By avoiding a few common mistakes when using Google AdWords, your online ad campaigns will experience greater success. At ABCS, we have discovered that even applying a few of these tips will dramatically increase the performance of your ads. Google AdWords offers powerful pay-per-click (PPC) tools that can greatly increase traffic to a website.
However, if people do not logically plan their PPC campaign and follow a sound marketing strategy, they can quickly see an increase in their cost of using AdWords. This may be good for Google’s ROI, but not for your own bottom line. AdWords mistakes are costly, so keep these five major mistakes in mind when using Google’s services for pay-per-click marketing campaigns.
First mistake – ignoring the keyword match types:
This is a crucial mistake the many users of Google AdWords make when using this advertising platform. Some people fail to realize that when selecting for keywords matches, there are actually many ways to structure their keyword match. There are actually five main keyword match types that you need to be aware of when using Google’s AdWords.
[1] broad match keywords
[2] broad match modified keywords
[3] phrase match keywords
[4] exact match keywords
[5] negative match keywords
If your text ads only use broad match keywords then your ads will appear along with a wide-range of other possible keywords. The broad match keyword type is the default setting match for AdWords accounts, with any inputted keywords automatically assigned to this keyword type. So, unless you have already selected a wide-variety of negative keywords, your ad campaign’s performance will suffer.
This is because your ad’s keywords are too broad, so many of the returned search results will not relevant to your product or service. This is where the use of the different types will help to ensure that your ad is displayed with the most relevant search terms. If you add broad match modified, phrase match, exact match and negative match keywords to your account settings, you will greatly reduce the number of irrelevant times (or impressions) that your ad is displayed in a search result.
The primary goal is to make your Google PPC ad as precise as possible, by focusing on your most relevant keywords but limit the search volume. The goal is for your online ad to experience fewer wasted clicks by people who are not really looking for your exact service or product. It should be noted that there is a difference between keywords that are bided on and the search term that someone enters when performing a search on Google.
In order to see what people are searching, you should look at Google’s term report. This allows you to review search queries and decide what terms should be added to a keyword ad group.
Second mistake – not using branded and negative keywords:
This mistake directly connects to the previously mentioned first mistake. There are a number of choices that AdWords offers which allow an ad to have greater precision, in particular, branded and negative keywords. People sometimes fail to use their own organization’s branded keywords in pay-per-click campaigns.
If your Healthcare agency’s name is XYZ Cardiology, you should definitely bid on these keywords. In fact, these can be some of the most affordable ads that you can buy on AdWords. Your organization will benefit by having your branded name appear in both organic search results and PPC text ads.
As was the case with branded keywords, people sometimes forget about negative keywords. Sometimes people are afraid to use the negative keywords option because they are fearful that they might hinder the performance of their online marketing campaigns. Actually, the opposite is true!
Your PPC ad campaigns will earn better click-through-rates due to the fact that the ads will have more search relevance. Negative keywords will provide more focus for any online PPC campaign. A review of search queries even allows you to locate less than ideal terms, which will help you generate negative keywords. One could argue that using negative keywords is almost a requirement for high performing ads with good quality scores, conversions and click-through-rates. Otherwise, an ad will have too many irrelevant views which are a waste of your time and money.
Third mistake – only creating one version of your ad:
A variety of messages and text is often beneficial when running PPC ad campaigns. You want to create multiple variations of an ad. The goal is to test different words and layouts. As a principle, you should always test different versions of your messaging in order to see what works. For a start, here are five essential ad elements that you should experiment with:
[1] include location-specific details
[2] test different calls to action
[3] include credentials and awards
[4] try different selling points including prices and promotions
[5] changes to punctuation and capitalization.
These ad elements may sound minor, but they can have a tremendous impact on a PPC campaign. Experiment with them and find out what works best for your unique product or service.
Fourth mistake – having a poorly-designed landing page:
A seemingly obvious mistake is not considering the relationship between your keywords and your landing page. This simple fact is often overlooked and it can create major advertising problems. It is essential that you consider all the various elements that should connect an ad’s keyword to the webpage where a viewer is directed to once they click your ad.
Web and landing pages used in PPC campaigns need to have a logical relationship. The better this relationship, the greater chance that the viewer who clicked on your ad, and landed on your webpage. . . will stay on your website. Better performing AdWords campaigns have easily recognizable elements between their ad and the landing page. Simply put, a poor landing page experience will create missed conversions on a website.
Fifth mistake – not properly using geographical targeting for your ad:
The AdWords interface, as well as other PPC platforms, provide a tremendous amount of granular control as to where and when their ad will appear. You should always use the most accurate data possible in order to maximize your ad’s impact. When creating a strategy for AdWords geographical targeting, it is almost always better to start small. It is preferable to run ads in areas where you have already experienced some success.
Starting local, finding success, and then scaling up in size is almost always sound advice. Just because you are having success on the local level does not automatically translate to success on a regional, national or international level. An ad that performs well in one geographical area, may have only lackluster performance in another area.
If you can avoid these five mistakes when running a PPC campaign, your ad will receive more clicks and conversions. In the modern world of marketing, PPC is one of the more crucial aspects of marketing. Yet, it is one of the more misunderstood advertising tools.
For additional questions about Google AdWords, online advertising or other healthcare-related marketing questions — reach out to us.
We are an Ohio-based company that provides healthcare-focused marketing and website development for medical professionals. We also provide experienced medical billing, credentialing, HCBS Medicaid Waiver billing and workforce management tools (SaaS).
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