Most people bicker about how Google Ads is not working for their business and are not receiving many leads. Many even complain about putting money into it but are seeing very little ROI. Some digital marketers are even on the brink of giving up. But the truth is that Google ads could drive a lot of relevant traffic to their business and boost their sales exponentially. The main issue lies in setting up the campaign and the most important part is how well it’s managed by the marketer. According to reports, 66% of the Google Ads budgets get wasted because the campaigns are not properly optimized.
There can be a number of issues that can affect your AdWords efforts. While some issues may occur fixable, others may require a closer look under the hood. Here we’ll review nine common mistakes that keep advertisers’ campaigns out of the fast lane.
1. Search Network & Display Network
You must be aware that Google’s search and display networks are powered by AdWords that connect businesses with endless scores of potential customers. The Search Network consists of Google.com and partners such as Ask.com and AOL.com whereas the Display Network encompasses websites as YouTube, Gmail and Blogger along with other websites, blogs, and apps. Google AdWords asks advertisers to run campaigns on both networks but web users behave differently on both of them. It’s recommended not to follow Google’s advice here. Instead, create separate campaigns for each network where you’ll be witnessing better results.
2. Not Using Negative Keywords
One of the most important factors for AdWords is using negative keywords since it can help stop your ads from being shown to completely irrelevant users and boost your CTRs. However, many advertisers completely overlook them. Always set negative keywords when building your campaigns. Negative keywords will save you loads of money on Google Ads and they will enable you to attract more qualified leads.
3. Not using AdWords Conversion Tracking
The tracking feature of AdWords helps to understand what happens after Web users click on your ads. Whether they respond to the landing page of your brand, download apps or make online purchases? Will they click around your site or bounce without taking any kind of meaningful actions? This information is considered essential when optimizing for better performance. Installing AdWords Conversion Tracking is simple although you might need help from a Web developer. All you need to add is a snippet of code to your website or mobile app.
4. Using the wrong keyword settings
Is your campaign receiving lots of clicks but few conversions or suffering from a high volume of impressions with very low CTRs? The solution is using broad keywords. Broad-match keywords are undesirable because they’re far less likely to send relevant traffic to your website. Even if those uninterested users don’t click on your ad, you could still end up paying if low CTRs drag down your quality scores.
5. Not Trying Bidding Strategies
It might be a cumbersome task to find the right business strategy for your brand but you can always test a few to find the most appropriate one for your needs. Many advertisers opt for manual CPC whereas some prefer to maximize conversions or enhanced CPC. You get more control over your bids in the long term with manual CPC. However, if you are planning to test a campaign in just 1-2 weeks, you can start using go enhanced CPC or maximize clicks. These effective bid strategies allow Google to get the maximum clicks at the best price possible.
6. No separation of mobile and desktop traffic
It is evident that most people view the internet by using smartphones and tablets when compared to computers. So users for both the medium behave differently. That means the AdWords campaigns optimized for desktop users probably won’t appeal as much to smartphone users, and vice versa. Setting up campaigns as similar across all devices is the easy mistake here so all you need to do is create separate campaigns and make sure the mobile campaigns are using responsive landing pages which are being displayed appropriately on smartphone web browsers.
7. Forgetting to link your AdWords account to Google Analytics
You must be aware that Google Analytics provides a vast amount of data you can’t get within AdWords alone. With the help of Google Analytics, you can easily run various reports to get detailed and accurate information about your campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, and relevant traffic sources. It’s 100% free and super easy to set up but you’ll need to install code throughout your website.
8. Incongruent landing pages
Is your landing page delivering all the promises you make in your ad copy? If not, then there are chances that people are bouncing as soon as they hit your landing page. You need to make sure that whatever you claim in your ad copy is clearly depicted on your landing page. Like if the ad is offering free shipping then your landing page should have information about the free shipping policy. The same goes for the sale ads. Nothing sinks conversions faster than inconsistent landing pages. And you definitely don’t want to draw complaints about using bait-and-switch tactics.
9. Ignoring Many Regional Trends
The benefit of this particular approach is that once you have started with the data to work with, you can track ad performance on a city/town basis and make final calls. For example, you may find the cost/conversion from one city lower than another which could be a reason you can reduce the budgeting for the more expensive city and turn it up for the other. You may also find that sales or leads from a service you are pushing are coming from only a few key cities which can help you to adjust your bids and campaigns accordingly.
Running a successful Google Ads campaign takes a lot of time, patience, and a whole lot of self-testing. With the #1 digital marketing agency on board employing top-notch strategies and campaigns, we make sure your brand stands ahead in the visibility ladder in Google Ads. To know more about how Google Ads can improve your ROI and garner success for your brand, take help from our digital marketing professionals Call our experts at IN: +91 9087706000 | SG: +65 8008526877 today.
