Common mistakes in PPC campaigns

PPC (pay per click) is often a central part to many businesses’ digital marketing strategy. However, with so many moving pieces (keywords, audience targeting, bidding, ads, landing pages, etc.), even experienced advertisers sometimes struggle with keeping their PPC accounts in check. 

Here are some common mistakes to avoid in PPC campaigns to help you spend less money to get better results.

1. Having a bad/slow website or landing page

Before starting a PPC campaign, always make sure you have a professional, fast-loading website that clearly describes your product/service offerings. In addition to that, nowadays having a mobile-friendly site is becoming more and more of a necessity. Specific landing pages should be consistent with what your ad is selling, as creating false expectations (e.g. advertising for red shoes and then taking viewers to a landing page for black sandals) will likely lead to wasted paid clicks and no results.

2. Higher bids ≠ better results

Many new advertisers start running ads by setting their bids too high in hopes of outbidding competitors. In other cases, when their ads are not performing (not on first page, low clickthrough rates, etc.), many advertisers jump straight to the conclusion of increasing bids, rather than trying to adjust keyword and other audience targeting settings. As a result, they end up spending more money without improving performance. Remember, there are many factors that affect PPC performance, and bidding is just one of them.

3. Overly broad/ irrelevant keywords

The best way to make sure you’re getting the most out of your PPC ads is by choosing your keywords carefully. If your ads are filled with overly broad keywords that have little to no relevance to your business, a lot of money will be wasted on ads and clicks that have no chance of converting. Don’t forget to create a list of negative keywords too.

4. Not having clearly defined goals for each ad campaign

Keep your ad campaign goals simple, and don’t try to do too much with any single ad campaign. The goal of every business and their advertising efforts is of course to turn a profit. However, if you are selling products or services worth thousands of dollars, you can’t expect all prospective customers to convert within a single session after seeing 1 ad. Set clear goals and expectations for each ad campaign (e.g. awareness, consideration, conversion, cost per action, etc.) so that combined together, you can reach customers at different points of their buying journey.

PPC advertising is a great way to bring in new leads, but it takes a lot of work and experience to run profitable campaigns. Our team at Agora can build a comprehensive PPC marketing plan to help drive targeted traffic and growth to your business. Let’s talk.