Having managed many Google ads accounts since I started offering this service in 2008, I have learned a lot from a spend in excess of £10 million invested into Google by myself and my clients (from a quick tot up inside my Google Ads management account – probably more like £15-20 million).
A lot of it seems obvious to me now, but that is because I spend all day, every day, working inside Google Ads.
I thought you might find some of my observations helpful in forming or improving (or starting) your Google Ads strategy.
As a side note, if you think Google Ads doesn’t matter to you, have you noticed recently how much more prominence is being given to them at the very top of the Google Search results?
They are getting more and more retail space, so it will be interesting to see if that has an impact on organic traffic going volumes in the future.
Back to my example, I am going to use an average cost per click of £5 for each of the examples, to make the maths easier but also because it is a pretty average figure for the majority of legal services.
1. Up To £500 Google Ads Spend Per Month
With a £5 average cost per click, we are looking at around 100 clicks per month.
Whilst this may sound like a lot, it wouldn’t be enough to form a solid polling opinion, 1000 is the number that YouGov favours apparently, which is significant when it comes to my findings too (see below), and generally for the same reasons it isn’t enough to make the needle move when it comes to using Google Ads.
At this level of spend, you can expect to see variable results, or none at all.
Often, when solicitors tell me Google Ads doesn’t work for their business, this is one of the two major reasons it doesn’t work:
they are simply not generating enough clicks to prove whether it does or does not work.
In case you were wondering, the other major reason it doesn’t work is because their website is not set up to convert the visitors into enquiries. Not by a long way.
About 50% of the time when someone asks me to run a Google Ads campaign for them, I refuse.
You might be surprised to hear that from someone who makes a living selling Google Ads management services, but it is the right thing to do for them and for me, as I want long term, successful, hugely profitable clients and that will only be the case if their website works hard for them and delivers a lot of new clients.
If I start a Google Ads campaign sending traffic to a terrible website that simply will never turn a visitor into a new client, it means that it is a waste of time for me and a waste of money for my prospective client.
The website needs to be set up correctly first, which is precisely why I set up a 6 week intensive training to get a website ‘conversion fit’.
If you are spending money on Google Ads and not seeing the results you would like, or have good Organic traffic (over 3,000 visits a month) but are not getting dozens of enquiries for your services every month, you should invest in that training as it will pay you back many times over:>>
In summary, if you are running Google Ads and only spending up to £500 a month with Google, your results will be one of two things:
- inconsistent or
- non existent
2. £1,000 Per Month Google Ads Spend
At this level, at my average cost per click of £5 you should be receiving 200 clicks per month.
Now, assuming these are good quality clicks (you are not allowing Google to use AI to encourage you to use broad match keywords, their conversion bidding etc, all of which are designed to make Google more money but not you), then you should be getting more consistent results.
However, whilst some months will be very profitable, other months will at best be break even or not even that
3. £1,500 Per Month Google Ads Spend
This is what I call my ‘minimum viable product’.
At 300 clicks per month, I expect pretty consistent results, save for any months with Easter, Christmas, or the word August in them.
These months are always outliers, but in a bad way.
I recommend each person gets to 300 clicks a month as quickly as possible, as it makes consistent new client generation so much more predictable, which in turn makes it more fun.
4. £3,000 Per Month Google Ads Spend
600 clicks per month.
Double my recommended minimum.
More chance of wonderful consistency.
5. £10,000 Per Month Google Ads Spend
2,000 clicks per month.
At this level and beyond, consistency is golden.
I have had clients fill the filing cabinets of 15 to 20 fee earners once they pass these levels of spend, and with pretty much nothing else bringing the work in.
Questions?
If you have any questions on my thoughts here, please reply and I will be glad to answer them personally.
Or if you would prefer to reserve a Google Ads Optimisation Call with me where I review your campaign with you personally instead (no cost or obligation), click here to do so:>>
If there is no suitable time, if you email support@samsonconsulting.co.uk with some suggested dates and times Christelle will find a time to suit you.
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