Google Adwords Top Ten Most Common Mistakes

Bmc · 12-04-06, 03:47 AM

Many newcomers to the PPC scene seem to make very big mistakes when using these PPC networks. I have personally seen many of these mistakes through my counciling service and have compiled some the most common G.A. blunders new advertiser make. Hopefully if you are looking to run a campaign in the near future and have not had much experience with PPC, I can save you from some big headaches.

Here we go...

Mistake 1 - Non-use of Adgroups or Not Using Them Correctly

When you create a campaign, you use ad groups in order to organize your keywords. When you create an ad group, you need to group the keywords together that are similar, with at least 2 common keywords.

For example:

make money at home
[make money at home]
"make money at home"
make money business
[make money business]
"make money business"
make money from home
[make money from home]
"make money from home"
make money internet
[make money internet]
"make money internet"
make money online
[make money online]
"make money online"
how to make money online
[how to make money online]
"how to make money online"
make money on the internet
[make money on the internet]
"make money on the internet"

Your ad should then contain the same keywords, perhaps like:

Make Money Doing Nothing
Want To Make Extra Money?
Find Out How I make $1000 / Day
mywebsite.com

Mistake 2 - Too Many Keywords in Adgroups

At most each adgroup should contain around 25 total keywords. Of course this would be 75 if using [] and (). Do not put more than 25 unless they highly relevant because this will negatively affect your quality score which means higher CPC.

Mistake 3 - Use of Only Broad Type Keyword Matches

To increase your CTR you need to use more than just broad keyword matches. Other than broad there is exact and phrase keyword match types.
i.e
broad: Affiliate Marketing
exact: "Affiliate Marketing"
phrase: [Affiliate Marketing]

Mistake 4 - Using the Content Network
The content network is Google Adsense, and if you are not experienced you definitely do not want your ads to show on Adsense. Adsense users are many times involved in click fraud and other practices such as made for adsense sites. These site often produce non-targeted traffic and can really cost you. When creating an adsense campaign you should only leave google search and search network clicked.

Mistake 5 - Daily Budget is Too Low
There are many factors that go into how many times your ads get shown, one of them being your daily budget. If your daily budget is set at $5-$10 / day you cannot expect much traffic at all. A good rule of thumb is to set it higher then monitor your costs.

Mistake 6 - Duplicate URL's
Simply put if you are advertising the same url as another advertiser, Google will only show one of the ads. So say, you are advertising netbusinesstalk.com, you would have to have a higher CPC than the other advertiser in order for your ad to be shown. A simple solution is to direct your visitors to a landing page (which by the way if done correctly) will boost conversions, rather than just directing them directly to the main website or sales letter.

Mistake 7 - Bidding Too High
Some beginners simply try to outbid advertisers in hopes of that all important traffic generation. Bidding 4-5 dollars per click is way to high and sometimes (most times) bidding even a dollar/click is too high. Unless you are an experienced marketer and know your metrics, trying to outbid a competitor will just ruin your advertising budget

Mistake 8 - Outrageously Low Ad Positions
You cannot expect loads of traffic if your ads are positioned at #30. In order to be on the first page of Google you need try to position yourself between 1 and 9. That being said it may be expensive to get on that first page but at the very lowest you should be on the second page. Anything lower is a waste of time. On a brighter note, using these techniques correctly you should be able to achieve higher ad positions at lower costs.

Mistake 9 - Non-targeted Keywords
Say you were promoting this forum and in your adwords campain you used the keywords: forum, money, marketing - these would seem to be good keywords to use, right? On the contrary... someone typing in forum could be looking for a magician's forum, someone typing in money could be looking for currency exchange rates, and so on and so fourth. Needless to say these ads would not convert worth a ... so better targeted keywords to use would be something like: "Internet Marketing Forum" or "Monetize My Website".

Mistake 10 - Not Doing Keyword Research Before Starting a Campaign
Keyword research is absolutely necessary for any adwords campaign. Say you were trying to sell psp video downloads and you used "psp video downloads" (which is too competitive for a reasonable CPC) then you use another keyword "videos on psp" which gets 13 searches/month, you are not going to get much traffic. With a little keyword research you may find there are better ones like: "how to download psp videos" or "top five PSP videos" or "unlimited psp video downloads" .. the list goes on and on.

reviewer · 12-04-06, 04:18 PM

Great advice. Adwords is very easy to use but you shouldn't be a novice when you start using your advertising dollars. Do your research first.

melissajean85 · 12-08-06, 12:59 PM

Thanks for posting the advice, you may have just helped me avoid some big mistakes I would have made.

turkish · 12-09-06, 08:17 PM

Great advice on the "content network," I think you just saved a few people a ton of money... seriously...

cerumen · 12-11-06, 09:11 PM

This is SO helpful. I have a site I am trying to boost my profit from and now I realize I have been making a great many mistakes. So much to learn.

reviewer · 12-28-06, 12:48 PM

Trial and error is part of the Adsense business. You have to learn what is successful. Some sites will work well, others not as well.

cerumen · 01-04-07, 07:14 PM

You have very clearly explained why my Adsense ads are doing absolutely nothing for me. This is very good information that I am going to put into use today. Thanks for sharing.