10 More Google Ads Mistakes

Google Ads can be an extremely effective way to drive traffic to your website if you are doing it correctly. Unfortunately, many business owners make common mistakes that decrease their effectiveness and waste their money. In this blog post, we will discuss the 10 most common Google Ads mistakes and how to avoid them!

1. Not using negative keywords

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make with Google Ads is not using negative keywords. Negative keywords are words or phrases that you add to your campaign to prevent your ads from showing up when people search for them. This ensures that your ads are only being shown to people who are actually interested in what you have to offer!

2. Targeting the wrong audience

Another common mistake is targeting the wrong audience. When setting up your Google Ads campaign, it’s important to make sure that you are targeting people who are interested in and searching for what you have to offer. 

3. Creating irrelevant ads

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make with Google Ads is creating irrelevant ads.

 

4. Not using keywords correctly: targeting too many, not enough, or choosing the wrong keywords

Another common mistake with Google Ads is not using keywords correctly. This means that you are not using the right keywords or you are not using them in the right places. 

When targeting keywords for your Google Ads campaign, it’s important to target only the keywords that are relevant to your business. If you target too many keywords or keywords that are too broad, your ads will be less effective because your budget will be spread too thin.

A third mistake that businesses often make is not using enough keywords. When setting up your campaign, it’s important to include a variety of keywords that accurately reflect what you have to offer. This will help ensure that your ads show up when people search for those keywords.

Another mistake is choosing the wrong keywords. When selecting keywords for your campaign, it’s important to choose ones that have a high search volume and low competition. This will help ensure that your ads show up when people search for those keywords and that you aren’t spending too much money on clicks.

 

5. Not using ad extensions

Ad extensions are another great way to improve the effectiveness of your Google Ads campaign. Ad extensions allow you to include additional information about your business, such as your phone number or address, which can help increase click-through rates (CTRs). They can help improve your ads’ visibility. Sitelinks are another type of ad extension that can be very effective for google ads campaigns; sitelink extensions allow you to include links to specific pages on your website, which can help increase CTRs and website traffic.

5. Having low click-through rates

 

6. Not testing different ads

Another mistake that businesses make is not testing their ads. It’s important to test different versions of your ad to see which one performs the best over a set period of time. The more impressions you have, the shorter the time you need to allow a test to fully determine which is the better performing ad. If you have fewer impressions and clicks, you’ll need a longer test timeframe.

7. Sending PPC traffic to a poor landing page

When someone clicks on your ad, they should be taken to a landing page that is relevant to what they were searching for. If the landing page is not relevant, or if it is not user-friendly, the person is likely to leave your website without taking any action. This can lead to lost sales opportunities and a negative landing page experience score in Google Ads.

A poor landing page experience means that the landing page does not match the expectations of the person who clicked on the ad OR there was a technical issue with the page, like a slow load time or missing images. For example, if you are selling shoes online, the person who clicks on your ad should be taken to a landing page where they can buy shoes. If they are taken to a page that sells clothes or a page where the product images of shoes don’t load, they are likely to leave your website without converting.

Another common mistake with landing pages is having too many distractions on the page. The goal of a landing page is to get the person to take an action, such as buying a product or signing up for a newsletter. If there are too many distractions on the page, or if there are too many steps involved in taking the desired action, the person is likely to leave without taking any action at all.

The third mistake with landing pages is making them too complicated. If the person has to fill out too many forms or if there are too many steps involved to get to the information or product they want, they are likely to give up and leave your page and website.

 

8. Paying too much for clicks and/or not setting a budget

Are you paying too much for your ad clicks? For example, if you are paying $1 per click and you could be paying only 50 cents per click, you are wasting half your budget.

To avoid paying too much for clicks, it’s important to set a budget for your campaign and to track your spending carefully. You can also set a bid cap. A bid cap is a maximum amount that you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. By setting a bid cap, you can ensure that you don’t overspend on clicks and that you only pay for clicks that are relevant to your business.

Another way to decrease spending is to improve your landing page experience and ad relevance to increase your Google Ads quality score. The better your quality score, the less you will have to bid at auction for your ad to show to Google searchers.

Without a budget, it’s difficult to track how effective your campaign is and it’s easy to overspend on clicks. Google makes it very easy for you to spend money on a PPC campaign; it’s more difficult and requires certain skills and experience to spend your money well.

9. Not tracking results properly

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make with Google Ads is not tracking their results properly. Without tracking data, it’s impossible to determine whether or not your campaign is successful. This means tracking how many people click on your ads, how much money you spend on your ads, and how many sales you generate from your ads (and many other metrics and abbreviations). If you don’t track your results, you won’t know whether or not your campaign is successful and you won’t be able to make changes to improve it.

Ultimately your conversion tracking needs to be implemented and accurate. Conversion tracking allows you to track which ads are converting best so that you can focus your efforts on those ads and make improvements in the campaigns where performance is lagging.

 

10. Giving up too soon

Many businesses give up on their Google Ads campaigns too soon. They don’t see the results they were hoping for and they decide to stop spending money on their ads. However, if you give up too soon, you’re missing out on potential customers.

It’s important to remember that it takes time to see results from your Google Ads campaign. You won’t see an immediate increase in traffic or sales, but if you stick with it and optimize your campaigns, you will eventually see a return on your investment. In order to maximize the success of your campaign, be sure to track your results and make changes based on what you learn.

If you’re not seeing the results you want from your Google Ads campaign, don’t give up! Try tweaking your settings or targeting different keywords. You may also want to consider hiring a professional or an agency (like Genessee!) to help build and manage your ad campaigns. With a little bit of patience and some adjustments, you should see an improvement in your results.

 

Posted in PPC