5 Common PPC Advertising Mistakes to Avoid

Some basic errors made in PPC campaigns can cost you a lot of money and not bring you any new customers. Is your budget big enough so you can afford to make mistakes when setting up the campaign for your company? Here are the top 5 mistakes commonly made in ad campaigns.

1. Poor targeting

Frequently the problem arises as a result of inaccurate location settings, for example, if your company offers babysitting in Miami and you target your campaign for the entire state of Florida. Such advertising, although it will increase website traffic, does not guarantee paying customers (no conversions). So who do you offer your services or products to? Are you able to meet the customer at the other end of the country, or is your business more local?

2. Keywords are too common

Selecting general keywords is not always a mistake if you have a large budget and you want to focus on building awareness of your brand. Most companies however, have a limited budget. If this is the case, choose to avoid general keywords. They are very expensive and do not guarantee paying customers.

3. Keywords are too specific

If all the keywords are very specific, it’s quite possible that your ad is not displayed to anyone. The terms can be so specific that after a week of campaigning, despite not spending a dime, you don’t bring any visitors to your website.

Google can help you with this by offering an estimated search volume of each key word. Although it’s not a very precise estimate, it gives you an idea about how many visitors search for a particular keyword.

4. Text ads are unrelated to the search term

Text ads that don’t correspond to the keyword is a very common problem. However, if you properly understand the use of groups and campaigns (see How to create online campaigns) this issue can be avoided. For instance, if you have a hotel in England and want to attract visitors from England and France, imprecise advertising can result in an English text appearing to French users.

5. Landing pages are set up incorrectly

This again requires a more advanced and in-depth analysis of your campaign. For example, if you have an e-shop and want to promote Product X, customers can be led to Product X via a direct link. Now imagine that an interested client clicks on an ad that promotes “original T-shirts”, and is directed to a page with pictures of women’s dresses. The visitor will leave immediately and you’ll still be charged. Take a minute or two and decide where you want to send your prospective customers!

Do you know of any other mistakes which can cause problems in a search engine ad campaign? Are you planning to monetize your website? Try this step-by-step guide.