5 of the Most Common Mistakes in PPC Campaigns

PPC is a tactic that’s used in search engine marketing or social media advertising to put ads in front of people based on keywords and other forms of targeting. You can either “pay per click” or “pay per impression,” which helps you to drive brand awareness and traffic to your website. Some of the top platforms for PPC advertising include:

•         Google AdWords
•         Bing Ads
•         Yahoo Ads
•         Facebook
•         Twitter
•         LinkedIn
•         Instagram

Because of the scope of knowledge that is needed to use each of these platforms, PPC advertising can be complicated. This leaves a great deal of room for error, which can result in a wasted budget without getting any customers. Here are five of the most common mistakes in PPC advertising and how you can avoid making them.

#1: Not Using a Landing Page

PPC ads can send a great deal of traffic to your website, which may be helpful in growing your brand. And if you target them right, you’ll get the kind of people you’re looking for. So, don’t make the mistake of sending them to your home page. Set up a landing page that’s specific to the target segment and product that you’re selling, so you can give new visitors the information they’re looking for.

#2: Not Testing Your Campaigns

You don’t want to make the mistake of writing one version of copy and running your PPC campaigns without testing them first. Your first attempt isn’t likely to be the best one, which is why you should run multiple ad versions for every campaign you run. If you’re running PPC ads on Facebook’s Ad Platform, make sure you’re testing images as well.

#3: Not Tracking the Right Metrics

If you’re not careful, you can spend a lot of money on PPC campaigns without knowing which ones are working. Here are some of the key metrics that you should be keeping an eye on:

•         Click-through rate
•         Conversion rate
•         Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
•         Cost-per-click (CPC)

If you’re running PPC campaigns on Google Adwords, make sure you’re tracking the Quality Score.

#4: Targeting Broad Keywords

The great thing about PPC advertising is that it allows you to “hyper-target” people within your target market. Ads that perform the best will get very specific in their targeting. They can find people who are the most likely to convert when they go to your landing page. That’s why you don’t want to use broad keywords when you’re setting up your campaigns. Instead of using “cheap flights,” you might want to use “cheap flights from San Francisco to New Orleans.” And instead of using “marketing agency,” you can use “Austin Texas marketing agency.”

Targeted keyword sets have a cheaper cost-per-click than broader terms that a lot of companies will be bidding on. So if it’s cheaper to bid on targeted keyword sets and they convert better, you might be wondering why businesses would make this kind of mistake.

#5: Jumping in Without Understanding PPC Advertising

PPC advertising can be complicated, and there are many aspects that may be hard to understand. There’s a reason why it’s a full-time job (and a high-paying one) for some people. So before you jump into all of the different PPC platforms, make sure you do your due diligence by learning about all the different platforms, best practices, tips, and mistakes that you should avoid. Spending some time in the beginning to train yourself can save you a lot of money in the long run. And if you find it to be too overwhelming or time-consuming, you should think about hiring a PPC firm to help you out.