Small Business Tax Center
Small Business Ideas, Grants &
Plans to Start & Run a Business:

Small Business Grants
CyberSchmooz
Network in Cyberschmooz Community Ask Questions Questions and Answers Share Tips Small Business Ideas List Your Business Business Advice from Idea Cafe Experts Coffee Talk with Experts Starting A Business Business Plan Biz Planning | Sample Plans Small Business Ideas Idea Name Your Biz Name Plan Your Biz Plan Financing $ Starting a Business Do It! Running your Business Marketing Tips Promotional Merchandise Marketing Tips Marketing | Sales | Customers Human Resources HR | Employees | Contractors Legal Forms & Tax Information Legal | Biz Forms Managing a Business Managing | Operations
Financing Resources Financing Your Business E Commerce & Webhosting eCommerce Take Out Info Trade Publications FREE Trade Publications Business Books Biz Books Your Own Business Small Business News Small Biz News Gen X Biz Gen X Biz Work at Home Work @ Home Business Information The Fridge - Biz Info on Ice Destress Send Awards Send Awards & Greetings Yoga At Your Desk Yoga @ Your Desk Fun Guide Guide to Find FUN Online About Idea Cafe Press Idea Cafe has received Idea Cafe in the News Idea Cafe's Kudos Kudos for Idea Cafe Advertise on Idea Cafe Advertise on Idea Cafe Privacy Policy Privacy Policy Contact Idea Cafe Contact Idea Cafe Link to Idea Cafe Link to/from Idea Cafe Join Idea Cafe
Search Idea Cafe Site Directory Site Map Online directory to business resources Biz Web Guide



Expert Answers to Biz Questions

Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.

color business bar

7 Mistakes Your PPC Campaign is Making

PPC campaigns can provide tremendous value to your business, and knowing how to smartly manage those campaigns can mean the difference between success and failure. To make the most of your campaign and receive higher conversions, clickthrough rates, and quality scores, you need to be able to recognize when you're making costly mistakes.  

You might want to enlist the services of a professional PPC management agency to provide you with a full audit on your current campaign. These types of audits generally optimize the campaign while lowering costs, and generating even more sales.

According to Moz, understanding and fixing simple mistakes can save you thousands each month and bring in an extra 70% in revenue. To better recognzie where you can make improvements, here are seven mistakes your PPC campaign is making:

1) Not looking at your competitors. When you post ads, you're competing against potentially thousands of others for the same keywords. This means you need to be better than the rest. You should know who you're competing against and what keywords they're using. You can use tools like iSpionage to see how other brands are using their keywords, and what's most effective for them.

2) Writing ads that aren't relevant. It's understandable that you might get frustrated by having to fit so much information into a small amount of text. There are character limits and quality rules to consider. However, if the ad isn't relevant to your brand's landing page, it could have a negative impact on your Quality Score, which in turn makes your clicks more expensive. This can happen for a variety of reasons. For example, an advertiser trying to make the most of an ad might group several keywords together into one an. This isn't an effective strategy, as it fails to convey the intended message.

3) Avoiding Ad Groups. By not properly utilizing Ad Groups, you miss out on clicks. Ad groups help you manage different types of campaigns by grouping keywords into common themes. The alternative to not using Ad Groups is clumping all keywords together into the same campaign, which can get messy quickly. For example, Best Buy wouldn't put all of their ads in the same category: they'd have ads for laptops, cell phones, audio equipment, etc.

4) Not using geo-targeting. Even if your brand or service is universal, users still have a habit of searching locally. Because of this, you can geo-target your ads by state. Simply use all states in the ad title, and you're likely to receive a higher CTR. You can then analyze your stats and see which state is performing best. The results may surprise you.

5) Nixing the call to action. There are many areas of your ad copy you can skip out on in exchange of more favorable options, but the CTA isn't one of them. Never underestimate the power of a good CTA. In fact, CTAs are key to increasing conversions. When writing them, consider your goals - is it to download something, purchase a product, subscribe to a list? This should be conveyed in your copy.

6) Not split testing. To continuously improve your CTR, you should always be running at least three ads at the same time. This ensures that your messaging is up to date, and that you're running the best versions of your ad possible. There are several different elements to test: display URLS, descriptions, CTAs, and promotions among them. Once you identify the higher-converting ads, you can continue to attempt to find even more profitable versions based on your tweaks.

7) Not using ad extensions. Ad extensions provide a personal touch to your ad by offering potential visitors several link options to getting exactly where they need to be on your site. For example, a site promoting beauty products might have several ad extensions to different, popular beauty products. According to Google, using ad extensions generally increases CTR by an average of 10 percent.



 

Google      

Small Business Tax CenterIdea Cafe HomeSign UpBiz Grant CenterCyberSchmoozCoffee Talk with ExpertsPeople in Biz ProfilesStarting Your BizBiz PlanningRunning Your BizFREE Trade PublicationsMarketingFinancing Your BizHuman ResourcesLegal & Biz FormsManaging Your BizeCommerceYou and Your BizGen XWork@HomeThe FridgeDe-StressSend an AwardSend an eGreetingYoga @ Your DeskWeb GuideIdea Cafe in the NewsAbout Idea CafeAdvertise on Idea CafeContact UsPrivacy PolicySite MapSmall Biz News

Copyright 1995-2024, Idea Cafe Inc. Downloads are for personal use only, not for resale to others, and may not be reprinted in any form without written permission from Idea Cafe Inc.

DISCLAIMER: We hope whatever you find on this site is helpful, but be cautioned that it may not apply to your own situation, or be totally current at any given time. Idea Cafe Inc. and all of its current and past experts, sponsors, advertisers, agents, contractors and advisors disclaim all warranties with regard to anything found anywhere on this family of websites, quoted from, or sent from Idea Cafe. and its related sites, publications and companies. We also take no responsibility for comments published by others on these pages.

TRADEMARKS: The following are Registered Trademarks or Servicemarks of DevStart, Inc.: Idea Cafe®, Online Coffee Break®, The Small Business Gathering Place®, Take out Info®, Biz Bar & Grill®, Complaint-O-Meter®, A Fun Approach to Serious Business™, CyberSchmooz™, and BizCafe™.