Mistakes with Adwords

Most new people who use Google Adwords do not realise that having a large number of keywords is not necessary to having a successful PPC campaign. Having just a few very carefully selected keywords is far more productive and profitable than having dozens of vague or generic terms. These generic terms will cost lots of money for little or no return and are therfore a waste of time and money.

When setting your bids, do not go for the number one spot. This will just cost you a lot of money and although it will get you lots of clicks, many of those will be impulse clicks which will probably not lead to new business.

Make sure you make your money work for you. Test your adverts and track the clicks, that way you will know for sure what is working and what is not. When something is not working, shut it down. Be clever with your Adwords campaigns and you will reap the rewards. Talk to the experts at Serendipity Online Marketing.

Making the most of Google Adwords

There are two approaches to PPC with Google Adwords. The first is the scatter gun approach, where you find loads of keywords and use them all in your campaigns. This will get you lots of clicks, but most will not be profitable clicks, ie they won't lead to sales.

The second approach is much more careful and subtle. You choose a few keywords very carefully and make sure that they are very relevant to your products. Your landing pages must be in keeping with your adverts and preferably allows visitors to give you their name and email address. Keep your average placing around 3, this will cost you less and will also lessen the number of impulse clicks which can be wasteful as they cost you money for no reward. Make sure you have very good copy to keep your visitors interested and make it very easy for them to buy from you.

Landing pages - common mistakes

You need to have good landing pages to encourage customers to buy from you. However, there are some common mistakes which prevent this and here are some of them:

Cluttered with all sorts of information. Whilst you want to convey enough information, do not be tempted to pack too much in as you will only turn visitors off.

Pop ups. Very annoying if you are trying to read about products or services. Certainly, use pop ups to give further information but only when clicked on.

Unrelated text. Keep descriptions and information relevant and to the point, do not be tempted to start talking about something else as this will turn visitors away.

Many or no calls to action. One is enough.

Poor spelling and grammer. Do check all copy for spelling and grammer, it need not be the Queen's English, but it must be correct.

Landing page slow to load. Keep your landing page simple so that it loads quickly. Visitors will not hang around if your page takes too long to load.

Always make it easy for visitors to buy from you, if they find it difficult or can't see where to go next, they will leave, so do make it very obvious.

Some common mistakes with PPC

PPC or pay per click is not difficult to understand, however, there are a few pitfalls to avoid so that you can make the most of your campaign.

Be careful with spelling and grammer, incorrect spelling and grammer will cost you as your ads will not be shown.

Do not use too many keywords, split them into sub groups.

Test your adverts, you can then discard campaigns that are not working and enhance others whose perfomance is mediocre.

Do not use too many general keywords, this could be very costly as it will get you lots of traffic but not targetted traffic.

No landing page. This is a mistake, make sure that you have good landing pages for each advert so that it is relevant to each of your ads.

You must have good copy for your adverts, if they are uninteresting or irrelevant to the products or services you offer, you will just waste money and get very few orders.


Avoiding these common mistakes can bring you good quality clicks which then lead to business and business is the whole point of the exercise.

In order for your PPC campaigns to be effective, you must write a good advert. Make sure that your copy is relevant and interesting. A carefully written advert will gain a higher position and recieve more quality clicks than something dull as dishwater. So think about what you want to say, grab your customers attention and offer them a carrot. For instance, you may wish to offer free shipping or a percentage off if they purchase over a certain amount. You might want to make this offer for a limited time only. However, you wrap it up, securing sales is the name of the game and if you can do this just by writing good copy, then go for it. If you are not very adventurous or feel that you are unable to write interesting copy, try Serendipity Online Marketing for help in this area.

The importance of your landing pages

When you set up your PPC (pay per click) campaign, you should have a separate landing page for each advert. This page must match the advert though and be relevant as those who click will be expecting to see information relating to your advert. So if you are advertising wicker baskets, make sure your landing page has lots of interesting information about wicker baskets. Not only will this be good for your potential customer, it is also good for the search engines as they can see that your information is relevant. This in turn can help reduce the cost per click, so it is a win win situation.

Target your PPC

Pay per click (PPC) marketing is an easy way of marketing your business or services online. By using the major search engines to target your campaigns, you are exposing your company to a specific audience who are looking for what you are offering. This ensures that you have the best possible chance to recoup your costs and make some profit. So, make sure that you have interesting copy in your adverts and have specific landing pages to entice new business.

A few tips to improve your PPC

1. Do your keyword research.

2. Include negative keywords and use carefully.

3. Set phrase matches as well as exact matches.

4. Have customised landing pages.

5. Write interesting copy.

6. Stop any campaigns that are not working.

7. Your budget should begin modestly and increase it over time.