But a poorly managed ad campaign simply wastes your hard earned profits and lowers your conversion potential.
Here are 10 mistakes you're making on Google Adwords.
1. Not Telling your USP;
You don't have a lot of words - 70 characters to be exact - to craft your irresistible message or sell your unique opportunity, product, or anything else you're advertising. You've got to use your ad space to convincingly get customers to click on your ad.
Why would they click you over the other Google Ad choices? Why would a customer click your ad over the organic search results?
Be succinct about your business or campaign's unique selling point. Are you offering free shipping? Are you holding an amazing, limited time offer sale? Why is your product better than your competitors?
Here are a few USP examples with the keyword "shoes":
Shoeme.ca offers "100 Day Free Returns"
Shoedazzle offers "50% Off Your First Order"
JustFab offers free shipping, and one price for all pairs
2. Not Setting Up A Budget;
Before setting up your advertising campaign, determine how much of a budget you're allocating to Adwords. Then, stick to it.
Be careful, as it's easy to overspend - particularly when you get into multiple targeting campaigns and multivariate testing.
Do the math based on the duration of your campaign, and calculate your daily ad spend. Your daily costs will vary, as the per day spend is based on a daily average per month.
I've seen a lot of small businesses with a laissez-faire attitude towards limiting their online ad spend. And it makes me cringe! They don't understand the rationale for planning out costs in conjunction with other ad spends and promotional activities, or they simply get confused about the cost-per-keyword and the Google bidding process.
Don't be one of them.
It doesn't matter if you're a one person business with limited resources for ad strategies or if you're a sophisticated marketer for a large company, be sure you know your Adwords budget and stick to it.
If you don't have a budget - well, chances are you're not going to be in business long!
3. No Campaign End Date;
Ok, even if you're a newbie to Google Adwords, you really should know this one. Always plan your campaign start and end date.
Advertising costs money. (See above)
Determine your ad campaign objectives:
Are you marketing a sales promotion?
Do you need conversions for an event?
Are you boosting sales for the month?
Create a start end date for each of your ads based on your campaign objectives.
Back in the day it wasn't so clear. And a lot of businesses threw away a lot of money on this mistake! Now Google, and most good Google Adword providers, make it clear for you to set your campaign end date.
Don't throw your profits away - set the date!
Even if your advertising objectives aren't for a specific time-based event, always have an end date. (Your objectives should be SMART anyway - remember those from your marketing 101 classes? Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-based).
Without an end date, your campaign will keep running, and running and running - and so will your credit card bill.
4. Overcomplicating Your Ad;
Keep it simple.
To increase your conversions, make your ad clear, and uncomplicated. Your potential customer judges your ad copy in about a half second. Make it easy to understand, and you'll get their attention for a second or two longer.
Here's a few simple, straightforward examples of ad copy. Customers can clearly understand the deals being offered by the two companies for the keyword "watches":
Don't make Google Ads that include all of your products. Keep it simple and targeted to increase conversions for each of your ad group campaigns.
Keep your Display URL simple - even if the landing page you direct to has a long name.
5. Not Including A Keyword In Your Ad Copy;
Always include one of your main keywords in your ad copy or header. Google ranks ads based on search matches. The more your ad matches the keyword search, the higher Google will rank your ad.
So, if your keyword is highly competitive, such as "watches", and you don't use the word "watch" in your ad copy or header, your ad is likely not going to be one of the top displayed.
Check out how many times these top three ads use the word "watches".
You need to careful though. Google doesn't take kindly to overstuffing keywords in your copy either.
6. Too Many Keywords;
The more targeted your campaign, the higher your conversions will be. The optimal number of keywords you want is anywhere from five to twenty.
More than 20 keywords will make your ads expensive - and not very targeted. This is true regardless if your campaign is Broad match, Phrase match or Exact match.
Before you start making your Adwords campaign, think about what you are offering, what your objectives are, and who your customers are.
Then list out the keyword phrases you think your customers will use when searching for your stuff.
Google gives you automated keyword suggestions, based on your advertising text.
If your objectives are more varied than a 20 keyword search. Stop right now. Re-focus and narrow down the accomplishments you want from your ad. Hey, you can always run multiple ads, too - each one targeting specific searches.
Tip: If you're stuck for keyword ideas, use the Keyword Planner. And for intermediate Adword types, be sure to use negative keywords to keep your CPC rate down, increase your click through rate (CTR), and get the ROI you deserve.
7. Not Split Testing;
Don't sit back and think just because you've got an ad that all is well. The beauty about Google Adwords is that you get tons of real-time super accurate tracking analytics for your paid marketing.
You have the opportunity to get the best conversion rates for your dollar spend. Use it!
A/B test (or, if you're more advanced, multivariate test) your:
Headline
Descriptions
CTA
Visuals
URL link
Campaign landing page
etc.
To A/B test, for example, set up an Ad Group:
Make two ads, with one as the control ad (A) and one with a different Headline and copy (B).
Run the two ads for a few days to test which one performs better. Then use the better performing ad for the duration of your campaign period (or test it again). Pause or delete the poor performing ad.
Note: Google can automate your A/B testing, to run your best converting ones.
8. Misleading Ads;
Probably one of the worst things you can do is to make inconsistent, or worse, misleading advertising.
If you are going through all the right steps to make your online dollars bring you the highest conversion rates, don't screw it up by linking to an unrelated landing page!
Be sure your ad copy is consistent with your landing page. If it's way off, your potential customer's not going to trust you, and the money you're spending on ads is - well - a complete waste of your money.
If you are advertising a specific product in a particular color, and you've used the right keywords to be found by your customers looking for that narrowed down item…. link your ad to that particular product landing page. It will result in higher conversions with customers ready to buy.
9. No Clear CTA;
Your Call-to-Action is super important in your PPC ad. Be clear about what you are offering, and the action your potential customer needs to take to get it.
You can write different CTAs for different campaigns you run - but you really only have that one chance to tell your reader exactly what action you want them to take, and what to do once they've clicked through to your landing page.
Make your intentions clear, and you'll increase your conversion rate - whatever your campaign objective might be.
If your goal is to get the sale, for example, use short action words like "buy", "shop" and "shop now" as in this example:
10. Thinking One Size Fits All;
If you haven't gotten this from my "how not to" tips yet - please reread the previous nine points!
Google Adwords is not about "spray and pray marketing".
Adwords gives you incredibly highly targeted ad options. Don't run one generic ad, linking to your homepage, and shoot it out to tons of keyword searches. You're not going to get great returns on your monetary investment.
Even if your online ad budget is limited, you need to send out targeted campaigns to get seen - and clicked on - by the market who is looking for your product or services right now.
Set up multiple ads, or ad groups, even if your budget is only $60/day, and you run 3 different ads.
Test your ads, too. Determine which ad is reaching the right customer. Then tweak your ads to get more of them!
Check out how Berry's Bait uses different ads for different keyword searches:
This ad is from the search "salmon fishing gear". They include the word 'salmon' in their ad Headline, to connect immediately with their consumer who wants this particular product right now (they're searching for it right now):
This ad is from the search "fishing gear":
Conclusion;
Google Adwords can be a bit daunting to the beginner. Don't stress. Use these tips on how not to do Adwords, and apply them - one at a time.
What do you think? Have you run Google Adword campaigns? Were they a success? Share your conversion tips!
Written by Krista Bunskoek @ Wishpond.
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