The 5 Most Common AdWords Mistakes and How to Fix Them

The hair on the back of your neck bristles with anticipation, your fingertips are electrified, your breathing is deep and fast, your excitement barely contained as your legs shake knowing that this is the beginning of a new AdWords journey. The Account is created, your billing details are in place, your cursor hovering over the “Create Your First Campaign” button. You wipe the sweat off your brow, your eagerness over what lies ahead shows as your index finger nervously but purposefully presses down on the mouse and the full glory of your campaign begins revealing itself one step at a time…

It seems straight-forward; easy even. But fast-forward a few weeks and you have noticed no difference in leads let alone sales. You begin thinking that maybe you’ve missed something, that maybe the simplicity of setting up a campaign belies the complexity of the entire system. Maybe you experienced this.

Never fear, AdWords Adventurer, I am here! You’re probably thinking “how did this incredibly good looking blog author describe so succinctly my emotional experience with setting up my AdWords account?”

It’s a legitimate question, highly observant AdWordsian and I thank you for thinking it. I have built my share of AdWords accounts, I have felt that pang of hope that stems from sending a campaign live in the system. What’s more, is that I have discussed at length with my clients as to what they were hoping to achieve when they set up their AdWords account and the frustration they encountered when it didn’t work as they had hoped. Almost invariably there are five common mistakes that I find in each campaign that can be fixed with relative ease.

1. Taking Googles’ Suggestions As Gospel

This is an overarching point in relation to AdWords as Google will provide notifications in the AdWords account throughout the life of the campaign. These can include budget ideas, keyword ideas, bidding strategy, etc.

Now, I love Google. It provides me with the world’s information at my immediate disposal as well as the opportunity for employment in a fast paced and interesting field. However, I am a realist. I understand that the corporate entity that is Google needs to make money in order to ensure that it can continue to provide and improve on the services that I love.

Let me be clear, Google actually wants you to succeed! If you are successful on Google AdWords, then you will remain a customer of Google AdWords and continue spending money because you are making money. This is why they provide a range of free services that allow you to track results, such as Google Analytics and Conversion Tracking.

Tracking results is absolutely imperative, so that when Google suggests that doubling your budget will mean twice as many clicks you have the confidence that an increase in clicks is highly likely to result in an increase in conversions/ leads/ sales.

Evidence based faith.

2. One Ad For Many Different Services

AdWords likes relevancy. The more relevant your ad to the searcher’s query, the higher your Adrank and more importantly the more likely you are to be clicked on by the searcher. Think of Adgroups as the theme of your service, tailor the keywords in the adgroups to the theme of the ads and direct those ads to a page on your website that is in keeping with that theme.

3. Keywords/Negative Keywords

Google will suggest tens, even hundreds of keywords for your initial campaign. It  is common for people to add them all thinking that this will mean more traffic. In many cases it does mean more traffic, but the goal of AdWords is not to gain more traffic, it is to gain highly relevant traffic. Google also provides tools within the AdWords system to assist in making your keywords highly targeted, such as Broad Match Modified, Phrase Match and Exact Match keywords.

Often clients will be gung ho in adding keywords they think are relevant to their business as Broad Match keywords. They will add anything, including the city in which they operate as a stand-alone keyword. Imagine triggering every time someone types in the word Sydney!

4. Low Budget And Low Bids

Look at AdWords like an investment in your future online strategy. I’ve written another blog recently in relation to this that you, the savvy business owner, has likely printed off highlighted and framed somewhere in your office. However, if it is still at the framing shop, you can read here

Many people are looking for immediate returns on AdWords, expecting that their ad that is triggering when someone types in SYDNEY Harbour Bridge will somehow net them customers buying LCD Televisions. We need to be realistic.

Some will look at their wallet and think that if they set their Maximum Cost Per Click at twenty cents, then they will be able to get at least 25 clicks out of a five dollar a day budget and the maths holds up. I know because I counted it out on my fingers! But what is 20 cents a click giving you? I’m going out on a limb, depending on industry and saying it will show you in one of the last two positions, if at all. Those in the last positions are unlikely to get clicks, meaning your $5 budget is not being spent at the same time as nobody is seeing your ads and thus no one is buying your product/ service.

As any politician will tell you when they are not taking bribes, investing in the future is a must. You must look at AdWords as a long term strategy. You must work out the highest viable budget per day that you can sustain for at least two months. You know that you must spend money to make money, so be prepared to spend money on your AdWords as it will set you up in the future.

Look at Cost Per Conversion rather than Cost Per Click. 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Find the right AdWords position, the converting Keywords, the best day/ time of day to show your ads. The investment period is the Optimisation period and it is very likely that once you have your campaign optimised you will make good on your own investment.

5. Searching for your ad on Google

Do not search for your ads on Google. There are many reasons why you shouldn’t and I won’t bore you with them unless you are a client of mine that insists on searching for themselves on Google. Suffice to say it messes with the data, tells Google your ads aren’t relevant and eventually Google will just stop showing you the ad as it is a dynamic search engine.

There’s a tool in the AdWords system under Tools at the top of the page called Ad Preview And Diagnosis, use that! It will give you the information you need to make adjustments without telling Google your ad is irrelevant!

Use this information wisely, AdWordsian. Should you require professional assistance to further optimise your campaign(s), please don’t hesitate to contact the team at SponsoredLinX on 1300 859 600.

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