When you see the ads generating some Leads; the phone is ringing occasionally, and you feel like you're going to get more Leads by spending more. Sometimes you are. But most of the time when you increase your ad Budget before you correct the issues that exist in your campaign, you simply spend more money for the same issues. Regardless of whether good or bad things are occurring in your campaign, a larger ad Budget will amplify both.

These checks can be completed in an afternoon or two. They will let you know if an additional investment of money will yield results. Work through them in sequence as they build upon each other, and the earlier checks will impact your ability to rely on the later checks.

1. Make Sure Conversion Tracking Is Accurate

To decide how to allocate a larger ad Budget, you need to understand which clicks are converting into inquiries, calls and sales. If your tracking is incorrect, you will be making educated guesses when allocating increased budgets. Verify that all form submissions and calls from ads and websites are tracked as conversions and that each Conversion is being accounted for exactly once. Many advertisers incorrectly count page views of a thank-you page as conversions, especially if that page can be reached without completing a form. Also, many advertisers import actions into their ad account multiple times via two different tools. Complete a test inquiry and verify that the inquiry is displayed correctly, one time, under the proper campaign name. If the number of conversions in your ad account does not approximate the number of inquiries received by your company, do not proceed to step #2.

2. Know What a Lead Is Worth to You

Without knowing how much you can afford to pay per customer, you cannot determine if your advertisements are profitable. First, determine your average profit margin on a new customer. Next, calculate the number of Leads required to convert a new customer. For example, if your average profit margin on a new customer is $1500 and you convert one new customer for every four Leads, you can afford to spend no more than $375 per lead without losing money. This dollar amount translates your gut feeling into a tangible measurement. Therefore, if your current cost per lead (cpl) is significantly less than the break-even point ($375), consider additional advertising dollars. However, if your cpl is relatively close to the break-even point or greater than the break-even point, increasing your advertising spend will only result in increased losses. Additionally, repeat Business exists in many companies. If your customers are repeat customers, the total value derived from a customer over his/her lifetime may justify a higher cpl than the initial transaction alone suggests.

3. Review the Search Terms Report

The keyword(s) you bid on are often vastly different from the actual searches people enter. The search term report displays the actual searches that prompted your advertisements to display. It is frequently quite revealing. A plumber bidding on “blocked drain” may discover he is paying for “how to unblock a drain yourself” or “plumbing apprenticeships.”

Review your last 30 – 90 days of search term reports. Add any non-relevant search terms to your negative keywords list. Note any particularly strong search terms that warrant their own ad group. Eliminating only 10% to 20% of unnecessary clicks generates a free Budget that you already possess – a more economical solution than adding additional funds.

In addition, examine your match types while reviewing your search term reports. While broad matches can generate new valuable searches, it can also cause you to advertise for topics far removed from your services if you do not include negative keywords and utilize reliable conversion data.

4. Check That Your Landing Page Can Convert

While excellent advertisements cannot compensate for weak landing pages, weak landing pages can undermine great advertisements. View your landing page on a cell phone and evaluate it as your potential customers would. Does it load rapidly? Is it immediately apparent what services you provide, where you operate and what steps you want users to take next? Is the telephone number tappable and is the form brief?

If your landing page is slow to load, cluttered or generic, additional traffic only results in more users departing. Some cases require minimal changes to improve your landing pages’ effectiveness – e.g., use a clearer headline and/or fewer form fields. Alternatively, if your entire website is preventing successful paid clicks from converting into Leads, consulting with a digital marketing agency specializing in web development/design and SEO along with google ads may address foundational issues that enable each paid click to successfully convert into a lead.

5. Find Out Whether Budget Is Really the Limit

Prior to investing additional dollars into advertising, ensure that Budget constraints are indeed causing limitations. Within google ads, the “Search lost IS (budget)” column displays how often your advertisements did not display due to reaching daily Budget limits. If this metric is extremely high on a profitable campaign, it is highly probable that additional Budget will result in more Leads.

Conversely, if the predominant metric is “Search lost IS (rank)”, your issue lies elsewhere. Your advertisements are losing auctions due to low bids, weak advertisement relevance or suboptimal landing page user experiences. Additional Budget will not resolve either of these issues – however utilizing stronger advertisements and landing pages will.

6. Tighten Your Location, Schedule and Device Settings

There are several small settings that can quietly waste considerable amounts of money. Ensure that your advertisements only target geographic regions you serve and that geographic targeting in your campaigns is set to target individuals physically located in those areas versus those who express interest in those locations. Determine which days/hours produce Leads and whether someone is available to answer incoming calls during periods in which ads are displaying. Performance metrics regarding Device usage matter greatly as well. If mobile viewers primarily contact you via telephone but rarely complete online forms, be certain that mobile advertisements feature the telephone number prominently. Transferring your ad Budget to periods/days/locations/devices previously producing Leads is typically a more impactful exercise than increasing the total ad Budget.

7. Make Sure Your Business Can Handle More Leads

Perhaps the easiest item to overlook when contemplating increasing ad spend is determining whether your company has sufficient resources to handle additional leads generated by increased advertising spend. Every lead requires rapid and professional responses – whether via telephone or email. If calls roll directly into voice mailboxes or email messages remain unanswered for extended periods, many of those expensive Leads will be diverted to competitors responding sooner.

Honest self-reflection of whether your staff has adequate time to promptly respond to Leads, effectively follow-up with Leads and absorb the added workload prior to increasing advertising spend will assist in identifying whether staff-related resource constraints prevent successful implementation of additional advertising spend.

Additionally, it is helpful to establish a Tracking system for Leads post-entry into your company’s systems. A basic spreadsheet or CRM Tracking system capable of recording source information for each lead and identifying subsequent sales activity allows for correlation between spent advertising dollars and resulting sales revenue – rather than simply measuring lead generation activity.

When to Get a Second Opinion

If you have reviewed the checklist items listed above and still are unsure what conclusions can be drawn from your findings, it may be beneficial to seek input from another party knowledgeable of google ads. An experienced third-party expert may identify issues within minutes that could potentially take you weeks to recognize – i.e., duplicated keywords, poor bidding strategies etc.

For service businesses, engaging a google ads manager such as the Google Ads Guy can perform an audit of your account – review your Tracking data — provide insight into whether incremental investments in advertising will likely result in additional revenues.

Even if you intend to continue managing the account yourself, an audit provides you with actionable steps necessary to optimize performance before increasing ad spend.

Spend More Only When the Basics Are Solid

Increasing advertising spend is not a standalone strategy. With solid Conversion Tracking established; unnecessary clicks minimized; strong performing landing pages created; and sufficient personnel/resources in place to support increased lead volume; expanding advertising spend can stimulate growth rapidly in most organizations. Until then, the best course of action remains optimizing existing performance.

Therefore, schedule dedicated time to evaluate each of these seven checkpoints prior to increasing your advertising spend. As stated previously, you may discover that the lead flow you desire is currently accessible using existing performance levels.