5 Reasons Why PPC Campaigns Fail

Pay-per-click (PPC) has totally changed the way businesses promote their products and services. Brands are no longer forced to buy banner space on websites. They can use PPC tools like Google AdWords and Bing AdWords to create custom ads while targeting specific keywords that are relevant to their target audience. Running a successful PPC campaign is not always smooth sailing so let’s take a look at 5 reasons why some of these campaigns tank.

1. Lack of Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking basically is a way to determine what action a customer takes to reach the order page in some cases, a download page or a sign confirmation in others. With PPC, you need to set up your campaigns to track the keyword(s) users search for before buying your product or service. Using this information, you can optimize your PPC campaigns to yield a higher return on your investment.

2. Not Using Negative Keywords

Negative Keywords prevent your ads from showing. This is an often neglected area which can make or break a PPC campaign. If a user performs a search that contains one or more negative keywords, your ad will cease to show. Negative keywords are highly useful in ensuring your ads are visible to a core demographic and making sure that your ads only show to interested buyers. For instance, if you’re running an online retail store that deal in men’s wear, it’s advisable to add the negative keyword “women”. That way, your ads won't display when users search for keywords like “women's tops,” “women's pants,” etc.

3. Sending Users to Your Homepage

Advertisers tend to send users to their homepage and this is a common reason why PPC campaigns. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it works, but more often than not it fails to yield a return on investment. Most standard websites are not optimized for PPC traffic and this results in a low conversion rate. It would be wiser to create a dedicated landing page used specifically for PPC and optimizing it for maximum conversions.

4. Oversized Ad Groups

A good PPC campaign should consist of several small ad groups, each of which is customized according to its respective keywords. Using dozens of keywords in the same ad group will plunge it to failure. Your ads will lack relevance, causing a lower click-through rate (CTR) and lower Quality Score.

5. Limited by Budget

A lot of ads run on a limited budget which means that the ads stop showing sometime before midnight. 'Limited by Budget' can typically be dealt with in a few different ways:

1.        Take a look at the Geographic area. For example if you own a local restaurant, then there is really no need to be showing your ads nationwide. Simply target your geo-location.

2.        Take a look at your ad position. If you’re paying for top position consider reducing your max CPC to bring your CPC down so as to show more continuously throughout the day.

3.        Take a look at your budget. If for example you’re running $20 a day and for $40 per day you can dominate the impression share and double your ad clicks it might be worth it.

4.        

One of the most difficult things for small businesses that are new to PPC campaigns is how to determine their budget for AdWords. For websites with an established conversion rate and order history, knowing how effective a Google AdWords campaign is can be easy. For service-oriented businesses however, you must set up conversion tracking to track leads so that you can assess the effectiveness of your ad campaign.