Category: Paid Advertising

  • Are You Attracting the RIGHT Traffic? Why Search Intent Makes or Breaks Moving Company Leads

    Are You Attracting the RIGHT Traffic? Why Search Intent Makes or Breaks Moving Company Leads

    More traffic is not always better traffic.

    When a moving company’s website gets plenty of visitors but very few estimate requests, the first instinct is usually to fix the website. Redesign the homepage. Change the button color. Rewrite the quote form. Sometimes that helps. But before you touch any of it, there’s a more important question to ask: “am I attracting the RIGHT traffic?”

    That’s right, not all traffic is equal. If the people landing on your site were never going to hire a mover, no amount of design work will turn them into booked jobs. In our post on why you’re getting traffic but not booking jobs, we called this the most important conversion problem. Here, we’re digging into it on both the organic and paid sides, and walking through how to fix it.

    Key Takeaways

    • Intent matters more than volume. A small amount of high-intent traffic will book more moves than a large amount of the wrong traffic.
    • Organic traffic needs to be measured by page type. Blog traffic and service page traffic do different jobs and shouldn’t be judged the same way.
    • Paid traffic needs guardrails. Without negative keywords, tight location settings, and the right match types, Google will happily spend your budget on people who will never book.
    • Audit both sides regularly. Search Console and the Google Ads search terms report tell you exactly who you’re attracting. Use them.

    What Search Intent Actually Means

    Search intent is the reason behind a search. Two people can both type “moving” into Google and want completely different things. One wants to hire a crew this month. The other wants to know how many boxes a two-bedroom apartment needs.

    There are four common types of intent. Here’s how they look for a moving company:

    • Informational: The searcher wants an answer, not a mover. Think “how to pack a TV for moving,” “moving checklist,” or “how much to tip movers.”
    • Navigational: The searcher is looking for a specific brand or website, like a national van line or a truck rental company.
    • Commercial: The searcher is comparing options. Think “best movers in [city]” or “[company] reviews.”
    • Transactional: The searcher is ready to act. Think “local movers near me,” “long distance moving quote,” or “[city] to [city] movers.”

    Commercial and transactional searches are where booked jobs come from. Informational searches have value too, but they play a different role. The problem starts when you can’t tell which is which in your reports, or when you’re paying for clicks that sit in the wrong bucket.

    The Organic Side: Blog Traffic vs. Service Page Traffic

    When organic traffic isn’t converting, the first thing to figure out is where it’s landing. Blog posts and service pages have very different jobs, so they shouldn’t be judged the same way. One of these is usually fine. The other usually needs fixing.

    Blog Traffic: Informational, and That’s Okay

    A lot of the organic traffic moving companies get is informational and coming from blogs. Think searches like “how to pack dishes for a move,” “moving checklist,” or “how much to tip movers.” The person reading is usually looking for answers, not a moving company. They might not be local, they might be months away from moving, or they might be planning to do it themselves.

    You can’t compare that traffic directly to service page traffic. It probably isn’t going to convert right away if at all, and that’s okay. Blog content builds brand awareness, so your name is familiar when someone is ready to book. It also builds authority that helps SEO across your whole site, including the service pages you actually want to rank.

    Small Ways to Stay on Their Radar

    For the most part, leave your informational blog traffic alone. It isn’t hurting anything. But a few small touches can help turn a reader today into a customer later:

    • Link to related services where it makes sense. A packing guide can point to your packing services. A long-distance checklist can point to your long-distance page.
    • Add a soft call to action. A simple line at the end of a post, like “Planning a move this year? Get a free estimate,”.
    • Give them something worth saving. A printable moving checklist or timeline in exchange for an email address keeps the conversation going until they’re ready.

    Service Page Traffic That Isn’t Converting: This One Needs Fixing

    Service and location pages exist to book jobs. If they’re getting traffic but not estimate requests, something is off, and it’s usually search intent.

    Start by Checking Who’s Landing on the Page

    In Google Search Console, open the Performance report, filter by one of your service page URLs, and look at the Queries tab. For each query, ask a simple question: would someone searching this hire us? Then check Google Analytics to compare traffic and quote requests for that page. A page with lots of visits and very few leads is where to start.

