Negative Effects of Constantly Pausing Your PPC Ads

The pause button in the Google Ads platform can be really beneficial for those in the home service industry. If you don’t offer 24/7 emergency service or if you’re not open on Christmas Day, you can simply pause your ads. This way, you can make sure you’re not racking up your ad spend while you’re unavailable to take a job. However, there are some negative effects of constantly pausing your PPC ads. Here are a few:

Ads May Be Slow to Regain Traction

When you first launch an ad campaign, you probably don’t check back on it for a few weeks because you know it takes a while to see changes and note-worthy data. The case is similar, if not the same, when resuming ads. The hard work you’ve put into the ad campaign will be rendered useless, of course, once you pause it, but it will also be slowed to a crawl once resumed.

A/B Tests Can Be Compromised

It’s best practice to have one standard text ad and then a second one running on the same device (desktop, mobile or tablet) with a slight variation. This enables you to test the effectiveness of your headline, call to action, etc. However, if you’re constantly pausing your ads, it may compromise your A/B tests. To gather statistically significant data, you’ll have to give your ad time to generate impressions, clicks and conversions.

Ads Aren’t Given the Chance to Improve

While many ads for home services are paused due to service times, another reason you might pause an ad is that it’s not performing as well as you’d hoped. While a poorly performing ad may lower your quality score, a paused ad won’t perform at all. By pausing it, you’re missing out on an opportunity for improvement.

Instead of Pausing Your Ads…

Though it may be tempting in some cases, we’ve shown the negative effects of constantly pausing your PPC ads. Don’t worry! Here are some suggestions on what to try instead:

Tweak Your Ad Schedule

Rather than pausing your ads during your off-hours or during observed holidays, try taking advantage of the Ad Schedule in your PPC platform. You can choose which hours and which days of the week you want your ads to show, without having to manually pause them. This creates more consistency in your ad campaigns, which garners more statistically relevant data and more conversions.

Implement Negative Keywords

Rather than manually pausing your ads during times you don’t want them to show, try implementing negative keywords instead. For example, if you don’t want to show up for “Electricians Open on Christmas,” add “Christmas” and “Christmas Day” to your negative keyword list.

Unless you’re a paid search specialist, DIY PPC management is probably a lot of trial and error. At VitalStorm, we have a team of paid search experts who understand the home service industry and have a plan in place to get you leads. If you’re interested in signing up for PPC services with VitalStorm, call us at 1-877-311-5695.

If you’re already running PPC with us, consider these negative effects before requesting to have your ads paused. We want you to get profitable leads as much as you do!