Avoid These PPC Search Mistakes to Keep Your Campaigns Running Smoothly
PPC is a great lower-funnel marketing tactic advertisers can leverage to target potential customers while they are actively searching for your service or product. However, investing in PPC does not guarantee you will drive leads or sales. Below are some common mistakes to avoid helping ensure your paid search campaigns run smoothly and you get the best return on investment possible.
Using All Broad Match Keywords
This is one way to spend through your campaign budget very quickly and waste money. Setting your keyword match type to a broad match keyword allows Google to interpret the meaning of that keyword, therefore, showing your ads for a ton of irrelevant searches. We suggest starting with phrase match and exact match keywords to zero in on more relevant searches and waste less spend.
Not Using a Negative Keyword List
By not having a negative keyword list, you will show up for more irrelevant searches than you would like. By creating a negative keyword list before launching your account, you immediately cut down on wasted spend. It is essential to constantly update that negative keyword list by looking at your search terms report to see what keywords you do not want to show up for as the campaign progresses.
Too Broad of Location Targeting
Some advertisers neglect to get granular with their location targeting. They might put in a whole city’s DMA or radius targeting when the best way to target is by zip codes. That will allow you to see the data at the most granular level and help you better optimize towards and away from zip codes based on conversion data and where money is being wasted.
Setting and Forgetting Campaigns
New advertisers might think that once they got the hard part of setting up the account that once it’s live, you can just let Google take the wheel, and you can sit back and watch the leads roll in. This is far from the truth; although Google is smart, you still need to constantly change your bids to not overpay on keywords while analyzing location, ad schedule, device, and demographic data. These are all areas you need to check periodically to make sure things are running smoothly and looking for ways to trim wasted spend.
Not Having Call to Actions
One thing all advertisers should have in their ads is a Call to Action (CTA). Whether that be “call now,” “learn more,” “request a quote,” or “free estimate.” This helps drive people to differentiate your ad from a competitor and drive them to your landing page, where again, there should be a clear, concise CTA preferably above the fold, so it’s easy to find. We test multiple CTAs in our ads to see which ones drive the highest click-through rate and conversion rate.
Not Leveraging Different Ad Types
Google has various search ad types: Expanded Text Ads, Responsive Search Ads, and Call Ads. It is important not to rely on one ad type and instead test each one and see which one best suits your goals. For example, if your main goal is driving calls, you want to try using call ads in your ad type mix. If you have any offers or promotions, responsive search ads might be a good fit since you can have up to 15 headlines and four descriptions.
Overall, PPC is a great tool to leverage if you want to reach your target market directly. By avoiding these simple mistakes above, you will waste less money and convert more people to buy your product or use your service.
About the Author
Devin Calori is a Digital Advertising Team Lead at ChoiceLocal, specializing in Google, Microsoft, and Facebook ads. Outside of being passionate about all things digital marketing, he loves to attend EDM and rock concerts, play volleyball, and is determined to try any brand of sparkling water.
Sources:
https://www.volusion.com/blog/top-ppc-mistakes-to-avoid-in-your-campaigns/
https://hawksem.com/blog/common-ppc-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/
https://www.topfloortech.com/blog/7-ppc-pay-per-click-mistakes-to-avoid/#gref
