PPC Campaign Errors That Waste Your Money

A PPC campaign has loads of benefits. The entry costs are low. Results are easy to monitor. The return on investment can rival most any other advertising source. Plus, companies get a competitive advantage because their ads top the list of search results.

Every day, businesses increase brand awareness, visibility, and website traffic with PPC campaigns. However, not every company gets these results. The reasons range from lack of experience and budget mismanagement.

We assure you that running a successful PPC campaign is not complicated. They do require some expertise and attention to best practices.

Common PPC Campaign Mistakes

PPC stands for pay-per-click. The premise is that you only pay for advertising when someone clicks on your ad. It’s a genius plan. When a person engages with your ad, the platform charges you. If your ad doesn’t get clicked, you don’t pay.

For marketers, PPC is fantastic because you can test multiple ads on various sources and get measurable results. However, the reality is that you also pay for all your mistakes. A $1,000 monthly budget quickly evaporates if you’re not careful.

This article explores five costly PPC mistakes and how you can avoid them.

PPC Mistake #1 —  Weak keyword strategy

PPC campaigns center on keywords. There are four common pitfalls with keywords that can hang up even the most sophisticated marketers.

• Stuffing too many keywords in your PPC campaign. 
• Bidding on broad match keywords. 
• Not prioritizing top keywords in the campaign. 
• Not focusing on the negative keywords.

The right way

• Use precisely matching keywords to get a higher conversion rate. Research thoroughly to get high-value keywords that will give you quality conversions. 
• Be specific about the positive and negative set of keywords in the campaign. Wherever possible, stop bidding and using broad match keywords. 
• Typically, between 12% to 14% of keywords produce 100% percent of conversions. Once you determine the highest converting keywords, avoid spending on costly keywords. 
• Adding negative keywords in your PPC campaign blocks your PPC ads from displaying on specific irrelevant queries. We’ve found that our negative keywords are crucial. They protect our budget and extend our results.  

TIPS: Identify the unwanted or underperforming keywords in the campaign. Eliminate those keywords and stop spending on them. Focus on conversions.

How to research the best keywords for your PPC Campaigns

The first step in planning a PPC campaign strategy, the first step is selecting the best keywords to bid on. Keywords have the potential to make or break your PPC campaign. They designate who sees and who doesn’t see your PPC ads.

The Google Keyword Planner is 100% free to use and super helpful for research. You can access the Planner using your primary Google account. 

Here are the steps:

• Login to your Google Ad account. 
• Hit the “Tools” button on the menu and go to “Keyword Planner”.

You have two options:

• • Discover new keywords – explore new keyword ideas. 
  • Get search volume and forecasts – see search volume, historical metrics, and the keywords’ future performance. 

 

Discover New Keywords

• Again, you have two options:
  • Start with keywords – use it if you have done primary keyword research and want to find more relevant and related keywords. 
  • Start with a website – Use your business URL to filter out the services or products you are not offering. 
• Start with keywords – enter words or phrases or even business URLs to get keyword suggestions and hit “GET RESULTS”. 
• Example: You get keyword suggestions, such as in the example below for ‘plumbing services’

 

 

Listed  are about 855 keyword ideas. The tool also suggests some relevant keywords to add for broadening your search. You can add up to 10 single words, phrases, or URLs at a time for extensive keyword research.

 

 

We get 1,688 keyword ideas generated for those 10 words and phrases we used. 

For each keyword suggestion, you see: 

• Average monthly searches
  • Shows the average number of searches for the specified keyword and its close variables per month based on your selected search network settings. 
• Competition
  • How competitive ad placement is for that keyword. The level of competition is determined by the number of advertisers bidding on that keyword. 
• Top of the page bid (lowest range)
  • Marks the lower range of amount advertisers have paid historically for a keyword to appear at the top of the page. 
• Top of the page bid (highest range)
  • Indicates the highest range of historical amounts paid by the advertisers for a keyword to appear at the top of the page bid.

To get the search volume and forecast volume for keywords:

• Paste the list of keywords and hit “GET STARTED”
• When you have a list of researched keywords, you can directly see metrics for them.

