In PPC, as with many things in life, results reflect quality of workmanship. If your PPC campaigns are poorly designed or executed, people aren’t going to find you. And they certainly aren’t going to buy your product.
Is your PPC program delivering self-inflicted wounds instead of sales? You’re undoubtedly making some of these mistakes:
Failure to understand that keywords are, well, key.
Overly broad keywords invite non-players to the party. Long-tail keywords are much better targeted. You’ll get fewer clicks, but they’ll be higher quality and your cost-per-click will be lower. Use a combination of match types to make best use of your budget and get the best results. Try “modified broad” match.
Use keywords in your ad copy, but avoid duplication or you’ll just wind up competing with yourself. And by the way, your intuition or anecdotal information are a lot less valuable than you think. It’s all about the words other people are using, not what you’d use yourself.
Failure to provide a comfortable landing spot.
Lousy or poorly-linked landing pages are deadly, and your home page is never an option. Match each landing page to ad content using the same language and provide a clear next-step call to action to keep prospects interested and move them forward. It’s like a trail of bread crumbs — if the trail ends they’ll just get lost.
Failure to exclude.
Why pay for what you don’t want? Use negative keywords and exclude domains that routinely deliver a high bounce rate.
Jockeying for position.
You don’t have to be #1 to win. People are searching, as in researching, so they’re going to look at more than one option. You want to be seen and pique their interest. Being #3, or in most cases any position that shows up on page one, can be very productive and far more cost-effective.
Panic.
Do you rush to change everything if your PPC isn’t working? You have to change one thing at a time – keywords, ads, bidding strategy, etc. – to understand which elements are working or not. Look at all factors, not just CTR, to evaluate ad performance.
Failure to target.
Vagueness is PPC Enemy #1. If you’re “saving time” by creating just a few general campaigns, you’re wasting your efforts. You need lots of specifically-focused ads so you can identify and compare results. Test and compare them, then optimize for conversion so your top-performers will be displayed more often. If something’s not paying off, dump it now.
If you’re a local business, geotargeting is critical. Besides, people often prefer to shop local even when they have broader choices.
No call to action.
Really? Perhaps you should review your goals. Why are you advertising?
Is your advertising manager so overwhelmed they can’t carefully and continuously monitor your PPC program? This is a problem. You may be better off financially to give it up or get professional help to manage your efforts.
Is your product or service on target?
Let’s be honest.. The most magnificent PPC campaign won’t generate sales if you’re not offering what people want. Check out competitors’ ads to see what they’re saying about themselves and their products. What’s your unique selling proposition (the thing that differentiates your stuff from theirs)? The answer to that question should be the foundation of your PPC advertising.
Following the wrong map will certainly take you to the wrong place. Know your desired PPC destination. And design your campaigns and each ad within them to provide the most direct route to that goal, without expensive and delaying side trips.
Don’t have enough time to do your own paid search? Learn how Trada will help your paid search campaigns and make people actually buy your product.
