The Most Common PPC Advertising Mistakes

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.

Of course, like any other form of advertising, PPC has its pitfalls. Launching your first ad campaign without a good plan could result in hundreds or thousands of dollars in wasted ads while you learn what to do and what not do to. There are whole books on the details of a good pay per click campaign out there.

Starting up is easy enough, anyone can get involved without having to sit down with a manual for a few days. There are a few basic tips, though, for anyone thinking about experimenting with pay per click it’s a good idea to examine them close. The majority of mistakes are really easy to fix so that PPC campaigns can get back on track fast. This is a small list of the most common mistakes people make, and how to fix them.

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.

People who click on your ad are looking for something very specific. It was their keyword search that brought them to your ad, so lead them straight to the sale when they click. Landing pages work, they allow you to present your customers with exactly what they’re looking for. Focus your landing pages on keywords you’re using in your advertisements.

2. Improper customization of landing pages. Ideally, your PPC campaign should work by presenting a potential customer with an ad closely targeted to their keyword. The landing page they arrive at should be closely geared towards that keyword, to present no confusion as to what the page is about. Your customer should never have trouble finding what he or she is looking for! Put each product or service on its own landing page, to avoid confusion.

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 clichs 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.

4. Low bid placement. All search engines use their own methods for determining where to put your ad. Yahoo and Google use a combination of the relevancy of your ad, and your bid price. One big mistake that many people make is not tightly targeting keywords enough to get top placement. As much as eighty-five percent of all PPC clicks happen on ads in one of the top three positions. If you can’t focus your ads tightly enough to get that top spot, you’re missing out on a lot of traffic.