I ran a Google Ads campaign for ArtsyPetz to drive more traffic to the website with the ultimate goal of getting more customers.

I let that bad boy run for about 6 weeks.

…and let's just say it was an expensive lesson to learn.

Google Ads Has a Lot of Moving Parts

Having never created a Google Ads campaign in the past, the setup was overwhelming.

There are a bunch of different pieces that make up a campaign. I didn't know anything about any of them and each piece felt like it was its own universe. Bidding. Keywords. Copy. Audiences.

It was really tempting to try to get it all "right" and build a great campaign.

But that was, and is, completely unrealistic for someone with my experience.

There is a tension between getting everything "right" versus getting it done. I opted for the latter. I don't need to be an expert. I just need to get it up and running to start collecting data.

So I did just that and let it run for 6 weeks.

So, How Did It Go?

And here is the results from Google Ads!

I spent $213 for 4.78K impressions. I ended up getting 210 clicks at a cost of $1.01 per click.

And that got me…one customer! 😂

My web traffic analytics shows that most visitors landed on the home page and left. The average visit duration was only 37 seconds. That's not very long at all.

Is This Even the Right Channel?

So I think it is safe to say I didn't get a lot for my money. I certainly didn't get the result I was hoping for (more customers and more revenue).

Could I optimize the campaign? Could I optimize my website? Could I do both? Absolutely.

But I think there is a bigger question.

Is Google Ads the right channel for a product like ArtsyPetz?

Visual Products Need Visual Platforms

ArtsyPetz is a visual product at its core. The whole point is getting super accurate, detailed portraits of your pet. The portrait is the core offering.

So maybe Google Ads wasn't the right choice. It is hard to marry text-based copy with a visual product.

These portraits sell on emotion and visuals. Google is search intent.

Then there is Facebook and Instagram.

Those are more focused on discover and visual browsing. That feels like a better fit.

But who gives a shit about feeling like a better fit. We know to know if it is a better fit.

And that's why I just created a Meta Ads campaign across Facebook and Instagram.

Setting it up was still overwhelming. But the campaign is now up and running.

Now we wait for the results and move from there.

Enough Data to Decide

It is really hard to stop trying to make everything perfect.

With Google Ads, I would log in every couple of days and think of all the stuff I could tweak.

Then with Meta Ads, I did the same thing during the campaign setup.

I still believe that entrepreneurship rewards "enough data to decide" over "master before moving."

Trying to be perfect in one channel (Google) is a trap when the channel itself could be wrong.

In a few weeks, we'll start to get some answers as to whether Facebook/Instagram are a better fit.