The Terrible 10 of Pay Per Click Advertising

Written by Josh Prizer

Saturday, 05 July 2008 16:18

Mistakes in pay per click advertising are common and often very costly. Doing it right requires some vigilance and micromanaging. Here are 10 of the top mistakes people make in their PPC campaigns.

Big, Bulky and Broad Ad Groups for Your Keywords

If you put all your keywords into just a few big and broad ad groups, it's time to restructure your account. You are missing out on important flexibility that pay per click advertising allows. Tighter ad groups allows you more focussed, relevant ads.

Not Taking Advantage of Negative Keywords

Pay per click advertising has placed more importance than ever on click through rates and quality scores. It is vital to fine tune your impressions by getting rid of the non-relevant phrases that are lowering those CTRs. If you are selling an item such as "software for widgets" then be certain you also have those negative keywords like "-free" if you don't have a free trial version. One way to find irrelevant keywords that are costing you is to check your log files of your site.

Not Enough Testing

Running split tests on your ads is essential. And, no item is too small to test. Of course, you will want to work on your various call to action statements, as well as your unique value statement, but keep in mind that there are other variables. There are small, but effective tweaks that can boost results by just testing titles, each line of copy and your display url. If running continual tests is time consuming, hook up with an experience pay per click management company. A good firm can offer you daily split testing and optimize your results very effectively.

Not Tracking Results

It's not enough to know that you spend $6,000 dollars a month and get back $12,000 in profit. Your bottom-line numbers need to be precise. The PPC engines will give your click through rates, but you need to know your ROI or costs per action in detail. Tracking results can help you to spend only $5,000 a month to get you that same $12,000 in profit.

Not Tracking Results to the Keyword Level

Proper and exact analytics or using an experienced pay per click management company is essential to get the data you need. If you have keywords that are not performing and leaking your account on a daily basis, you are throwing money away. Getting results to the keyword level allows you to adjust bids for maximum effect. If you have one keyword with a $1.34 earnings per click and another at 37 cents, this is key information that allows you to maximize profits. Lower one bid if you are above your "EPC" and raise another to eek out more profits from that sweet-spot keyword. Don't waste money on a daily basis.

Too Generic of Keywords

Some broad and generic keywords can certainly push a ton of traffic to your site. They may even be very successful. Often, however, they can also do just the opposite -- drain your funds with poor results. A user searching on one of these generic phrases is often doing research in an early part of the buying process. Knowing your keyword-level results and filtering out bad variations with negative keywords can help you get a true read on these generic keywords.

Ignoring the Many Long-Tail Keywords

To follow up on the generic keyword topic, creating your long-tail keyword lists and the relevant accompanying ads may be a major time-consuming process. Do it right and you can also find it to be very profitable. The nature of keywords is that they vary from phrase to phrase. A keyword like "cell phone" can differ in results from a keyword such as "motorola cell phone", which in turn can vastly differ from a more long-tail keyword like "motorola w375 unlocked cell phone." One user is likely still doing research, while the user in the last example knows what they want ... and may be ready to make that purchase.

Not Pulling Apart Content and Search Campaigns

An easy way to get scorched on poor performing traffic or even click fraud is to not separate your search network ads from your content network ads. Chances are that if you don't know what the difference is, then they are likely not separated in your account -- and bad keywords are leaking your funds daily. You are better off to build different campaigns for your keywords on the content and search networks.

Failing to Geo-Target if You're Local

If you draw most of your business from a local area, the big three PPC engines allow you to geo-target your keywords to that area. This will bring the local market to your doorstep on non-local keyword phrases. This can be hugely profitable.

Not Continually Monitoring Your Campaigns

Okay, so you don't do daily split testing even though you should. Maybe you don't continually monitor your earnings per click at the keyword level, even though you should. Still, a lot of PPC advertisers don't even frequently check into their accounts. Google, Yahoo and MSN are increasingly slapping keywords with the "Inactive for Search" status to get you to improve your quality. They may be slowly picking off your keywords -- and your profits -- one by one and you aren't even aware of it.

Healthy, efficient and vibrant PPC campaigns require work. The Terrible 10 of PPC Advertising that we listed above form a strong foundation for you consider when revamping or starting up your PPC advertising. Whether you hire out to a pay per click management company or can actively manage your PPC accounts at this level of detail...precision, effort and attention to detail can greatly impact your results.

About the Author:

Josh Prizer is a Senior Account Executive and PPC advertising expert for Zero Company Performance Marketing, a pay per click management company. Visit us today to learn more on how you can optimize your PPC ad campaigns and results.

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