Common Pay-Per-Click Mistakes Businesses Make and How To Avoid Them

The online advertising landscape took a complete change in 2000. It was on October 23rd of that year when Google first launched its digital marketing platform, AdWords. Now known as Google Ads, this platform is a leader in online advertising. Revenue generated in 2018 by Google Ads was reported to total more than $116 billion.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as advertisers and business owners have also earned substantial revenues from Google Ads. The marketing platform is a key component in the advertising programs of businesses of all sizes. In this article, we will look at mistakes that businesses commonly make with PPC marketing and how to prevent them from happening.

Mistake #1

Not Setting Goals

Before you launch your PPC campaign, you need to have a clear, concise target in mind. Although more leads and more clicks are acceptable, you have to decide what kind of leads you are after. For example, if your business offers more than one service, a PPC campaign can help you generate leads for the services that are not as popular as the other ones you provide.

You also have to think about what keywords are the most logical ones to use to locate that service online. Plus, how many leads are you after? Each lead will cost you money, and you should have an idea of the ROI per lead based on the average cost of the service you are promoting. These details will assist in defining your PPC campaign goals.

Mistake #2

Not Tracking Progress

There is no more accurate way to determine the success of a PPC campaign than with tracking. Analytics provides all the details that show you everything you need to know about those leads you are attracting. Without tracking, you will not learn what worked or didn’t work with your campaign. Historic data like this is valuable when designing future marketing activities.

When you choose to not pay attention to the data, you will not know where your leads are coming from, what brought them to your site, how many conversions resulted, and so on. These things give you evidence that the campaign is working and provide you with information so you can make changes, if necessary, during the length of the campaign.

Mistake #3

Not Knowing The Value Of A Customer

Do you know how much a single customer is worth to your business? Here’s one way to look at this: if the lead that converted to a customer costs you $50 in a PPC campaign, that customer should spend more than $50 in your business, over the lifetime of being a customer of yours, to give you a profit. It is known as the customer lifetime value (CLTV).

Here is where tracking PPC data comes in handy. The analytics should give you information to follow that lead through conversion and learn whether or not they made a purchase. Your data will also tell you how much that purchase was, which will reveal to you the profitability of that specific lead. Customer value justifies successful PPC campaigns.

Mistake #4

Not Following Your Campaign

PPC is a form of advertising that requires close observation and ongoing changes. It is nothing like traditional advertising formats where, once the ad is produced or displayed, you just wait for results. PPC is an interactive kind of marketing tool that can bring immediate results and can be changed frequently during a single campaign.

By not monitoring your PPC efforts, you will not know whether the content is producing the desired results. Plus, if you essentially ignore the data that the campaign produces, you won’t be able to change anything to improve results. That is one of the best things about PPC marketing—that it is flexible and can be shifted to meet changing needs.

Mistake #5

Not Focusing The Campaign

Marina Turea at Digital Authority Partners says that one the biggest mistakes new PPC marketers make is trying to do too much with a single campaign.This can range from bidding on everything to including searches that are not completely relevant to your business. As we have all learned from SEO, relevance is key. The same principle should be followed with any PPC campaign.

This may result in using a very small list of strong keywords instead of a lengthy volume of keywords that are not nearly as specific. Lack of focus in your PPC campaign will also impact the marketing budget, so a targeted effort will produce better results than one that aims at anything that moves. Stick to your original goal and work from there.

Mistake #6

Operating A Sub-Standard Website

As important as it is to get the copy and keywords right in your PPC campaign, remember you are going to be sending leads to your website. If the website is clunky, hard to navigate, unattractive, slow, or anything else that hints at poor quality, many of those leads are going to disappear without a trace. As good as your PPC campaign may be, so should your website to complement it.

Mistake #7

Pulling The Pin Prematurely

PPC campaigns sometimes take time to gain traction. This is why it is important to monitor the progress of your campaign, so you can make adjustments where needed to improve results. The idea behind PPC marketing is that the process collects data, and even if there are fewer results than expected, there is information to use in building future successful campaigns.

Mistake #8

Technical Errors

This is another common mistake made by beginners. The list of potential technical errors is lengthy and can include things like not knowing what the different campaign types are or which is the best one for your project. Another might be not knowing how to set up tracking or which keywords are worth bidding on, and how much to bid. These errors can harm a PPC campaign.

Mistake #9

Going The DIY Route

It doesn’t matter if you are a quick study. Teaching yourself the ins and outs of Google Ads is not something you can just pick up and run with. There are a lot of subtle things that you only learn through experience. This is why it is always best to seek the assistance of a professional when planning a PPC campaign. It may cost you, but the results should be worth it.

Final Thoughts

As effective as PPC marketing is, there are a lot of mistakes that can occur if you don’t know what you are doing. When in doubt, turn to a PPC campaign professional to get your business or service the exposure it deserves and the leads you need to stay successful.