Top 5 PPC Mistakes Small Businesses Should Avoid

It is no secret that PPC advertising is a powerful tool for businesses to drive traffic and generate leads easily. But just like any other tool and strategy, in order for it to work, you must execute it correctly. Otherwise, it’s just money lost and time wasted.

One study shows that 65% of small and mid-sized businesses run PPC advertising. This is truly a huge number. Although it might seem like investing in PPC ads is easy and does not take a lot of effort or knowledge, that is actually far from the truth. There are certain skills and tactics you need to know to ensure high ROI from your PPC campaigns.

So, today, we’re here to explore the five most common mistakes small businesses must avoid when entering the world of PPC. But first, let’s establish what PPC ads are.

What are PPC Ads?

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads are a type of online advertising where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad. These ads typically appear on search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google but can also be found on social media, websites, or even apps.

These types of ads are popular choices for businesses because they help them effectively target and reach potential customers.

5 Common PPC Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Okay, now that we got this definition out of the way, it’s time to get to the point and explore those five mistakes we were talking about.

1. Not Setting Clear Goals

As surprising as it sounds, sometimes we start failing a task before even starting it. The easiest thing to do to go down this road is the failure to set clear goals. If you don’t know what purpose your PPC campaign will serve, how will you succeed?

Think thoroughly before committing to such investments. What do you want to achieve? Are you looking to increase website traffic, generate leads, or drive sales?

Setting specific goals will not only help you measure success but will also keep you motivated throughout the process, as you will know exactly what you’re achieving with each step.

2. Underestimating Keyword Research

Let’s say you’ve thought long and hard about the goals you want to achieve with PPC, and you already have some ideas. What’s your next step?

I am going to take a wild guess and assume that you’ll want to jump right into keyword research. If that’s what you were thinking, you’re on the right track. 

Keyword research is the foundation of any marketing strategy.

People often associate keyword research only with SEO, but the truth is it’s always crucial. Yes, by identifying high-volume, low-competition keywords, you can optimize your content to rank higher in search engine results pages, but that’s not all it’s good for. 

It helps you find what topics people are searching for and understand how to use those topics to lead them straight to you. 

For example, if your main target keyword is “email marketing” conducting keyword research will help you identify what interests people the most about email marketing, the questions they search for, and, therefore, tailor your strategy accordingly.

Failing to conduct proper keyword research or underestimating it will result in targeting irrelevant keywords and wasting the budget on ads people don’t really care about. I don’t think you want that to happen, do you?

To avoid this from happening, consider using tools like Google Keyword Planner or even Ahrefs to identify high-volume and low-competition keywords that will fit perfectly into your strategy.

Here’s how you can conduct keyword research by using Ahrefs:

1. Create an Ahrefs Account
2. Once you’re logged in, go to the “Keyword Explorer” tool
3. In the search bar, type in your target or seed keyword
4. Analyze the suggestions – Ahrefs will provide you with a list of relevant keyword suggestions based on your seed keyword
5. Filter these keywords and analyze their metrics

In the screenshot below, you can see the suggested keywords Ahrefs gives once you type in your seed keyword. In this case, the seed keyword is “email marketing”, and we can see some keyword ideas related to this term along with their search volumes.

Once you click to view more, you will see more information about those keywords, just like in the second screenshot. You’ll see not only the search volumes but also the keyword difficulties, the CPC metrics, the parent topics of each keyword, and so much more.

That’s basically it! Of course, you can also analyze the related terms of the keywords you already chose or compare them to the keywords your competitors are targeting, but it’s all up to you. There are tons of tools for keyword research on the market, so feel free to choose whichever fits your needs the best.

3. Neglecting Ad Quality

Many believe that turning on PPC ads is enough, and no matter what you publish, people will click on it. This is simply not true, especially not today when users are overwhelmed with the number of ads they see daily.

Now, this doesn’t mean that PPC is not worth it. It means you have to try harder to catch your target audience’s attention and make them click on your ads instead of your competitors’.

