Conversions or Clicks? Understanding The Importance of Conversion Focused Google Ad Campaigns

It's no secret that one of the keys to a successful ad campaign is driving traffic to your website. When a user clicks on your ad and visits your website, they are exposed to crucial information about your pregnancy center, mainly, your service offerings. The more website traffic you generate via ad clicks, the more known your pregnancy center becomes, as high volumes of users are engaging with and consuming the content on your website. While this is all true and valuable, simply focusing on maximizing the amount of clicks you receive from ads is an incomplete strategy for your Google Ads campaign. There is another, arguably more important strategic component that mustn’t be overlooked–maximizing conversions. 

So what are conversions exactly and why is the success of your ad campaign so dependent upon them? Well, conversions in the context of digital advertising, are valuable actions taken by an end user who has interacted with your ad. A conversion can be measured and classified in many different ways, but in the context of pregnancy centers, we consider a conversion to be any action prompted by an ad that directly results in an end user getting in contact with a center. For example, let’s say someone is looking for an abortion and searches: abortion alternatives near me. That person is then served an ad from a pro-life pregnancy center, which they subsequently click on, and are redirected to the website. Once on the website, they decide to reach out directly to the center via phone. This phone call would be counted as a conversion, as it was a result of a paid ad on Google search. 

Examples of conversions for pregnancy centers can include: calls from ads, phone number clicks, sms number clicks, email clicks, and request appointment clicks. When a user takes any of these actions, it signifies that they have a strong intent to either visit, or get in contact with a pregnancy center. Ultimately, these are exactly the types of users you want to be targeting with your ads–the ones who have a clear and expressed desire to reach your center. This is why running conversion-focused campaigns is so important, because Google will actively seek out, learn, and prioritize serving your ad to users its algorithm understands will be the most likely to convert. 

On the other hand, when running a campaign focused on maximizing clicks, the objective is not primarily to drive conversions. Yes, your campaign will drive more website traffic, but this does not guarantee that the clicks will generate conversions, as Google’s algorithm is going after audiences that will drive clicks. Again, this isn’t to say that driving website traffic through clicks is not an important piece of the advertising strategy, but in order to maximize the value and effectiveness of Google Ads for your pregnancy center, it is more advantageous to focus on quality over quality.

Think of it this way: you could have a clicks-focused campaign that generates 500 clicks in a month with no conversions. Or, you could run a conversion focused campaign with half as many clicks, but 10 conversions. These could be the lives of 10 individuals who were recipients of the crucial care your center provides. 

With any ad campaign, especially those that are paid, you should desire to have as much visibility as possible when measuring its performance and success. By running conversion campaigns, you are able to uncover a deeper insight into how your ads are performing, as you will have a record of how many calls, texts, emails, appointment bookings, etc., are being generated by your advertising efforts on Google. Being able to see how many conversions your campaign is generating helps to further validate your financial investment, and it gives you a heightened sense of awareness when it comes to performance. By leveraging this data, you can make informed decisions to optimize your strategy, ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to measurable growth and long-term success.