Common Mistakes Made With Google AdWords PPC

Are you making the most of your pay-per-click marketing activity? When it comes to setting your AdWords campaigns, it’s easy to take a ‘set and forget’ approach. You’ve done the hard work researching the right keywords and customer data, so it’s time to reap the benefits. However, this is a channel that requires a lot of attention. With Google AdWords PPC, there are constant changes and refinements to be made. Furthermore, there are many intricacies with the system that a lot of users overlook.

Neglecting any one area of your PPC marketing can impact your overall results and return on investment. Oftentimes, businesses don’t even know that they’re making mistakes that are simple to fix. In this article we’ll take a look at some of the most common mistakes that are made with Google AdWords PPC marketing. In addition, we’ll discuss why TEA Software can help you maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Using Poor-Quality Copy

For something that’s relatively straightforward, it’s amazing how many businesses get this wrong. Just because your advertisement appears at the top of Google’s results page doesn’t mean it will get clicked on. It takes carefully crafted content to entice users in. The words you choose to promote your ads and your business should be emotive, clear, and give a reason for the viewer to find out more. Quite often search engine users are looking for the solution to a problem or an answer to a question. You have to be the search result that provides this.

The work doesn’t stop with creating good ad copy either. Clicking through on a PPC ad should lead the user to a landing page that leads to a conversion. It needs to be related to the advert that has been clicked on, expanding on the information and giving further answers and calls to action. You’ve paid to get someone to this page, so it needs to be as good as it can possibly be. It’s not just the visitor you should be concerned about either. Google looks at the quality and relevance of your ad copy and landing page content to help determine your Quality Score.

Not Using Extensions

Over the years Google AdWords PPC advertising has developed considerably. Their aim is to not only make it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for, but to help businesses better promote their goods and services. Many newcomers to AdWords aren’t familiar with the range of add-ons and extensions that can help give them an edge with their adverts.

It’s relatively easy to activate the extensions through the AdWords manager, but a lot of users aren’t aware of what they do. Essentially they provide extra information about your listing. There are features such as a star rating, location extension, and sitelink extension. Not only do these add information to enrich your advert, they can also present additional calls to action to engage viewers. If you want to make your ad stand out and increase the chances that engaged traffic will click on it, ensure that you add some of these extensions.

Ignoring Keyword Matches

Once you’ve done your keyword research, you may feel that all you need to do is start placing bids on them. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There are three different types of matches that you can bid on. These are: broad match, phrase match, and exact match. Each functions slightly differently, and you need to be aware of these differences. You also need to tailor your bids to each type.

• Broad match. A broad match keyword means that your ad will appear whenever people search for your given keywords, regardless of order or other words in the search string. Although this is great for capturing a wide audience, it may not always produce relevant results. You may end up attracting views and clicks from customers who are not interested in your business.
• Phrase match. This is slightly more refined than broad matches and means that your ads will appear when a search string contains the keywords in the exact order that you’ve specified. However, it still includes searches with addition words in. It’s a good way for capturing a variety of associated searches to your keyword.
• Exact match. As the name suggests, this will only display only when the exact keyword is searched for as you specify it. Although this is great for targeting only related and specific traffic, it does get fewer engagements than broad matches.

Ultimately you must decide how to bid on these types of keyword matches. Try experimenting to find out what works and make adjustments as you go.

Not Grouping Keywords Correctly

We mentioned Quality Score above. It’s a vital metric that determines how much you will pay for each click of your ads, and where your ads will appear. There are a few factors that determine your Quality Score, and an important one is how you group your keywords.

Ideally, your campaigns should be well structured to contain groups of related keywords that use highly effective ad copy and landing pages. As we’ve established already, the ad copy should be reflective of the keyword, and link through to a high-quality landing page. Keyword grouping makes this process much easier.

Not Using Negative Keywords

Google AdWords PPC interface is fairly intuitive. Although it does take some time to get used to (particularly when they release a new version) once you know how it works you can do a lot with it. Despite this, many people overlook some core features. Another such feature is negative keywords. We mentioned above that when you use broad match and phrase match terms, your ad will still show even if the rest of the search string is unrelated. To avoid clicks (and therefore cost) on these unrelated searches, negative keywords should be used.

Negative keywords give you the opportunity to exclude certain keywords or phrases that might be erroneously associated to the keyword you’re bidding on. In addition to the obvious ones you know about, be sure to look at your PPC data closely to identify new instances of this. It can save you money on your ads and increase your conversion.

Running Ads at the Wrong Time and Place

This is particularly applicable to businesses that also have a bricks and mortar presence. With features such as geolocation and dayparting, you can specify when your ads appear and to what regions they appear to. By not doing this, you could potentially be reaching customers and encouraging them to visit your store, regardless of whether you’re open or whether they’re near. By displaying ads at these inopportune times and places, you’re potentially wasting money. It’s more than worth the effort learning how these features work and determining the best use of them.

Ignoring Your Analytics

In our introduction we mentioned how many Google AdWords PPC users adopt a ‘set and forget’ strategy. Even if you’re not making any of the other mistakes on this list, ignoring your analytics can cost you dearly. Without using in-depth and up-to-date analytics, you can’t accurately understand how your activity is performing. You can’t see how customers engage with your site, and you can’t determine whether the traffic your ads generate is clickfraud. At TEA Software, we know the importance of having the very best analytics available , which is why we strive to provide just that.

TEA Software: Make the Most of Your Google AdWords PPC

Our vast experience in both eCommerce and PPC means that we know the kinds of mistakes that AdWords users often make. It also means that we can help you take back control of your PPC spend and vastly improve your campaigns. These are just some of the reasons that leading eCommerce provider Shopping Cart Elite are partnered us to provide their platform’s analytics.

When you choose TEA Software to help you improve your PPC performance, here are some of the features you can expect to find:

A Money Back Guarantee

We’re so confident that our automated AI bidding software can improve your results that we offer a 30-day money back guarantee. Try us today and see your ad spend reduced and your conversion rate increase.

Threat and Engagement Analytics

The main principle of TEA Software is to provide our customers with details of the threats to their PPC campaigns and how engaged their customers are. The powerful algorithms that power TEA can spot potentially unwanted traffic such as clickfraud and block the IPs it comes from. This will give you a clearer indication of how your ads are actually converting, as well as saving you money.

In terms of engagement, it can give in-depth insight into how visitors to your website interact with it. Are there some common barriers to customer conversion? Do certain pages underperform compared to others? From this information, TEA generates actionable improvements that will benefit your Google AdWords PPC activity as well as your website as a whole.