10 Common Mistakes With PPC

I have to confess that pay per click is may favorite traffic medium nowadays and mistakes with PPC will happen. I found this nice article by John Lynch source that has some common mistakes new people make with PPC.

Although they common mistakes are very basic and you may think is common sense, the mistakes are made time and time again. Make sure you have a check list for this while you are creating your campaign.

10. Not Using Geographical Targeting
9. Not Using Site Exclusion
8. Failing to Recognize the Existence of Match Types
Exact Match: Triggers ads only when the exact phrase “red kite” is queried.
Phrase Match: Triggers ads that include the exact phrase “red kite” and any words or phrases that surround it such as “red kites” or “red kites miami.”
Broad Match: Displays ads for an even wider range of keywords, including variations that only loosely match such as “fly kites” (although more control can be used through broad match modifier
There is significant opportunity within each of these keyword umbrellas. For example, broad match keywords often have a lower bid price than their exact match counterparts, and can be relatively controlled with an abundance of negative keywords. Additionally, you can find opportunity in the long-tail with specific high bids dedicated to longer tail keywords with less search volume.

 

7. Not Utilizing Negative Keywords

 

6. Not Separating Search/Display Campaigns

 

5. Being an Adwords-only Organization

 

4. Selecting keywords that are too broad

 

3. No Ad Testing

 

2. Sending Users to the Homepage

 

1. Not Conversion Tracking

 

I believe the mistake most people overlook is not using negative keywords. If you are not filtering negative keywords, you are wasting a lot of money. For example, if you are selling your own product, you do not want to appear when someone types F R E E  along with you keyword. You want buyers so someone that is typing that keyword most likely is not going to spend any money…

When you are starting out with PPC try to go for exact match even thought it may be more expensive. the reason why is because the people typing that exact keyword is looking for that relevant term. MEGA TIP: pick 2-3 high volume Keywords and build three landing pages one for each Keyword and optimize for a great quality score. Use the data gathered to optimize your pages and message. If you are not converting (conversion can be a sign up,sales, or desire action), your ad to landing page is having a disconnection - your message is not resonating with your market.

Lastly, if you are getting a lot of clicks from a site but they are not converting, exclude the site to appear on your campaign. In other words, you are getting traffic from a web page that may not be the ideal customer – you are just getting clickers…

As you can see PPC is not that simple there are a lot of variables to take into account. However if you pay attention to common mistakes with PPC you can turn into a positive return of investment.