There is a lot to know about digital marketing, and that’s why it can be helpful to have experts on hand to help you along the way. In this blog, we’re letting you know some common PPC mistakes and how to fix them.
What is PPC?
Some of you might be thinking, what is PPC? PPC is a form of advertising commonly called ‘PPC advertising’. ‘PPC’ stands for ‘pay per click’, which means advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked.
Pay-per-click advertising aims to target those who are more interested in the product or service you’re advertising and are, therefore, more likely to make a purchase. This means you’ll make your money back from paying the fee when the sale is completed. In addition, search ads can be used to drive users to carefully crafted landing pages that encourage sales.
PPC advertising works by businesses bidding on relevant keywords that users are searching for. If your bid is successful, your website will appear higher in the search results with ‘AD’ displayed beside it. This gives users more transparency and informs them that the listing has been paid for.
How does PPC help businesses?
PPC advertising can be extremely beneficial for businesses. Generally, PPC ads are a faster way to get your business seen by potential clients. In contrast, SEO is a long-term strategy that can help you to rank higher in organic search results over time.
Putting in a great bid on a keyword that is totally relevant to your business’s offerings could help you to appear before your competitors too. It is a well-known fact that the top search results are more likely to be visited than those further down. With a combination of SEO and PPC, you can improve your ranking position and definitely be seen by more potential customers.
Common mistakes with PPC campaigns and how to fix them
PPC advertising can only be successful if it is executed correctly. This means that you need to assess all elements and closely monitor key metrics of the PPC campaign.
Without careful planning and a solid strategy, you could end up spending a lot of money on PPC ads without getting any return on investment. We offer PPC advertising to businesses of all sizes and can help you to achieve fantastic results for your business.
Failing to choose the correct keyword types
You have to consider the keywords you are choosing for your advertising carefully. It’s easy to think that the best keyword is the one that is being used the most, but is that the most relevant option for your business? You’ll need to conduct research into search volume when running ads.
There are four types of keywords to choose from, including a broad match, broad match modified, phrase match and exact match. These options will all cause variations in when your ad appears on the results pages.
Broad-match keywords can lead to your PPC ad being seen by more people as they appear for broader searches. Some keyword types allow for more control and varying levels of reach. You may experience a higher conversion rate with some keyword types.
There are benefits to all keyword types, and it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve through PPC advertising. You need to ensure that you aren’t targeting too many keywords, which is another common mistake.
Not using keywords in ad copy
For a PPC campaign to be successful, you have to be consistent. You’ll need to ensure that you utilise the relevant keywords throughout the advertising copy and landing page to keep users engaged and show them that you can provide them with what they’re looking for.
You may find that there are variations in the keywords you’re targeting, in which case it might be useful to run multiple PPC ad groups simultaneously for maximum brand exposure.
You’ll also need to ensure that the copy used within your ad campaign is actually targeting your specific audience. You know your target audience, and you should know the best ways to reach them, too. Creating compelling ad copy is a great place to start.
Not assessing devices
In some cases, you may choose to pay more or less for your ad depending on which device it is viewed on. This is because many people still prefer to complete transactions on desktops after researching on mobile devices. In PPC advertising, these are referred to as ‘bid modifiers’ – it’s important to monitor these to ensure that you are paying a reasonable amount per click.
Not creating negative keyword lists
Creating a list of negative keywords can help you to maintain control over your ad campaign and stops it from appearing for keywords that you don’t believe are relevant. You can easily set a list of negative keywords with Google Ads so that you aren’t wasting money on phrases you don’t want the ad copy to appear for.
Not considering your own brand
It may come as a surprise that by searching for a brand name, it may not automatically appear at the top of the results page. Other businesses could actually have bid on your brand name to appear higher on the search engine results page. This can be extremely frustrating as users are already favouring your brand by searching for your business name. Surprisingly, this can be one of the most common PPC mistakes.
To counter this, consider bidding on keywords relevant to your brand name. A successful bid could allow your business website to rank higher than your competitors.
Not tracking your ads
Not tracking your marketing efforts can lead to wasted money and few conversions. You can use Google Analytics for Google Ads tracking to identify what’s working and what isn’t with your current campaign structure.
PPC advertising is a great idea for those wanting to increase brand awareness. Additionally, it provides faster results than some other digital marketing solutions. Our PPC experts will consider your goals, keywords and ad spend to create a successful PPC campaign.
PPC works well alongside SEO, but when spending money and time on any digital marketing services, you need to ensure that your website provides a great experience too. There’s no point driving users to a website that looks outdated or doesn’t work efficiently, as they will likely leave shortly after arriving. An appealing website will encourage visitors to stay and make a purchase on-site. Our expert web developers create unique, responsive websites with a great user experience.
We hope this article on common PPC mistakes and how to fix them has been useful. Contact us to find out how we can help you reach your digital marketing goals through our range of services.