As there are so many parts to an AdWords campaign, it’s easy to understand how things can go wrong. It can be costly when this happens. Here are the 11most common AdWords mistakes that will cost you money if you are making them.
1. Poor Keyword Choice
If you don’t choose the right keywords, you will get clicks you don’t want, and you’ll miss clicks that could potentially turn into sales.
2. Using the Wrong Keyword Match Type
Google offers three different types of keyword match:
- Broad match
- Phrase match
- Exact match
If you’re not using professional AdWords management in Auckland with experts to give you proper advice, the best approach is to start with exact match and make adjustments from there.
3. Not Using Negative Keywords
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on searches that are not relevant to your products, services, or brand. Unless you want to waste money, they are essential.
4. Not Running Ads on Your Own Brand
Bidding for your own brand on AdWords can help your overall marketing strategy, even if you already dominate the top spot in Google. After all, why not get the top two spots rather than one. Plus, it helps combat any attempt by competitors to bid on your brand keywords.
5. Targeting the Wrong Audience
Google gives targeting options so you can narrow the audience for who sees your ads. It’s important to match this target audience to your average customer. Keeping your target audience broad in the hope you’ll pick up additional sales will probably just cost you money.
6. Writing Bad Ad Copy
Your ad copy should be free from errors, jargon, and anything that makes the ad look like spam. In addition, it should be persuasive and direct, with a clear call to action.
7. Not Using Extensions
Ad extensions make your ads bigger and they give users more information about what you offer. Ad extensions also give users tools to make it easier to find what they are looking as well as tools to make it easier for them to contact you.
Also Read: Stealing Search Space from Your Competition – 8 Tips
8. Using Non-Specific Landing Pages
The landing page of your ad should be directly related to the ad copy and the keyword. Using a generic landing page, especially your website’s homepage, will cost you conversions.
9. Poor Landing Page Experience
Your landing page needs to be engaging, interesting, and compelling. After all, getting people to click on your ad is only one stage of the process. For an AdWords campaign to be successful, you also need to maximise conversions. Achieving that greatly depends on the quality of your landing page.
10. Not Testing
Running AdWords campaigns is a process of constant optimisation. This means testing your ads in a structured way so you can properly compare and make decisions.
11. Leaving the Campaign to Run Instead of Optimising
Finally, many people who choose to run their own AdWords campaigns often set them up and then leave them to run, only checking them periodically. Often, months lapse between these checks. You’ll miss optimisation opportunities with this approach, however, so you need to check your campaigns more often. With professional AdWords management in Auckland, the agency you use will be responsible for ensuring your campaigns avoid the above mistakes. If you run your own campaigns, you’ll need to avoid them too.