How do you stop PPC campaigns from generating junk leads?
Read your own search terms and service pages first, then block intent, not nouns.
Start by sorting your junk leads into three piles: wrong intent, wrong geography, and wrong offer. Each has a different fix, and none of them is a downloaded exclusion list.
We are blunt about this because we have seen the damage. Borrowed negative keyword lists have blocked real, revenue producing searches for months before anyone noticed, because nobody audits a list they did not write. A list built from another company's business does not know what you sell or where you sell it.
The method, in order
- Read the client's own service pages and sitemap. Write down every service they actually sell, in the words they use and the words customers use. This is the reference you will judge every search term against.
- Confirm the real service area. Not the aspirational one. Which counties, which cities, how far will crews or attorneys actually travel.
- Pull the real search terms report. Sixty to ninety days, sorted by cost. Read it. There is no shortcut and no substitute.
- Sort each term into one of the three piles before deciding anything.
The three fixes
Wrong intent means the searcher was never going to hire anyone: they wanted to do it themselves, learn about it, or get a job. Block research and employment intent words such as how to, diy, free, jobs, salary and career. These are safe because they describe the searcher's purpose, not your product.
Wrong geography is a settings fix, not a keyword fix. Check location targeting, the presence versus interest setting, and radius sizes. Never block a city you might serve, because location settings handle this properly and a blocked city name is nearly impossible to notice later.
Wrong offer is a copy and landing page problem. If people are asking for a service you do sell but describing it differently, the answer is better ad copy and a page that speaks their language, not an exclusion.
The rule we do not break
We never block a service noun, a product noun, a manufacturer or brand name, or a city name. Those are demand. Qualifying happens in the ad copy, the landing page, the form fields, and the intake script.
Related: How do you track leads and conversions from paid campaigns?, How does LevelUp Digital approach paid media strategy?, our data and analytics services, and our PPC advertising page.