My favorite PPC mistake would have to be not using negative keywords. To me, the phrase “favorite PPC mistake” is a contradiction in terms because I don’t look highly upon any of the mistakes I’ve made in the past. It would have been better to say “common PPC mistakes” because no matter how hard we try, everyone makes mistakes. My most favorite PPC mistake would have to be not using negative keywords.
We’re all human beings and we’re capable of making mistakes. In the world of PPC, things are always changing and evolving with new features and updates. With all of the new things to explore, we can sometimes forget the basics.
I have compiled a list of the most common mistakes made in PPC accounts and provided some advice on how to avoid them.
Two kinds of mistakes
There are two main categories of the mistakes I’ve listed below: accidents or misuse of best practices.
Accidents are caused by human or technological error, where it is clear that a mistake has been made.
While some readers may disagree with some of the “best practice mistakes” included in the text, the author believes that avoiding these mistakes will improve the overall quality of the reader’s campaigns.
8 Common PPC Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Common PPC mistake #1: Using Broad Match
Googlers would disagree with me, but I think using broad match is a mistake. It is often the cause of wasted spend and irrelevant traffic. It does not provide enough information about a user’s intent to serve them the most appropriate ad.
Even if we take out ridiculous search queries for a second, there are still problems with broad match. Broad match leads to regular cross-matching between ad groups.
If someone searches for “red dresses,” an ad for red skirts might show up even though it’s not relevant. This happens because the keyword “red skirts” has a higher ad rank than “red dress” and is broadly related to the search query. This means the user is served the wrong ad, meaning they’re less likely to click through — and if they did, they’d end up on the wrong landing page.
Wouldn’t it be much easier to just use phrase match rather than having to add “red dresses” as a negative keyword to your “red skirts” ad group?
Common PPC mistake #2: Not Using Audiences Correctly
There are a few mistakes that regularly happen with audiences that could fill up an article.
Incorrect targeting settings
Think very carefully about what you’re trying to achieve with your RLSA or customer match lists when applying them and choosing from these two options:
This ad group will only show ads to users who are on your remarketing list. This is a good choice if the terms you’re bidding on are usually too expensive, or if you want to show specific ad messaging to past visitors.
Only bid if you want to adjust prices for previous customers based on how they performed.
There is a danger of making the wrong choice or forgetting to change the default setting of “Bid only” which could cause a decrease in traffic orunds and revenue from a key area, or overspending. Be sure to check this for every ad group.
Using audience exclusions
An effective remarketing strategy will generally involve creating multiple lists, many of which may overlap with others. For example, a “All Visitors – Last 30 Days” list will contain users who also fall into the “All Visitors – Last 7 Days” list.
When creating your campaigns, you should ideally only have one ad group per user to get accurate data. Having more than one ad group per user can make your data inaccurate and cause you to overspend.
This means that you should never include shorter or more specific lists in ad groups that target a broader audience. For example, if you have two ad groups – one targeting visitors from the last seven days, and the other targeting visitors from the last three days – you should make sure to exclude the three-day list from the seven-day ad group. Another example would be if your two ad groups are for people who have viewed a product and people who have abandoned their shopping cart. In this case, you would want to exclude the people who have abandoned their cart from the group of people who have viewed a product, because everyone who has abandoned a cart must have viewed a product before that point.
Building the right size lists
The remarketing list must have at least 100 users in order to be used for GDN activity and at least 1,000 in order to be used for search. However, once these limits are met, there are relatively few restrictions on list size. people often get overexcited about building lists and forget to consider what size would be practical.
If you get too granular with your data it becomes unusable in search campaigns. This means you need to either make yourduration longer or look at less granular audiences. It’s not likely that you need a list of people who abandoned a DVD in their basket last Tuesday. The last 30 days should suffice.
A robust remarketing strategy requires the creation of multiple lists. The results you’ll see from a user who visited your site and bounced off 29 days ago will differ hugely from results from someone who abandoned their basket yesterday; don’t just target them all with a blanket bid and creative in one ad group.
The amount of traffic on your site can show you how much detail you can afford to go into with your remarketing lists. Be sure to keep an eye on how much traffic your lists are getting, so you can avoid having outdated lists in your account.