    When service pages aren’t converting, we usually find one of three problems.

    Problem 1: Service Pages Attracting Informational Searches

    Sometimes a service page ends up ranking for the kind of searches a blog should be catching. Your long-distance moving page shows up for “what to do with plants when moving across the country.” Your packing services page ranks for “how to pack a kitchen.” Your storage page pulls in “how long can you keep stuff in storage.”

    This usually happens when the page reads more like a guide than an offer, with lots of educational copy and very little about what you actually do.

    The fix: Make the page clearly about hiring you. Lead with what’s included, how pricing works, where you serve, reviews, and a quote form near the top. Move the how-to content into its own blog post and link it back to the service page. Then tighten the title tag and H1 so they read like an offer, such as “Long Distance Movers in [City] | [Company Name],” not a how-to.

    Problem 2: Service and Location Pages Attracting the Wrong Geography

    This one is more common than most movers think. A few examples we see:

    • The wrong city entirely. You rank for “movers in Austin,” but you’re based in Chicago. This often comes from old content or a page that mentions a destination city too many times.
    • Searchers in a different part of the country. Sometimes it’s even simpler: your page is showing up for people searching from another part of the U.S. entirely, often on broad searches like “full-service moving company” with no city attached.
    • Markets you no longer serve. An old location page for a suburb or branch you stopped covering keeps pulling in traffic you can’t take.
    • The destination instead of the origin. Your long-distance page ranks for “Phoenix movers,” bringing in people who are already in Phoenix and need a local crew there, not a company moving them there.

    The fix: Google can only show your site to the right people if it knows where you are. That means sending clear, consistent location signals across your site, starting with your core pages. Mention your city and the areas you serve in your title tags, headings, and page copy. Keep your business name, address, and phone number the same on your website, your Google Business Profile, and your directory listings. Add local details that only a company in your area would know, like neighborhoods you work in and reviews from local customers.

    On top of strong signals on your core pages, build dedicated area served pages for each market you cover. These give Google a clear page to show for searches in each town or city, and give local visitors something more relevant than a general service page. Our guide to service area pages covers how to build them the right way.

    Problem 3: Service Pages Targeting the Wrong Thing

    Sometimes the page is attracting exactly what it was optimized for. The problem is that it was optimized for the wrong thing. For example:

    • A storage page targeting “storage units near me” brings in people looking for self-storage, not moving and storage.
    • A page built around “moving trucks” pulls in people who want to rent one and drive it themselves.
    • A page built around “cheap movers” attracts bargain hunters when you’re a full-service, premium company.
    • A “moving help” or “moving labor” page ranks for job seekers looking for moving help jobs.

    The fix: Match each page’s keywords to the services you actually sell and the customers you actually want. Specific beats broad. “Full-service residential movers,” “interstate moving company,” “commercial office movers,” and “piano movers” bring in people who are looking for exactly what you do. Rewrite titles and meta descriptions so they filter out the wrong searchers, such as “Moving & Storage Services” instead of “Storage Units.” And give your careers page its own clear title, so job seekers land there instead of on a service page.

    Putting It Into Practice

    Don’t try to fix everything at once. Start with the service pages that get the most traffic and the fewest leads, make the changes, then check your Search Console queries again in a month or two to see if the mix has shifted. If you’d rather hand this off, our SEO team builds keyword strategies for movers around booked jobs, not just traffic.

    The Paid Side: Google Ads Clicks You’re Paying For (and Shouldn’t Be)

    With organic, wrong-intent traffic costs you time. With paid, it costs you money on every single click. Moving keywords can run $15 to $40+ per click depending on the market, so a few hundred junk clicks a month adds up fast.

    Where wrong-intent paid clicks come from

    • Broad match with no guardrails. Broad match lets Google show your ads for searches it considers related. For a mover, that can mean “moving jobs near me,” “U-Haul rental,” or “how to move a piano yourself.”
    • Missing negative keywords. If you haven’t told Google which searches to skip, it won’t skip them.
    • Loose location settings. Google Ads’ default location option targets people in or interested in your area. That can put your local ads in front of someone three states away who once searched your city.
    • Mixed campaigns. Lumping local, long-distance, and commercial moves into one campaign makes it hard to control which searches trigger which ads, or to see what’s actually working.
    • Optimizing for the wrong conversion. If Google is told that every form fill is a win, it will chase cheap form fills, including the ones that never book.

