Google Ads are an incredibly powerful lead generation tool, but only if used correctly. Most moving companies make the same mistakes over and over again and eventually end up draining their budgets without generating leads. Today, we’ll break down the top 10 most common mistakes that we see moving companies make on a daily basis when they are setting up their Google Ads campaigns. Whether you’re currently running ads or you’re trying to start, we promise that this guide will help you stop wasting money and start generating high-quality leads.
Landing Pages of Low Quality, with Content Not Related to the Ads’ Copy
The first and probably most common mistake most moving companies make is sending traffic to a poorly optimized landing page. If your generic landing page talks about your company in a broad sense, know that you’re losing visitors FAST! It’s important to have a highly relevant keyword and ad copy on your landing page which supports the topic throughout all the content. Also, make sure to include some authentic, non-stock photos because your goal isn’t just to inform, it’s to convert. When they see your strong reviews, video testimonials and other clear reasons why they should choose you, they’ll become a client in no time.
Conversion goals
Most relocation companies rely on Google’s default conversion goals such as “Page Visits” or “Time on Site”. These numbers might seem significant, but they do not reflect upon actual lead generation. It’s important for you to focus on high-value actions like receiving phone calls, quote requests and form submissions. When leads find and interact with you, that’s how you know you’re doing something right. You should avoid vanity metrics and instead try to set up conversions that actually align with whatever business goal you set, which should always be new leads. Sure, getting someone to visit your site and check out your “About Us” page is great, but a much better feeling is when someone submits a form or calls you. That’s what you should always be looking forward to.
Additionally, you might need some technical knowledge for this but you should set up your goal to accurately measure conversions through Google Tag Manager. When it’s accurately and succesffully measuring that data, Google itself uses that data to self-optimize. It’s no secret that Google has a lot more data to work with than we’d ever be able to have and it’s always trying to optimize everything, the same way that we’re trying to keep everything optimized and organized.
Not Doing Proper Keyword Research
It should go without saying that proper keyword research is the foundation for any successful Google Ads campaign. And to our surprise, a lot of moving companies usually skip this step and just use generic keywords like “movers”. When you start targeting high-intent and localized keywords such as “residential movers in [City Name]” or “long distance movers in [City Name]”, that’s when you should start noticing actual results. You can also use different covers for your ads if they are from a different type such as long-distance movers, local, residential, office or similar. Start using tightly focused keywords for each group and make sure it matches what your business is offering. Keywords such as “office movers in Denver” will give better results than “Movers Denver”.
Using Broad Match
When you start using broad match keywords, you will burn through and waste your ads budget. Not saying that broad match can’t be used, but you will need to have a huge list of properly optimized negative keywords. In the end, even if you do all this, it’s still not a fool proof way toward success. Here’s how this actually works. Let’s say you put a bid on “Movers”, this might show your ad to people who are looking to just rent a truck or a van, maybe people who’re just trying to get some tips about moving, or people who are looking for competitors. What you should do instead is use phrase match or exact match which will target users with a much more accurate intent. For example, “hire local movers Denver”, or “hire moving company near me” will attract more people who are actively looking for a service, instead of information. This is why using phrases is recommended since you can directly impact where keywords are showing up and you have much better control over everything.
Writing Weak Ad Copy That Fails to Attract Clicks
It’s no secret that your ad copy should be there to build trust, prompt an action or to grab a user’s intention. Mistakes such as having weak headlines, short or vague descriptions or not using calls to action will plummet your CTR (Click-through-rate). To fix this, focus on using keywords in both your headline and description since this will boost the relevance score, prompting more clicks. At the same time, you should always include clear and obvious calls to action such as “Free Quote”, “Call Now” and most importantly, give the user a reason why they should trust you. Add everything that sets you apart from the rest, things like “Licensed and Insured”, “Affordable”, “Trusted Reviews” and similar. You should always make sure your potential clients have a clear idea of who they could be dealing with and what sort of service they can expect.
