Pay-Per-Click marketing is known to be one of the important factors of internet marketing or we can say digital marketing. It is a form of marketing where the advertiser has to pay to the search engine for every click on the published advertisement. The reason why PPC is admired is because of the success it delivers. With each click, a visitor lands on your website and increases your web traffic. If your ad is placed on the right platform, the chances of genuine lead generation increase.
PPC is not only about placing the ad, but it also requires a full-proof strategy for the successful implementation of this campaign. There are many factors that require attention including keywords, the online platform where the ad is placed, Ad relevance, USPs, and much more. Every factor holds importance and must be considered on a serious note.
Digital marketing is vast and to put the best foot forward, it is important to seek the help of experts. PPC is another specialized field of digital marketing that requires expertise for efficient & effective performance. But in the process, we might sometimes make mistakes without even knowing them and those mistakes hurt us badly and waste our resources. So, it is necessary to identify them and avoid them as much as possible.
PPC mistakes to watch out for
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PPC without goals
One of the most common mistakes done by several businesses is running a PPC campaign without knowing the end goal or what they want to achieve through PPC. The First and foremost thing before starting any campaign or process should be why you are doing that and what you want to achieve.
Everyone knows the prime goal of businesses is to generate leads and revenue but, the question is what kind of leads you are targeting. It is important to select the target market before you move forward.
Do avoid this mistake as it could be very costly.
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Implement and leave
Another mistake made by most of us is to forget the PPC campaign after implementing it. This is one of the worst scenarios and it must be avoided.
Running a PPC campaign requires a lot of hard work, skills, and resources, and if left unnoticed after implementation, all of would be wasted and you’ll get nothing. It is completely wrong to think that PPC will work on its own.
Success is not achieved only after stepping on to the first step of the ladder rather it requires climbing at the top of that. Thus, you must monitor the progress of your PPC campaign periodically and analyze where it requires improvement. Doing this will be of great help in achieving what you want to through this campaign.
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Ignoring negative keywords
Using negative keywords is an essential part of any PPC campaign and most of us are ignoring those keywords. If you are confused about what negative keywords are, we’ll help you with this.
A negative keyword is a word or phrase that contains your targeted keyword but certainly does not focus on buying the product or service you offer. For example, you produce & sell dark chocolates and have a targeted keyword ‘dark chocolate.’ In this case, the negative keyword could be ‘what are the harmful effects of eating dark chocolate?’ Here, this phrase contains your targeted keyword but does not intend to buy dark chocolate.
That’s where negative keywords are necessary as they prevent unnecessary clicks on your ad by holding your ad back for irrelevant searches. This will save the cost of your PPC campaign and ensure clicks of only genuine visitors who are looking to buy your product or service.
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Ignoring search term report
Google Ads account has given so many features to the users that effectively using them can help them run their PPC campaigns effectively and efficiently. One of those features is the search term report that many of us ignore thinking that it is not of much use.
That’s where we are missing the trick that could cost us a lot. While running a PPC campaign, it becomes important to know for which search terms we are paying to the advertiser. Whether those search terms are relevant to our business or not. To get details on this, we must regularly check the search term report and see for which search terms our ads are being displayed & clicked.
This will also give us a better idea on which negative keywords are costing us unnecessarily and we should use them to prevent that PPC cost.
Considering this will also help get insights into the behavior of your audience and landing pages. Hence, you will be able to serve your audience in the best possible manner.
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Expecting too much with a single ad group
Though this point is here in the list of PPC mistakes, yet we do not consider it as a mistake rather it is a lack of knowledge or we can say a bad strategy. What we mean by saying expecting too much is focusing on multiple keywords through a single ad group. By doing this, you will lose the specificity of your ad and won’t be able to drive genuine traffic.
With the PPC campaign, it is most important for your visitors to land on the specific page from where they can get exactly what they are looking for and that’s how the success of your PPC campaign will be decided. But on the other hand, if people are landing on the same page for multiple queries then it won’t be of much help for you.
For example, if you run a business of apparels then targeting all kids wear, gents wear, and women wear in one ad group will lead the customers to one page only as set by you and this might frustrate people as well. And not to forget, you have to pay for the click irrespective of the condition whether the purchase is made or not.
Thus, smartness lies in choosing keywords accordingly so that the page at which a visitor land is relevant to his/her search query. In this way, your cost of the PPC campaign will also reduce.
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Ignoring landing pages
A mistake is a mistake, it doesn’t matter what kind of mistake it is and it could do so much harm that no one would have thought of. In the PPC campaign, another thing that most people ignore is the landing page. They have this misconception that homepage will handle everything.
