Is Google AdWords Faking Leads?

Hi sniperdomi,

Your client might be getting fake leads, but I see no reason to suspect Google.

That suspicion isn't even logical.

Google AdWords is paid on a per click basis. They get no payment for leads, only for clicks. They have no incentive to fake leads, they don't get paid on a per lead basis. That's just silly.

Now there are other folks that might have an incentive to submit fake leads, like your direct competitors. It's not unheard of for a sales team member to click on his competitor's ads. This is particularly common when a salesman is trying to size up his competitor's offerings. They might go as far as filling in the lead form with fake information just to analyze the full customer experience offered by his competitor.

You might also get some poorly trained sales folks that are searching for ways to get business contact details for products or services that they hope to sell to your client. They sometimes search Google and submit fake lead info just to get your client's contact email address.

And sometimes a genuine prospect will fill in fake info just to get a free download, especially if you are offering something of value in exchange for the their contact info. Presumably they want the free download but don't want a pesky sales rep contacting them.

To find the real issue you may want to look a little closer to home.

It is quite possible the lead quality is lower due to the audience targeting methods that you are employing in your campaign.

When I take on a new advertising client I often see issues with their previous campaign targeting methods. In your case I noticed that you indicated you are targeting and optimizing based on keywords. This is a very common error I see many advertisers make in their campaign targeting and optimization techniques.

You need to use keywords for targeting, but you should not base your optimizations on "keywords" it is search terms that you should be targeting and optimizing, not keywords.

Also, you mentioned that you are "now reducing the price per conversion", that might be a poor choice if you are eliminating the highest quality leads in exchange for the lowest quality leads, leads that are cheap because none of your competitors want them.

Think about it, if you focus on the cheapest leads you can buy, you are usually going to get the lowest quality of leads. Makes sense, right?

It all starts with a goal. Make sure that you have chosen a marketing goal that will generate the best possible outcome. Targeting low value leads might not be the best goal for a campaign. Higher value leads are likely to cost more than low value leads. Making "cost per lead" a primary goal is often an unwise choice, as it tends to filter out most of your high value leads. A better goal might be to increase the average lead value, or to increase sales, or increase total profits.

Lower costs, as a goal, often leads to unforeseen consequences. There are many examples of companies that focused on lowering costs, at the expense of quality, only to see their business harmed in the process. Make sure that your pursuit of "low cost" doesn't reduce the quality of your campaign leads, else you may end up sabotaging your own campaign performance, albeit unintentional.

HTH,

Don Burk