You’re just wasting your time and money if you are not doing it right
Google Adwords is one of the most pocket friendly ad platforms that can bring most relevant traffic to your website. Although PPC advertising promises great returns, there are some mistakes that advertisers make while managing their campaigns, which can cost a lot.
This means novices will need to watch out for the following potential blunders to avoid wasting time and money on Google’s ad platform:
Also read: It’s only words … yet avoid these Google AdWords mistakes at all cost
1. Not doing your research
The most important step for any inexperienced Adwords advertiser is to do a bit of a research. The internet is very huge, and it is important to show your ads to the right audiences. Since you are paying for your ad, it is wise to research a bit to gain additional insights. Research can be done by reading successful case studies, tips on industry blogs like PPC Hero, Google Adwords blog or talking to others who have advertised on AdWords.
2. Not using the correct keyword combination
Keywords are the heart and soul of a Google AdWords campaign. Thus it is beneficial to correctly judge your keywords before putting them into the campaign. The keywords should be such that they bring conversions and not just clicks. It is important to ensure that you understand your campaign type whether product or content to manage the set of keywords.
You can use Google keyword planner available in Google AdWords interface to start with your research work. Locate Tools in header menu bar and click on Keyword Planner.
See below screenshot:
Break your keywords into small sets and use the right combination (broad match, phrase match, or exact match) to optimize your campaign. But of course, this strategy would depend on what you want, traffic, impressions or conversion.You can also try using negative keywords, the keywords that you ‘do not’ want to respond to so as to save a lot of costs.
3. Not testing your copy
Although an ad copy is just about few characters, it is the most compelling reason to click your advertisement. An ideal ad copy consists of a headline, your keywords and a persuasive call to action. It is wise to test your copy by trying two or three variants to find out what works best. You need to find out what actually will get you conversions thus it is wise idea to test different variations of everything.
You should finally choose a copy that gets you the highest click-through or conversion rate, or the lowest cost per acquisition. It is thus extremely sensible to trust numbers before making a final choice of copy.
Best way is to create multiple ad copy in single adgroup and keep reviewing the result every couple of days. After evaluating the ad performance report, you can comeup with the best and most profitable ad copies for your campaign.
4. Not knowing your customers’ Life Time Value
Calculating the LTV for your customers is an integral part of your research to understand how much you can spend on AdWords per acquisition. By calculating this value, you can decide how much to spend on your campaign. The Life time value should not be lower than the cost per customer for your campaign especially for an e-commerce business. If your customer stays with you longer that eventually the initial cost may be sensible.
Image source: Kissmetrics
5. Not understanding the AdWords set-up options
Although the basic campaign set-up is easy, there are many macro level settings you can do with your campaign. It is up to you to educate yourself about the use of those features so as to get more results for the same money. Some of the helpful options are AdGroups, Ad targeting, Match types, Keyword insertion, Bidding strategy and Ad Extensions.
Also read: The definitive 3-step guide to early-stage customer acquisition
6. Not using Google Analytics
One of the most powerful marketing tools, Google Analytics is there for you at free of cost. Connecting your AdWords account with the Google Analytics can help you see all kinds of data that your campaign is generating. You can import the conversion tracking, remarketing list, and many more insights that will help you to optimise your Adwords account for better performance. Here is the way to connect you AdWords account with analytics:
- Go to admin (gear bar) in your analytics account
- Select account => Select Property
- Now click on Adwords Linking
- Follow steps and its done
7. Not directing traffic to the right page
The unique landing pages help the searcher connect easily with the information they seek, and this is much convenient for them rather than landing on your homepage where they have to struggle with finding what they came to your site for. For an e-commerce site, it is a good idea to send people directly to the product page, bypassing the homepage and the category pages.
8. Not testing the optimal ad position for branding
Positioning is important if your goal is to improve branding. It is obvious that the first few search results get more clicks, and if getting clicks is your goal then do ensure you are on the top of the page. However, if your goal is conversion then your ad content will work for you.
Also read: If your website isn’t converting, take action
9. Not knowing your competitors
When you know who are you competing against and what ads are they using, you are well equipped to build a strategy for yourself. It is important to know your competitors keywords and their landing pages to modify yours. There are various tools available for competitor analysis and my all time favourites are:
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Spyfu
10. Trusting AdWords too much:
Google AdWords is no magic spell that will instantly get you business and it needs its own investments. Thus if you have a limited budget for advertising you should spend your budget by considering the most profitable medium. You should also check other paid marketing platforms like Facebook paid ads, Bing, Insta ads, LinkediIn ads depending upon where your target audiences can be found!
Conclusion
If you think you AdWords is easy tool and can be used just by following default guide, you are wrong. It offers various facilities to optimise the campaign, and if used in right manner, you can save lot of money out of it. Avoiding the above mistakes will help you to optimise your campaigns and avoid the common pitfalls most people get stuck in with AdWords.
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