Make Your PPC Money Count: Avoid These 7 Common Mistakes

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns cost money because you pay the ad platform to display your ads and get a conversion. The cost depends on how you set it up, so mistakes can be costly.

Here are seven mistakes that drain your PPC budget, according to Chicago PPC agency experts:

1. Not going local with paid ads
2. Leaving landing pages empty
3. Not adjusting your campaigns
4. Measuring only vanity metrics
5. Not utilizing any support tools
6. Relying on only one ad copy
7. Ignoring the customer journey

There’s a lot to discuss, so get ready to take notes.

If you want to learn how Digital Authority Partners can increase your PPC effectiveness, watch this video!

7 Common PPC Mistakes That Waste Money

Marketers, website owners, and experts at Chicago PPC agencies recommend PPC because of its low startup costs and high return on investment (ROI) potential for small businesses. That may be true, but it does take proper skill and some experience to execute a profitable PPC campaign.

Consider the following scenarios for context (even when implausible, the points remain valid):

1. A coffee shop owner in Chicago starts a PPC campaign to boost sales. They set up ads and chose “coffee shop near me” as their target keyword without setting a target area. The ads get clicks from people two cities away, none of whom convert due to lack of proximity.

2. An Arizona publishing company wants to expand and find new customers. Thinking to one-up their competitors, they bid for double the estimated cost-per-click (CPC) for their ads. It works, but they pay much more for their results than their competitors.

3. A Las Vegas hotel reruns its old successful PPC ads to get more bookings in preparation for the upcoming holidays. The campaign fails to generate a significant amount of attention. The hotel owner wonders why, since it was a booming success the previous year.

In each of the scenarios above, the business owner either did not get the desired results from PPC or did so while wasting budget. PPC requires you to actively adapt to changes, otherwise you start to fall behind. Below are seven mistakes and how you can avoid them:

     1. Not Going Local With Paid Ads

PPC only works when you scale it to your business’s current situation. That means local businesses (particularly those primarily serving a local clientele) should use geotargeting in their area. In other words, aim to attract customers that you can serve.

Likewise, if you own a business that can ship to anywhere in the US, then, by all means, choose where you want your ads to appear as you feel is appropriate. The point of going local with PPC is to focus your efforts on people who are physically near you to reduce any wast in your budget.

      2. Leaving Landing Pages Empty

A PPC ad’s job is to direct leads to your business’s doorstep (website) and determine whether or not they convert based on what they find there. Craft your landing pages in a way that seamlessly connects to your ads. That is, make them a continuation of what your PPC ads are previewing.

Use them as intended and turn them into opportunities to highlight your business’s products and services. Talk about your business and make visitors to your site understand why you are the right choice for them. Otherwise, you pay for ad clicks that never pay off for your business.

      3. Not Adjusting Your Campaigns

Testing is fundamental to building a successful PPC campaign; ignoring it can be a costly mistake for beginners. This aspect of marketing is admittedly mundane and daunting for the inexperienced marketer, but that does not justify skipping it when solutions are readily available.

A Chicago PPC consulting service can take on the role of testing, running, and adjusting your ads to make sure they achieve the results your business needs. While outsourcing work means extra costs on top of PPC, preventing problems more than makes up for the added costs.

     4. Measuring Only Vanity Metrics

PPC is more than just getting clicks on your ads. As mentioned above, the ultimate goal of any marketing strategy is to convert leads into customers. Therefore, measuring your success based on vanity metrics such as views and clicks is shallow and ineffective for PPC.

Instead, measure your success according to how many conversions your ads make. Measuring success through the number of high-quality leads — marketing- and sales-qualified leads — is a more accurate indicator of success. Clicks do not matter if the person does nothing.

     5. Not Utilizing Any Support Tools

One example of a common PPC mistake, as demonstrated in the examples given above, was not managing your ad bids correctly, which results in overspending on your campaign. Overestimating your competitors' willingness to outbid absurd amounts is one mistake, and bidding an unnecessarily high amount is another.

However, not adjusting your bids based on your campaign’s performance is another level of irresponsible PPC management. For instance, you should scale back ads and keywords that do not attract enough activity so you can allot more of your budget to ads and keywords that do.

     6. Relying on Only One Ad Copy

Not every ad you make will have the effect you want on your audience, which could be for several reasons. Maybe you did not know your audience as well as you initially thought, so your PPC ads flopped. Then again, maybe you did, but only for a portion of your target market.

Testing paid ads, therefore, makes them effective at what they do. Through testing, you have measurable and reliable data to back up your choices. In addition, creating multiple ad copies allows you to more effectively target multiple demographics with the correct message.

     7. Ignoring the Customer Journey

It is not one ad’s job to carry your entire marketing strategy; hence, you need landing pages and multiple ad copies to successfully convert leads to customers. When adding to your PPC ads, think of the customer journey and how it applies to your current campaign.

A single ad does not constitute a successful PPC strategy. Your potential customers do not always look for products or services with the intent to purchase them. Tailor your ads to slowly shift their perspective by honestly advertising the benefits you can bring.

Summing Up PPC

PPC is often touted as a great way to conduct paid marketing, but with that comes an equally great potential for disastrous outcomes. While it can be hard to keep track of everything in a PPC campaign all at once, it is no excuse for not doing yourself or your business any justice.

Hiring a Chicago PPC agency is an obvious quick and long-term fix to any PPC problems, but you can actively rectify some of these on your own. For example, learn to pay closer attention to the parts of your campaign that matter, such as people’s conversion actions.

Need help optimizing your PPC budget? Contact Digital Authority Partners to learn how we can help.