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In this Shark Bite, Andrew will discuss the fifth and last AdWords truth small business owners don’t want to hear. Last week, we talked about how your website makes or breaks your success with Google AdWords.

This week, Andrew will cover why you should also look at intangible results as a measure of your success with your AdWords campaigns.

The buyer’s funnel is not a linear process, in other words, there are many ways in which your customers can reach your site other than a click on an ad that directly leads to a conversion.

Think about it, when you are searching for a product, chances are you search different times with several different keywords for that same product. And if you never use any other attribution models than last interaction, you will never be able to see the full impact that your campaigns are having on your business.

Transcription

Andrew: The last few months I’ve been talking to you about the five biggest AdWords truths that business owners don’t want to hear. Today I want to share the fifth and last truth. Intangible results also matter.

Gabby: Wait, what about White Shark Media’s ROI, accountability, and tracking?

Google AdWords Generated 63% More Conversions Than the Ones Reported in Google Analytics

Andrew: Wait, wait, wait. Let me explain further. One day I was sitting with one of our Senior PPC strategists, and we were discussing how big of a difference you can find on Google Analytics when you compare the different attribution models.

Translate it into simple terms. Google AdWords generated 63% more conversions than the ones reported in Google Analytics as a default. So just imagine how many more people who call you, come to your office, or in any other way interact with your business and you have no way of tracking them.

This example shows that only focusing on the results you can see might send you into a downward spiral. One of the easiest things that a PPC manager can do is to cut cost. You just go in, find the keywords that are not converting, you click cost. That’s it. Yes, cutting costs will help improve your ROI consistently over the first three months, and that’s great.

However, after that point, you’ll start seeing a decrease in sales. Some of your high performing keywords will start converting less. That will result in you bidding lower, pausing ad groups, and then all of a sudden you’ll have a wake-up call.

What Just Happened?

You were lowering your bids. You were getting a better ROI. But all of a sudden you do not see any sustainable performance gains. Well, what happened was that you started pausing keywords that may not result in a direct conversion, but they were feeding the other keywords. The buying funnel is not a linear process. Consumers search for multiple keywords and use multiple channels when they purchase a product.

Don’t Rely on a Linear Process

So if you’re just relying on the linear, one-click, one conversion in AdWords then it’ll simply not be sufficient. So to sum it all up. If you don’t use any other attribution models than last interaction, then you’ll never see the full benefit of AdWords. That was it. That was the last truth in our Shark Bite Series, but I promise you this, the next one is just as good. Just keep tuning in to our YouTube Channel and visit our blog and I’ll see you soon.