Google Adwords is a great platform to get instant quality traffic and generate leads for your business. Once you are done setting up your campaign, you can get traffic from day 1 of your campaign launch. However, if you notice a sudden or even a gradual drop in your Adwords traffic, it’s time to check what’s going wrong. Below are some checks you can do to figure out why the clicks have gone down:
1. Average Ad Positioning is Low:
Generally an ad placed at higher position (1 to 4) gets more clicks. If your ads are appearing below 4th or 5th position, you will get lesser clicks. Consider increasing your keyword bids AND make efforts to increase your quality score (especially when your keyword bids are high enough) to better your ad positions.
2. Ads Don’t Serve the Purpose:
Make sure your ads convey what you offer or what your product does. Use popular and relevant industry terms which make users stop by and click on your ads. Include CTAs in your ads and test different CTAs. You should also include different ad extensions like sitelinks, callouts, calls, etc. to make your ads more relevant and catchy.
3. Change in Keyword Search Trends:
This is something not in our control yet could be a reason for the drop in clicks. Compare the old search volume with current search volume and look for any pattern in traffic shifts. Some keywords are seasonal and there are regular ups and downs for some keywords so you should be mindful of that. Fix a time span (quarterly or half yearly) to carry out this research. You could also find some new keywords while carrying out this research.
4. Keywords have Low Search Volume:
It’s possible that you think of a great keyword around your service/product but no one is searching for it or a very few people are searching for it. You have to trust numbers more than your gut here. Try finding some new keywords having good number of searches.
5. Too Few Keywords:
A PPC campaign should have enough number of keywords to get the desired number of clicks. Make sure you have strategically added all the keyword matches i.e. broad, BMM, phrase and exact. If you still see that your money is not getting spent even after increasing bids and adding highly searched keywords, consider adding more keywords.
6. Time Restrictions:
Unless you have specified a custom time schedule, make sure that your ads are showing up all the time. Sometimes it goes unnoticed and you end up figuring out what’s wrong with your ads and keywords.
7. Ads are Disapproved or Limited:
If the ads are disapproved, they won’t show up at all. On the other hand, if they are limited, for example they use a trademarked term then Google might show them very less often or they might not show up at all. So make sure that all your ads are approved.
Above are some checks that will give you insights on why your Adwords clicks are dropping. Is there a way you know to investigate it? Do let me know in the comments area below.
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