7 Common PPC Mistakes Web Marketers Make

If you are an online marketer, you might have heard about PPC marketing. Also known as Pay Per Click marketing, PPC is a great way for businesses to ensure that their brands achieve higher rankings on popular search engines like Google.

The online marketing technique allows you to rank on these search engines organically. In order to make the most of a PPC campaign, marketers must know how websites are put together. However, this is often easier said than done. As a result, most people tend to make mistakes; mistakes that eventually compromise the integrity of their Google Adwords or PPC campaigns. Here is a rundown of some of the most common mistakes in PPC and how you can curb them :

Mistake 1 – Irregular Logins

An occasional login a week isn’t going to make your account take off. Remember, your account isn’t going to manage itself. This doesn’t at all mean that you let Adwords take over every second of your life. Designate a few days of the week to work on your account for thirty minutes.

Mistake 2 – Using Landing Pages too Broadly

If a visitor clicks on a page for a specific product, directing him to your home or landing page might not be a good idea. Think about it; wouldn’t you be irked if you clicked on a link that promises to send you to a page where you can purchase it only to be directed to a landing page instead?

Remember, if you send all of your clicks to the homepage, your bounce rate might increase. How do you prevent something like that from happening? This is where a little bit of dedication pays off. Visitors do not want to search an entire website to find what they want. However they are more likely to convert if your links are designed to bring visitors to a specific landing page.

Mistake 3 – Your Landing Pages and Links do not Match

You may be tempted to attract leads through false information. This mistake can cost you more leads than you think. For one, it is unethical. Secondly, it will make visitors question your honesty. Google is bound to notice as well and will give you a bad score on your keywords if it catches you in the act. As a result, the search engine will not display your ads as much.

Mistake 4 – Ignoring Mobile Traffic

Your business venture is on a one way trip to failure if your marketing efforts are not optimized for mobile users. According to a post on Smart Insights, it seems that we are now past the mobile Tipping Point. Needless to say, in an age where more people prefer to interact on the go, businesses must take mobile traffic into account in order to stay competitive.

Pay Per Click marketers have a lot to gain in this regard. Unfortunately, most of them either fail to do so or do not know how to capitalize on mobile traffic. The results are disastrous to say the least, especially if you take the following aspects into consideration –

• Most businesses consider mobile traffic as a more valuable asset compared to traffic that comes from other sources like desktop. Since mobile clicks can get you a higher conversion rate it has a lower cost per click.
• As mentioned, mobile users have a tendency to convert faster as compared to desktop users. Let’s just say that catering to users who prefer to order on the go has its perks. Remember, these users want to be served and NOW. Your Pay Per Click campaign is bound to show results if you optimize features such as call to action, extensions and messaging to cater to these users.

Mistake 5 – Poor Ads

Google uses Ad Rank in order to determine how to rank your pages on its search result. Basically, the algorithm is a multiple of your CPC (Cost Per Click) bid and quality score.

Needless to say, the better your Ad Rank is, the higher will your page appear on these results. Similarly, if your pages rank low through this algorithm, they will appear lower in the results page and hence lose traffic.

Remember, the better your Ad Rank is, the less you pay. And you can’t hope for that if your ads are poorly created. There are a number of factors that determine your quality score. Amongst the most relevant are the CTR or Click Through Rate of your ads and their relevancy.

Mistake 6 – Irrelevant Ads

This is a rookie mistake and one that most PPC marketers still make. Your Pay Per Click campaign is useless if your advertisements offer to little to no value to your customers or target audience. Make sure that your ads and keywords complement your landing page.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Would you stay on a page that has information that you do not need? Chances are you won’t. Unfortunately, a lot of PPC campaigners continue to group keywords that visitors do not generally work with. The worst part is that they group these keywords into single Ad Groups. Chaos ensues and they are left wondering why their online marketing efforts don’t work as efficiently as the competition’s.

Mistake 7 – Less Testing

How do you know if your PPC campaign is working as it should if you do not test it on a regular basis? When it comes to online marketing, being lazy about the process may come back to bite you. Pay Per Click advertising is no different. A lot of marketers fail to test or update their ads. And nothing puts off customers faster than stale news. Everything from your URLs to descriptions and call to action must be updated on a regular basis especially if you hope to improve your CTR.

These mistakes make the difference between PPC marketing campaigns that perform and those that fail before they even have the chance to take off the ground. If you are guilty of making any of them, consider this guide as a checklist and fix them.

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