I get lots of enquiries asking if I can support with Google Ads, so I thought it was about time I wrote a blog on it! I have some thoughts I’d like to share. I’ll caveat this by saying, this is my experience with small businesses, obviously there are many use cases for Google Ads…. 

So let’s get started. You have a yoga, pilates or wellness business. You want to attract more customers, so inevitably at some point you think, hmmmm I wonder if Google ads would be good for me.

I’m going to be very open and honest with you, in most cases I encounter, I would say no, you should not run Google ads. Let me tell you why and talk you through my thought process as of course there are some exceptions.

The first thing to think about is “what is the action you want people to take on your website, and how many currently are doing that.” 

Let’s get more specific.

You are a yoga business, your website gets 100 views a week, a combination of new folk, and returning customers. You want people to book a class with you, but mostly customers place an enquiry first. Do you know what percentage of new visitors go on to place an enquiry? This is your conversion rate. And then, how many of those enquiries become paying customers. At this stage, if your conversion rate is low, ie very few people are placing an enquiry, you are not in a position to spend on ads. Save your money and look at the customer journey. What can you do to improve your conversion? Are you telling customers what they need? Is your site inviting and friendly? 

So the message here is, get your conversion rate in good shape with organic traffic first.

Next to think about.

What are the actual search terms you want to rank for? In our industry, the search volume is low because we sell a niche service. So there might be 25-200 visits a month for someone searching “Pilates in Hogsmeade.” Where do you currently rank? How is your Google Business Profile? Is it fully populated and active? If you rank highly for your search terms, what is your hope for the Google Ads? It’s not about clicks at all cost, if you teach Restorative Yoga, you don’t want people who are looking for a Rocket Yoga class. Why would you want to pay for a click that’s not relevant to what you do? Make a list of your keywords, look in Google Ads Planner at the search traffic, and look at where you currently rank. If you don’t rank well, make sure each service has its own page and you have the keywords in H1, Meta Description, Title and threaded through the content.

Here is an example:

You offer:

Mat Pilates:

Friendly Pilates Classes in Hogsmead [H1 title]

Reformer Pilates:

Build Strength and Flexibility with our Accessible Reformer Pilates in Hogsmeade [H1]

Try this first, before paying for an ad. After a few weeks, are you ranking for your keyword phrases?

And speaking about paying, what do ads cost? In our sector typical keywords are around £0.75 - £3 per click. If you convert 2-3 out of every 10 to take an action on your website, that’s £20 per day (for 10 click at £2), that’s £140 a week, that’s £500+  per month. Yes that could be 40+ new customers a month if you follow the conversion above, but you also have to consider, how many of those enquiries actually book? And how many continue to be paying customers? There is a lot to consider.

Finally, how will you actually measure the success of the ads? If you’re a bit shaky with your metrics, you’re not going to see a good result from your ads. If someone clicks through to your website, what is the action you want them to take as we said earlier, how are you measuring that? 

Creating a thank you page that redirects from your form? If that’s the case, do you know they came via an ad not just general traffic? If you’re using a metric on the button click you will likely need tag manager, are you using this? If it’s to book a class and you use a booking software, can you measure bookings from ads? 

If all of this is totally overwhelming to you, then please don’t spend your precious money on it. Google wants you to spend, and it will suggest you broaden your search terms to reflect this, “why not try exercise classes in Hogsmead?” So you get even more clicks, but your conversion rate gets lower because they don’t want a pilates class.

This isn’t me being negative, Google ads can be absolutely brilliant, but they require knowledge to set up, it needs to be the right fit, you need to have the mechanism to accurately measure them… otherwise you are really just grabbing a bunch of flyers and hurling them into the air in a shopping centre and hoping someone might see it, but you’ll never track that person or know they came via the flyer. 

I will always, always advocate for getting your basics in place first.

• Is your site indexed and have you set up Google Search Console?

• Do you have a list of keywords customers would search for?

• Is your site optimised for these keywords?

• Is your location clear on your service pages?

• Do you have a Google Business Profile that’s fully populated? And you regularly ask for reviews

• Do you have individual service pages?

• Is there an easy form on every page?

• Is the customer journey clear?

• Do you have a listing on directory sites like Yell, Yelp, Next Door, (and the yoga and pilates ones) to improve your backlinks?

• Have you got a clear email sign up?

• Have you got a welcome email set up?

There are more but these will be the ones I’d start with. If you can say you’re doing everything here and more, you understand your conversion, your keywords, your metrics and your audience and you want to get more eyes because it’s all working, then by all means explore Google Ads. 

Hope this helps!