Not every PPC or pay-per-click advertising campaign is a success. In fact, I’ll go as far and say most PPC ad campaigns don’t meet their full potential. This is a difficult place to be for a marketer. Not only does an unsuccessful PPC campaign result in lost sales opportunities by the way of lost leads, an unsuccessful PPC campaign also means your entire account suffers. At the root of your difficulties, you’re likely to find common PPC mistakes. These mistakes are detrimental to your otherwise quality content marketing strategy. Listed below are the most commonplace PPC mistakes. Check if you’ve made any!
PPC mistakes to avoid
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Not Knowing the PPC Fundamentals
There’s a high probability that some of those making these commonplace PPC mistakes lack some fundamental knowledge about how it works. Trying your hand at a PPC campaign on the basis of trial and error isn’t going to fetch you the results you’re after. Instead, it’s worthwhile to learn more about the bare basics. For instance, to what extent are you knowledgeable about basic PPC terms such as keywords, audience targeting, click through rate, landing pages, and bid adjustments? Essential knowledge of the basics of PPC marketing is imperative for being a success.
Not Employing Negative Keywords
It doesn’t occur to most PPC marketers that your ads being shown to an irrelevant audience is counterproductive. A certain way to boost your campaign performance is by making sure you’re not getting unwanted clicks. To achieve this, use of negative keywords should be a standard practice. For instance, if your company is only engaged in the distribution of laptops, you don’t want your ad to appear for those seeking a desktop. Marking ‘desktop computers’ as a negative keyword solves your dilemma, does justice to your content marketing strategy and makes your ad campaign more accurate, all at once.
Not Paying Attention to Your Quality Score
In case you’re not familiar with the term, let me tell you that ‘Quality Score’ is an important metric, which tracks the relevance and success of the keywords you have used over the course of your campaign. Are you aware of the factors that influence your quality score? Your quality score depends on factors such as click-through rate, landing page, keyword relevance, and the historical performance of your PPC campaign. Considering these factors, it’s imperative to make changes to your ad if you’re aware that it suffers a poor quality score.
Not Caring About Exact Keyword Matches
Another common mistake associated with PPC marketers is the overreliance on ‘broad match keywords’. You have to battle tough competition to get through to the higher reaches of the search engine when you’re working with broad matches since most ad marketers use broad matches. Furthermore, you also risk unwanted clicks when your ad appears for an irrelevant search result. This leads to nothing but wasted expenditure on your ads.
Content marketing is not a process of flukes; it’s a carefully designed process. It takes a lot of effort to create SEO-friendly content. And, making basic PPC mistakes during the course of your ad campaign really stings.