 

 

• It shows you the forecast for your proposed PPC campaign with selected keywords. 
• It determines the clicks, impressions, Cost-per-click, Click-through Rate, and average position of the campaign.

TIP: Go to the “Historical Metric” tab and notice the average 12-month search volume for selected keywords. It’s the same range you see while researching keywords using “Find New Keywords.”

 

Mistake #2 —  Budget allocation

At first, each PPC campaign requires some babysitting and testing. You can’t just set it up and let it go. With this in mind, you need to allocate enough budget to learn which keywords and messaging produce the best results.  

Here are a few budget-related mistakes you need to consider. 

• Setting the same monthly budget for each PPC campaign. 
• Lacking audience and geo-specific targeting.
• Abandoning your account, you set-it, and forget-it without having a maintenance strategy.
• Failure to allocate the budget towards converting keywords produces poor results. 
• Ignoring click fraud can kill your PPC campaign.

The right way

• Use the keyword planner to understand click volume forecasts for top targeted keywords and then decide the budget. 
• Have a dedicated team member that regularly optimizes campaigns for best results and budget allocation
• Ensure your campaigns are focused on the regions you serve and the personas you target. 
• Avoid unqualified clicks by not bidding on those extra keywords, which lower your ad copy’s quality score. 
• Manage IP addresses, referring websites, and geographical territories to fight click fraud. Third-party tools can help analyze invalid traffic. 

 

Mistake #3 —  Sloppy research

A carefully crafted PPC campaign delivers results almost immediately. On the other hand, limited research and hasty planning usually spell doom. 

• A casual approach to finding the best keywords to target.
• Throwing keywords into one campaign and one ad group with one ad. 
• Directing all traffic to either the homepage or a single landing page. 
• Multiple keywords that compete with each other in one PPC campaign. 
• Weak campaign analysis. 

The right way

• Use the best and most effective way available for targeting keywords. (Use your Google Ads account.) 
• Export keyword data to an Excel sheet and filter to remove all the keywords that do not convert. This way, you will find the highest value and high performing keywords that convert. 
• Create a dedicated landing page for your PPC campaigns with a strong call-to-action. PPC traffic directed towards the homepage or other generic website pages confuse visitors and Google. Instead, refer the paid traffic to a highly relevant landing page for smoother conversion and higher ad placement. 
• Using duplicate keywords in your PPC ad campaign adversely affects overall results. Use a high-value keyword only once in the account, along with variations of broadly matching keywords. 
• Analyze your PPC campaigns! Monitor different parameters and optimize copy and calls-to-action.

 

TIP: Focus on essential attributes and parameters like leads generated, traffic boost, brand awareness, and conversions to understand each campaign’s outcome. Different analysis, like statistical, exploratory, associated, historical, and comparative analysis, shape the best PPC campaign strategy.

 TIPS:

1. Identify the unwanted or underperforming keywords in the campaign.
2. Eliminate those keywords and stop spending on them.
3. Focus on conversions.

Mistake #4 —  Dull, inept ad copy

Ad copy markets your products and services. But ad copy also sells your brand name. Consequently, restrain yourself from the following perils. 

• Running a PPC ad campaign with ad copy that is not relevant to your landing page.
• Copying competitors’ ads.
• Lacking creativity and variations. 
• Ad copies stuffed with keywords not aligned with searchers’ intent or customer issues. 
• Misleading headlines that don’t match with the ads.

Example

If the user is searching for plumbing services, they may see these results. 

The first PPC ad headline,  Find Home Repair Contractors,” does not include “plumbing” or “services.” The person will most likely see the first ad but skip it. The ad doesn’t match the intent.

On the contrary, the second ad grabs attention with the matching text “Plumbing Services.” Also, the ad copy builds credibility by including “By Certified Professionals” in the headline.

