How to Avoid Five Common Mistakes of PPC Advertising Campaigns
One of the fastest ways to get your advertising campaigns on the internet is through Pay per Click or PPC. Website owners are clamoring to use this online marketing tool because it is very cheap compared to other advertising methods. Also, it is a tried and tested way of generating and increasing traffic in your website.
Like any business decisions when it comes to marketing campaigns, you need to analyze your marketing plan so that it will be effective and at the same time, efficient. People are oftentimes lured to PPC advertising because of its popularity that they fail to plan their advertising efforts wisely leading to a waste of time and resources.
If you are a beginner when it comes to the basics of PPC advertising, you should definitely avoid the following mistakes to run an effective marketing campaign for your site.
Mistake #1 - Placing too many keywords in an ad group
If you have too many keywords placed in one ad group, it will simply not work for you. Why? It is important that the keywords you choose are not only specific but also relevant. If you have too many keywords which are contradicting, the results will be very different from what you expect. Another down side to this “peanut butter” approach is the destination page will not be relevant to your keywords because you will end up with a landing page that is too general. If you have relevant keywords, it will result to a higher click through rate, high conversion rate to the destination page, and ultimately lower priced bids.
Solution: Keep your keywords relevant and specific.
Mistake # 2 - Failure to target long tail keywords
Different search engines that offer pay per click (PPC) services are very competitive for marketers because of the auction based pricing they use. Prices are driven up because many marketers who offer similar products and services that you do will also be bidding on your keywords. In order to differentiate your keywords from the keywords of your competitors, you need to use long tailed keywords in order to make your ad stand out from the rest. For example, if you are creating an ad with the words ‘work-at-home jobs’ it will be similar to hundreds of online advertisements out there carrying the same keywords. People who will see your ad will be lost about what specific kind of work-at-home jobs you are offering. In the end, people will not be interested in clicking your PPC ad because it is too general. Instead you can try to target variations on the same keywords that are more specific - or more long tailed. For example, you can try ‘work at home in Reston Virginia’
Solution: You should be able to create ads with long tailed keywords. This move will enable you to avoid paying higher fees and will enable your ad to target the specific audience that you want to reach.
Mistake # 3 – Failure to track your campaigns at a keyword level
If you want to venture into launching a PPC marketing campaign, you must be aware that many of these ads will lose money. Only a small number will translate into profit.
Solution: In order to do this, you can test the profitability of your keywords. If you see that some keywords are not making profit, you can eradicate these from your marketing campaign so that you can concentrate on the profitable keywords.
Mistake # 4 – Forgetting to link your PPC ad to a specific landing page
Most people forget that their PPC ad must be relevant to the destination or landing page. If a user clicks on your ad, he is expecting that the landing page will have the same keyword content as your ad. If he fails to see the relevance between the ad and the destination page, he will leave, leaving your PPC campaign in vain. Rather than drive the user to your main site, create landing pages that are specific to the topic the user is searching for.
Solution: Always be drive PPC traffic to a relevant destination page.
Mistake # 5 – Placing contact numbers in your PPC ad
Most PPC ad makers make the mistake of putting the company’s contact numbers in the ad. According to research done to test the effectiveness of posting contact numbers, majority of the people who see contact numbers in the ads will not bring out their phones and dial, so it’s just a waste of ad space.
Solution: Eliminate the contact numbers in your PPC ads.
If you’re just starting out with making PPC campaigns, it might be a little tricky at first. But once you get the hang of it, it will be a breeze for you. Just remember to avoid the mistakes we mentioned above and you’ll do just fine.
