6 PPC Mistakes to Avoid Immediately
Pay per click marketing or PPC marketing is a marketing tool designed to drive traffic to websites. The model is an advertiser who will run an ad and pay a publisher per click on the ad.
This popular form of advertising can be extremely profitable, but it can also be disastrous when implemented incorrectly. In this article, we’re going to cover 6 common PPC mistakes advertisers make and explain why they should be avoided at all costs.
A common mistake PPC advertisers make is setting their keywords to be too broad. When it comes to PPC marketing, the general rule is the broader the keywords, the higher the PPC will be, and the fewer conversions you’ll get.
For example, if you run a graphic tee store, simply setting your keyword to “tee shirts” is a surefire way to drive your costs through the roof. EVERYONE is bidding on broad keywords. Instead, find hyper-targeted keywords specifically relevant to your business in particular.
Focus your reach by stringing together words and phrases or targeting your companies name specifically. This will decrease your odds of starting a bidding war with other advertisers and will help keep your PPC costs down.
When it comes to advertisers looking to run a cost-effective campaign, keyword specificity is key. Finding specific keywords highly relevant to your business will help keep your PPC costs low and improve your chances of converting visitors into customers.
OK, you’ve run a great ad. 
People are clicking through excited to make a purchase.
But wait, nobody’s buying anything! Why could this be?
Chances are if you’re experiencing a high click-through rate and not generating any sales something is wrong with your website. If you’re advertising a specific product, make sure you’re linking directly to the advertised product and not your general landing page.
People have short attention spans, and they aren’t likely to stick around and search for your product if you don’t immediately present it to them. A solid website should be clean, easy to navigate and look professional.
Running a great ad with a terrible and clunky website is counterproductive to generating sales. Remember, if customers hate your website, no amount of marketing dollars will fix that. At that point, you’re throwing money down the drain.
Imagine paying people to walk into a terribly lit store where they can’t find anything they’re looking for, and the customer service staff is completely unhelpful or nonexistent. That’s essentially what you’re doing when you drive traffic to a poorly designed website.
If you’re generating leads but aren’t generating sales, take the time to develop a solid website before throwing more money into marketing.
A common mistake many marketers make is not setting negative keywords in their ad campaign. Negative keywords will help filter out irrelevant searches and create more profitable PPC’s and increase your overall chances of boosting conversions.
What are negative keywords?
These are irrelevant keywords you can set to be filtered out of search results. For example, if you’re selling men’s running shoes, you can set “women’s running shoes” as a negative keyword to be filtered out of search results.
Negative keywords will help narrow your results and improve the overall performance of your ad, ensuring you reach the right people and filter out the irrelevant ones.
Long-tail keywords help advertisers specifically target users and can dramatically improve an ads PPC cost as well as conversion rate. Long-tail keywords are keywords strung together as a phrase and have a lower chance of being bid on due to their specificity.
Broad keywords are dominated by industry leaders, so for a small marketer to remain competitive, it is important for them to be creative by utilizing long-tail keywords that specifically target their audience.
Sure, they might generate fewer click-throughs than broader keywords. Still, when done correctly, long-tail keywords can prove to be a cost-effective method of generating hyper-targeted quality leads. It’s a classic case of quality over quantity, and, when implemented correctly, it can provide that competitive edge that helps a small company go up against the behemoths in their space and stay competitive.
Location, location, location! 
Location targeting is an integral part of running a successful ad campaign, especially for businesses offering local services or goods. The last thing you want is your ad showing up to people halfway across the world who have no intention or capability of purchasing or using your product.
Even if your website can sell globally, it’s still almost always a good idea to target specific locations. Different markets require different marketing strategies, and going too broad is virtually always going to be a waste of money.
Do your market research, find your target audience, and target them specifically. Location targeting will help increase sales and conversions as well as filter out unwanted clicks and keep your targeted customers relevant.
Sometimes, less is more. A common mistake many marketers make is listing too many possible keywords. Sometimes, it’s better to keep a small group of top keywords rather than a list of thousand keywords when only a handful of them perform.
You don’t want to spread yourself out too thin.
Focus on quality over quantity, and your budget will go a lot further (especially if you don’t have a large marketing budget). Don’t try to bid on everything. If you’re only looking to generate leads for a specific part of your business, focus your keywords on that part of your business.
Avoid tangentially related keywords and keep your focus narrowed. Don’t try to go for every single keyword you think could be related to your business, or you can quickly find yourself an inch deep and a mile wide.
