood and advise on what needs to be done and how to do it.

If you'd like to explore this further, we're happy to offer a free consultation where we can review your strategy and account together. Drop us a line and we'll book you in.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh