One of the biggest problems that I run into when I’m working with a new client is:

“They don’t have an idea of what they want their goal of their new advertising campaign to be.”

Now that might seem a little bit dumb because most people would be like; “It’s to sell more product. It’s to get more customers.”

And yes…that makes sense. But how are they supposed to sell more product and get more customers?

For instance, if you take a look at one of our websites ManciniDigital.com, Our goal on the website is to get one of two things to happen. First, people can call us (our phone number is in the upper right hand corner of EVERY page) or they can schedule a consultation (there is a large yellow button in the middle of the screen that people can click to schedule a consultation).

Now with that said… this is also the front page of our website. Typically we will not drive traffic (especially pay per click traffic) to the front page of a website because it’s not targeted enough… but this is just an example for getting visitors to take an action.

Here is one of our lead magnets: “How to Create 10 Different Text Ads For Adwords In Just 5 Minutes.”

Now what is the goal of the above page? The only goal is to inform people what it’s about (how to create text ads in a short amount of time) and to sign up to receive the information. We’re concentrating on email lead capture with the sign up box on the right (highlighted with the green button).

If you’re a service business, it could be to fill out a form or it could be to call.

Here is a landing page that we did for an attorney (we replaced his logo and information with ours to keep our client confidential), but as you can see the whole goal of the landing page (below) is to get visitors to call or get them to fill out the form on the right with their information so contact can be made. That’s it!

Now there have been a number of times when I’ve actually met with clients and I’ll sit down with them and the conversation will go something like this:

Mike: “Now what is your goal with your website?”

Client: “We want to make more sales.”

Mike: “OK. You’re not an eCommerce company, so how do you make more sales?”

Client: “Well, we need our customers to call us to set up an appointment.”

Mike: “Fantastic. Now we have a goal which is that you want your customers to give you a call. There’s just one problem.”

Client: “What’s that?”

Mike: “I can’t find your phone number on your website.”

Now I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve had that conversation with more than a few clients. They either don’t have their phone number on their website AT ALL or it’s buried in small print at the bottom of the site. Sometimes it’s just simple things like putting a phone number where it’s easy to see for everyone.

Other clients would like to get leads by email (or website forms) because maybe they are a smaller client (one man show) and they are out on the job and are not sitting at a desk answering a phone.

In that case, the goal should be to fill out the online form as in the “How to Create 10 Different Text Ads For Adwords In Just 5 Minutes” example above. All that you need to capture is a name and phone number (or email address). But don’t overdo this. The more information you ask for, the fewer leads you will get.

Ever go to a website and they want everything from your name and phone number to how much you make in a year, how many people are in your family, and what your education level is? It’s too much.

Chances are that you either left that page or tried to fill out the form with just a couple of the fields and it wouldn’t let you because all of the answers are required (and then you left).

But before you start getting ready for your online advertising, you need to know exactly what the goal is of that PPC campaign.