Five Big Google Adwords Mistakes

[Mike Seddon]

I recently wrote an article based on what I was seeing as the five kiiler mistakes that people were making with their adwords campaigns.

I thought you good people might appreciate seeing it and if you are making one or more of these mistakes, go fix then now. It will save you money.

There aren't in order of biggest mistake first as it will vary from business to business. However these tend to be the five that cause the most problems in waste clicks, not enough clicks etc.

Mistake One: Targeting the wrong countries

Many people set their Countries and Territories Campaign Settings to ‘All Countries and Territories’ even though they probably can’t sell to all those places. Why pay for a click from someone who will not be buying your products. Think carefully about which countries you can sell effectively too and only advertise to them.

Mistake Two: Don’t advertise around the Clock.

Unless you are a truly Global company, there will probably only be certain times of the day when you customers are actively online. Therefore you really should be using the Ad Scheduling feature in the Campaign Settings. Pick your customers good times and don’t advertise when they are active.

Mistake Three: Going for cheaper clicks on the Content Network.

Many first time users discover the content network and they can usually see much cheaper clicks. So in the mad desire for clicks at any price they pour more and more budget into the content networks. However the truth is that these networks rarely give anything like the conversion to customers that the search networks give. They are usually a tyre kicker’s paradise so it’s usually best to just avoid them.

Mistake Four: Ignore Conversion Tracking.

Come on hands up now. Who hasn’t implemented Conversion Tracking on the campaigns?

Would you cross the road with your eyes shut?

Getting a great click through rate for a keyword is one thing but if that keyword doesn’t give you any conversions to customers, is it such a great keyword?

Implement Conversion Tracking today and be prepared to be amazed at which keywords are really bringing in customers. You’ll also discover the one that are bleeding you dry for no return.

If you've no idea how to set up conversion tracking, go watch this video. It's a teaser clip I use to sell my course, but the clip itself is free and tells you how to set up conversion tracking.

Conversion Tracking Video


Mistake Five: Too few keywords.

So many Adwords users set up their campaigns with the first one hundred or so keywords they can think of for their business.

The problem is that your competitors are doing exactly the same thing and you can bet they have come up with the same hundred keywords. So competition is going to be fierce.

You really should aim for thousands of keywords. People are getting more and more creative about the keywords they are putting into the search engines. They are actually using whole sentences rather than a keyword or two. So there is a massive wealth of untapped keywords out there just waiting for you. Unless of course I get there first!


Cheers
Mike

[Alvin]

Great advice Mike for PPC novices like me.This should be made a sticky.

A

[Chubster]

Hi Mike

Many thanks, great advice. Im one who has to hold his hands very high when it comes to conversion tracking..is it just me though as I cant get your link to work?

Chub

[UKSBD]

Another for the list,
Create landing pages specifically for AdWords campaigns (or even
individual keywords if the ROI is worth it)

Lots of people just set up ads pointing to their homepage or to existing
products pages. If the product warrants it create landing pages that
are specifically trying to sell that one product.

[Mike Seddon]

Hi Mike

Many thanks, great advice. Im one who has to hold his hands very high when it comes to conversion tracking..is it just me though as I cant get your link to work?

Chub

It's not you. I've fixed the link now

[RayB]

Great article Mike - I have stickied it as per Alvin's suggestion.

I agree with UKSBD about landing pages - also it's amazing how many people make the mistake of sending ad's to their homepage instead of straight to the money page.

I also have one Keyword to per ad set to exact match - so if I identify say 10 variant KW's combos I have 10 different ads, one for each exact phrase

[Chubster]

It's not you. I've fixed the link now

The video explains it well thanks...but again not sure if it is my comp, but it sounds like your on helium

[Mike Seddon]

The video explains it well thanks...but again not sure if it is my comp, but it sounds like your on helium

I've had lots of people listen to that without any issues and then only this week two people have said the voice sounds funny.

I suspect its something to do with the audio decoder and what drivers you have.

Is it really bad?

[Chubster]

Hi Mike..

It starts off ok...but then gets very weird. At some points cant make voice out at all

[Missie]

Mistake Five: Too few keywords.

So many Adwords users set up their campaigns with the first one hundred or so keywords they can think of for their business.

The problem is that your competitors are doing exactly the same thing and you can bet they have come up with the same hundred keywords. So competition is going to be fierce.

You really should aim for thousands of keywords. People are getting more and more creative about the keywords they are putting into the search engines. They are actually using whole sentences rather than a keyword or two. So there is a massive wealth of untapped keywords out there just waiting for you. Unless of course I get there first!

I'm guitly of that, but it would cost a fortune for thousands of keywords.