Worked example, not a client
A Wolverhampton kitchen fitter: Birmingham in the headline against Wolverhampton, side by side
A kitchen fitter based in Wolverhampton had written Birmingham into every headline, on the advice that the city's name brings the bigger searches. This page sets the two versions side by side for the Wolverhampton searches, the way we would run and report the comparison, with figures chosen to be realistic for a two-person fitting business. The fitter is a composite.
Written by Daniel Stoychev. The business and its figures are illustrative. The comparison is the one the town guide linked below describes, and the way of reading it, by search term and by quality score, is the real method.
Worked example. The fitter and the figures are invented to show the comparison in the form a report carries it. The reason the town wins, expected click-through rate and the quality score that follows, is Google's own mechanism.
Side by side
The same searches, two headlines, four weeks each
| Line | Headline says Birmingham | Headline says Wolverhampton | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Searches that contained Wolverhampton | 420 impressions | 440 impressions | The same searches; the targeting did not change |
| Click-through rate | 2.1% | 5.4% | The town in the headline matched the town in the search |
| Average cost per click | £2.40 | £1.85 | Quality score rose from 5 to 7 on the main keyword |
| Enquiries | 4 | 11 | A form and a call over a minute, nothing else |
| Cost per enquiry | £60 | £22 | The line the fitter reads |
| Searches that contained Birmingham | Unchanged, in their own ad group | Unchanged, in their own ad group | Birmingham stayed in the ad for the searches that said it |
What changed on the page
The headline cannot do it alone
The Wolverhampton ad group landed on a page rewritten for the town: Wolverhampton in the heading, the areas by name, Tettenhall, Wednesfield, Bilston, Codsall, two recent kitchens photographed in those streets, and the fitter's own van in the photograph. The Birmingham ad group kept the city page. Neither page could have its town swapped for the other without being wrong, which is the test that keeps them out of the doorway category.
What the report declined
Three things that were asked for and not done
- A page for every town within twenty miles, from one template. Two pages for two real areas instead.
- Location insertion with the target set to Birmingham, which would have inserted Birmingham in Wolverhampton; the targets were set by town so that insertion, where used, says the right one.
- A broad match keyword for kitchens with the whole West Midlands as the target, which would have returned the account to the state it started in.
Where this leads
The pages that do this work
Send the account ID. Within 72 hours you know where last month's money went.
The free check needs your ten-digit Google Ads customer ID and nothing else. Daniel Stoychev reads the account himself and writes back within 72 hours. If you would rather talk first, the phone is answered in office hours by the same person.