PPC campaigns can fetch you massive, extremely positive results, but great power comes with great responsibility, as they say.
Managing a PPC campaign, let alone a successful one is no child’s play.
However, if you know the road ahead is bumpy and know exactly where the potholes are, you can prepare for them and make the journey a lot easier on the back.
In this blog post, we’ll try to do just that by addressing all the common PPC mistakes we see individuals making and how best to avoid them.
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PPC campaigns can fetch you massive, extremely positive results, but great power comes with great responsibility, as they say. Managing a PPC campaign, let alone a successful one is no child’s play. However, if you know the road ahead is bumpy and know exactly where the potholes are, you can prepare for them and make the journey a lot easier on the back. In this blog post, we’ll try to do just that by addressing all the common PPC mistakes we see individuals making and how best to avoid them.
What is a PPC Campaign?
PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click, and it is a type of advertising wherein advertisers pay every time a user clicks on one of their ads. These ads appear on both search engines, like Google and Bing, as well as social media platforms like Instagram or Facebook.
And what about its management? Well, managing a PPC campaign is a whole other task in itself. It is an ongoing process that requires intense planning, executing, monitoring, and optimizing of the entire campaign, involving choosing keywords, creating ads, setting budgets, adjusting bids, and trying your absolute best to get the most ROI possible. The goal is to maximize return on investment for each dollar spent on PPC ads. It is a tough job, as messing up can result in, essentially, drowning money.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls in PPC Campaign Management
Now, let’s get to the matter at hand. Avoiding PPC campaign management mistakes helps an organization or individual save money, time, and reputation (more on that later). Here are the dreaded pitfalls:
1. Ignoring Keyword Research
Keyword research is the very first step of a PPC campaign and the foundation of a good PPC campaign. Without it, you’re essentially just going to lose money. Words are valuable because they mean something; they represent intent. PPC mistakes like targeting the wrong keywords or using overly broad terms do not attract traffic that will convert but simply end up wasting clicks or decreasing your quality score.
Conduct thorough research, use tools like Google Keyword Planner, and identify the right keywords for your target audience. Make use of negative keywords to exclude unwanted queries. For example, if you’re selling luxury watches, you don’t want your ad to appear when someone searches for "cheap watches." Focus on long-tail keywords, which tend to be more specific and less competitive. However, since products and services are different, their marketing varies too, so consider everything before focusing primarily on a certain type of keyword.
2. Quality Score
To put it simply, the quality score is the value attached to your ads by Google by taking into consideration how useful and relevant it is to users. Why does it matter what Google thinks? Well, the number 1 reason is that they will charge you less when people click on your ads. Higher quality scores can lead to lower costs per click. This is extremely valuable in the long term and gives you a competitive edge. You can check your quality score via your Google Ads account, and if you wish to improve it, here’s what you can do:
● Keep your keywords relevant. Make use of long-tail keywords, be as specific as you can as this will get you only qualified leads.
● Ensure that your landing page is related to what your ad is. Nobody likes a bait-and-switch. What your ad promises should represent what’s on your landing page.
● Offer quality content, and information that is useful to the users and add a strong CTA. This will make it easier for a visitor to become a customer.
● Mobile optimization must be performed. More on that below.
Keeping visitors satisfied keeps Google happy; and that keeps your quality score up.
3. Not Optimizing Landing Pages
Remember that getting a click is only half the battle, so don’t celebrate yet. A user isn’t a potential customer until they land on your page, and once they do, you need to ensure they convert. You want to avoid making common landing page design mistakes, as a landing page that isn’t optimized for mobile, lacks a strong CTA, or takes too long to load will not fetch you the desired results, making your PPC mistakes even more costly. On the other hand, a well-designed landing page improves your quality score and increases the probability of a conversion.
4. Overlooking Mobile Users
Today, more people use their mobile phones than ever before. Not merely to check social media, but also to shop. There has been a massive boom in e-commerce platform visitors who are mobile users. So, if your PPC campaign management does not take into consideration mobile users, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of the population. Your ads should be mobile-friendly, and your landing pages should load quickly on all devices.
Bids for mobile users are different, and Google Ads allows you to set mobile bid adjustments, so you can increase your bids for mobile users if they are more likely to convert. The role of mobile optimization and landing page design cannot be understated.
5. Geo-Targets
Geographic targeting, or geo-targeting, is a way to control your ads by ensuring they appear only to individuals in a specific location. It is an extremely important aspect of running online ads. If your product or service serves no purpose to individuals in another state or country, you are merely wasting money and lowering your quality score by appearing in their searches.
Conclusion
PPC campaigns are a fantastic way to give your company, no matter what goods or services you offer, a major boost in the online jungle, but if used incorrectly, they can be a drain on your wallet. When managing a PPC campaign, be careful and avoid these pitfalls. It is best to seek the assistance of a digital marketing agency if you’re doubtful about managing it yourself, in order to ensure your ads match and hopefully exceed the industry standards and reel in the desired results.
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