Pay-per-click marketing is a great way to generate leads and grow your business over time.
However, without the right perspective and the proper preventive measures, your PPC campaign can fail rather quickly.
So, if you are currently facing a murky PPC campaign, the good news is, you can try correcting these simple mistakes that you committed and then modify your internal process. That way, it is quite easier to get your campaign on track.
In this post, we will figure out the six reasons your PPC campaigns fail and how you can fix them.
Focusing too much on CPL
You, along with other PPC account managers might believe that Cost Per Lead (CPL) is how it will be determined whether or not a PPC ad is producing substantial results or not.
According to Voy Media, a top PPC company, “Over the past couple of years, PPC is considered as a best practice, and there is a paradigm shift between the optimization of clicks to the optimization of conversions. But remember that the cost per lead is only an indicator, and doesn’t measure the overall success of your campaign. Therefore, you’ll never guarantee a profit using a metric like CPL.”
Case in point, you would come across hundreds of PPC campaigns that have an exceptional CPL, and yet most of them are not exactly profitable.
The solution: Instead of focusing on vanity metrics like CPL focus instead of profitability. For you to accomplish that, tie the data of your PPC campaign with your bottom line.
See what keywords are driving the lowest cost-per-sale, know what terms are driving in the most revenue, and which particular ad copy is generating the greatest ROI.
An excellent way to set this kind of tracking up is with a CRM. Although it might take some effort, the results will give you a profound effect, particularly on how you view PPC advertising.
Not doing keyword research
With PPC and SEO, it is not possible to pay to get higher rankings on search results. But through Google Ads, you can put high-volume phrases that you want to rank for, and your page will appear on the first page while you are paying for it.
Sounds easy, right? Well, it is not.
When planning your PPC campaign, begin with proper keyword research. Your campaign’s results mostly depend on the keywords that you pick for it.
For example, you are utilizing general phrases like “buy clothes” or “get accessories” for your clothing brand will help you get an excellent click-through rate, yet a poor conversion rate.
Why? Because users that are browsing through “clothes” have a specific type of design that they want to find. When they click through your ad and do not see the results that they expect, they will simply hit back and adjust their search accordingly.
The solution: Choose long-tail keywords. These words are not high-volume, which means that they are not searched a lot. But they help you gain better ROI and conversions. Because you are running a PPC campaign, you must turn these users into paying customers.
Limiting your budget
When you are first starting your PPC campaign, you are not quite sure whether you have built the right strategy or not. That’s why some people make the mistake of starting with a small marketing budget.
But chances are, you will be setting up your campaign to fail right from the very beginning. So, if you have a limited budget, it will soon end before you see actual conversions and results.
The solution: You need to expand your budget, target different keywords, land more clicks, and know what ads are driving the most conversions. After coming up with tangible results, you can slowly decrease the keywords that you are bidding on and then spend on the ones that are the most productive.
Not testing your PPC campaign
A PPC campaign is not something that you start today and forget about later. Not everything will work, so you should monitor your process regularly. Not every landing page will drive in sales, and not every keyword will work best with your campaign.
The solution: Start tracking your results and make necessary adjustments if needed. Try out various strategies that work for you, and do not be too afraid of taking risks. Here are some elements of your campaign that you should apply a couple of tactics.
- Keywords: Start with a broader list that is relevant to your topic, and track later on which are the most profitable.
- Ads: What ad types are getting the most conversions? The broader ones or, the more specific ones? Think it over, and then analyze your ads to fit your audience’s needs.
- Landing page: A prospect might like what you are offering, but may not appropriately respond to your landing page. Test various types of landing pages, button positions, and designs to know which design elements provide a better user experience.
Ad copy is irrelevant to the landing page
Do not provide a copy that is not relevant to your landing page. If you do so, your click-through rates will not jive with your conversion rates.
Let’s say you have included free shipping in your ads and keywords, but if it is only limited to certain countries and states, you are wasting your ad budget on clicks that do not drive in conversions.
The solution: If your goal is to engage your prospective customers and make them convert, make an offer, and then mention it on both your landing page and your ad.
No conversion tracking
What is conversion tracking, and is it essential for conversion tracking? Conversion tracking determines that particular action made by the user, like the download page or a contact information page.
The solution: Set up your campaigns, then track the keywords that most users use when they want to buy your products and services. Through this, you can optimize your PPC campaigns for you to generate a higher ROI.
Make your PPC campaigns succeed
So there you have it. This post is meant to guide you so that you can maximize the performance of your ads and your ROI. The key takeaway here is always to pay attention to your PPC campaigns and track your conversions.