Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns go hand-in-hand with SEO. It is important to utilize both for the best results on search engines like Google. Since Google accounts for the majority of search engine usage, Google Adwords is the best platform to use for PPC advertising. Unfortunately, a lot of small businesses are not familiar with Google Adwords and can make critical mistakes when setting up and running PPC campaigns. If you have found Adwords to not be very successful for your business, it may be time to re-visit your campaign to fix common mistakes to improve your ROI.
1. Keywords are too broad. Broad keywords like “women’s shoes” not only are expensive but will most likely yield very low revenue to justify your costs. Start with 5-10 good long-tail keywords, using phrase match, to find the exact customers for your product or service. Look at Google Analytics to see what keywords visitors are using to find your site. Once you have seen good results with your current keywords, then try expanding your campaigns to include broader keywords.
2. Sending traffic directly to your home page. Every visitor that clicks on your ads should view a landing page geared toward the specific topic they were searching for. If you send them to your homepage, you are making the user do the extra work to find what they are looking for. Landing on the home page can lead to higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates. Having multiple landing pages sounds like a lot of work but it will all be worth it when you have more leads, sales and business.
3. Not including negative keywords. Since every click costs you money, it is imperative to make sure you add negative keywords that may show up in search results but are not likely to convert. When using broad match keywords, you are allowing Google to let your ad show to any keyword with that word in it. Using negative keywords can help determine what keywords you do not want your ads to show to when using broad match. Check your search terms list to see what keywords people are clicking on your ad and if there are ones unrelated, add them as a negative keyword.
4. Not tracking conversions. If you are running an Adwords campaign without any tracking to determine if your clicks are converting into customers, than you are wasting money. Tracking conversions can be done with an Adwords tracking pixel or set up through Google Analytics goals on your website. Setting up conversion tracking does require some extra work but when you see a positive ROI, it will all be worth it.
5. Not setting up multiple ad groups. Ad groups is Adwords way of organizing your campaign to target different groups of people related to your product or services offered. If ad groups are not organized properly then you could be sending people to unnecessary landing pages or showing the wrong ads with irrelevant keywords. Start with 2-3 ad groups with about 10 keywords in each for an organized Adwords campaign.
Think about these common mistakes next time you are on Google Adwords and make sure you aren’t guilty to them. Don’t have time to manage your own Google Adwords campaigns? The marketing experts at Off The Wall Media can help you grow your business through PPC advertising. Visit our website to learn more.