Skip to content Launching
their advertisement campaigns on pay-per-click platforms like Google AdWords is
an ideal
way for entrepreneurs to attract online customers to websites.
Nevertheless, these business owners soon realize that run their campaigns on
such advertising channels is not easy. These proprietors usually end up
spending more money than they actually generate. A time comes when they feel
that pay-per-click platforms do work for their businesses. On the other hand, prominent
experts say this is far from the truth.
What kind of
mistakes do entrepreneurs make when launching PPC advertisements?
Specialists
point out the business owners tend to make many serious mistakes when launching
campaigns on PPC platforms. As a result, the entrepreneurs end up spending a
lot of money and earning low returns on their investment. PPC experts point out seven common mistakes which
proprietors make when using pay-per-click platforms and how to avoid them:
Entrepreneurs normally have a difficult time choosing the right keywords of their advertisement campaigns on PPC platforms like Google AdWords. These owners often select broad phrases which describe the type of business they operate in the market. As a result, the websites of such proprietors often attract irrelevant online traffic. Since this traffic does bring about an increase in sales, these business owners start to lose money.
To avoid such a situation, proprietors should focus on inserting precise keywords matches in their online advertisement campaigns. This ensures they are able to attract the right online users to their products or services.
- Failing to have a clear idea of what the campaign
aims to achieve
Before launching an advertisement campaign on a pay-per-click platform, entrepreneurs need to have a clear idea of their objectives. These business owners need to know what goals they intend to achieve by taking such a step. Many of the proprietors may want to see a significant increase in organic traffic to their business websites.
On the other hand, other owners may intend to create an extensive email marketing list for their businesses. Moreover, the entrepreneurs should know which category of online users they want to convert into potential customers. Only then can these entrepreneurs expect to achieve the kind of results they are looking for.
Entrepreneurs need to understand that launching an advertisement campaign on a popular pay-per-click platform like Google AdWords is expensive. While this advertising channel is relatively cheaper than conventional ones, these business owners still need to spend a considerable amount.
The proprietors need to know beforehand whether or not they can afford to incur such an expenditure. For this, the owners need to prepare a realistic budget to determine how much they are willing to spend. Only then should they make the decision whether to launch their PPC advertisements in the market. Moreover, entrepreneurs should also take the necessary steps to monitor the costs of their campaigns.
- Ignoring to use ad extensions
Ad extensions are an important feature that entrepreneurs often forget to include in campaigns while advertising on the popular pay-per-click platform. Google AdWords provides a diverse list of extensions which business owners can use in their advertisement campaigns. The purpose of such features is to make it easier for interested online users to find their businesses.
These potential customers then get access to these proprietors’ contact information, location, product description, prices, review, and other relevant details. Using the right ad extension in their advertisement campaigns helps owners to increase their websites’ click-through rate significantly. It also encourages members of their targeted audience to consider making a purchase. This ensures the entrepreneurs get value for their money.
- Failing to understand their targeted audience
Entrepreneurs probably know that customer engagement does not develop overnight. It takes time for these owners to establish a strong online customer base in the market. Unfortunately, the proprietors often fail to understand the needs of this targeted audience when launching their campaigns on the pay-per-click platform.
As a result, the owners often end up spending more on these customers than the revenues they generate from them. This is why experts say entrepreneurs need to have a thorough understanding of their targeted audience before launching their campaign. Taking such a step to ensure they do not lose money from the campaign.
Experts clarify that business owners may assume their websites meet the requirements of search engines like Google. Nevertheless, it is unrealistic for these entrepreneurs to expect their campaigns on a pay-per-click platform is likely to generate immediate results. This is because search engines like Google take time to grade the money-earning potential of such advertisement campaigns.
This is why the owners find that their advertisements do not always secure high ranks on the search engine result pages. Moreover, the search engine will first determine whether the owners have a creditable previous track-record before allotting ranks.
- Overlooking the necessity of testing the
conversion funnel
Most entrepreneurs feel optimistic before the launch of their advertisement campaigns on a popular pay-per-click platform like Google AdWords. These owners feel their campaigns are going to be successful as they investigate every single aspect. Nevertheless, there is one final step they often overlook.
The proprietors often overlook the need to test their campaigns on Google Analytics to ensure it is working properly. After all, the landing page and various other features of their websites need to satisfy their targeted audience. Only then can the owners expect an increase in the click-through rate. Otherwise, the owners will not get the results they are looking for.
Advertising on popular pay-per-click platforms like Google AdWords can help entrepreneurs attract many potential online customers. They can also generate a lot of revenue when this targeted audience makes large purchases. Nevertheless, these business owners should try to avoid committing certain serious mistakes at the time of launching their campaigns.
These include using broad keyword matches, forgetting to include ad extensions, failing to understand their customers and not formulating a proper budget. Moreover, they should have realistic expectations and test their campaigns before and their performance after launch
Pay-per-click marketing makes up a significant part of advertisers’ strategies, and more brands are seeing the importance of PPC spending. In 2017 alone, 7 million advertisers invested $10.1 billion in PPC marketing, and 40 percent of brands and agencies say that they’d like to spend more on PPC ads. Using sophisticated algorithms to target relevant audiences, PPC marketing is drastically disrupting the marketing landscape. But what exactly is Pay-per-Click marketing, and how can you make it work for your business?
