Managing a business is not easy, it can consume most of your time. Perhaps that's the reason why not many who own a business are able to invest their time in learning Google Ads. A lack of understanding of the basics results in making mistakes with ad campaigns that harm their businesses.
To combat this, I've compiled the top 5 Google Ads mistakes that I've seen businesses make time and time again. Let's jump right in!
Tracking Quality Scores is an integral part of running an ad campaign successfully. Before we talk further about it, let’s first understand what Quality Score is and what it depends on.
It’s Google’s way of rating the relevance and quality of your keywords and PPC ads. This score determines how much you pay per click (CPC: Cost per click).
Now that we have that out of the way let’s have a look at one of the most common mistakes that you can save yourself from. Quality Score can have a direct impact on your revenue. It’s easy to miss a sudden drop in the Quality Score of a high converting keyword. Missing this drop can cause the CPA to rise which in turn gets your bids lowered by the bidding system. This is bad news for you because that high converting keyword will suddenly go missing.
I understand that spotting changes in trends can be tricky, especially if you’re new. It can feel overwhelming when you have thousands of keywords and ad groups. If you feel too caught up, you can talk to a pro for free to figure out what’s killing your business.
Let’s talk about Profit Margins because a lot of businesses get confused with what it really is. Profit Margins are used by businesses as indicators of a company’s financial health management’s skill and growth potential. Advertisers must understand their profit margins to measure the performance of their campaign and optimize them accordingly.
While there are different types of profit margin, the most important one is the net profit margin. It is a company’s bottom line, after taking out all the other expenses.
How, you ask? Well, here are a few tips you should bear in mind on how to approach Profit Margins:
A common Google Ads mistake that I see a lot of people make is not setting up conversions for sales so that return on investment can be measured. Now that we've already discussed profit margins in the previous point, figure out the profit margin for each of your products or services so that you can set the right price per click saving you money.
If you don’t know how to set up conversions, here are the steps that you can follow to set up conversions:
If learning the “Fundamentals of Google Ads” sounds like a great idea to you, here’s how you can learn all about it in an in-depth, FREE course offered by Google Skillshop. You can take this course at your preferred pace. You can even get a certificate for the course if you score well on the test!
The mistake of missing Ad Extensions is more common than you might think. A seasoned professional knows the importance of ad extensions. Let’s take a quick look at what Ad Extensions are.
To reach the right customers on Google Ads, your ad needs to be informative relevant and engaging. This is where ad extensions can be helpful. This feature shows additional business information, like an address, store ratings, phone number or more webpage links which makes it more likely for people to choose your business. The best part is that there is no extra fee to use them.
Ad Extensions are crucial for online ads. if you haven’t already, make sure that you start implementing them in your ads, it is a great way to bring in more conversions. Beware, it's easy to overdo them. Keep it simple and as the name suggests, works as an "extension" of your ad.
Using Negative Keywords could help your ad campaign to reach the right audience and increase the chances of conversion. Let me explain what negative keywords are, how they work and how to use them.
A negative keyword is a type of keyword that can prevent your ad from showing specific search terms. Negative keywords can help your ads reach the most interested customers which can lead to a reduced cost and an increased return on investment (ROI).
When choosing negative keywords, pick words that are similar to your keywords but unrelated to your product or service. Let’s say you have a pet supply store but you don’t offer pet grooming service. By adding the word “grooming” as a negative keyword, you will prevent your ad from showing to people who are searching for pet grooming services.
Here is a quick step-by-step guide from Google Support to adding Negative Keywords to your campaign:
We all make mistakes but what matters is that we learn from them and get better. I hope this guide helped you recognize the mistakes you've been making and helps you to avoid them in future.
If you'd like to work with an expert, book a free of cost consultation today.