    How to audit your paid traffic

    1. Assess where conversions are coming from. Which campaigns are booking jobs not just receiving form fills. Focus on the campaigns that have high impression and click volume but few leads. 
    2. Dig into your geography report. Where are ads showing? Are you targeting the right areas?
    3. The search terms report in Google Ads is your best friend here. It shows the actual searches people typed before clicking your ad, not just the keywords you bid on. Go through the last 30 to 90 days and flag anything that seems to miss the search intent mark.

    How to fix it

    • Build a negative keyword list for movers. We like to start with a list of obvious word we don’t want to show for and then expand the negative keyword lists based on the search term report.
      • Looking for negative keywords to kick off you list? Here are a few we often start with: jobs, hiring, salary, careers, rental, truck rental, boxes, free, DIY, cheap labor, and competitor brand names you don’t want to pay for. 
    • Tighten match types. Lean on phrase and exact match for your core terms until you have enough data and enough negatives to trust broader matching.
    • Set location targeting to “Presence.” This limits your ads to people who are in, or regularly in, the areas you serve. Long-distance campaigns can be set up separately with their own targeting.
    • Split campaigns by service. Separate local, long-distance, and commercial moves so each has its own budget, keywords, and ads. This allows for cleaner signals for optimization.
    • Send clicks to matching landing pages. A “long distance movers” ad should land on a long-distance page with a quote form, not your homepage.
    • Teach Google what a real job looks like. Use offline conversion tracking to send booked moves back into Google Ads, so it optimizes for jobs instead of form fills.

    Not sure how much of your budget is going to the wrong searches? A free PPC audit will tell you.

    Wrapping Up

    The key to determining why people aren’t converting is to start by looking at search intent, so before you redesign your site or raise your ad budget, find out who you’re actually attracting. Pull your Search Console queries. Open your search terms report. Sort what you find into ready to book, could book later, and never going to book. Then build your SEO and PPC around the first bucket, and give the second bucket a clear path back to you.

    Once the right people are finding you, every other conversion fix (faster pages, better forms, stronger trust signals) works harder.

    We’ve helped dozens of moving companies turn traffic into booked jobs. If you want a second set of eyes on yours, reach out to us.

  • A/B Asset Experiments in PMAX Campaigns

    A/B Asset Experiments in PMAX Campaigns

    Google ads announced that asset experiments are officially available for Performance Max Campaigns, and we are excited!

    Key Takeaways

    • PMAX now supports true A/B testing. Asset experiments let advertisers test creative inside Performance Max campaigns with real data instead of guesswork.
    • You can test entire creative themes, not just single assets. Headlines, descriptions, images, and videos can all be compared as one package.
    • Advertisers are getting more control over Google’s automation. It’s the latest in a string of PMAX updates moving in that direction.

    Prior to this rollout, if you wanted to “test” assets in a PMAX campaign you had to duplicate the asset group and manually swap out assets. This obviously didn’t produce scientific results because it’s not a true A/B test. PMAX would prioritize one asset group over the other, leaving advertisers to draw their own conclusions based on limited data. Now, all of that is history because of the PMAX Asset Experiments.

    What Are the PMAX Asset Experiments?

    These new asset experiments allow advertisers to run an A/B test on headlines, descriptions, images, and videos within a PMAX asset group. Let’s break down the parts of the experiment and then dive into what we can actually do with it.

    The key components of the PMAX asset experiments:

    Control Group (A): The existing assets in the asset group that acts as your baseline.

    Treatment Group (B): The assets you want to compare against the control. This group can be made up of new or existing assets you want to test.

    Common Assets: Assets not assigned to either group. These show to 100% of the campaign’s traffic regardless of which branch a user falls into.

    Setting up an Asset Experiment

    When you go to set up an experiment, you’ll notice there are three different PMAX asset experiment types.

