We are a Google Partner Agency, and have managed millions of dollars in Google AdWords budget, and love observing what companies are doing on the PPC Marketing front.

This is the 11th instalment of a series we call “Critiquing Your Google AdWords Campaigns”.

We Google a search term and evaluate the top 3 Google Ads as well as their landing pages for their ability to “Attract” and “Convert” visitors into leads.

We grade each campaign out of 10:

• 5 Points ATTRACT: the actual Google Ad
• 5 Points for CONVERT: the Landing Page experience

Let’s get started!

This week we Googled “B2B Leads” (granted, a bit of a broad search, but wanted to see how well companies are at generating leads when they’re offering to do it for customers).

Google Ad #1
Company: OnPath

Google AdWords Ad:

The Good…

• Keyword (B2B Lead Gen) in headline and url
• Inbound marketing is the focus of their lead gen

The Not so Good…

• The “appointment setting” mixes up the messaging with “inbound marketing”
• What is the offer here, why would I click?
• “Call us”….with what number?

Ad Score: 2/5

Google AdWords Landing Page:

The Good…

• Form that’s fairly prominent (Request a Discover Call)

The Not so Good…

• Get rid of the links! Links to other pages, a brochure, and social media accounts are giving me an easy way off the conversion path.
• Too much text, make the copy scannable and more readable with headlines, sublines, and bullet points.
• The testimonial on the right is good, except it becomes a lot less credible when you read that the quote comes from “Technology Company”.  Boo.

Google Landing Page Score: 1.5/5

TOTAL ADWORDS SCORE: 3.5/10

Google Ad #2
Company: InfoCanada.ca

Google AdWords Ad:

The Good…

• “Qualified” Business Leads is a good thing, I’m listening
• Good description of what they’re offering (instant access to high-quality sales leads)
• B2B Marketing Lists, very relevant to my search

The Not so Good…

• A smallish thing, but B2B leads should be in the headline and url to make it a little more relevant
• What’s the offer?  Make the ad a little more clickable by offering first 10 leads free!

AdWords Score: 3.5/5

Google AdWords Landing Page:

The Good…

• Nice simple, minimalist design with visual cues
• Very obvious sign-up form and good contrast colour for CTA button (orange)
• 100% Guaranteed Satisfaction is nice touch
• No links! Good

The Not so Good…

• Sign up for “Free Access”, “Start My Free Trial”, and “Start My Mailing List” are a little bit confusing.  What exactly am I getting with either access or a trial?
• There’s not enough info above the fold, just a single headline a subline, need more info that entices me to complete that form.

Google Landing Page Score: 3.5/5

TOTAL ADWORDS SCORE: 7/10

Google Ad #3
Company: Pardot

Google AdWords Ad:

The Good…

• Keyword in headline
• Easy to use lead gen tools, B2B marketing automation, all good features and benefits
• Watch a Pardot demo today, good CTA

The Not so Good…

• It’s a great ad.  The only thing I don’t see is who the audience is…what if I’m a small business and can’t afford Pardot? That means they’d be wasting money on clicks from those who aren’t in their target audience.

Google AdWords Score: 4/5

Google AdWords Landing Page:

The Good…

• Well designed, simple landing page with obvious CTA and form.
• Good use of stats and proof points
• The client logos are a good visual trust cues

The Not so Good…

• Use a different, contrasting colour for the “Watch Demo Video”button
• It’s only a one minute demo video, need to make that more obvious instead of hiding it in the text
• For a one-minute demo, do you really need to ask for phone number, company, country, and CRM? That’s a bit overkill.

OutMarket Landing Page Score: 3.5/5

TOTAL ADWORDS SCORE: 7.5/10

Who’s Getting My Business for “B2B Leads”?

Pardot had the best ad, and good CTA and a decent landing page.  However, I suspect Pardot isn’t cheap, or for the really small business, in which they’d be wasting a lot of their money by not targeting larger businesses.

We want to hear from you!  Let us know what industry you’re in, and we’ll focus on it for our next edition of “Exemplary Examples of Google AdWords Done Right (and Wrong)!  Tweet me @robertclarkey