The largest search engine, Google, disabled a whopping 2.3 billion ads in 2018. With Google's algorithm continuously changing, you must keep optimizing the PPC ads in sync with these changes. It helps to have a better ad rank & position, build brand awareness, etc. Your ad description, ad text, etc., must align with the Google Ads policies to avoid any ad fatigue and penalties. Even other online platforms that offer running PPC ads have their algorithms based on the interest of the target audience present on their platform. With myths regarding PPC advertising that a huge amount of ad budget needs to be spent to achieve the desired results like lead generation, building brand awareness, etc., you can achieve these goals with a proper plan & strategy. To achieve these objectives, you need to avoid PPC mistakes so that your ads grab the user's attention and increase the chances of the users converting to customers. In this blog, we will discuss the common PPC ad mistakes that must be avoided to have the best advertising ROI.
PPC mistakes to avoid
1. Not using the keyword match types properly - In the PPC advertising world, the essential point is to use the keyword match types correctly. You need to categorize them into broad, phrase, and exact matches. With a focus primarily on choosing the relevant keyword match type for your ad campaign, you need to segregate the ad campaign that provides the best result.
working on search engine optimization techniques to improve the page loading speed, ranking on the SERPs, etc., you work on SEO pagination. It tells the search engine that the original page and the other page are duplicates of each other. It helps to find the relevant page easing the visitors easily work & search engines work. Even when you have multiple pages for the same product or service, then you add canonical tags to avoid search engine penalties.
The exact match keywords display the results on search queries for the exact keywords or search terms entered. The phrase match keywords are the terms with the exact search query and some related terms. The broad match keywords include the keywords that have terms both from exact match and phrase match keywords.
So, the essential point you need to focus on to avoid PPC mistakes in your ad campaign is properly using the keyword match types. The more effectively you use the keywords, the better the chances of showing the users relevant results. The more you focus on ad relevance, the better the chances of the users getting associated with your business. You need to focus on doing proper keyword research for better using the keywords, be it e-commerce keyword research, PPC keyword research, advertising on social media platforms, etc.
2. Not leveraging negative keywords - The next essential PPC mistake that needs to be avoided is not leveraging the negative keywords. In the PPC campaign strategy, you need to leverage the negative keywords so that your PPC ads do not appear for these entered terms. Whether you are running any type of PPC campaign, like search ads, video ads, display ads, shopping ads, etc., you need to utilize the negative keywords to their full potential so that your ad budget is not wasted on irrelevant clicks.
Adding negative keywords to your ad groups informs the search engines that you want your ads to trigger for the keywords or search terms you enter. In your PPC campaign strategy, you must focus on leveraging the essential keywords related to your business so that your ads appear only to the relevant target audience.
As in SEO campaigns, you focus on optimizing the essential SEO metrics to ensure that the performance of your SEO campaign is not hampered. In the same way, within your PPC campaign strategy, you need to improve the performance of the PPC campaign and optimize the essential PPC metrics. You can consider preparing a PPC report and highlighting the essential metrics that need analysis. It may be cost per click, cost per acquisition, target ROAS, conversion rate, etc. To improve the performance of your Google Ads campaign, you can also outsource PPC services. The hired PPC experts manage the Google PPC ads and focus on taking the necessary steps to optimize the ad campaign. The PPC experts then work on a plan & strategy to optimize the PPC campaigns.
3. Not bidding on branded keywords - Another essential PPC mistake that needs to be avoided in the PPC campaign is not bidding on branded keywords. Many of the times, PPC advertisers focus on choosing keywords that best suit the products or services that the business offers. However, in the keyword bidding strategy, you need to dwell upon the point that you choose the keywords with a high-quality score. It helps your PPC ads to appear at a higher position, thus boosting the ad rank.
When bidding on keywords, the core point to concentrate upon is using branded keywords. The branded keywords help in building brand awareness and improve ad strategy. When using branded keywords, your search ads help to convey the brand message to the target audience. As in social media marketing, when running PPC ads like Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, YouTube Ads, Instagram Ads, etc., you focus on touching the unique selling point of the user so that they click on the ad and reach the landing page. Optimizing your branded keywords in the ad copy increases the user's trust in your PPC ads. With Google PPC ads, you also need to focus on using the terms that best match the users' search intent and have the branded keywords in them.
4. Not matching keywords to ad copy - The next essential PPC mistake to avoid in your PPC marketing strategy is not matching the keywords to the ad copy. With the digital marketing world providing products or services to clients at the ease of fingertip, today’s users are impatient to make click on the ad. So, in your PPC advertising strategy, you must match keywords to the ad copy. E.g., if a user searches for ‘bike rental’ and your ad appears for ‘bike hire’, then there are chances that the user would not engage with your PPC ad. So, you need to focus on grouping the keywords in a separate ad group, each with corresponding keywords and ad copy. You need to focus on content strategy and write great content to increase the number of users who click on the ad. You can also avail of content marketing services and hire content specialists to complete the content writing part.
5. Not working on adjusting bid amount - Another essential PPC mistake to avoid when running PPC campaigns is not working on bid adjustment. With multiple ad campaigns operating simultaneously, it becomes critical that the ad is optimized depending on the ad budget of the business.
