Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is known for a lot of good things: it has the potential to deliver fast results, it’s highly customizable, measurable and cost-effective. However, due to the increasing complexity of PPC Campaign setup and management there are many ways that campaigns can fail over time.
Seeing your PPC advertising funds flushed down the drain with limited return in your investment could discourage just about anyone. The sooner you realize that PPC does not end with being willing to pay to play, and that it requires a well-thought out strategy, the sooner you’ll get your money’s worth and the sooner you will achieve your advertising goals.
If you’re one of the many people who has sworn off of PPC because of previous failed attempts, we’re here to shed some light on how you can prevent common mistakes.
1. Bidding too low
When it comes to setting up a PPC campaign, the natural instinct for some is to start small so that in case it all blows over, you wouldn’t lose a lot of cash. Starting with a smaller marketing budget may seem reasonable when you think you are heading to an uncharted territory.
But that is not the case in PPC because initially, you need to increase your budget to be able to target various keywords and for you to acquire more clicks. Now with this tangible data, you can now try to understand what ads drive the best conversions, and you can then slowly decrease the number of keywords you’re bidding on and start spending more money on the most productive and profitable ones.
2. Not Using The Right Keyword Match Type
When researching and curating your keywords for PPC, keep in mind that there are three different keyword match types that have major impacts on performance.
- Broad Match: Keywords or phrases that are somewhat related to your keyword.
- Exact Match: The exact keyword or phrase.
- Phrase Match: Close variations of the searched phrase.
The match types you use depend on the intent of your campaign. For example, if you’re looking to reach a broad audience for brand awareness you may want to use Broad Match keywords. You may also use Broad Match keywords to gather data about your ad performance when you’re first starting a campaign.
The Exact Match type gives you the most control and is beneficial for niche products and services. These keywords may reduce the number of search results that your brand shows up in and may not be right for every campaign.
Phrase Match provides some of the flexibility as Broad Match does while giving some degree of control. These keywords can be used when the order of the words in the search term highlight a difference in the search/user’s intention. You might also use Phrase Match with keywords targeting brand names.
Doing extensive keyword research and market analysis, as well as using the appropriate keyword research tools will ensure your paid campaigns are always well-targeted and relevant to the targeted audience. Knowing your business, industry, competitors and target audience will give you your edge.
3. Ineffective Ad Copy
Your ad copy should strive to attract attention, drive interest, desire, and action. Unless you demonstrate clear value in your copy, your PPC ad is going to get lost in the sea of organic and paid results all vying for similar attention. Focus on useful and benefit-oriented messaging, and make sure that everything is cohesive from your ad copy to your landing page because you wouldn’t want to disappoint or mislead your visitors once you have already captured them with your ad copy.
4. You Set It and Forget It
Always remember that the work does not end after your PPC campaign goes live. You need to dedicate time to optimizing keywords, ad copy, your audience and your bids if you want to achieve the best results. Always check your ad performance and how visitors are interacting with your site once they click through. Analyzing this information will help you realize what you can do to get better click-through rates, potentially lower your cost per click and improve the user experience of your website visitors.
5. Lack of Integration of PPC with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
We are huge believers that digital marketing success cannot be achieved with just one ray in the whole spectrum of available strategies. Depending on your situation, combining PPC with SEO could enhance your exposure in search results to drive more clicks, visitors, and conversions.
What are some of the challenges you’ve run into with PPC marketing that did not make the list? Feel free to reach out to us so you can get PPC advice straight from our Google-certified advertising specialists.
You can also learn more about our PPC advertising services here: http://catchcommunications.ca/advertising
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