The right way

• Ensure messages in your PPC ad campaign coordinate with the landing page. Maintain consistency of the message to reinforce a positive experience. 
• Make sure the call-to-action is similar on both the PPC ad and the landing page.
• Create an original and creative copy for each PPC ad. Also, design unique content specific to the landing page. Provide useful information to keep visitors engaged.
• Introduce Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) in your PPC ad. This forms more compelling, relevant, and unique content to search engines. 
• Address customer issues using targeted keywords. Incorporate trust signals like contact information and social proof to connect with audiences.
• Pay extraordinary attention to the 25 characters in your headline. Include keywords and value propositions that engage people. Your headline must focus on the customer’s intent. 
• Never use industry jargon in your PPC ad copy. 

 

Mistake #5 —   Only track clicks

When done right, PPC ads are powerful lead generators. But to measure lead volume accurately, companies must look beyond clicks. Phone tracking calls is a an essential and often overlooked sales metric. Every time a potential customer calls about your product or service, it’s important to know if your PPC ad triggered the action. Without this data, it’s impossible to gauge the ad’s real return on investment (ROI).

The goal of PPC is to connect potential consumers to a custom landing page that eventually leads to a purchase. One of the best indications that a person is ready to buy is the old fashion phone call. Customer phone calls are the most valuable leads because they are further down the sales funnel.

Call tracking helps you understand the actual leads and conversions, but also helps in analyzing the keywords that worked in your campaign and are drawing leads. Therefore, overlooking the five points summarized here might cost your PPC campaign dearly. 

• Ignoring tracking calls from the landing page diminishes the value of the ads. 
• Counting all calls as conversions without giving due importance to quality as conversions. 
• Failure to assign a monetary value to call conversions. 
• Not focusing on keyword bid optimization based on conversions through the call. 
• Running click-to-call ads 24/7 regardless of actual business hours. 

The right way

• Use a reliable call tracking software to track the keywords and your PPC campaign driving call from your website. These tools allow you to dynamically replace your phone numbers with tracking phone numbers. It allows you to capture session data like keyword, ad group, and PPC ad campaign.
• Apply filters to capture leads. 
• Understand the exact number of calls leading to conversions and then determine the average sale value. Understand the monetary value of each call and use it in your call conversion value to get the average CPA in terms of your PPC campaign. 
• Align metrics for online and call conversion. Get a fair idea of cost per call conversion, online conversion, and cost of total conversions.
• Analyze converting keywords and accordingly optimize keyword bid.
• Your call-based PPC ad campaign should run only during business hours. Set bid modifiers to ensure they display your call extension ads during peak hours of traffic. 

Forwarding number and click-to-call (CTC)

Google Ads and Microsoft Ads can incorporate a unique phone number on the ad. Customers can manually dial or simply click-to-call (CTC) via a mobile phone. Because the number is unique, Google and Microsoft digitally track call metrics and conversions directly from the ad. This data also can help you compare and optimize multiple ads’ performance.

Google website call conversions

But what if you want the ad to send customers to your website? Google can track calls made through a landing page after a customer clicked the Google Ad ad. This free feature places a unique number directly on your website. When customers call you, Google tracks the phone number’s data and keyword performance so you can attribute calls back to a PPC ad.

Call tracking software

The most intuitive, detailed, and dynamic call tracking comes from third-party software. With such technology, unique phone numbers and call conversions are just the tip of the iceberg. Convirza tracks and analyzes what happens before, during, and after the call.

The data and reports include lead quality, close rates, missed opportunities, and much more. Convirza’s call analytics help to increase conversions and uncover new revenue. Additionally, this software is easy to install and pair with other technology, such as Salesforce and Google Analytics.

To learn the rest of your PPC story, you need a fellow actor that can decipher the action. You need Convirza’s call tracking software. Schedule a time to see how call tracking can boost your ROI and PPC campaign results with a custom demo. Or get a free, 21-day trial by signing up today. 

Conclusion

All the five mistakes discussed in this blog are the aggregation of much research and personal experience. The advice and recommendations will save you a ton of grief. Remember, even innocent errors in your PPC campaign will cost thousands of dollars.

It does not matter whether you are launching a new product, selling services, or rejuvenating old failed PPC campaigns; avoid these mistakes.

Good luck and happy marketing!