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Are you using Google Ads? They are a fantastic way to drive relevant, targeted traffic to your website. Managed correctly they can have huge conversion rates – resulting in more leads and sales via your website. And who doesn’t want that huh?!

Setting up a Google Ads account is relatively straightforward. However, there are some common Google Ads mistakes that people make along the way. This list just features, in no particular order, ten of the biggest and most frequent errors people make:

1.  Not putting keywords in your adverts

Putting keywords in your advert will not only help increase the click-through rate (CTR) but will also give you a higher ad position. The more relevant your ad is to the query the user typed in the search engine, the higher the position and the less you pay – it’s win-win!

2. Not having enough relevant keywords

You may have an ad group focused on a particular term – you need to ensure that you cover as many different variations on this term as possible – think outside the box here and also make use of the Google Keywords Tool.

However, you must also make sure that all the keywords in that ad group remain focused – don’t branch out too much otherwise, you may end up with keywords that don’t closely relate to their dedicated adverts.

3. Having too many keywords in an ad group

On the other hand… Google really doesn’t like you to have hundreds of keywords in one group. It’s unlikely that they’ll all be tightly focused on one subject. You’ll also end up having many keywords which don’t produce any impressions or clicks – and Google doesn’t like this either.

They like nice tight, focused ad groups, with a list of focused keywords that generate impressions and clicks. So make sure you have covered all your bases with your keyword list, but don’t go OTT.

4. Quitting too soon

Success with Google Ads doesn’t always happen overnight. It takes time and lots of tweaks to get a successful campaign. Because there are so many variables (such as keywords, adverts, bidding, ad position, geographic targeting, timings, etc… ) it’s almost impossible to get it right first time.

But the great thing about Google Ads is that everything is tracked and measured – meaning you’re able to instantly see what does and what doesn’t work. How many other advertising mediums give you as much statistical information as Google Ads? If you feel like you’re not getting the most from your Google Ad campaign right now, maybe give my Google Ads Audit service a try and see if we can’t turn it around?

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

5. Not having dedicated landing pages

I’ve discussed this subject in blog posts before (Top Tips For Landing Pages and Do You Have Dedicated Landing Pages for Your PPC?). Having landing pages that have been created specifically for your Google Ads campaigns can be a key factor in success.

The focus of the landing pages should match the offer and focus on the adverts, which in turn match the focus of the keywords in that ad group. Everything should tie together in one focused path. This will not only help to increase your Google Ad Quality Score (which can mean you pay less for higher listings) but will also increase the number of conversions you have on-site.

6. Not targeting the right group of searchers

Is your product or services aimed towards a particular demographic or geographical location? Did you know that you can set your ad campaigns to target those demographics or locations?

If you want to target women in their 30’s you can do that. You can also set very specific geographic locations to target – saving you money and increasing your success rates.

Google Ads demographic report screenshot from SMEketing

7. Only having one advert per ad group

It’s important to test, test, test in Google Ads. Test everything! One of the key things to test is your ad copy. Ideally, create one advert which you think will be effective – then create another 2 or so versions with slight tweaks. You’ll then be able to see which ones have the higher click-through rate and most on-site conversions. Take the winner of these ads, then create another 2 or so versions based on this one and test those… and continue the testing process.

This is the only way to continually improve your adverts. If you’ve got two very different ads (remember to make sure they’re still relevant for that ad group though), test them together – see which one is more effective and then use that as a basis to start further tweaks and tests.

8. Letting Google show more popular ads most often

Google sets this as the default. You might think this sounds like a good idea – you’ve got 3 adverts in your ad group, one gets a lot more clicks than the others, so it makes sense for Google to show it most often right?? Wrong.

Google wants to make money from you, so of course it’ll want to show the highest performing ads most often – you’ll get more clicks and they’ll get more ££. However, want you need to know is not what the highest performing ad is in terms of clicks – but in terms of conversions.

If you have two ads with two different calls to action – one might get the most clicks, but only converts 1% of the time. The other gets fewer clicks but converts 5% of the time. You need to work out what generates a higher ROI – more clicks but less conversions, or less clicks but more conversions.

9. Not having compelling adverts

You need to give people a reason to click on your ad. You’re competing against a number of other paid results and ten natural results. Why should people click on your link over another one?

So use a call to action in your adverts. Tell people why they should click and what they can expect when they click.

10. Failing to track results

As I said earlier, it’s important to test everything in Google Ads, and this means tracking and understanding the results.

You can set up conversion tracking which means that Google understands that page you’re trying to get people to get to (which is commonly a ‘Thank you’ or purchase confirmation type page). Once you’ve told Google this, they can then tell you which campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads resulted in conversions.

If you know this you can put more focus (and budget) on the better performing areas and either eliminate or work on improving the poor performing areas.

Make sure that you also link up your Google Analytics to your Google Ads – this will give you a host of additional information. Data such as the bounce rates of landing pages, time on site, and visitor paths can all help to improve your results.

 

So these are just some of the common Google Ads mistakes I often see. Google Ads can have an enormous impact on your online success, but they must be managed and monitored in the right way.

Are you worried you’re making lots of these mistakes?
Then my Google Ads Audit service is perfect for you.
LEARN MORE!
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