Common PPC mistake #3: Not Using Negative Keywords
Unless you tell Google not to, it will display ads for phrases such as “free” and “cheap.”
If you’re going to be paying money for every click on your ad, you want to make sure you’re getting clicks from keywords that are relevant to what you’re selling. Google has changed its match types over the years so that more keywords will trigger your ad. Some of these keywords are not relevant and you should try to avoid them.
Unless you change the settings, Google will automatically show ads for words such as “free” and “cheap.” This means that if your campaign is using the phrase match keyword type, your ads might be appearing for phrases that include these terms.
You don’t want people clicking on your ads who have no intention of spending money. Google’s negative keywords list allows you to exclude as many time wasters as possible and improve your return on investment.
Common PPC mistake #4: Always Aiming For Position
It may seem like being in first place is great, but there is more to it than what meets the eye.
endeavoring to obtain the number one spot may seem like a good idea, it is actually a common error made in PPC campaigns.
Although being in the number one spot may look good on paper, it can be quite difficult to actually achieve and maintain that position. Often, a lot of time and money must be invested in order to be successful, which could be better spent in other areas.
It can be extremely expensive to be in the number one spot for certain competitive keywords- some businesses spend upwards of $10 just to maintain that position. A better tactic is to focus on your ROI rather than the number one spot. Being in the second or third position can still generate a lot of clicks, but it will cost a lot less money.
Common PPC mistake #5: Not Knowing The Customer’s Lifetime Value
A successful PPC campaign is heavily reliant on numbers and statistics.
Many marketers who are running paid search campaigns do not fully understand their customer’s lifetime value. In order to create a profitable and successful campaign, you need to be aware of your metrics and numbers.
You can’t determine how much you should be spending on acquiring customers or how much you should bid per click without knowing your average customer’s lifetime value.
A successful PPC campaign is built on having a strong understanding of figures and metrics. Making sure you have a firm grasp on numbers prevents overspending, which can lead to losing money on the campaign. Not spending enough can also be detrimental to a campaign’s success. Knowing all the metrics and figures involved in a campaign is essential to its success.
Common PPC mistake #6: Not Using Ad Extensions
Some PPC veterans can forget to add ad extensions to their campaigns.
Other than a company logo, Google provides advertisers with very little to work with in terms of ad design. As a result, many advertisers don’t put much effort into their ad design, thinking that the text is all that matters.
Veterans of PPC can sometimes forget to add ad extensions to their campaigns because there are so many of them now. These are:
Ad extensions are a great way to increase the size of your ad and make it more noticeable. They also significantly increase the engagement and click-through rate from users, making them a valuable tool for any advertiser.
Common PPC mistake #7: Not Taking Advantage Of Google Ads Scripts
By automating easy tasks, you can save yourself a lot of time.
Paid search management often consists of tedious small tasks that can take up a lot of time. It can be difficult to get any other work done when there are so many daily recurring tasks.
Google Ads has a great scripts feature that can automate a lot of boring and tedious tasks.
automating easy tasks can save you time so you can focus on more important things
These scripts allow you to customize your Google display placements, receive alerts for any over-delivery on your campaigns, and integrate with API’s. They are free and can be run automatically throughout the day.
Some handy ad scripts to get you started with are:
Common PPC mistake #8: Not Using Ad Schedules
Typically, it is not ideal for Google campaigns to be set to show ads all day.
There will always be times during any campaign where you get the best conversions.
You will most likely find that every campaign has a time period when potential customers are searching the most.
A common PPC mistake is not adjusting bids and spending for times of day when quality leads are most active.
Ad scheduling within Google Ads allows you to control your budget by increasing or decreasing your bid modifiers during certain times. You can also disable ads entirely during certain times for maximum optimization.
This means that, instead of evenly distributing your daily budget throughout the day, you can focus specifically on the times of day when your conversion rate is highest. It’s like the 80/20 rule: 20% of the day will get you 80% of your conversions.
Final thoughts
mistakes happen to everyone, but there are ways to minimize them.
Automation combined with care and attention can help keep your campaigns in check and make for a happier workplace.
Related posts:
