My biggest paid search mistake
And the reporting tip Google doesn't want you to know
I had a monthly ad budget of well over $1M and was allocating between 2/3 and 3/4 of it to Google Ads.
We had an incredible average cost per lead on the account and our agency said we were still losing impression share due to budget, so we could add even MORE money to the channel without seeing diminishing returns…so we did.
5+ years now removed from that role, if there was one thing I wish I could go back and tell my younger self then, it would be this:
You're wasting spend by determining success as a low cost per lead and not tracking past those leads to see if they turn into pipeline or revenue
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CFOs love Google Ads…
Look, CFOs and marketers love paid search because it's so easily attributable and predictable:
Bid on a keyword —> drive the user to a landing page with a clear CTA —> user "converts" on the offer
Then, since we're all so "data-driven" we look to see which keywords generate the most conversions at the lowest cost per lead (CPL) and highest click-to-conversion rate (CVR).
"Yay, we know what's working, so let's dump as much money as possible into this keyword! Then, let’s find some similar keywords to bid on and use broader matching parameters to show up for related searches, too!"
…and so begins the downward journey of throwing money away at keywords with lower intent, higher costs, and worse conversion rates.
…until they learn the truth
Let's use Drift as an example since many of you are familiar with their brand and what they do (*note* - this is NOT real data and I have no idea what they actually spend, this is strictly for example purposes)
Most B2B companies spend money on paid search in 4 buckets:
👉 Brand keywords (ex. Drift)
👉 High-intent non-brand keywords (ex. chatbot software)
👉 Low-intent non-brand keywords (ex. chatbot)
👉 Competitor keywords (ex. Intercom)
Since paid search is an easily attributable channel with it often leading to a direct response, you can use tracking scripts + UTMs to capture data that led up to the conversion.
You then run a report filtering for all leads that came through paid search and see which lifecycle stages they progressed to.
As I mentioned earlier, the biggest mistake that younger me made was stopping at the data inside Google Ads and only focusing on the cost per lead (red outlined box below):
But true success means looking at how they do or don't progress into meaningful business opportunities for you, aka pipeline and revenue creation (bright green outlined boxes below):
Your turn
Go look back at the last ~12 months of your paid search data AND go beyond the platform to see what is/isn't driving real results.
Start with your total campaign spend and subtract the spend from keywords that converted to uncover how much spend went to keywords that didn't convert at all (Non-Lead Spend) and how much of the campaign spend went to those (% Spend Non-Lead).
These keywords should be paused/removed IMMEDIATELY.
Next, of those that converted, look at how many turned into opportunities.
This is where you'll see a big separation between high-intent keywords and low-intent keywords as high-intent is seeking software to specifically solve for something, whereas low-intent is much broader and is just seeking information about the topic.
Insider info: Low-intent keywords disguise themselves as effective due to their low cost-per-lead (CPL), but because they progress through the funnel at significantly worse rates, they end up being MORE expensive in terms of cost per opportunity + customer acquisition cost (CAC).
Now follow the same formula of mapping spend to lifecycle stages + you will quickly get a view of the real picture. What’s actually driving revenue for your organization, and what’s masking as impactful, but in reality is wasted spend.
Ready to give it a shot?
Here’s a template you can duplicate to see how effective your current search campaigns are. With 2025 planning underway, now is a great time to be doing this exercise, especially if Google Ads accounts for a heavy portion of your advertising budget.
One artist I’m really enjoying right now
This past week has been filled with head-down focus work. Whenever I have stretches of time to get into deep work, I’m incredibly picky about what I listen to. So when I came across 2WEI, I knew I found what I’m sure is going to be high up in my Spotify Wrapped playlist later this year.
There are countless studies + social proof about film scores (movie soundtracks) often being great for studying + focus. From John Williams to Hans Zimmer, you’ll recognize their work as soon as you hear something from them. So it wasn’t a surprise to me when I came across 2WEI that one of the members of this composer team of 2 worked under Hans Zimmer early in their career. Think cinematic meets electronic - if that’s your vibe, then check them out.
See you next Saturday,
Sam