Managing a Do-it-Yourself Adwords campaign on your own is relatively straightforward, but there are three very common mistakes which you really do need to avoid. These 3 mistakes are:
- You need to avoid placing bids that are too low
- Never try to do too much with one ad group
- Don’t fall behind in terms of new innovations
People generally have high hopes when they start a Do-it-Yourself Adwords, and who can actually blame them. After all, if you have ever watched any of Google’s videos that cover this topic, I’m sure you’ll agree that they make it look so incredibly simple.
I’m sure there are thousands of business owners out there who have taught themselves all about the use of Adwords, and I’m sure you could as well. However, if you have a regular day job, things can get very tricky because you probably won’t have enough time on your hands to allow yourself to keep up with all the new features, trends, and strategies, that are so crucial to your success. Don’t forget, you also need time to monitor and optimize your account.
Because it can be so taxing, many DIY business owners end up hiring a PPC management professional. In fact, my agency has many such clients, and in many cases, it is clear to us that they have made the same three mistakes I’ve mentioned above. Let’s take a closer look at these 3 common mistakes:
1. Placing Bids That Are Too Low
We were recently approached by a law firm, which up until then had been doing their own Adwords campaigns. Whoever was responsible for this task, had been setting their bids for $50. The Adwords they were paying for were “Personal Injury.” Now, I can assure that when it comes to Adwords that relate to the legal field, clicks can routinely cost up to $150 or more.
Because they were only placing $50 bids, their business end up with less than a 10% impression share, and even when their adverts did show up, they were way down in the SERPs, and of course, the click-through rate was deplorable. Like so many other people who choose the do-it-yourself Adwords route, they never knew that you can quite often stay well within your PPC budget if Google can see you are serious, and that you are willing to pay.
Yes, at first you may need to pay more for your clicks, but once your account starts to improve, and it is reflected in your Quality Score, you could well end up paying more or less what you were willing to pay in the beginning. At this point, the biggest bonus is that you will almost certainly be getting a lot more conversions.
When my agency took over PPC management for this law firm, we immediately increased the bid price to $150 per click, and the impression share jumped by 90% almost instantly. This made sure they were competitive enough to show up prominently in search results, and it wasn’t long before we were able to have the cost per click back down to around $68, which was only slightly more than the $50 which they were initially paying.
2. Trying To Achieve Too Much In One Ad Group
Each and every one of your ad groups should only have one single job to do. To ensure this happens, you need to keep dissimilar keywords and keyword phrases separated; you need to have them in their own groups. In thePersonal Injury example above, we see a perfect example of a good ad group, in that there are no other keywords or keyword phrases in the group that could essentially fit better into a different ad group. If you need more clarity on this, Google has one or two really good videos that cover this specific area.
3. Failing to Keep Up With the Latest Innovations
One of the most difficult challenges for people involved in PPC management is actually trying to stay up to date with all the new trends, features, and strategies. Trust me, it is a full-time job, and if you have a regular day job, you will find that doing so is virtually impossible. Sadly, if you do fail in this department, you are definitely going to lose out on a lot of opportunities, including things like call-only ads. When we took over PPC management for the law firm mentioned above, we immediately added call-only ads because they had failed to do so even though the option was available to them at the time. Call-only ads are really effective for local businesses. I should add that once we added the call-only ads, our client saw results within no time at all, and the results were dramatic.
Even a short 5-day break can cause you to fall behind in terms of new innovations. You could come back and suddenly find that 10 new features have arrived during the five days you were away. This can put a huge strain on you, and in my opinion, it is simply not worth it. Nonetheless, if you really must go for the do-it-yourself Adwords approach, here are a few good resources that will probably help to make your life a little bit easier:
- Adwords Google+
- Adwords blog
- Adwords community forum
- Adwords help center
- Adwords on YouTube
I know I run my own agency so, so I guess one could say I am biased, but in all honesty, if you can afford to hire a professional for PPC management, then I would highly recommend that you do.
Category Search Engine Marketing