Not Using Google Ads Extensions
Ad extensions might sound complicated but not using them is a big mistake. Businesses that overlook them lose on performance because they are missing crucial information in their ads. Information such as site links, call outs, brand name, logo or pictures, adding a Google Business Profile, reviews and more are just some of the things that your potential clients are missing out on or can’t see. That’s why we strongly advise you to use all relevant extensions such as callouts for service highlights, site links for your services or pages. Additionally, you can add pictures or snippets of the types of moves you can do, location verification through your Google Business Profile, Callouts, catalogues, pictures, your logo, brand name, phone number and similar. Do not be afraid to use every available extension that you can because when your ad takes up a larger space, or catches someones eye, it could potentially perform better. Using every trick in the book is how you get leads and how you grow as a business, so use all available extensions as much as possible.
Negative Keywords
For some movers this might come as a surprise but not using negative keywords enough is hurting your business a lot. They are essential if you want to filter unqualified traffic, and trust us, you want to filter it as much as possible. For example, when you don’t use negative keywords, your ads might get shown to unrelated searches like “free moving services”, “trust rental”, “cheap moves”, or they might even show up for your competitors brand names. That’s right, someone could be looking for a specific brand, click on your ad, realize he’s in the wrong spot and just close the tab. You paid for that click, and got nothing, so make sure you filter out popular brands!
Start by removing searches that include services that you don’t offer. If you don’t offer them, you can filter “rental trucks, pods, DIY services, labor only, cheap moves, single item moves” and similar. When you properly filter out poor matches, this saves your business money and provides you with improved lead quality. This is especially true for services you don’t offer outside your service area so make sure that your negative keywords are regularly updated.
Setting and Forgetting Your Campaigns
Another common mistake that most relocation companies make regularly is thinking that a Google Ads campaign is a one-time setup. Setting up your ads campaign once and then just letting it run without tinkering with the settings for months is the sort of practice that only leads to poor performance, missed opportunities and wasted spend. It should go without saying that you do not want this happening. You should monitor your campaigns at least once a week, and make sure your bids are adjusted accordingly, refine your ad copy and optimize your ads based on current performance. You could also try testing some new keywords because Google Ads is a living system and regular attention is the key to success.
Blindly Accepting Google Recommendations
It’s no secret that Google often recommends automated changes to your campaigns, like raising bids, targeting additional networks or even adding broad match keywords. It’s true that some suggestions can be useful but blindly applying them can hurt your campaign much more than they will help. You should always review all changes and recommendations manually. Look at your data and make a decision based on it, do not just blindly trust Googles algorithm and hope it didn’t make a mistake. Keep in mind that Google is a business, and their end goal is to get you to spend more on your ads campaign, not necessarily to get you more leads. That’s why it’s important for you to ask yourself if these changes will help you attract qualified moving leads or not. Trust your data, not Google’s agenda.
Having Auto-Apply Turned On
Having auto-apply turned on means that you’re allowing Google to automatically apply changes without your approval. It should go without saying that this can be particularly dangerous because it could add new keywords, change your bids or mess with settings that won’t align properly with your end goal. The last thing you want is your ad to be shown to the wrong audience, especially since your ads are targeting a niche category. You should always review all changes manually. Yes, it might sound like more work but keeping full control over your budget and settings is much more important because no one knows your business better than you.
Conclusion
Now that you know the most common mistakes you should avoid, let’s summarize what’s most essential for you. Try to focus on related terms, try to figure out what people are searching for and expand upon that. Focus on people searching for moving company services instead of information from one, tips or similar information that you won’t benefit from. Improve your campaign regularly, and always make sure that your negative keyword list is up-to-date. Focus on getting proper leads instead of the most expensive ones or similar. Of course, these are just some of the more vital things you should focus on in your Google Ads account management. We hope that you will find this post helpful and that it will teach you something you didn’t know you’re doing wrong.