Pay-per-click (PPC) is one tactic that many marketers adopt to get in front of their target market, surpass their competitors and, of course, secure that top spot in search.
While that sounds great in theory, PPC is often executed incorrectly and has the potential to cost marketers with little return when there’s no strategy in place. Today, we’re giving you a rundown of three common mistakes marketers make with PPC ads, and how you can prevent them. Have you ever made these mistakes in your own marketing?
Running a successful PPC campaign depends on creating effective ad groups. Ad groups place your ads into designated sets so you can bid on keywords for them together. However, many marketers fail to differentiate between groups, costing them a lot more than simple organization in the long run.
Let’s say you have one campaign running where you need to reach doctors, and another where you need to reach patients. These ads need to be tied to different keywords, and lead to different landing pages. The copywriters on your team need to be able to clearly align the messaging on each landing page with the ad group it corresponds to. Your targeting for these ad sets should also be different. Mixing and matching ads that ought to be directed to different audiences will weaken your campaign and give you a lower ROI.
When you put your PPC campaign into place, you will need to identify the appropriate keyword match types. With few very different options to choose from, many marketers fail to select the options most appropriate to their campaigns, costing them valuable dollars.
There are four match types: broad match, modified broad match, phrase match and exact match. These account for how your ads show up to the public. While Google’s default match type is broad (which shows your ad to users who might search for any word in your phrase), this isn’t always the best option. For instance, if your keyword is “smart grid technology” and you use a broad match type, anyone who searched “smart watch” would be eligible to see your ad. If you use an exact match keyword type instead, your ad will only be shown to people who search the exact phrase “smart grid technology.” To guarantee you make it in front of the correct audience, try experimenting with various match types and tracking your progress.
Some campaigns find early success and then come to a significant drop off. Others seem to be based on solid data but show trouble early on. While it’s true many campaigns run out of steam eventually, you can take action to better your campaigns. It’s critical to optimize your campaigns regularly in order to garner top results.
A best practice to ensure your campaigns are running efficiently is to check in daily and reallocate ad spend based on performance. Sometimes, ads simply don’t resonate with your audience, or they target such a specific audience that they begin to get lower responses over time. Unusual circumstances — like a keyword developing another meaning you had not planned on — can also skew results, preventing your ads from reaching the audience you want. For these reasons, regularly checking in on your campaigns is essential to guarantee your PPC campaign’s success.
Are you looking to develop a strong PPC campaign, but don’t know where to start? We can help. Contact us today.
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