If You Want Your PPC Ads to Attract High-Quality Leads, Avoid These 5 Mistakes

Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a wonderful innovation enabled by online technology. It allows advertisers to attract qualified prospects and customers with a precision that pre-Internet direct marketers did not even dream of. 

The ability to send an advertising message directly to someone while they are searching for information on a particulr subject or based on their self-declared personal interests is a mighty weapon. It allows many highly niched businesses to flourish despite their inability to target customers through traditional classified or display advertising, late-night television or radio commercials.



However, PPC is not a free lunch. Successful campaigns require intelligent strategy and avoiding common errors.

One: Not adopting new features.
Most advertisers still use text-only display ads. Powerful headlines and calls to action are still the heart of online messages, but prospects are now used to seeing them in other formats. A striking image is likely to catch their eye. Or a video might hold them. Your prospects may be on any social media sites, so use formats suitable for those visitors, from LinkedIn sponsored InMail to Snapchat videos. 



Two: Formatting for just one device.
Yes, around half of all Internet visitors are on a mobile device. That means the other half are still using a laptop or even a desktop PC. Just a few years ago, advertisers missed out on mobile customers because they failed to make their ads mobile responsive. Many now make the same mistake in reverse. Format your ads to attract every potential customer.

Three: Not monitoring ad campaigns closely.
Too many advertisers put a lot of effort into launching a PPC campaign, then turn around the occupy themselves with other work they fell behind on. 

No matter how busy you, you need to pay attention to your campaigns. PPC is not a "set and forget" activity. You can run through a lot of money quickly if you're not careful.

If you're paying attention and monitoring your results, initial failures are good. You can test alternative headlines and appeals until you discover what works for your target market. You need to keep trying out new things, seeing how well they work or don't, and discard the losers. 



However, if you're not paying attention, you can burn up a lot of cash uselessly.

Four: Optimizing ads for anything besides net revenue.
You must remember that your business's bottom line. That is, the net profit you're left with after paying all expenses. And everybody must pay their own way. That includes employees, equipment and your marketing.

It's all right to lose money on a marketing campaign while you're still testing and discovering what works, but the goal is a positive Return on Investment. You must keep all your metrics secondary to ROI.

Too many advertisers get caught up in the excitement of having a high clickthrough ratio, but fail to notice the clickbait-style headline attracted curiosity seekers, not actual prospects for your product. A high CTR without corresponding sales just wastes your money more quickly.



Five: Not bidding on brand name keywords.
Make your brand name one of your keywords. That seems like an unnecessary expense because people who already know your brand name can already look for you or visit your site directly. However, if you don't bid on your own brand names, your competitors will. That allows them to hijack your customers.

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