In any industry, pay-per-click campaigns can play a vital role in your marketing strategy to increase your online presence and profitability.
Google Ads, if managed efficiently, can drive traffic to your website that translates into leads, inquiries, or online sales, resulting in a higher return on investment than most other forms of advertising. This is not done by simply letting Google run the show with its automation but rather with regularly maintained, well-guided campaigns.
But even if you’re not making the mistake of letting Google run your efforts and you’re still unimpressed with your ROI, you may be making one of these 9 very common mistakes.
1. Your account is a giant clutter.
A disorganized account is one of the major signs that it is time to get help with tackling the mess. In order to have successful PPC campaigns, you must have a solid foundation and if your account is not setup correctly, you may be playing with fire.
One sign that your account is cluttered is if you have a large number of campaigns. If you find yourself creating too many campaigns, this is a major red flag. Too many campaigns typically means that you are running campaigns that are not generating traffic and are simply creating more clutter in your account. Instead, your account should have ad groups that provide ROI and are relevant to your keywords.
Another sign that your account needs some renovation is if you have an excessive amount of keywords in your ad group. If you have over 25 keywords in one ad group, you are running into relevancy issues with only a few keywords actually generating traffic. You must understand which keywords are non-performing and get rid of them since they are lowering your overall performance. You want your ad copy to match the search terms and if you have an excessive amount of keywords then your account is in need of some renovation.
2. You’re using keywords but are completely neglecting negative keywords.
If you’re not using negative keyword lists your ads may be serving for search terms that are not a good match for your product or service. If this is one of the mistakes you’re making then you are wasting budget by serving ads on searches unrelated to your company. By including negative keywords, you will increase performance because you will eliminate search terms that are not relevant or performing well.
Even if you are a good marketer, you may need help finding those negative keywords. Finding these keywords requires you to dig deep into Google Analytics. This absolutely critical mistake is important to address in order for your business to receive a meaningful return.
3. Your numbers are low across the board.
If you’re experiencing low click-through rates, you definitely need help. If you’re getting a low click-through rate, on average lower than 2%, you must reevaluate your strategy and seek help doing so. If you put yourself at risk of a low CTR, Google will interpret it as a sign that your ads are less relevant. In turn, your Quality Score will suffer.
Your Quality Score is Google’s way of influencing your rank and cost per click of your ads. If your score is lower than 5 then–Houston we have a problem. Essentially, you want Google to give you a great Quality Score so that you pay less for the highest positions with the most visibility. A high score provides a quality search experience so if you’re scoring low, you may need assistance in improving your relevancy for your keywords, ads and landing pages.
4. Your numbers are low and your spending is high.
If you’re spending a generous amount of money on your PPC campaigns without receiving the same love right back, there is an issue. The point of your advertising should be to generate revenue flow and see your ROI escalate. For many, this is a complicated process.
If you don’t know how to prioritize realistic budgets or how to divide your spending between campaigns, you should consider receiving help to build campaigns that make the most bang for your buck. Try working with an agency that is ROI hungry and wants you to spend your money to in turn generate a greater return.
5. PPC campaigns are #1,989 on your to-do list.
If you want successful PPC campaigns, you need to spend a good amount of time planning, strategizing, implementing, and analyzing. But if you’re also trying to manage finances, write three blog posts a week and update the editorial calendar, you may not be running the most effective campaigns. If you’re spending money on your PPC campaigns, shouldn’t they benefit your company? Don’t throw your dollars down the drain by simply putting money into your campaigns–that is not enough. A successful PPC campaign needs a sufficient amount of time each week to manage.
6. Not utilizing A/B testing.
This is a very common mistake that is proven to hurt your PPC campaigns. If your goal is to continuously improve your campaigns to benefit your business, you must utilize A/B testing. This calls for analyzing the placement of your ads and see which one gets the best results.
To find the most effective combination, you must analyze your various scenarios and see what makes customers the most likely to click to your information. Without this testing, there is no way to know which ad position is the best for you. If you need further assistance with A/B testing, look to an agency to see if they can help you adjust your budget for bidding or improve your strategy for the various scenarios.
7. You’re inheriting an account or building a new one with no clear direction.
Both of these scenarios prove to be challenging and will leave you wondering where to start. If you’re inheriting a new account, you may wonder how you should improve the account moving forward and how you should analyze the account’s history. This will require an analysis of various metrics such as CTR, Quality Score, etc. to see the types of goals you should set. Additionally, you will need to do a full analysis to see what has and has not been working for each of the campaigns. With this information, you will be able to set up a new strategy moving forward.
If you’re building an entirely new account, you will have plenty of questions in the beginning. This requires a tremendous amount of time, planning, and budgeting. This special attention to detail may be too much for your plate. If this is the case in both situations, you should consider looking to an agency to help you along with the process and make sure to make the campaigns successful from the very beginning.
8. You’re uninformed about new features.
If you’re a bit old school and sticking to the same strategy you’ve had since you first launched a campaign, you may be making a critical mistake. Even if you’re happy with how your campaign is performing, why not take it to the next level? If you’re not experimenting with new features or trying new things, you may be harming yourself. Why not stay ahead of the game and update your strategy and use new analytics, creative planning, and more hands-on campaigns. These types of upgrades can make for major advantages and put you ahead of your competition.
9. You swear by Google’s suggestions to optimize.
Solely relying on the Google Ads optimization tips is a major red flag. Though Google often features new tools and bids, only utilizing this platform to optimize is not the best idea. It may be a great place to start but these solutions just seem like an easy way out. You cannot give in. There are plenty of other resources that can improve your results with a reasonable budget.
Don't allow Google to automatically update without taking into consideration your account, goals budget, or challenges. This is not a winning strategy and instead, you should take control and only optimize after examining your competitor’s content and customers. It takes more than automation to create a great campaign.
Conclusion.
If you’re making any of these nine mistakes, it may be time to seek professional help. Though some of these common mistakes can be fixed yourself, others need extra assistance and an incredible amount of time. Consider working with a Premier Google Partner as they will have the experience and knowledge to help you avoid the common pitfalls in PPC campaign management. Need help taking the first step? Contact us for more information on how you can get started with seeing real results in your PPC campaigns.
