13 Pitfalls That Spell Doom for Google Ad Conversions & How to Fix Them

Managing successful Google Ads campaigns is more than just winning clicks—it’s about converting those clicks into results (e.g., new patients or B2B inquiries).

At Healthcare Success, we manage millions of dollars in Google Ads spend for our healthcare clients. We often see the following 13 mistakes tank conversion rates.

But don’t worry—13 isn’t unlucky here. This checklist identifies what needs to change so that you can turn pitfalls into wins.

13 Conversion Rate Killers—A Checklist

Below, we share why these destroy conversion rates and what you can do to save your ads from certain death.

1. Wrong Campaign Type
   Choosing the wrong campaign type can lead to poor engagement, low conversions, and wasted ad spend. Select one that matches your goals:
   1. Performance Max
      Ideal for beginners (or those with limited resources) who want to start attracting more patients with search, display, and video ads. AI manages your ads, requiring minimal effort.
   2. Search
      Ideal for targeting those actively searching for specific keywords—perfect for driving sales, leads, or traffic.
   3. Display
      Ideal for boosting brand awareness and reaching a wider audience—helpful for nurturing leads and improving conversion rates.
   4. Video
      Ideal for engaging patients with compelling visuals, boosting brand awareness and trust through storytelling. Run YouTube campaigns directly through the Google Ads platform.

2. Irrelevant Keywords & Ad Copy
   Using keywords and ad copy that don’t match user intent harms engagement and conversions.

   Focus on relevant, high-quality keywords, including long-tail options, and use appropriate match types to meet consumer demands for conversational searches. Regularly monitor their performance and refine your list over time.

3. Poor Landing Page Experience
   A poor landing page experience can kill conversions—no matter how compelling the ads are. Building a strong landing page with these key elements enhances the user experience and improves Quality Scores, leading to better ad placements and lower cost per click over time:
   1. Clear, compelling headline that matches your ad.
   2. Benefit-focused secondary headline.
   3. Strong call-to-action (CTA).
   4. Relevant, persuasive, and benefit-focused content.
   5. High-quality visuals.
   6. Clean layout.
   7. Trust signals (e.g., testimonials, security seals, etc.).

4. Ineffective Bid Strategies
   Poor bid strategies can lead to wasted ad spend, low conversion rates, poor ad placements, and higher costs per click or acquisition. Selecting and monitoring the right strategy ensures your ad spend aligns with your business goals and maximizes your ROI:
   1. Target CPA 
      Aim for a specific cost per conversion. 
   2. Target ROAS 
      Achieve a specific return on ad spend. 
   3. Maximize conversions 
      Increase conversions without specific CPA goals. 
   4. Maximize Conversion Value 
      Bring in conversions with the highest return.  
   5. Maximize clicks 
      Get the most clicks within your budget. 
   6. Target Impression Share 
      Increase brand visibility in search results.  
   7. CPM/vCPM (Viewable/Cost per Thousand Impressions) 
      Boost brand awareness and ensure ads are seen. 

5. Conversion Tracking Issues
   Inaccurate data collection skews data and negatively impacts your ad strategy. This leads to misalignment with goals, inefficient ad spend, missed opportunities, and reduced ROI.

   Common errors include incorrect code implementation, not assigning the proper conversions at the campaign level, missing or duplicate tags, misconfigured actions, ad blockers, cross-domain tracking, data integration issues, and more.

6. Limited Ad Extensions
   Not using ad extensions or using them incorrectly can limit your ad’s effectiveness. Ad extensions, like callouts, site links, and structured snippets, enhance user experience and improve click-through rates (CTR).

7. Imprecise Audience Targeting
   Poor targeting wastes your budget. Focus on the right audience segments using options like location/geography, demographics, interests, and behaviors to optimize engagement and ad spend.

8. Poor Ad Scheduling & Ad Rotation
   Running ads during off-peak hours or when your target audience is less active can spell disaster for campaign performance (e.g., low conversion rates, missed opportunities, and wasted as spend). On the flip side, showing the same ad repeatedly without rotating in fresh creatives leads to ad fatigue and lower CTR.

9. Insufficient Ad Budget
   If you aren’t allocating enough funds to your ad campaigns, they won’t be as effective, leading to reduced ad visibility, lower positioning, missed conversions, inconsistent delivery, and wasted potential.

   Planning for and optimizing your budget allocations is crucial for performance.

10. Low Ad Quality Score
    A measure of ad significance and efficiency. It is determined by the expected click-through rate (CTR), relevance, and landing page experience. Improving your Ad Quality Score can improve ad rankings and lower your cost per click.

11. Lack of Ad Testing
    Skipping this crucial step can lead to wasted ad spend and missed opportunities.

    Make data-driven decisions to ensure your ads are effective and cost-efficient with things like A/B testing, multivariate testing, split URL testing, ad copy testing, creative testing, audience testing, placement testing, format testing, frequency testing, timing testing, and more.

12. Set It & Forget It Mentality
    This dangerous mentality does not allow for improvements over time or when there are new industry trends or changes to consider. Without constant monitoring and optimizing, your ads will suffer from poor performance, inefficient budget use, and reduced ROI.

    Regular review and optimization are essential for achieving optimal results.

13. Going Solo
    Partnering with Google Ad experts has distinct advantages over managing ad campaigns alone. They bring the skills and tools needed to optimize and monitor your ads over time, ensuring optimal performance. They also save you time and budget and keep your campaigns fresh, relevant, and timely with ongoing testing. Plus, they offer regular feedback and clear communication, helping ensure your ads align with your business goals.

These pitfalls are not industry-specific and apply to most Google Ads campaigns. Healthcare faces unique challenges that require specialized solutions and expertise. Next, we explore how to address them effectively.

Healthcare-Specific Challenges & Solutions

• Regulations
  Navigating strict advertising regulations and ensuring HIPAA-compliant tracking is complex. Managing them carefully is crucial for avoiding penalties.
• Patient-privacy
  Creating patient-centric messaging and ad copy while complying with privacy restrictions can be tricky. Designing landing pages and forms that comply with healthcare standards is essential.
• Competitive (e.g., expensive) keywords
  Competing in a highly competitive industry with high-cost keywords can be expensive. Working with seasoned experts, leveraging local SEO, and using AI features strategically can help maximize your budget.
• Hard to reach demographics
  Effectively targeting and reaching diverse and often hard-to-engage patient demographics while maintaining privacy and compliance is hard. Leveraging data-driven insights and partnering with healthcare experts can improve your success.
• Healthcare claims & misinformation
  Managing the complexity of promoting accurate health-related services without making unverified claims is essential for building trust and avoiding legal problems. Partnering with a skilled healthcare marketing agency and subject matter experts can help ensure content accuracy.

Don’t let these conversion killers and healthcare-specific challenges derail your ad campaign’s success. Elevate your strategy and improve conversion rates with Healthcare Success.

Contact us today to turn these pitfalls into growth opportunities.