Why “Solicitor” is a really bad search term on Google Ads

Solicitor Search Term Google Ads
Tell me what is wrong with the above search results?

Do you think the three advertisers will make a return on their investment from these advertisements?

I know that it is highly unlikely.

First, the cost for each click is estimated by Google to be £10.58. The reality is that it may in fact be a lot more expensive than this. Google is only estimating because there are so many variables that go into deciding how much you pay for each click.

It is these variables that make me pretty confident that these advertisers will spend a lot more than the £10.58 per click AND they will struggle to make any return on investment.

The variables that are important here are:

  • Poor advertisement copy
  • Click through rate
  • Landing page quality score

I have searched for “solicitor” and the first advertisement immediately mentions ‘Barrister’. Ads is a place to give the searcher, your prospective client, exactly what they are looking for, not to try and tempt them with something different from the menu of choice.

I searched for ‘solicitor’ but am offered a ‘barrister’, a ‘conveyancing solicitor’ or an ‘injury solicitor’.

The poor advertisement copy will mean that few people click the advertisement and go through to the website landing page.

Even if someone does take this action, they are probably not going to be met with a page with a title of ‘solicitor’, because it is just too vague a search term. However, that is what Google would like to see as it wants you to give the searcher exactly what they are looking for. Therefore, Google will score you badly for this (your quality score) which means that you again pay more for the click.

Bear in mind that even if someone does click on your advertisement for ‘solicitor’ they are highly unlikely to find exactly what they are looking when they land on your page so they are not going to make contact with you. The only page that should appear for this search term due to its ambiguity is probably wikipedia.

Therefore, these three advertisers will be spending a lot of money to get no return.

The truth is, no Google Ads advertisements should be appearing here because the search term ‘solicitor’ is just too vague and at one word too short to make work.

It doesn’t go into enough detail for me to be able to answer the searcher’s question, so there is absolutely no point in spending more than £10 per click to try and get this searcher to my website.

In my next review I am going to show you why longer search terms of three or more words are so much more likely to produce client instructions for you at a much lower cost. You need to see this one.

In the meantime, if you are spending any money at all on Google Ads, or have done in the past, you need to read my Ads Whitepaper. Enter a few details below to receive your copy in the post (yes, the good old fashioned way).

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