Before starting the PPC campaign, one thing that you must keep in mind is not to make assumptions. Not all visitors are the same and it won’t be wrong to say that most of them want to land directly on the result page they are looking for. There are very few who will navigate their way through the homepage to what they want.
It will be a foolish move to put your PPC campaign at stake for those few visitors by ignoring the landing page.
It is advised to fix the landing page relevant to your keyword for each ad as that will not only improve lead generation but also increase the conversion rate. The simpler it will be for the visitors higher will be the chances of getting a customer.
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Ignoring your website
What do you want to achieve through the PPC campaign? Genuine visitors on your website that later turn into potential customers or customers. Yes, that is what every business wishes to get by running a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign.
Now, the place where each click will lead the visitors is to your website and imagine it being messy & unorganized. If this is the situation, the first question that you should ask yourself before starting PPC is will it be of use? Followed by Will it give you the target customers? Or will it increase sales? The answer to all the above questions is no. If you don’t do the basics right how will it help you while trying for complex things?
So, if you are ignoring the website, believe us, you are making one of the biggest mistakes. It is important for you to make sure that the page where a visitor will land is easy to navigate, organized, and show the important details that the visitor is looking for in as simpler way as it is possible.
You must focus on each and every parameter of your website along with its speed to ensure the success of your PPC campaign.
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Ignoring the consistency
There is so much that will cost you if you start ignoring important things. Here, at this point, we are talking about consistency between ads, keyword, and landing page.
There has to be consistency between these terms to make sure that the right people click on your ad and do not bounce off from the landing page.
- To ensure this, you need to keep certain things in mind:
- The keyword you have chosen is relevant to what you are selling.
- Target keywords are present in your ad copy.
The page at which visitor lands must have the same set of keywords for which search was made and that are there in your ad.
Considering these points will increase the chances of your PPC campaign and you will enjoy the benefits. But if you ignore this or have not considered yet then it could be alarming as you might experience high Cost Per Click (CPC) and low Click-Through Rates (CTR).
These small things can become big and could be the reason for downfall, so, it is vital to take care of all of them.
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Not having patience
Patience always holds the key as nothing is achieved with a blink of an eye and when it comes to success, a lot of effort is required. Similarly, in the PPC campaign as well you need to show some patience.
It requires a lot of adjustments, combinations, and market checks to run an effective PPC campaign. Only idealizing things don’t do the job, practicality is most important. We might have many ideas on the keywords that we can use. But will all work? if not, how to identify those that will work?
The answer to each question is to try the best & relevant keywords and see how they behave. Give ample time to your PPC campaign to get the best out of it. If you fail two or three times or even more in getting the desired result, that doesn’t mean that the PPC campaign is not for you.
It advised to never stop trying by creating different strategies and doing proper market research. Once you get the right keyword, believe us, you reap the benefit of all the efforts made in the past.
Still, if you feel uncomfortable or having any difficulty, instead of calling the campaign off reach out to an experienced digital marketing agency like Ranksoldier for help.
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Doing everything on your own
Learning is good but not at the expense of your downfall. Why we are saying this is because if you try something new that you are not much aware of and especially when you have a lot of other important things to do, then in the process of learning you won’t be able to focus on other factors that you should and that could be harmful.
The same is the case with PPC, it requires a lot to get acquainted with all PPC parameters. In the process of saving some money, if you are planning to run a PPC campaign on your own, then you might end up spending more instead of saving. Yes, this is true and it should be considered on a serious note.
Thus, it is always better to seek the help of professionals for running the PPC campaign as it will not only save money and resources but also deliver better results.
Why we are forcing you to take the help of professionals is that they are aware of every single aspect of pay-per-click. They know what might work and what might not along with the strategies that’ll help in moving the best foot forward.
Another importance of hiring an expert is that they are quick with their decision and they ensure better & effective resource utilization.
There is no harm in learning new techniques but, there is when you do by wasting your money & resources. So, allot specific time to learn Google Ads and let professionals do their job.
Conclusion
Everyone does mistakes but the real problem arises when you ignore them and keep repeating. Even a small mistake in your business could cost you everything and you might not even get time to recover. So, it is necessary to strategically put your foot forward under the guidance of experts wherever required. Doing everything on your own might waste your resources & money and smartness lies in hiring a professional.
You might have come across these above-mentioned PPC mistakes and won’t be able to recognize them or you might have been knowingly doing them without any concern. In any of these conditions, the harm is to you and if not done right it could be very costly. So, it is advised to seriously consider these mistakes and rectify them before they do harm that cannot be undone.