Top 5 PPC Mistakes that May be Costing You Money
September 11, 2015
Sarvesh Bagla
PPC is definitely one of the most relevant platforms in digital marketing and is also the most rapidly evolving field. While, businesses have been performing PPC tasks over a long time, we might be making some mistakes that may result in greater cash outflow. In other words, these mistakes can make you lose money.
Conversion Tracking- Most often, the data collated through conversion is misleading because it may actually be putting forth an enhanced number of conversions. Some which may not even have happened. While the Tag Assistant on chrome is a helpful little tip to keep track of the conversions, it is quite effective to have an integrated CRM which looks into lead generation. This efficiently allows you to keep a tab on conversion, where it has actually generated some leads and allows for accurate analysis of return on investment (ROI).
It is also necessary to see how much value is being added to the business through a customer’s lifetime purchases. This is not only an indicator of ROI but also helps in accommodating an accurate ROI so as to decide on a PPC budget.
Re-marketing– Sometimes an organization fails at the process of re-marketing or the strategy used to regain a potentially lost customer’s business. Now, it is quite possible that a company has a poorly set up tracking system which not only allows inaccurate data but also loosely collected information. In such cases, it becomes quite impossible to understand the number of customers who return or are converted into customers.
The best possible method to quickly assess and control this situation is to work out your audience list. An audience list is basically a working list of unique visitors onto a website which can be used to retrieve information about each visitor’s purchase history. Continually, this history can be used to see if ads should or should not be targeted at them.
It is also necessary to understand if converted customers are being excluded from targeted ads and that the ads are being targeted at different sections of your audience list. Maintenance of these lists can be made by looking into each account on the shared drive of Google Adwords.
Also Read: Remarketing vs Retargeting
Optimization of the Ad
It is also necessary to make sure that the image and text data is optimized for all the mobile and desktop formats supported by AdWords. Make sure your lists are checked regularly both in terms of customers as well as in terms of image as well as text sizing.
Ad Copy- The quality of ad copy may also be one of the money mistakes you would be making. Where ad copies are not targeting the preferred audience precisely, the cost of the PPC campaign goes up.
By making sure that both your ad copies are more targeted and that these do not use more than 10 general keywords, you can reduce the cost of each click on the customer’s end. This will also ensure that the ad copies are not just general.
It also helps to have more than one variation of ad copy for each ad group to test betterment in conversion rates and PPC rates.
Optimization of the PPC account- While most businesses understand PPC to be a one-time investment, smart companies understand the need to optimize the organization’s accounts every month. PPC is often considered an additional task and may be supervised by the web development team.
We understand that since a PPC campaign is live every day, it is necessary to have a qualified and experienced PPC professional to continually optimize in order to keep things running both efficiently and cost-effectively. An experienced account manager will understand the need to keep your account updated as well as analyse the data from monthly search query reports, optimized bidding etc.
Optimization is the key to reducing loss of money and other resources.
Targeted Web Pages- While having a precise and targeted ad copy is fruitful, a targeted web page is another relevant requirement. Landing pages should not ideally be your business’ home page unless the customer specifically searches for it; ensure that for each ad copy, a well-informed and updated landing page is available that can wow customers.
Check your account on AdWords to verify if your ad copy leads to a landing page as per the search requirement or simply goes to your website URL. In case they revert to the website, build variations of the landing page which will later prove useful in conversion of the customer.
Like ad copies, each ad group should also have more than one variation of a landing page in order to keep the account optimized and increase the ROI by decreasing the CPA.
Resolve these five PPC mistakes as soon as you find that your organization are making them. It will not only help increase ROI but also reduce the unnecessary outflow of cash.
See also 8 PPC Blogs You Need to Eat for Breakfast