When Doing Pay-Per-Click Advertising, Don't Let These 9 Mistakes Kill Your Success

Some people just don't believe that pay-per-click advertising works or that it is a dying trend. The truth is that sticking with your PPC campaign and strengthening it will be the one of the best advertising campaigns you can run.

Here are some reasons on why:

For one, last year, Google switched all searches over to encrypted searches using https servers. What this means is keyword data is not available in Google analytics for organic, non-paid search results. So, there is no way to tell what people are searching for when they land on your website and no way to use that information in your marketing. With paid advertising this data is still available for site owners and marketers, so they can understand how and which keywords drive traffic to websites and which keyword searches generate results.

Plus, mobile is growing in popularity and pay-per-click advertising will be riding its wave. According to comScore, mobile use will surpass desktop use in 2014 for the first time ever.

And here are the 9 mistakes to avoid making:

1. Not doing your homework. It’s important to understand your target audience, their online behavior and what channels they’re active in. This helps you reach your audience where they are with messages they’ll understand.

2. No goal or plan. It is important to set up measurable goals for what you are trying to achieve from your online efforts — whether it’s sales, leads or branding. A good plan maps out how you’ll get to your goals and makes room for adjustments when you’re off track.

3. No targeting. You need your ads to be specific to location, devices and language. Use available options to target your advertising the right way, so you don’t waste your money on ads that reach the wrong people.

4. No negative-keyword strategy Negative keywords — search terms you don’t want your ads to show for — assist with your return on investment (ROI), as well as acting like an extra security blanket for your ad campaign.

5. No campaign structure. A structure organizes your campaigns into themes, making them easier to measure and manage and keeping your message relevant to your audiences.

6. Lack of call to action. Not having a clear call to action on your landing page and ads is a common mistake. Test different calls to actions to determine which messages generate the most results. Keep in mind, Google does have restrictions on some call to actions, so stay away from phrases like “click here.” That said, “download now,” “buy now” and “start today” should be fair game.

7. Using the home page as a landing page. When people click on your ad, they should land on a page relevant to the keywords used for that ad. For example, if someone searches for “pink dresses” she should land on a page with several options of pink dresses.

8. No measurement. If you don’t have a way to measure what you are doing, you’re not going to be able to figure out if your strategy is successful. Most advertising platforms offer a free measurement tool to be able to track results. Use what you learn in your measurements to adjust your campaigns.

9. Lack of testing. When you build your plan you have to test and refine it for best results. Possible changes may be made in target location, time of day, messages, keyword, bidding and landing page, among other elements. Testing all these elements and making changes where needed will make or break the success of a campaign.

One way to do this is use Experiments in Google Analytics, which allows you to test various elements simultaneously. For instance, if you want to test out two or more different landing pages, Google Analytics Experiments allows you to split test to determine the efficacy of each page.

Just stick to your Google Analytics tools to monitor and analyze data and traffic. This allows you to conduct split testing to figure out what works best on your website.

Do you know of any big PPC mistakes to avoid?

Article Source: Entrepreneur

Image Source: sean dreilinger on Flickr