PPC, including Google Ads, is an excellent way for a new business to gain exposure or promote a new product or service that is being offered by an established one.
PPC Google Ads campaigns that don’t perform well are frankly one of the dumbest things a digital marketer can do. Google Ads reporting dashboards are useless, and it’s pointless to keep checking for conversions out of the blue. As a result, you should look into your Google Ads campaign to see what is going wrong.
The campaign may not be successful for a variety of reasons. This is believed to occur because of a lower quality ranking according to support pages, blogs, and marketing firms.
Google’s Quality Score metric determines how frequently, where, and at what cost per click your ads appear on their search network. A quality score is based on the following factors:
- The click-through rate
- Keywords that are relevant to the ad group
- A post-click landing page’s relevance and quality
- A relevant ad text
- Past success – or failure – of Google Ads accounts
Google Ads with a high-quality score will appear more often and cost less per click, whereas ads with a low-quality score will be more expensive and might not appear at all.
The low-quality score isn’t the only explanation for the poor performance of your campaign. Ten common but costly errors made by inexperienced PPC advertisers in Google Ads, both related and unrelated to Quality Score.
THE POOR POST-CLICK LANDING PAGE EXPERIENCE
Despite their commitment to writing perfect Google Ads copy, many PPC marketers overlook the importance of user experience outside of the ads. Because the quality score of your advertising is heavily influenced by the post-click landing page experience, a poor post-click landing page will decrease the visibility of your advertising and cost you more money than you would have spent if you had only focused on the page on which your ads were placed.
How can you create a good Google Ads landing page that boosts Quality Score? Use the following:
- Web pages that load quickly – nobody likes pages that take forever to load, especially Google.
- Better mobile user experience – If it isn’t fast, clean, and easy to read on whatever mobile device its users are using, both Google and users will hate it.
- Good content – A readable and visually appealing post-click landing page will help users find the information they clicked on your Google Ad to find and make decisions faster.
- CTAs (Calls-to-Action) – Adding clear CTAs to your post-click landing page will help you convert more visitors.
YOUR GOOGLE ADDRESS IS DIRECTED TO AN IRRELEVANT LANDING PAGE
Checking the relevance of your post-click landing page is the next step after optimizing post-click landing pages.
Imagine clicking on a “chocolate cakes” ad expecting to find a delicious chocolate cake, only to be redirected to a “vanilla cakes” post-click landing page.
Although the post-click landing page may seem unrelated to the ad, it can be detrimental to the quality score of your ad. You won’t make your chocolate-loving prospect very happy either, leaving a bad impression about your company overall (pardon the pun).
The best way to improve relevance is to place related keywords in an ad category. Make each post-click landing page unique to its ad category. Lastly, link your post-click landing pages to the ads within the same ad group, and you’re done! You have averted the crisis, and your target customers will be delighted.
ADVERTISE YOUR HOMEPAGE ON GOOGLE
Google Ads can also make costly mistakes when it comes to post-click landing page relevance by sending users to your website’s homepage instead of the individual page. It is a common practice among e-commerce companies. It is worth noting that sending users to the home page, even if they can navigate to the appropriate web page, will lower your quality score. It’s annoying to potential customers as well.
As an example, if you operate an e-commerce company that sells clothes and your ad is for “children’s apparel,” your PPC advertising should target the children’s clothing page rather than the homepage. Ensure that your ad connects to a directly relevant page.
A BAD KEYWORD CHOICE
Your quality score is negatively affected by irrelevant or low search volume keywords. Some of your keywords and ad copy may be essentially unrelated if you have more than 20 keywords per ad group. Prevent overspending by pausing obsolete keywords or those that aren’t converting.
After that, use a keyword planner or Google Ads API to introduce some fresh new keywords and key phrases that have a good search volume and are relevant to your offer. For best results, use keyword matches. You can make an impact by using broad matches. You can increase conversions by using phrases and exact matches.
THE USE OF NEGATIVE KEYWORDS IS NOT RECOMMENDED
There are some flaws in Google’s algorithms. Ads can still appear in searches that aren’t relevant to you even if you choose the right keywords. Your ad could appear next to the egg, vegetable, grocery, and other searches if you used the keyword “marketing.” In this case, you’ll want to use negative keywords to avoid paying for irrelevant searches.
Negative keywords can be a broad, expression, or exact match keywords. Using negative keywords such as “eggs,” “vegetables,” and “groceries” together with irrelevant searches may be a good idea if you are advertising a marketing firm.
A LACK OF TARGETING IN ADVERTISING
By targeting your Google Ads, you can increase conversions and steer them to the right audience. Also, you won’t waste money on clicks that won’t result in conversions.
The location, audience, and application targeting tactics can be used for narrowing down your audience. Select targeting tactics based on the company’s goals. You can reduce your marketing costs by using location targeting if you’re looking for consumers in your hometown to purchase your goods or services.
It’s simply easier to reach your customers through mobile rather than desktop targeting if they’re constantly on the go, or if mobile accounts for the majority of your current website traffic.
EXTENSIONS FOR GOOGLE ADWORDS
There is nothing better than Google’s Ad Extensions. They allow consumers to navigate your website and take action without having to visit your post-click landing page. It is also important to note that ad extensions have a more practical benefit: they make your ad more visible! Your ad is more likely to be found and clicked if it occupies more space on the results page!
Become familiar with the various types of ad extensions and utilize them appropriately.
FAILURE TO CREATE AN AD GROUP
The Google search engine is a dog-eat-dog world. If you want to avoid getting eaten, create an ad category with your brand keywords. What’s the reason? Your savvier competitors will most likely do so if you don’t! The result is that if a potential customer searches for your business, their ad may be displayed before yours!
NOT TESTING AD POSITIONS
Google Ads mistakes also include failing to test ad positions. Does being at the top always make sense? The answer depends on the goal of your campaign. If your goal is to generate impressions and boost branding, being at the top may not offer you the best results.
The third and fifth positions are often the best for increasing conversions. Therefore, a cheaper ad can outperform a more expensive one. Your ad positions should be tested until you find the sweet spot that will boost your campaign’s effectiveness and save you money.
GOOGLE ADS COPY NOT TESTED
The biggest Google Ads mistake we see, and one of the most common is that of failing to create several versions of GOOD ads and test them to determine which perform best.
Create several variations of the ideal ad copy. It may be necessary to place multiple ads with the same title but different descriptions, or the other way around.
Try different angles for each version of the copy. Nursery school advertisements, for example, may entice parents to enroll their children to ensure their child’s future success or might persuade them to enroll their children because the school offers competitive pricing. Before pausing the ads that aren’t performing well, wait until they’ve received about 20-40 clicks.
There is a lot of work involved in running Google Ads campaigns. Most people spend a lot of money on them but end up being disappointed with the results. The good news is that you can become an expert at this instrument with enough practice and exposure.
In case it all seems too overwhelming, hire a Google Ads agency.
Are you having trouble with Google Ads? Mac J Web offers SEO services in Las Vegas. Get in touch with us and let’s talk about how we can help you avoid Google Ads mistakes and get the results you want.
