If you’re a Small Business that has invested time and money into a Google AdWords Marketing Campaign – well done! Google AdWords is an excellent way to drive traffic to you Site, grow brand awareness and increase your customers, leads and sales.
But no matter how long you’ve been running your Campaign for, or how much you think you may know about this incredibly powerful Advertising Platform, chances are you’re making a few simple mistakes that could be harming your Campaign’s success.
Some mistakes may be small and when corrected may only help make your life easier, but then there are those crucial mistakes that could be costing you your whole AdWords budget which, for a Small Business, could be a risk you simply can’t afford.
But don’t worry, because in this post we’ll discuss the top 6 most common mistakes people make when it comes to their Google AdWords Campaigns. And better yet, we’ll tell you everything you need to know to fix them, helping to put you on the path to a highly successful AdWords Campaign.
Mistake #1 Not Using Negative Keywords
Most people know that selecting the best and most relevant Keywords is a crucial part of creating a successful AdWords Campaign. But what often gets neglected is the addition of “Negative Keywords” to a Campaign.
Negative Keywords are essentially words or phrases that you want to prevent your ad from being triggered for. For example if you sell seeing eye glasses, you may find your ad showing up for searches relating to “wine glasses”. You would therefore want to add “wine” as a Negative Keyword for this Campaign.
If you’ve neglected the addition of these Negative Keywords to your Campaign, chances are you may have wasted a portion of your budget on unnecessary and irrelevant clicks on your ad. Adding Negative Keywords allows your budget to be spent on the audience and leads you’re attempting to draw to your Site. In order to add Negative Keywords to your Campaign, go to the Keywords Tab and add them just as you would Keywords you’re tracking, but in the “Negative” column.
Mistake #2 Your Ad Text Misses the Mark
If your AdWords Campaign is floundering, it could be for the simple reason that your ad’s creative just isn’t effective. Thankfully, once identified, this is also one of the easier mistakes to fix!
When crafting your ad’s written content it needs to be eye-catching, direct and contain all the information your consumers would want and need to know.
AdWords limits your first headline to 30 characters, so get creative and come up with something that concise but still catchy. For the rest of your ad text, you’re allowed 30 characters for an additional headline and 80 for the rest. Make sure that you emphasises the benefits of your product or service in this space and that it encourages your visitor to click and then convert once they reach that landing page.
Mistake #3 You Have Poor Landing Pages
You’ve got the click – that’s great! But what’s happened to your sale? If users are clicking on your ad but then bouncing straight off the page you send them to then this should be a warning signal that your Landing Page isn’t up to scratch.
It’s absolutely critical to ensure that the Landing Page you send your potential customer to after they click your ad is relevant to what it was they clicked on in the first place. For example, if they click on your ad promoting a man’s dress shoe, then the Landing Page should rightfully be the product page for this exact shoe.
Remember, people Shopping Online want to buy their products fast and efficiently, so don’t waste their time buy trying to send them all over your Website in the hopes they’ll buy something else. Trust us, it won’t work. Give them what they want and you’ll reap the rewards.
Furthermore, you need to make sure everything on your Landing Pages is optimised to within an inch of its life. Do all the buttons work? Is the content well written? Are the images of a high quality? You should ask yourself all of these questions before you make your ad live.
Mistake #4 You Chose the Wrong Goal
With any good Digital Marketing Strategy you need to establish your goals firmly from the outset. Google AdWords is no different, but unfortunately this is where so many Business Owners go wrong.
When first setting up your AdWords Campaign, you’ll be asked to select your preferred Campaign Goal. The goal you select should align with the main thing you want to get from your campaign, for example, sales, clicks, impressions, Website traffic or views. After selecting a goal, you'll see relevant, recommended features and settings to help you attain the results that matter most to your business.
If you select a goal for your ad that isn’t your main focus, you’ll likely be missing out on what’s really important to your Business. So make sure you have a solid idea of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve this through your Campaign.
Mistake #5 Neglecting to Use Ad Extension
If you’re not using ad extensions you’re likely waving goodbye a large portion of potential clicks – and therefore potential customers.
Ad Extensions within Google AdWords are essentially additional snippets of information that you can include on your ad to make it more appealing and meaningful to searchers. There’s a wide variety available for you to use, depending on the goal you’re hoping to achieve for your Business.
For example, your audience may be more likely to call a phone number in an ad with the “Call Extensions,” or more inclined to visit your shop front if you have the “Location Extension”. To ensure you’re choosing the most appropriate ad extensions, simply go to the Ad Extensions Page and “select your extensions based on your primary advertising goal”. This will show you some common goals and which extensions will best produce the outcome you’re hoping for.
Mistake #6 You’re Ignoring Your Data
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, data is of the utmost importance if you’re hoping to achieve a truly successful Marketing Campaign. And if you neglect it completely, you could be missing all the signs that are telling you where your Campaign is going wrong.
Most Small Business Owners will shy away from monitoring their AdWords analytics and data, but it really is something you MUST pay attention to. Thankfully, Google makes it quite easy, with the most important insights made available to you.
By carefully assessing your Click-Through-Rate, impressions, time spent on page, Cost-per-Click and Cost-per-Conversion, you’ll know where in your ad you might be going wrong and which areas need to be optimised. If you miss this step, you’ll never know exactly where you’ve gone wrong, so you’ll have no way to fix it!
If you’ve made any of the above mistakes before, it’s okay, so have many other Small Business Owners before you. Now that you know where you may have gone wrong it’s time to pull up your socks and rectify the problems. Google AdWords is by no means a “set and forget” kind of Marketing Tool. It requires patience, testing and knowledge to get it exactly right. But when you do you’ll see your Business reaping the rewards by the bucket load.