As we make our way into a new year, it’s time to look to the future. Doing so often means reflecting on past mistakes, learning from them, and taking steps to rectify them. That same approach can be applied to your PPC campaigns.
To get you started, let’s explore the top PPC mistakes marketers make, which should be avoided at all costs.
1. Not Establishing Your Goals
Companies of all sizes and across all industries can make PPC mistakes that impact their overall success. One of the leading errors holding back performance is that clear goals were not established at the onset.
Having specific and measurable goals is essential for analyzing and optimizing the campaign down the road. Going forward, be sure to gain a better understanding of key metrics, define what success will look like, and plan how PPC performance will ultimately support your broader goals.
2. Not Building Out Your Funnel
Although it’s necessary to prioritize the bottom of your funnel, you can’t stop there. You need to build out the rest of the funnel. That way, no opportunities are left unaddressed.
To go beyond bottom-of-the-funnel direct response targeting, it’s recommended to utilize heat mapping, UX tools, and advanced analytics. These help you to better understand the customer journey, the remarketing steps needed to move them through it, and how PPC might be better leveraged to accelerate conversions.
3. Using the Wrong Keywords
Keywords can be tricky. They need to be specific enough to reach the target but also broad enough to touch on a wider audience. Overcoming this challenge is necessary because keywords are incredibly important.
For future campaigns, set aside time for keyword research. If time is short, you could also use the various keyword research and ad tools available to identify the best keywords for your audience.
4. Forgetting to Track Your Progression
Different from setting goals, neglecting to properly track the progression of a campaign is another mistake seen all too often. Along the same lines is only tracking certain metrics.
The soundest way to get an accurate look into performance is to track everything. Without the right level of tracking and measurement for these vital metrics, you could be missing out on valuable data and set your campaigns back big time.
5. Not Budgeting Properly
One of the biggest challenges PPC marketers face is determining how much to spend. As such, many companies mishandle the budget at some point — whether it’s by spending too much or too little. Refining your ongoing and future PPC management strategies takes some careful consideration.
Begin by looking for ways to cut wasted spend at both the ad group level and ad level before trying to increase the budget. It could be in targeting, bids, competitive elements, or elsewhere in the campaign. Then reappropriate the funds to ads that are performing well or to those with potential.
6. Using a Low-Quality Website
A lot of hard work could go to waste if your audience doesn’t like the experience on your website. Even the best keyword usage and highly optimized campaign may be derailed when the site is slow or clunky.
To ensure your leads are headed in the right direction through the funnel, you’ll want to optimize your site, upgrade the speed, and take measures to improve the appearance. Otherwise, you risk losing out on traffic and — when all is said and done — conversions.
7. Neglecting to Check for Google Ads Updates
The online world is constantly updating and evolving. If you forget to update your Google Ads along with it, you could be missing out on big changes or notable announcements. Going forward, keep the fact that search engines are continuously changing their platforms in mind and take steps to stay up to date with all your systems.
8. Giving Up Too Soon
Finally, one common mistake seen all too often is companies throwing in the towel too soon. PPC campaigns take time. They also call for a lot of trial and error to determine what works.
Before giving up, trust the process by allowing your campaigns enough time to adequately gather and collect the data they need. If you feel dead in the water, however, it may be time to reach out to a professional service to get you back up and running.
Making Improvements Where You Can
Ensuring your campaigns are set to perform at the highest level possible isn’t an easy feat. It takes time, technical skills, and experience to find success.
By identifying and working through any existing mistakes, your campaigns can be improved bit by bit until they reach their full potential. Hopefully, this list of common PPC mistakes has you pointed in the right direction and you’re already on the road to improvement. If you need any extra help with your PPC campaign, contact Straight North, a Chicago PPC company.
