The Four Most Common Mistakes You Can Make With PPC Ads
by Brian Basch
Because it allows you to target prospects specifically by interest and location, pay per click advertising, or PPC, is one of the best options available. You can measure results precisely, and control ad spending, too. It’s also more affordable for small business owners than many other options, including billboards, television and radio.
Like anything else, PPC has disadvantages and shouldn’t be entered into without doing your homework. Hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of advertising could be wasted if you attempt a campaign that isn’t planned and doesn’t have a strategy. There is a lot of information offering guidance when deciding your PPC strategy, so it’s a good idea to learn more about it.
Getting things off the ground is quite easy, provided you don’t follow in the footsteps of others who have made these simple mistakes. The upside is that simple issues are easily fixed with pay per click, so if you do start out with a mistake you can turn it around very fast and start seeing results.
1. The most common error is using your home page as the landing page. It doesn’t matter what search engine you’re using as a base for your campaign. While it seems logical to send prospective sales to your website’s homepage, it can detract from your sales. Here’s how.
When people click on your ad , they are looking for a very specific thing that you’ve been advertising. Landing pages can be specific to ads, so that the person is taken directly to what it is you are advertising. This way, the customer gets exactly what they are looking for. Landing pages should be focused on keywords or phrases used in the advertisement and don’t clutter it up with other links or distractions.
2. Poorly customized landing pages. Make no mistakes about it, the landing page should relate directly to the ad and vice versa. The minute a potential customer gets confused or thinks they have gotten lost they will immediately exit back to the search. Your customer must be able to find what he or she is looking for, so advertised products or services should have their own landing page that addresses the keywords used in your ads.
Mistake 3. Using ineffective ad copy that just doesn’t suit. You don’t have a lot of space to work in PPC ads. Try to look for impact from your ad copy and avoid old cliches that you see on store windows like “qualified technicians” or “quality guaranteed”. Even if these statements are true about your business, they just don’t work in pay per click advertising. Put some thought into an attention-grabbing headline and follow it up with a strong promise you can give your customers. Line three is a good spot to include special features of the product or service, or an offer you want to make.
Mistake 4. Low bid placement usually means low placement on the search page. Search engines use different methods for placing your ad. Yahoo and Google use a system that consists of examining the relevancy of your ad, combined with your bid price. Tightly targeted keywords will get you top placement and this means really crunching statistics and putting lots of thought into your approach. Eighty-five percent of all PPC clicks happen on ads in the top three positions, so it’s worth putting in the effort.
About the Author:
If the time has come for you to stop making costly mistakes when it comes to your ppc management, you should contract ProPayPerClickManagement.com to handle your online advertising. Offering years of experience and recognized as a adwords expert, Brian Basch guides your company to gain more from pay per click. Go there now and sign up for an analysis of your ppc strategy.
