Blog

Common Reasons PPC Campaigns Fail

Besides social media, one of the best ways for online businesses to see more customers on their website is Pay-per-click (PPC). PPC platforms like Google AdWords and Bing Ads enable users to create custom ads that target specific keywords relevant to their target audience. This method of internet marketing is effective if done right. We are going to take a look at some reasons that business owners fail at using PPC.

 

1. Lack of Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is used to determine the action of the customer when they arrive on your page. If you want them to visit a specific page or download something, you set up keywords to direct them to do that. Without tracking the effectiveness of this, you could be wasting a lot of time and money.

 

2. Not Using Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are keywords that prevent your ad from showing when someone types in a full search for a specific product. Let’s say that you sell women’s clothing. Many shoppers will type in clothing and your ad may appear. If they are looking for men’s clothing and click on your ad because it was the first one on the search engine results, you will pay your PPC fee, the customer will visit your site and not find what they are looking for and go to another site. Negative keywords can help you avoid this and should be used by every business owner considering PPC.

 

3. Sending Users to Your Homepage

When using PPC, you want customers to visit specific pages that contain your products or services. If you send them to your homepage, you have less chance of them taking the time to visit other areas of your site. Be sure to send your customers to the page that they are looking for if you want maximum conversions. For example, you sell a wide range of women’s clothing and your customer is searching for scarves. You would link them to the page on your website where they can find scarves ensuring they are directed where they need to be and your PPC ad did its job.

 

4. Oversized Ad Groups

A lot of business owners feel that more is better and they put a lot of keywords in one ad group thinking that this will get them more site visitors. You should use several small ad groups so you can target the customer and send them to the page on your site that offers what they are looking for.

 

5. Limited by Budget

Using the “Limited by Budget” feature means that the ads stop showing sometime before midnight. This misses out on many customers who do their online shopping and searching at night. Rather than choosing ‘Limited by Budget’ to save money on PPC, try the following:
Take a look at the Geographic area. If your business is local, you don’t need your ads showing throughout the UK.

 

Take a look at your ad position. If your ads are showing in top position, try decreasing your max CPC to bring your CPC down and show your ads more continuously throughout the day.

 

Take a look at your budget. Your PPC budget is important, but if you are running a minimal budget and having some success, try doubling it for a period of time and see if the impression share is worth it.
If you are using PPC in addition to social media to reach more customers for your business, these tips can help you and make you more successful online. Give them a try today and see the improvements they can make for you.