There’s only one way to do this – you must ensure that your ads offer quality. So, how do you come up with quality ads that are worth clicking on?

• Create relevant content that provides actual value to your audience.
• Avoid using AI or at least limit its use – this will make your ad inauthentic.
• Focus on the emotional aspects and create something that sparks feelings.
• Write a clear call-to-action that encourages users.

On top of all this, make sure to regularly monitor your ad quality score and make necessary adjustments to improve performance.

The Ad Quality Score (AQS) is a metric used by Google Ads to determine the relevance and quality of your ad. It’s a score between 1 and 10, with 10 being the highest possible score.

The AQS is measured based on the relevance of your ad, the quality of your landing page, and the likelihood of users clicking on your ad. So, if your AQS is low, Google is essentially signaling that you need to make some changes to succeed.

4. Ignoring Landing Page Optimization

PPC ads will most likely result in new people visiting your website. If you have already set clear goals, then you know exactly what the people seeing your ads are looking for. This means you have to optimize the pages they might visit. 

Many businesses make the mistake of leading potential customers straight to their homepage. This is not a great idea because if the user is looking for something specific but gets dragged to a homepage, it will likely seem too generic, and they might not even bother exploring the website.

Instead, consider setting up a landing page or even a couple of different landing pages for different products and different targets to optimize the user experience to the fullest.

Here are a couple of tips to help you optimize your landing page:

Keep it Simple

Avoid overwhelming users with too much information. Stick to a clear and concise message that aligns with your ad.

Focus on a Single Goal

Each landing page should have a clear and specific goal, like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource.

Use Good Visuals

Quality images and videos can capture attention and make your landing page even more engaging.

Use Clear Calls to Action

Make it easy for users to take the desired action with clear and well-placed CTA buttons.

Load Time

Optimize your landing page to load quickly, as slow loading times can negatively impact user experience.

Clear Navigation

Make it easy for users to navigate your landing page and find the information they need.

Remember, a poor landing page experience can lead to high bounce rates and result in low ad relevance and quality scores.

5. Failing to Track and Analyze

It’s quite easy to go months spending huge amounts of money on PPC campaigns. What’s not easy is tracking metrics and clearly seeing what works and what doesn’t. 

Your best friends in this process are metrics like clicks, impressions, conversions, and cost per acquisition.

Here are some of the numbers you must track to evaluate your PPC campaigns effectively:

• Click-through rate
• Conversion rate
• Cost-per-acquisition (CPA)
• Cost-per-click (CPC)

Of course, the list doesn’t end here, and it sometimes depends on the purpose of your marketing campaigns. You can also use tools like Google Analytics and Google Ads to track key metrics. 

Regularly analyze your data to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions. It seems obvious, but without proper tracking and analysis, it’s impossible to measure the success of your PPC campaign.  

To Sum Up

Let’s quickly summarize what we learned today:

• PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads are a popular online advertising method that charges businesses for each click their ad receives. 
• These campaigns can effectively reach potential customers, but many small businesses make common mistakes that can hinder their success.
• One way to avoid this failure is to set clear goals and identify the purpose of your campaigns.
• Conducting thorough keyword research that align with your target audience can also set the ground for good results.
• By creating ads that are relevant, provide value, and include encouraging call-to-actions will also help reach the right people.
• Ensuring that your landing pages are optimized for conversions will help reduce bounce rates.
• Tracking key metrics like clicks, impressions, and conversions to measure performance can also be crucial for campaign success.

Do your best to avoid these mistakes and focus on crafting a detailed strategy to drive growth and achieve their marketing objectives.

Now, go start PPCing your way through the web!

This article is written by Tamara Danielyann.
Tamara is a passionate SEO content writer at SayNine. She enjoys making genuine and authentic content that people can easily connect with. When she’s not working, you will likely find her travelling and enjoying concerts in different corners of the world.