In the PPC ad campaign, you need to focus on adjusting the bid amount and work on a keyword bidding strategy to avoid spending the whole amount. You may consider defining a particular bid amount up to which you can spend money for conversion. It can be done through manual bidding or automated bidding. You can outsource PPC services so that the PPC experts focus on analyzing the best bid amount for your ad campaigns.
You may have users that convert at a lower budget while others that convert at a higher budget. However, spending a bit high for conversion may be good for your business as there are chances that the user that converts at a higher bid will stay in touch with the business in the long run. You need to focus on choosing the relevant high-traffic keywords so that the conversion rate for your business scales. You can also focus on customer retention strategies and run remarketing campaigns to generate leads for your business.
6. Not testing the final landing pages - The next essential pointer that hampers the performance of your ad campaign is not testing your landing page. The first impression that the user has about the business is from the ad they see on the search engine result page. However, when the user reaches the landing page, they get to have a complete idea about the business offerings. The ultimate goal of any form of marketing, be it online, social media, email marketing, content marketing, etc., is increasing the conversion rate.
So, you need to focus on optimizing the landing page that includes all the details about the product or services being offered. You need to focus on improving the page loading speed, user navigation on the website, page content, optimizing the page for mobile devices, etc. You can also consider performing a/b testing for your landing page as you do it for your PPC campaigns. You can then choose the best-performing page for your ad campaign and then optimize them regularly so that the users get to see the latest as per the latest marketing trends. As in SEO marketing, you focus on using the latest SEO trends so that the user's interest in making a click on the website increases. In the same way, you need to focus on PPC trends in your ads to grab the user's attention before making a click on the ad.
7. Not using location targeting - The next PPC mistake to avoid in your PPC campaign is not using location targeting. When working on PPC ads, you need to focus on location targeting to get in touch with the relevant audiences that have a high chance of taking the desired action. When you work on location targeting for your ad campaign, you need to have a complete idea about the users of that location. With a wide range of audiences present, focusing on ad relevancy and displaying the ad to the target audience at the correct time becomes essential.
You can also focus on ad scheduling so that the relevant users see the ad at the appropriate time. When the ads appear to the target audience at the right time, they are likely to take the desired action. You can also focus on ad personalization so that the users have a feeling that the ad design is made keeping the users in mind. You can also consider demographic targeting to optimize the ads per the demands of the users. Creating a PPC report would make it easier to know what the users are looking for from the products or services offered.
8. Not using proper ad extensions - The next essential PPC mistake to avoid is not using ad extensions. With multiple ad campaigns available on online platforms, choosing the relevant ad campaign that helps in lead generation and boosting advertising ROI becomes essential. As you focus on writing great content to grab users’ attention to increase clicks on the ad. Similarly, you need to focus on using ad extensions so that the user thinks that they miss out on opportunities if they do not click on the ad.
As in search engine optimization, you focus on writing a meta description that describes what the page is all about. In the same way, ad extensions make it easy for users to know more about the ad products or services. There are different types of ad extensions, and you need to decide which ad extension to choose that best describes your offerings. You can consider using call extensions, sitelink extensions, callout extensions, location extensions, structured snippet extensions, etc. You can add discounts or offers on these extensions so that the user sees the product offerings, and it would help create a sense of urgency among users to convert.
Why use PPC advertising?
PPC advertising is pay-per-click ads in which the advertisers have to pay search engines or online platforms for every click received. With myths regarding PPC advertising, there are multiple benefits of using PPC advertising, some of which are discussed below.
a. Increases traffic to the webpage - With the help of PPC advertising, you focus on targeting high-quality, relevant traffic with a high chance of taking the desired action. When the PPC ads are well-optimized, the impression share for your landing page increases. It ultimately leads to increasing traffic, and with better strategies, you need to ensure that the visitor turns into a customer.
b. Analyze performance in real-time - With PPC ads, you get to know the real-time performance of your ads. As clicks are received on your ads, not all of them take the desired action on the landing page. You can prepare a PPC report to determine which type of users are taking the desired action and the users that are just window shopping.
c. Helps build brand recognition - The PPC ads appear above the organic results(if optimized properly and your ad has a better ad rank), so more users see the ad. It helps build brand awareness, and if the users are satisfied with the product or services being offered, it also helps in peer-to-peer marketing.
Conclusion
The world of paid advertising keeps evolving with multiple PPC trends, and you need to leverage this in your PPC marketing strategy. As online marketing is different from traditional marketing, it becomes essential to drive out the best plan & strategy for your PPC ads so that your ad budget is not wasted. When working on PPC advertising, there are multiple PPC ad mistakes that you need to avoid, some of which are discussed above. When setting up a PPC campaign, even a minor ad mistake may affect the performance of your ads. If you find avoiding PPC mistakes a tough task, you can contact a digital marketing company and outsource PPC services. The PPC company provides PPC experts with expertise in optimizing the ad campaign and working on steps that provide the best ad performance. The PPC experts have mastered optimizing search ads, video ads, display ads, mobile ads, etc., and have provided clients globally with the desired results.
References:
● The mistakes that completely wreck most PPC campaigns (and how to avoid them)
● 9 PPC mistakes that impact success