8 PPC Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2018

There are two ways of looking at change. One is positive and another – negative. A look at the turn of events around technology, you know it is moving at a very fast pace. There was a time when it did not change for centuries. Then came the industrial revolution. During those times, the technology used to change for every half a decade. The next phase of inventions was the Edison and Einstein’s. But it was only in the 1970s, and the invention of computer, every aspect of human life underwent a significant change. The 1980s is the era of computers. The mid-1990s saw the emergency of internet. From 2000 to 2010, it was the mobiles which made much noise. But it was in the mid 2016, the apps increased in popularity. In Fact, the year is popular as the “Year of Apps.”

It was quite natural, that when companies change with technology, marketing industry will never be the same. And that was the beginning of Digital Marketing. Surprised? Yes, it is true. It was in 1985, that a company called ACT! Made the first step of introducing the first marketing software. And then developments followed. The major changes came when the online segment of businesses (E-Commerce) went on to become successful ventures.

Now, the era is of digital marketing. Now the time to follow the right Digital Marketing strategies to grow your startup in 2018. So, various factors occupy prominence in the campaign such as SEO, content writing and many more. But the major emphasis, is on Paid advertisement. Another name for AdWords is pay per click or pay per impression.

Now will we have a brief idea of the Pay Per Click model?

It is also known by the name Cost Per Click. In fact, it is best known as the internet advertising model meant for directing traffic to websites. The business sense is simple. If a customer clicks the ad, then the website owner pays the money.

In fact, this concept of pay-per-click is in association with the first order of search engines (Google AdWords as well as Bing Ads). Advertisers bid for their favorite keyword phrases in Google SERP, Google Search partner websites. In fact, you see the advertisements in the form of banners in websites that have relevant content.

Do you know that popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have also shifted to pay-per-click and CPM models for advertisements?

Yes, like other revenue models, PPC advertising also became prone to abuse via the click fraud. Yet, Google and other similar models have made use of the automated system to safeguard their respective business from their client’s competitors and immoral web developers.

Let us look at the concept from the business point of view/

Pay per click gives you information about the effectiveness of your strategy. Clicks on ads. Don’t you think they are the best way to measure the interest and attention of the public? If the main target is to make a specific type of customer get to a certain destination, then pay per click is the best metric for measuring conversions. Regardless, of whether you are promoting a service, product or business.

But yes, the placement or selection of keywords is not easy. If you make mistakes, then a large amount of money will go down the drain. So, let us check some of the common marketing mistakes to avoid in PPC.

1. Take Care to Select the Right Keywords

The basic structure of PPC ads centers around keywords. It is mandatory you spend the time to select the best set of keywords. The hard work will bring great results when more customers click on the ad. Yes, the additional benefit will be an increase in website traffic.

Make a list of the keywords which capture the attention of the audience (put yourself in the consumer’s shoes). Yes, the product also matters. Do not hesitate to drop the low attention phrases that can fail to initiate a call to action part on the customer. Focus right in the categories which come very near to the services or products.

Okay, here is an example. In case you have a company related to microwave oven repair, then it is better to settle for the phrase, microwave oven service. Or at least the best synonym or potential phrase. But if you use the word of home appliance microwave oven, then the words give a totally different meaning and generates less interest.

A. Keyword Match Type

Creating a perfect AdWords campaign is not everyone’s cup of tea. You need to complete two tasks. One is designing the ad groups and another to pick keywords for the perfect target. You first make the initial start with perfect keywords to admit the relevance of ads. Yet, depending on the types, there exist five types of keywords.

• Broad Match Keyword – For example, instead of AC, you can mention as Air conditioner.
• Phrase Match Keyword – You make use of synonyms for this type
• Exact Match Keyword – The keyword has to be the same as the service or product
• Broad Match Modifier
• Negative Match

Never go with the proverb, Birds of the same feather flock together. Rely more on tools. You can notice the changes and conversions in low cost.

I. Do You Also Bid For Broad Match Keywords?

Is there a rule that you should not bid for them? But they can also generate search volume. Always remember the key factor. It is not about the many numbers of clicks. It is about getting a hefty ROI for a meager investment.

Yes, you can put lots of keywords. You can put even a misspelling, related keywords, and synonyms. Yes, the traffic, you receive can be more. But there will be no conversions. By making use of the best keywords, you can pull in fewer impressions, but more conversions.

II. Clustering Keywords in Ad Groups

There is a famous proverb – Too many cooks spoil the broth. In Similar fashion, the ROI gets reduced when you stuff many keywords in the ad groups. But yes, it depends on the services. A simple stuffing of relevant keywords will not do the trick.

In call extensions, the business phone number gets displayed in the ads. You have nine types of extensions. The site link extension gives links to a particular page of the website. By this method, you can enhance the ads by standing out from the competitors.

Recent Update

III. Broad Match Modification Keyword

The search engine, Google has always made new updates to assist its customers. True to its nature, it has introduced a recent AdWords feature, which can help you create keywords. These words can help you reach targets with more ease than the perfect phrase or an exact match.

In this feature, you can put a plus sign (+) before one or any number of words. But the plus sign has to appear in the user’s keyword phrase in a perfect manner or as close variation. In fact, they will bring more traffic than broad match.

Example of a modified Broad Match Phrase

Let us take an example. The broad match phrase was X microwave oven. It can trigger ads on various kind of query variations such as microwave oven service, microwave oven repair, microwave oven sale, purchase of microwave oven etc.

Yet, if you had put the coveted +microwave oven, the word oven or other close variants, you have to embed in the keyword phrase.

Some of the variants included are, singular/plural forms, stemming, acronyms, misspellings, and abbreviations.

So, the search for “X oven” or ‘Xsive oven” can no doubt trigger your ad and make it come in front.

So, if you have made the modified broad match “X oven”, the word “oven” or close synonym or variant has to appear in the keyword phrase. Some of the examples are conventional Y oven, recent Z oven, and conventional X oven.

B. Usage of Long Tail Keywords

Well, there is a myth stating keywords are short and at the most, a combination of two words. But the opposite is also true. If you know the method to use long tail keywords in an effective way, then it is easy to manage communication between customers and business. The surprising part? It is easy to rank long tail keywords than simple shorter keywords. You can use them less number of times during searches, but it is more relevant and will definitely bring in conversions.

#2: Negative Keywords (You should take care to add the negatives to campaign Level)

How do you differentiate the best from the least? Due to changes in metrics. Only when the best produce results and the least fail to drive traffic. So, negative keywords are also important. They make you take off the unrelated search term from the campaigns. Now you can focus only on the right keywords that relate to your customers, product, and business. So, the trick is while searching the perfect negative keywords for the PPC campaigns, find the terms that are synonymous with the keywords.

But do the popular PPC generating keyword websites also support these terms? Surprisingly, Yes. When you include a negative keyword, your ad will not show for any of the searches surrounding that specific term.

Let us take an example concerned with the previous case study. You are promoting PPC ads for the microwave oven service center in Hyderabad. There are some reasons, you do not provide the services all over the city due to a shortage of vendors. Then you need to add the name of these places. The reason, if your ad shows up in those places, it will not result in conversions. You stand to lose money. This is one of the main reasons, why you need the service of an experienced digital marketer.

#3: When you do not give importance to ad extensions

One of the prominent elements of PPC. They give an expansion to the ad along with more information. It will enhance your click-through rate for the ad. You also get extra benefits such as engagement from consumers and customer flow.

Some of the extension formats are

• Location Extension
• Call Extension
• Callout Extension
• Sitelink Extension
• Price Extension
• App Extension
• Affiliate location Extension
• Structured snippet Extension
• Automatic Extension (Google will take care)

The extension, every type, serves as an excellent opportunity to seize the attention of prospective customers.

#4: Quality Score

If you are a digital marketer, you can know the quality score only after the creation of ads. It is the number one Search Engine, Google’s way of ranking the quality of your PPC ads and keywords. A low-quality score will definitely pull the ads down because the rank will be low.

A. Sustain or Improve The Quality Score

Yes, the score is the exact reflection of your campaign’s effectiveness and influences. There are four factors required for improving the Quality Score. They are:

• Relevance of keywords with AdGroup
• Improvement in website load time
• Quality of landing pages
• Relevance of Ads with keywords
• Website Relevance with campaign

B. Overlooking Keyword Quality Score

Every keyword gets a score from Google in the AdWords campaign. But, it will remain related to the landing page. If the keyword is a perfect match to the content (landing page), it gets a high quality score. The score will range from a score of one to ten. If you get a score of 0 to 5 – then you have to work to improve the quality score if it is a relevant keyword. And 7 to 10 is the best.

A low quality score can cause havoc on the campaigns. It will not perform. On the other side, the Ad Rank goes low. The result – it affects the CTR as well total conversions.

#5: No, Do Not Go For Split Testing

For a higher return on Investment (ROI), you can split the ads. Do not remove them. You have to pause the ads. After a detailed study, introduce the new ads instead of the old ones. The smart step – Replace the non-performing ads with the most effective. A survey has pointed that many ads can enhance the impressions of your ad groups with 5 to 15 percent. This method helps save money as you can remove the under-performing ads. You can replace with new ads.

Some factors, which you should take into consideration are:

• Headline
• URL
• Ad Copy
• Landing Page

#6: Landing Page Conversions

The landing page has to be perfect. Yes, it must be a show-stopper designed to meet the requirements of the users. It is for only one purpose, conversions. Let us imagine, you are running an online business. You have a homepage and it has fetched a good number of conversions. In similar cases, maintain the same page. In the opposite, change the landing page. The mentioned page should be more about the products and services. If you are creating the landing page, it is necessary to create a separate page that is in relation to ads. Then it will be easy to divert to the required page.

#7: Engaging in Bidding Wars

Yes, you are human. And being human, to make the most of life, you tend to make mistakes in life. To know the purpose of your very existence. When you become excited and angry, it is a common human behavior to make mistakes. To err is human. To escape is smartness. Usually, advertisers participating in bidding face the challenge of restraining themselves in the process. So, when the bidding increases, they have to keep their calm or the bid prices will be high. But their ROI stands to reduce by a larger margin.

You need to keep the emotions in check. If you put your self-respect in the ring, then the company stands to lose. There are chances that the PPC cost will be more than the to-be-generated revenue. The best smart way is to make a plan to increase/lower the bids by analysis of the campaign.

#8: Tracking The Conversions of Keywords

You need to know the best keywords which promote sales. By this method, there is a way to optimize the campaigns. You can raise the bids on keywords which enhance conversions. At the same time lower the bids of keywords which cause scant sales. You can use the conversion tracking part in AdWords for the results.

Conclusion

These are some of the common PPC marketing mistakes that we have put in store for you. A patient reading of the article, and you will get many valuable points. Hope they assist you in getting the best ROI. All the best for your PPC marketing campaigns.