What Is PPC And How Does It Work?
PPC refers to all digital campaigns where advertisers pay publishers and platforms each time their ads get clicked. Search engine advertising is a popular form of PPC, but it’s also used in social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Google Ads and Facebook are the most popular digital ad spending platforms, and according to experts, they will likely remain so in the coming years.
This digital advertising model is a way to buy traffic rather than attract visits organically. But to create an effective PPC campaign, digital marketers need to understand their target audience’s characteristics. For example, if your target audience is young professionals in Austin, you’ll need to understand what their online behavior is like.
In cases like this, hiring an agency that specializes in PPC management Austin would be a good way to get the highest ROI possible, as clicks would be more likely to lead to desired user actions (like buying a product or registering).
The most striking advantage of PPC marketing — especially when compared to cost per impression (CPM) models — is that it only charges you for visits you receive. While CPM models charge brands for simply displaying their ads, PPC doesn’t cost you anything unless someone views your content.
This means that you’re wasting less money on audiences who aren’t interested. You could also set a maximum budget per day so that you can control how much you spend per campaign.
Using PPC Ads On Search Engines
Search engine advertising, or search engine marketing (SEM), is one of the most popular forms of PPC marketing. This lets advertisers show ads based on keywords — or popular queries entered in the search bar. PPC can also let your content jump to the top of search engine results immediately — the kind of results that may have taken you months to achieve.
Services like Google Ads and Bing Ads use real-time bidding (RTB). These auctions begin whenever someone searches for something on a search engine. If advertisers are interested in showing ads related to the search query, an auction occurs instantaneously for the search engine results page (SERP)’s top spots. The winner of the auction is determined by multiple factors, which include ad quality and the bid amount.
To be part of these auctions, advertisers simply need to set up an account on platforms like Google Ads and Bing Ads. Then they determine where they’d like those ads to appear. For search engine marketing to be effective, advertisers need to choose keywords strategically, taking into account what their potential customers would search for.
By getting this information, advertisers can create ads that are relevant to the search queries, making their spending more effective.
What Is PPC Keyword Research?
Keyword research is a critical part of SEM. An effective keyword is relevant to your business, which means that you should be bidding on keywords that relate to what your business is selling. To make the most of your investment, your keyword research shouldn’t just include the most frequently searched queries, but also long-tail keywords, or longer phrases that visitors are more likely to type into the search bar.
These longer keywords are usually less competitive, so they’re also more affordable.
Because the keywords people search for are always changing, PPC keyword research should be conducted periodically, not just when you make your first campaign. If you just do your research once, you’re likely to miss out on low-cost relevant keywords that could have driven traffic to your site. In other words, your list of target keywords should constantly be adapting.
How Does PPC Work On Social Media?
Though Google Ads may have a larger reach (around 98 percent of the web), social ads have the advantage of refinement. These ads can be tailored to target specific audiences based on their demographics, interests, and other data gathered by the social media platform. Facebook, of course, is the largest player in the social PPC space.
Facebook also owns Instagram, so these ads work on both platforms. But more and more social media platforms have started hosting sponsored ads — from LinkedIn to Snapchat to WhatsApp.
Unlike search advertising that is led by the potential customer’s search terms, social PPC is more like display advertising. These ads don’t just bring traffic to the site, but also attract likes, shares, and retweets, building more brand awareness. Though every click may not necessarily translate into a sale or sign-up, more people will know about your brand. \
These social ads are usually potential customers’ first interaction with brands, creating desire. After seeing the social ad, users may do their own research and find their way back to your site via an organic search.
How To Use PPC Effectively
As with any investment, you should begin with a goal in mind. How would you know if your PPC campaign is successful? What’s your desired outcome? Who are you targeting? Without a clear sense of your goals, it’s impossible to get optimal results, and you’ll be wasting a lot of resources in the process.
After you’ve spelled out your goals and started your campaigns, it’s important to track your progress and manage it well. PPC can be very expensive if you’re not making data-based decisions. It’s best to start out slowly and see how your initial efforts perform. Once you have data, you can make informed decisions to grow and expand.
If you’re new to PPC marketing, start off with one channel, such as Google Ads, and just a handful of campaigns. You could make several variants of an ad, targeting different audiences or keywords, to see which works best. To get optimal results, it’s best to have a member of your team who can monitor your ads weekly, or even daily.
If your team doesn’t have the bandwidth, it might be a good idea to outsource to a marketing firm.
PPC By Design
What’s great about PPC marketing is that it allows advertisers to see exactly how their ads are performing, as PPC marketing platforms give advertisers complete data. Unlike print and TV ads, these digital ads let advertisers measure just how many people have seen, clicked, and engaged with their ads.
This also lets them see how efficiently their budget is working, and easily lets them tweak their ads to help them perform better.
The better designed your ad campaigns are, the more cost-effective they will be. Both social media platforms and search engines reward advertisers who make relevant campaigns by charging less for ad clicks. This means that your ads don’t just have to catch users’ attention — your landing pages should also be satisfying to users.
You can’t have effective ads without effective content, so don’t lose focus, and keep your target audience in mind.
