Skip to content
BuzzMaven Digital Marketing Agency / SEO Agency
Growth Through Intelligent Marketing
BuzzMaven Digital Marketing Agency / SEO AgencyBuzzMaven Digital Marketing Agency / SEO Agency
  • Home
  • Services
    • SEO
      • SEO – Start Here
      • SEO Audits with Actionable Next Steps
      • Local SEO
      • Technical SEO
      • Agency Partnerships
    • PPC
      • Google Ads (Adwords)
      • LinkedIn Ads
      • PPC/Ad Audits
      • Microsoft Ads
      • Event Marketing
      • Agency Partnerships
    • Content Marketing
      • Content Marketing – Start Here
      • Generative AI / SGE SEO
      • Video Content Marketing
    • Franchisor / Multilocation
      • SEO for Franchises
      • Google Ads for Franchises / Franchisors
    • Other Services
      • Online Reputation Management (ORM)
      • Email Marketing Consulting
    • For Executives
  • Blog
  • About / Contact
    • About
    • Contact / Meetings
  • Home
  • Services
    • SEO
      • SEO – Start Here
      • SEO Audits with Actionable Next Steps
      • Local SEO
      • Technical SEO
      • Agency Partnerships
    • PPC
      • Google Ads (Adwords)
      • LinkedIn Ads
      • PPC/Ad Audits
      • Microsoft Ads
      • Event Marketing
      • Agency Partnerships
    • Content Marketing
      • Content Marketing – Start Here
      • Generative AI / SGE SEO
      • Video Content Marketing
    • Franchisor / Multilocation
      • SEO for Franchises
      • Google Ads for Franchises / Franchisors
    • Other Services
      • Online Reputation Management (ORM)
      • Email Marketing Consulting
    • For Executives
  • Blog
  • About / Contact
    • About
    • Contact / Meetings

How Do You Reduce Wasted Search Campaign Lead Generation Budget in B2B Google Ads / Adwords?

You are here:
  1. Home
  2. adwords
  3. How Do You Reduce Wasted…

Reducing Google Adwords Google Ads Waste for B2BI do work with large B2B ($100M-$3B) and multi-location B2C clients and have optimized tons of Google Ads campaigns. More than 60% of the Google Ads accounts I am asked to review are wasting much of their budget when I first see them.  The waste is not always easy to see, often hiding behind Quality Scores, Mismanaged bids, or other esoteric paths.

Not only is the spend wasted, but their competition is happy to take the Search Impression Share from them. This is the hidden opportunity cost businesses rarely report on – perhaps because it’s painful!  Cost of inaction, opportunity costs these are all inconvenient truths.

The requirement to make Google Ads viable is to optimize until 85–90% of the budget is going towards high-intent search phrases worthy of their ad spend, completely changing the ROAS – pushing to 6:1 or higher.  When you get high intent into the search terms report, you can finally work with a foundation for bidding and funnel development.   As the account reaches a stability point, you turn to Google Campaign Experiments to start to rachet things up in small pivots.

Here are the basic ways to reduce Google Ads / Adwords Budget Waste:

  1. Intent-focused campaign structure, including theme-specific ad groups. Most campaigns have a horrible structure. I rarely get to re-use anything I find.
  2. Retargeting campaigns designed around the long-sales-cycle of B2B purchases and their audiences. The search language will change as they progress, and the retargeting language needs to lead them.  Retargeting cookies should be in place for many networks, including LinkedIn, Bing and social media, not just Google.  Some may wish to use a combined platform, such as Perfect Audience, for this.
  3. Initial keyword research (many tools, not just Google’s) – some from existing search terms reports (if they are not a total waste) but I also use 4–5 other commercial tools, plenty of spreadsheet macros, Google SEarch Console and Google analytics data. Solid match type decisions need made at this time also.
  4. Search Terms Reports-based negative keyword enhancements. I use the search terms reports to guide subsequent negative keyword activity. The resulting client negative keyword lists, when totalled, have 5000–6000 terms and require some care and feeding.
  5. Tweak & test audience definitions.  What are the personal demographics of your audience targets?  Break off some of your campaigns and test different bid adjustments and exclusions.
  6. Incorporate state of the art call tracking for all Google Ads generated calls, including dynamic numbers on landing pages.  Call Tracking Metrics is one such provider I think has really worked this out well.   Callrail is another.
  7. Continuous ad group refinement / SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) and STAGs (Single Theme Ad Groups) – avoid overly relying on dynamic keyword insertion for ad writing.
  8. Ad tournaments to establish the best structure, including site links, callouts and more
  9. Use built-in Google Campaign Experiments/ad testing features as a low-disruption approach to testing hypothesis in a scientific way, while preserving momentum.
  10. Use business data ad customizers where possible so you can tweak common messages without requiring ad re-review and ad stats reset.
  11. Feedback from sales team / CRM about Google Ads-sourced lead intent. Are they good calls? What level is the intent? What should we enhance or suppress?
  12. Lead Scoring – not all leads are created equally.  Listen to calls when possible.  The call center can be a major point of PPC failure.  Consider if wrong number calls for competitors are saleable or wasteful and bid accordingly.

Photo: Damian Gadal – use by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Categories: adwords, Google Ads, Paid Search/PPC, SEO/SEMBy Scott ClarkJanuary 24, 2019
Tags: adwordsanalyticsgoogle adsgoogle adwordsppcSEM

Author: Scott Clark

Nationally Proven Sr. SEO/SEM Consultant/Strategist Google Partner / Bing Accredited Professional

Related Posts

Your Organic Traffic May Tank Soon – Google Search Generative Experience is About to Go Live
September 19, 2023
Topic Clusters for Content SEO
Topic Cluster Content Strategy for SEO – Challenges to Watch Out For
August 12, 2022
Google Ads Lead Form Extensions Qualifying Questions
January 24, 2022
Resist the Default
Google Ads Tip: Sculpt Phrase Match Negative Keywords in Half The Time.
September 29, 2021
The Sunk Cost Fallacy Often Undermines SEO Recommendations and Drives High Opportunity Costs
September 27, 2021
B2B SEO Content Creation
Using Role Play to Build B2B Content Creation and Knowledge Bases (AKA the Secret Shopper Game)
April 27, 2020

Clear, Direct Answers

Contact Us
Contact Details
Buzzmaven, Inc.
163 East Main Street
Suite 300
Lexington, KY, 40507
  • 1.859.951.4414
  • Parking, directions, etc.

Find us on:

Facebook page opens in new windowTwitter page opens in new windowLinkedin page opens in new window
Search the Site
Blogroll
  • Bill Slawski
  • Marie Haynes
  • Seth Godin
  • Sparktoro / Rand Fishkin
Categories
  • adwords (16)
  • analytics (2)
  • b2b (1)
  • bestof (5)
  • biglink (1)
  • books (3)
  • Changes Online (24)
  • Events (16)
  • Facebook (1)
  • featured (28)
  • For Agencies and SEOs (6)
  • Franchises (6)
  • Geeked Out (3)
  • Google Ads (3)
  • Hardware (3)
  • Ideas (49)
  • Improving Work (13)
  • Interviews (3)
  • Just for Fun (5)
  • LinkedIn (2)
  • mobile (2)
  • New Marketing (32)