Pay-Per-Click advertising, or PPC, is one of the most effective digital marketing channels. But to reap the benefits, campaigns must be run well. Poor PPC doesn’t just achieve slower results, it can actually penalize your quality score and hurt your ability to be successful.
In this guide we’ll break down the 7 most common PPC mistakes to avoid as you plan and execute campaigns for 2023. Of course, the best way to ensure you avoid these mistakes is to partner with an experienced PPC and paid ads agency such as Nxt Era Marketing.
PPC Mistake 1: Not Measuring Success
Without a clear definition of success, you won’t know whether you’ve achieved it or if there are opportunities for improvement.
First, consider your business goals at the highest level. From there, work down towards more specific benchmarks for campaigns and ad groups.
Be realistic. Clearly define a goal for impressions, clicks/entrances, and conversions. With a deep understanding of your overall business goals and how PPC ads can help achieve them, your goals and strategies become clearer.
PPC Mistake 2: Not Setting a Budget
Just like setting goals, a well-defined budget ensures that you are not blindly stumbling through a “campaign”.
Overspending your budget can be a detriment to your campaigns and your business goals. Without proper planning and keyword research, your CPC (cost per click) can destroy a budget.
Wasted ad spend is hard to look at for any PPC manager. However, not spending enough also hurts your ability to succeed.
Without enough budget allocated to the proper ads and keywords, you won’t be able to earn as much traffic and conversions as you could have.
That hurts you in multiple ways. First, you won’t achieve business goals as soon. Second, you won’t be able to collect and analyze data or trends as effectively. That can hurt you even more down the road.
Clearly define a budget so you can clearly achieve success.
PPC Mistake 3: Poor User Targeting
How many of our blogs have said keyword research is everything? Well, here’s another. Your ability to target audiences and earn their traffic and conversions is through keyword research.
Understand your audience. Some questions to ask before a campaign are:
- Who is our audience?
- What is their buyer persona?
- Where are they located?
- What are they searching for?
- How are they searching for it?
If you cannot effectively target your audience, you’re going to waste a lot of money for nothing.
PPC is about putting the right ads in front of the right people. Do that and you’ll find success.
PPC Mistake 4: Forgetting to A/B Test
Unlike SEO, PPC campaigns can immediately implement and track the success of different ad types and groups within a campaign.
Comparing the success of one version of an ad to another is called A/B Testing. This allows you to quickly gauge the effectiveness of an ad and make changes in real time.
Getting an ad perfect the first time is rare. There are so many variables to account for and some are out of your control. That’s why A/B testing is so important. This is one of the practices that sets experienced PPC managers above the rest.
Be adaptable, try new strategies, and don’t be afraid to take a risk. You can always change it later.
PPC Mistake 5: Low Quality Landing Pages
Much of the work in PPC is done through Google Ads and the other main platforms. It’s easy to forget that quality landing pages are crucial to PPC success.
There are two main reasons why LPs are so important to paid advertising. One, their quality affects your ability to win keyword bids. Relevancy is a huge factor. Two, once a user is on your page, higher quality pages convert traffic more efficiently.
SEO plays a large part here, and that’s another reason why utilizing the skills and tools of an agency is wise. Agencies understand the need for parity between ads and LPs and can develop a cohesive strategy that builds success in both SEO and PPC.
PPC Mistake 6: Setting and Forgetting
As we mentioned, you’ll never nail an ad or campaign 100 percent the first time around. So the “set and forget” strategy is possibly the worst way to achieve success in this field.
While some lower level, non-primary ad campaigns can be left on “autopilot” and just routinely monitored, this is not an acceptable approach for your most important campaigns.
There are so many tools and strategies at your disposal. To simply elect not to edit or update a campaign as more data and insights are available is just lazy.
This is not to say you should be reactionary to every dip or change in performance. It means that once you have enough data to make an insightful decision, you need to be ready and willing.
PPC Mistake 7: Ignoring Industry Updates
Within SEM (search engine marketing), there are updates all the time. Google algorithms, ad platforms, new best practices, etc. The PPC landscape is continuously evolving.
You need to stay up to date and evolve with it. So do your strategies and campaigns.
Search engines change, and so do audiences. Keep an eye out for trends in both your niche and the search marketplace in general. You’ll notice that they often follow similar patterns as search engines try to adapt to benefit user interests.
Being at the cutting edge of industry shifts will set you apart from competitors and establish your SEM presence.
Contact Nxt Era Today
These are just a few of the many common mistakes one can make in PPC advertising. But as we said, the biggest mistake is not contacting an experienced PPC agency like Nxt Era Marketing. From staying up to date on industry and market trends to the more advanced techniques of paid ads, Nxt Era can do it all and guide you to success.
Contact Nxt Era Marketing today to schedule your free PPC consultation!