    The first two types — “Assets for Retail Campaigns” and “Video” — aren’t new. The Assets for Retail Campaigns type lets advertisers add assets to product feed-only PMAX campaigns, and the Video type lets advertisers test adding videos to a PMAX campaign that previously had none. Both of these experiment types are really asking should your campaign have assets — not which assets perform better. That’s where the third type comes in.

    The third experiment type is labeled “Any Assets,” and this is where things get interesting. Advertisers can test different headlines, long headlines, descriptions, images, and videos against each other. Here’s the kicker — you’re not limited to testing a single asset type per experiment. You can swap out every headline, description, and image in the treatment group and compare the whole package against the control. We love this because it means advertisers can go beyond “this image vs. that image” and test entirely different creative themes.

    Here’s an example of what that looks like in practice:

    Client: A furniture company selling dining room tables.

    Control Group Theme — Product Focused: Headlines center on quality, craftsmanship, and the details of the furniture. Images and videos are close-up product shots with a showroom feel.

    Treatment Group Theme — Lifestyle Focused: Headlines and descriptions center around dining tables bringing families together. Images and videos feature people enjoying meals together.

    Common Assets: Company name and key value propositions.

    Advertisers then set the experiment split (50/50 is recommended) and time frame. Once the experiment wraps, the top-performing branch can be implemented.

    Why We Care

    There are two main reasons we love this update.

    One: Advertisers no longer have to run makeshift, inaccurate tests just to see which creative works better. Gone are the days of duplicating an asset group just to swap out a few videos and photos. That method never produced reliable results — Google would typically favor one asset group over the other, leaving advertisers wondering whether the difference was caused by the creative change or some structural variable.

    Two: Google is continuing to give advertisers more control. When PMAX first launched, advertisers had limited input and even more limited visibility into what was working and what wasn’t. Over the past year, Google has made significant strides in closing the gap between advertiser control and AI automation. This new experiment capability is another step in the right direction — and we’re here for it.

    If you’re running Performance Max campaigns and want help setting up asset experiments the right way, let’s talk.

  • Keywords, Search Terms, and Search Themes: What’s the Difference?

    Keywords, Search Terms, and Search Themes: What’s the Difference?

    Your Back to Basics Guide: Keywords, Search Terms, and Search Themes

    In today’s Google Ads 101 lesson, we’re tackling keywords, search terms, and search themes—breaking down the similarities and differences between these concepts so you can set up and optimize your account with confidence.

    This post is perfect for beginners! But it’s also perfect for those looking for a refresher. Why? Because Google Ads is constantly evolving! Keywords and search terms aren’t new. In fact, they’ve been around since the inception of Google Ads in 2000, but they don’t look the same as they did then. They don’t even look the same as they did a year ago! So buckle up as we break down what these terms are and how to best use them for your campaigns.

    Quick Definitions

    First, a few quick definitions before we dive deep:

    Keywords:

    Words or phrases that advertisers tell Google they want to bid on and appear for when users search related queries. What you WANT to show up for.

    Search Terms:

    The exact words and phrases that people searched for in Google when they received an ad. What you ACTUALLY show up for.

    Search Themes:

    A broad topic or concept that groups related keywords together, used primarily in Performance Max campaigns to guide Google’s automated ad delivery toward relevant search contexts.

    Keywords

    Keywords are one of the key components advertisers need to run search campaigns. They’re the search queries you’re willing to pay for when someone searches them on Google. Think of these as your wish list of searches you want to show up for. When you add keywords to your campaign, you’re essentially giving Google instructions about which search queries should trigger your ads.

    However, not all keywords work the same way. Google Ads offers three match types that control how closely a user’s search term needs to match your keyword before your ad can appear. Google provides the following definitions for each:

    Broad Match:

    “Ads may show on searches that are related to your keyword, which can include searches that don’t contain the direct meaning of your keywords.”

    Phrase Match:

    “Ads may show on searches that include the meaning of your keyword. The meaning of the keyword can be implied, and user searches can be a more specific form of the meaning.”

    Exact Match:

    “Ads may show on searches that have the same meaning or same intent as the keyword.”

    What match type is best? Well, that depends on who you ask. Google will recommend broad match every time because they believe their system can leverage its machine learning to find relevant searches beyond your exact keywords.

    Now if you ask us…we have a different answer. While broad match keywords can be great, we often find that broad match can be, well, too broad, causing advertisers to bid on search terms that aren’t relevant and thus wasting ad spend.

    We usually start clients with phrase match, which provides a good balance between Google finding relevant queries while not giving up too much control. From there, we analyze the data and can either open it up to broad match or tighten it down further with exact match, depending on what each account needs.

    Keywords are added at the ad group level, allowing advertisers to target multiple products or services within one campaign while still being able to create tailored ads for each grouping.

    Within your Google Ads account, the keyword report gives you powerful visibility into performance metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost-per-conversion for each individual keyword. This data is gold for understanding which keywords are actually driving results and which ones are just burning through budget without delivering.

    Search Terms

    Keywords are what you WANT to show up for but Search Terms are the ACTUAL phrases people typed into Google that triggered your ad. Sometimes these match your keywords perfectly, sometimes they’re…creative interpretations.

    On the search terms report, advertisers can view almost all of the same metrics that they get in the keyword report, including impressions, clicks, conversions, etc. This list allows advertisers to assess how users are searching and discovering their ad.

    Key Ways to Use Search Term Lists:

    Build out negative keyword lists: Scan your search terms to identify irrelevant queries that are triggering your ads, then add them as negatives to prevent wasted spend. For example, if you sell premium furniture and keep seeing searches for “cheap” or “free,” those are prime candidates for your negative list.

    Assess if your keywords are hitting or missing the mark: Compare your intended keywords against actual search terms to see if Google’s match types are working in your favor. If your phrase match keywords are pulling in completely unrelated searches, it’s time to tighten up your match types.

    Filter for broad, phrase, and exact match keywords: Use the match type filter to see how each type is performing and which ones are generating the most relevant traffic. This helps you make informed decisions about where to invest more budget or which match types to scale back.

    Discover new keyword opportunities: Your search terms report often reveals high-performing queries you hadn’t thought to target directly. Add these winners as new keywords to gain more control and potentially lower your cost-per-click.

    Discover new landing page opportunities: If you’re seeing consistent search patterns for specific products, services, or topics you don’t have dedicated pages for, that’s a signal to create new targeted landing pages or ad content to existing pages. Better landing page relevance means better Quality Scores and better conversion rates.

    Search Themes

    Switching gears a bit here. Keywords and search terms are crucial parts of search campaigns, but search themes are actually a component of Performance Max (PMAX) campaigns. So why are we tackling them in the same post? Well, for one, their names can get confusing—Search Terms vs. Search Themes—so it’s easy to mix them up, but they are different! In fact, search themes are actually more closely related to keywords than they are to search terms.

    Remember how we said Google wants more control?

    Just like keywords, search themes are your way of telling Google what products or services you want to show ads for. Except this time, you don’t have match types! Search themes are like broad match keywords. You tell Google the idea of how people are searching for you, but then you hand the reins to Google and let them optimize.

    When PMAX campaigns first launched, Google was met with a lot of pushback from advertisers who didn’t appreciate the lack of transparency about where and when their ads were showing. It felt like sending your ads into a black box and just hoping that Google would perform. If you’re going to be investing a lot of money into this type of campaign, you want to know what’s working and what’s not.

    Now Google has implemented more reporting tools, including search term reports and negative keyword lists for PMAX. You heard that right! When PMAX first came onto the scene, advertisers not only couldn’t view the search terms, but they couldn’t negative match on the campaign either. Talk about flying blind.

    Wrapping Up

    Keywords. Search Terms. Search Themes. Three different tools for three different jobs. Keywords help you target the right searches. Search terms show you what’s actually happening. Search themes let Google’s AI explore opportunities you might miss.

    When used correctly, these three concepts work together to improve your campaign performance, maximize your ad spend efficiency, and drive better ROI from your Google Ads campaigns. The smartest advertisers don’t just understand the difference, they actively use all three for ongoing campaign optimization.

    Not sure where to start or need help with PPC management? Our team specializes in data-driven strategies that actually deliver results. Let’s talk.