Imagine you sell furniture for daycares, and your ads keep showing up for people searching for "daycare." You might get some clicks, but those visitors aren't likely to be daycare managers looking for furniture; they're probably parents looking for daycare! aka not at all who you're trying to reach.
That's the problem with overly generic keywords in Google Ads. One of my clients, who we'll call Landon, runs a carpet cleaning business.
Landon wasn't getting any clients from his Google Ads investment, so he booked a Google Ads coaching call with me to find out why.
We dove into the account, and I saw that most of his spend was coming from a single keyword in his campaign: "wool rugs." While technically relevant to his services, this keyword was too broad. It could lead to his ads showing up for people looking to buy wool rugs, not people looking to have them cleaned.
I showed Landon how this mismatch between the keyword and the searcher's intent can result in wasted ad spend and low conversion rates. People clicking on Landon's ads might be looking for rug retailers, not rug cleaners, leading to a frustrating experience for both parties.
To address this, I recommended that Landon create a new ad group specifically for rug cleaning services. Within this ad group, he could use more specific keywords like "wool rug cleaning," "rug cleaning services," or "area rug cleaning." This would ensure that his ads are only shown to people who are actively searching for rug cleaning services, not people looking to buy a rug.
If you're concerned about your keyword selection, like Landon, here are a few things to try in your Google Ads account:
- Be specific with your keywords: Avoid generic terms that could be interpreted in multiple ways. Not sure how a keyword might be interpreted? Type it into Google in an incognito window and see what comes up!
- Create dedicated ad groups: Group similar keywords together and tailor your ads and landing pages to match the searcher's intent. For example, Landon might consider creating one ad group for specialty rugs like wool or silk, another for generic carpet cleaning searches, and another for a related service he offers like upholstered furniture cleaning.
- Use exact match keywords: For small business owners just getting started with Google Ads, I recommend using exact match keywords to be as specific as possible to the user's intent. This will save you a lot of wasted budget and time spent playing "whack a mole" with negative keywords.
Don't let generic keywords sabotage your Google Ads. Let's work together and maximize your ROI.
