5 Common PPC Mistakes That Can Cost You a Fortune
Ecommerce PPC management and advertising can be…well, a little bit complicated. It can also be super helpful to local businesses trying to advertise online if done correctly. But that’s just the problem. Most people go about their pay-per-click management services incorrectly, resulting in wasted money and lost customers. If you’re considering using PPC to advertise your business or trying to work in PPC management for small businesses, here are some common mistakes you’ll want to avoid. Once you’ve got it down (if you can), you’ll be ready to take on anybody’s small business PPC management.
Targeting Too Many Keywords per Ad Group
The basic structure of a PPC ad campaign uses a campaign, an ad group, and an ad. It’s important to know the differences between these, and how they function. The campaign is the widest organizational piece, and it can encompass a given category in its entirety. For example, if you run a clothing store, you might have campaigns for hats, shirts, and shoes.
The next layer is an ad group, where you pick a few specific items to advertise for – e.g., baseball caps, boat hats, and beanies. Within those ad groups, you will have at least one ad, which is what the potential client sees online. The ad groups find people to show ads to through keywords and phrases you choose. Since you want to cover a lot of ground, it’s common for inexperienced PPC campaign managers to pick too many words. Most agree that around twenty is a good number – so be wary of doing much more.
Neglecting Keyword Match Types
Another easy mistake to make in e-commerce PPC management is to post your ad without understanding keyword match types. Google ad services has the built-in ability to adjust keywords to similar words at different levels of similarity, according to your preferences. As of right now, the four kinds of match types that Google recognizes are 1) an exact match (only activating when the exact keyword is searched), 2) a phrase match (including keyword phrases that are exact, but allow other words before or after), 3) a modified broad match (where the order of the keywords is negligible), and 4) a broad match (where Google uses synonyms and ignores word order to connect your ad to a searching individual). Each match type could be useful to you depending on the circumstances of your pay-per-click management services.
Failing a Quality Score Test
The quality score test is essentially a numerical score that you are automatically assigned by Google. It factors in the keywords you use, the quality of your landing page (which we will discuss in a second), and how relevant the content of your ad is. It measures how effective your ad is at getting clicks, keeping those clicks on your page, and how well your ad money is being spent. Make sure that you plan every layer of your small business PPC management beforehand so that your quality score can come out high. If it comes out low, you should probably change something about the way you’re operating the PPC campaign management services.
Targeting the Wrong Landing Page
When a potential customer or client clicks on an ad, they are led to a landing page. This is an essential step in the process, since you’ve just been charged by Google for that click. Your money has been spent. Now, it’s up to you to make it worth it. This is why most small business PPC management focuses as much on the landing page as on the ads and ad campaigns themselves. You need to make sure the landing page has the relevant information for the searcher, ensuring that they find something immediately eye-catching and relevant to their search. You will also want to make sure to provide information connecting the individual directly to you or the business in question.
Ignoring Ad Extensions
These connections to the company are called ad extensions. There are a few ways that e-commerce PPC management can go about placing them, so be sure to pick the methods that are relevant to your business’ situation and brand. They are the final step in the long process that has placed your ad on the search page of a potential buyer, caused them to click, and then has led them to the relevant page where they can do business. Sitelink extensions will provide a link or links that take people directly to parts of your site where they can do business immediately. Callout extensions add linked text to your ad (e.g., “available now,” “free shipping,”). Structured snippet extensions show a quick blurb of product information and price extensions show the product/service along with the price.
Conclusion
Pay-per-click management services take a lot of time, effort, experience, and money to understand. The hard part is getting to the point where your investment of time, effort, and money as PPC management for a small business pays off and the ads become effective. But even with a thorough understanding of the theory of e-commerce PPC management, we’ve only been able to give you a basic overview. It will take a lot more for you to arrive at the point of success. Another far more reliable option – although it might cost a little more – is to use a pay-per-click management agency to take care of it all for you. This is just what Monarch Social Brand specializes in; we have all the know-how, experience, and versatility to take your business where it needs to go. And you won’t have to worry about understanding any of it! So, contact Monarch Social today to get the best PPC management services for your business!