Six Common Mistakes When Using Google AdWords
Just how Google AdWords campaigns are managed makes all the difference in their success rate. Because members of FabCom’s marketing and business intelligence team have special SEO, SEM and Google AdWords expertise, managing these campaigns for clients includes an in-depth understanding of precisely how to avoid the mistakes that befall many others in the industry. The top marketing and advertising agency’s deft navigation around these pitfalls means highly successful AdWords campaigns generating greater ROI for clients.
Mistakes to avoid include:
1. Targeting keywords that are too broad
One of the most common mistakes companies make are bidding for too broad of keywords. Keep in mind that terms can be too broad, even if they’re two or more words. Here is an example; Let’s say you own a frozen yogurt shop in Phoenix, Arizona. As you’re opening up your business, you decide you want a top 10 ranking for “frozen yogurt”. This would be a classic example of using too broad of keywords. If you use these keywords you would potentially have a majority of visitors looking for recipes or nutrition information. Even if they’re looking for a place to get frozen yogurt, they might not be looking for one in Phoenix, Arizona. Thousands of random visits to your website aren’t worth as much as one qualified lead. For example, one person looking for “frozen yogurt shop Phoenix” may be worth more than 1,500 people searching for “frozen yogurt.” By having less broad keywords, it’s easier to get a better ranking because the more specialized you are, the less competition you’ll have. In the end, it’s not how much traffic you get to your site, it’s how many are actually interested in what you’re selling and will, in turn, buy something. Instead of focusing on number of hits, focus on the quality of hits.
2. Not using the right keyword matches
Google AdWords allows users to add keywords to a campaign in one of three ways: broad match, phrase match, or exact match.
Broad match is the default match type that all your keywords are assigned if you don’t specify another match type. The Google AdWords system automatically runs your ads on relevant variations of your keywords, including synonyms, singular and plural forms, possible misspellings, stemmings (such as floor and flooring), related searches, and other relevant variations. To help deliver relevant matches, this match type may also take the customer’s recent search activities into account. For example, if you add “Nike running shoes,” your ad will show up for people who type “Nike running shoes,” “Nike free running shoes,” and “where can I buy Nike shoes for running.”
Phrase match lets a keyword trigger your ad to show only when someone searches for your exact keyword phrase, or close variations of your exact keyword phrase, potentially with other words before or after that phrase. Phrase match is one option that helps control how closely the keyword needs to match a person’s search term in order for your ad to appear. You can choose one or more matching options for a keyword, and broad match will be used by default if you don’t specify a particular matching option.
An exact match keyword in AdWords needs to be exactly as the term was searched. Thus, if you have “Nike running shoes” as an exact match, it will show up only when someone searches for “Nike running shoes” and won’t show up even if someone searches for “Nike running shoes for sale.”
The best approach is to start with exact matches and then expand to phrase match and broad match, as needed. If you aren’t getting enough impressions and conversions with exact matches, then you can add the terms as a phrase match and eventually as a broad match. Well strategized SEO and SEM are driven from the systematic integration of your value, trust and story into online digital assets that attract the right visitor at the right time in their cycles of interest and consideration to conversion.
FabCom, a top marketing agency in Phoenix, ensures that clients SEO and SEM efforts are projecting their brands to be in the right place at the right time, whether it’s #1 in a search engine results page or dynamically served at the exact moment when user variables align for the maximum tipping point of action that creates a lifetime of transactions and loyalty. At FabCom, our SEO and SEM expertise and marketing business intelligence experience can also rehabilitate any antiquated model, programming or design to further leverage your existing digital equity.
3. Not using negative keywords
With negative keywords, FabCom’s marketing business intelligence team designates not only the terms you want to bid on, but also the variations of terms you don’t want included. Negative keywords help clients reach the most interested customers, reduce costs, and increase return on investment (ROI). When we add terms as negative keywords or as keyword exclusions, the ad won’t show to people searching for those terms or visiting sites that contain those terms.
By preventing your ad from showing on irrelevant searches, we can save money on wasted clicks and create more opportunities for it to display on searches that are relevant and could lead to conversions. The benefits of effectively using negative keywords include improved click-through rate or CTR, improved conversion rate and improved quality score.
4. Not being flexible and testing different keywords
One aspect FabCom’s business intelligence and analytics team loves about using Google Adwords is the opportunity to be flexible. With Adwords, our team can test out several ideas to find out what works best for clients and what doesn’t. Our team is constantly checking to make sure we’re getting the highest ROI for all clients. With our strategy and methodology behind the demo, psychological, and behavior of the target audience we are able to best plan and invest dollars helping clients be successful and get the most out of their well-spent money.
5. Not knowing your competition
Another mistake is not knowing which ads your competition is using. With various tools, FabCom is able to find and accurately analyze who you’re competing against, what keywords they’re using and what their landing pages look like. There are a lot of benchmarks for data available to all AdWords users, but FabCom takes this to a whole new level.
When an individual searches something on Google, it provides a platform for advertisers to compete for attention, clicks, traffic, and conversions for customers. Though having a top rank can be helpful, it doesn’t guarantee clicks or if those clicks will convert – and conversions are what matter most.
Specifically, our team will put your brand in customers’ shoes and find out which ads they’re most likely to click on. Then, once you do click, pay attention to their landing pages, and compare theirs with yours. We answer questions like “Which one is the most appealing? Which one would you rather go to if you were the customer?” After scanning the competition and learning more about their landing pages, we can accurately improve conversion rates.
6. Not measuring ROI
Whether you’re using AdWords to increase sales, generate leads, or drive other valuable customer activity, it’s crucial to measure your return on investment (ROI). Knowing your ROI helps evaluate whether the money you’re spending on AdWords advertising is going to a good cause. ROI is the ratio of your net profit to your costs. It’s one of the most important measurements to pay attention to when deciding on specific goals. The exact method you use to calculate ROI depends upon the goals of your campaign.
By calculating your ROI, FabCom can find out how much money you’ve made by advertising with AdWords. You can also use ROI to help you decide how to spend your budget. For example, if you find that a certain campaign is generating a higher ROI than others, you can apply more of your budget to the successful campaign and less money to campaigns that aren’t performing well.
Because FabCom is a top integrated marketing and advertising agency with the latest enterprise business intelligence capabilities, we empower business and marketing leaders to seize the most profitable growth path available, every time. Leveraging the power of Google AdWords is one important aspect to making that happen.
Learn more about all the ways FabCom increases ROI for clients, with guaranteed results.
