When it comes to building pay-per-click, or PPC campaigns, Google Ads is the preferred choice for most businesses. However, as powerful and thorough a tool as Google Ads is, making common mistakes can lead to wasted budgets and poor ad performance. If you want to maximize the return on your investment into your PPC campaign, here are a few common mistakes you should avoid when setting up and managing your campaign.
Not Researching Keywords
Choosing keywords without doing proper research is a fast way to drain your budget without providing any actual results. Many businesses either target overly broad terms that attract unqualified traffic, or they use overly specific keywords that bring in very little search volume. You should thoroughly research keywords with Google’s Keyword Planner first to find keywords that balance relevance, intent, traffic, and cost.
Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are phrases that you don’t want your ad to show up for. For example, if you sell very high-end, custom-made jewelry, you probably don’t want your products showing up for people searching for “cheap jewelry” or “affordable necklaces.” These individuals usually aren’t searching for top-of-the-line products, and if that’s what you’re offering, you don’t want to drive unqualified traffic to you and waste ad spend. Be sure to include negative keywords, and update them regularly to prevent your ads from showing in irrelevant searches.
Poor Ad Copy
A good campaign needs to be supported by good copy—both in the ad itself and in the associated landing page. It should be clear, compelling, and action-oriented; weak or vague ad messaging fails to attract clicks, and misleading ads can result in high “bounce” rates (when someone clicks your ad, but then quickly leaves the landing page).
Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions offer extra information for searchers and can improve your click-through rates. Many businesses, however, fail to use extensions like the site link, callout, or structure snippet options. This causes you to miss out on valuable real estate on the search engine result pages. Activating these extensions will make your ads more engaging and informative, so you’re more likely to get those clicks and conversions.
Winging It Alone
The truth is, as user-friendly as Google Ads is, building a PPC campaign is not something you should go into blindly on your own. It takes a skill and experienced Google Ads agency to build an effective campaign. So, instead of making mistakes and taking years to build an effective PPC campaign, work with a Google Ad company in Kansas City to start driving traffic to your site more quickly.
