Pay per Click advertising is still hot and effective, but having a fully optimized campaign requires more work than many think. Being good is challenging, being great is extremely challenging, which makes knowing what to do as well as what not to do more important than ever.



Search engine marketing is not only continuously evolving, but also extremely competitive. PPC advertising was once considered a golden goose, but is now viciously competitive (the latest high point in average CPC was reported at $70.25/click for the keyword “student consolidation”). Advertisers can encounter major problems if their SEM strategy isn’t in line with their allocated resources. Even when proper resources for campaign strategy and management are allocated, advertisers often fail to avoid key pitfalls that impact the effectiveness of their campaigns. Below, I discuss five common mistakes and how to avoid them.

Pitfall #1 Mismatching Budget and Keyword Strategy

Many PPC advertisers make the mistake of not aligning their budgets with their keyword strategy. Spreading PPC budgets too thinly across an overabundance of broad or highly competitive keywords creates several road blocks for SEM campaigns, including inefficient traffic and the discontinuation of ad impressions early in the day.

If your budget is depleted after a few broad or high-cost keywords have taken a disproportionate share of the pie, you end up with a loss in potential clicks and coveted conversions. PPC advertisers should remember that not every Google-recommended keyword must be used. Each keyword you choose should be highly relevant to your products or services and shouldn’t be so competitive that you cannot afford to effectively bid on it.

A long-tail keyword strategy can be extremely beneficial for firms with modest budgets that need to compete in competitive keyword markets. For example, an online socks company could easily go after the long-tail keyword “white crew diabetic socks” rather than the highly competitive “socks” or even “crew socks”. Although fewer impressions will occur from the long-tail keyword, it is less costly and the audience is highly targeted. It is also beneficial to divide keywords into highly specialized AdGroups. Splitting the keywords into multiple, targeted AdGroups facilitates more relevant ad copy and effective targeting, resulting in more conversions.

Advertisers often fail to place appropriate focus on the keywords with the greatest search potential. By continuously monitoring the campaign, advertisers can identify high performing keywords and can make adjustments accordingly. Tough decisions need to be made, which sounds easy, but metrics and predetermined keyword strategies often come in conflict.

Hence, smart marketers should be willing to spend more money on successful keywords and less money on lower performing keywords, regardless of what keywords they assumed would be successful. I’m not saying that all under-performing keywords should be thoughtlessly deleted, but careful consideration should be given when making changes to your keyword strategy, with an emphasis placed on utilizing the best-performing keywords.


Pitfall #2 Not Implementing Keyword ‘Best Practices’

Buying keywords is easy, but implementing keyword best practices can be a bit harder. Using plurals of keywords and different matching techniques helps to round out the keyword pool. Geographical spellings are always a good idea, especially when geo-targeting. British spellings such as “favour” should be included in the keyword pool and will help the ad to find its way to the target market.

Just as important as the keywords you do use are the keywords that you don’t. Negative keywords are a great way to lower your costs and to increase targeted traffic. Implementing negative keywords assures that your ad will not be shown when a certain word is typed. A company selling books would not want their ad to be shown for the query “free books.” In this case you would want to add “free” to the negative keyword list. A great way to find negative keywords for your campaign is to use the keyword tool in Google or to simply deep dive your web analytics. Any keywords that are not relevant to your products or services should be added to your negative keyword list.

Another technique that advertisers should consider is including common misspellings in the keyword base in order to generate better coverage of the consumer search. Incorporating commonly misspelled words like surprise (suprise) and restaurant (restraunt ) into your campaign may accommodate for human error and could result in your ad being shown at opportune moments. Although misspellings of keyword should be included in the keyword list, it’s important to note that ads themselves should be kept clean and correct.


Pitfall #3 Disregarding the Importance of Ad Copy

For many, creating an ad is just another step within the PPC process. However, the content of the ad can make or break the campaign’s success and there are specific strategies that an advertiser should consider when writing an effective ad.

Good copy matters. Consumers are exposed to thousands of ads each day. In order to stand out in the crowd, your ad must be relevant and engaging. Be clear and concise, and be sure to highlight what makes your product or service unique. It can be beneficial to check out your competitor’s ads and to try to differentiate your ads from theirs by using different titles and messaging. Keyword insertion techniques can also be used to make your ad more relevant to the searcher.

An effective ad should include ‘call to action’ words or phrases to engage the consumer. Some common call to action words include: buy, order, click, save, find, and call. You can also use words to relay a sense of urgency, such as “now” or “today”. Engaging language and ‘call to action’ phrases and words will make your ads pop, creating a better chance of a high click-through rate, which will ultimately result in a higher conversion rate.

Optimized Display URLs can also increase your click-through rate. You can use any Display URL you’d like as long as the domain in the Display URL matches the domain in your Destination URL. Display URLs do not have to be real pages within your site. Using a descriptive Display URL such as www.ExampleURL.com/White-Socks will reassure the searcher that your landing page will contain the information they are seeking, in this case “white socks”.

One of the most important things to remember is to have correct spelling. Spelling mistakes reduce the credibility of the product or service being advertised. Always double check your ads before beginning to run them!


Pitfall #4 Poor Landing Page Strategy

Poor landing page strategy affects how web visitors react after clicking the ad. Sending most, if not all of the PPC traffic to the homepage isn’t going to be as effective as sending traffic to product / category specific content or landing pages. Web visitors don’t want to try to figure out where to go; they want to be presented information in a clear, concise manner.

For example, someone searching for “red striped socks” who was simply dropped on a generic page will be less likely to convert into a sale given they would have to navigate deep within the site to finally find the subpage mentioning red striped socks. Deciding the most appropriate landing page is important in making the experience more convenient for the consumer. The content of the landing page chosen should be reflected in the content of your ads. Ad copy that parallels the landing page copy will facilitate a smooth path to conversion for the consumer.

Another commonly made mistake is to not include a clear call to action “above the fold” on the landing page. The landing pages can have several call to action phrases, but at least one needs to be easily seen by the consumer before they even scroll down.


Pitfall #5 Focusing on the Wrong Performance Measurements

The tendency to focus on a singular form of performance measurement rather than realizing the importance of individualized Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is another common mistake. KPIs can be different from different strategic point-of-views. For example, cost per conversion is important for an ecommerce strategy, but would not be as important for a branding strategy.

An ecommerce site such as www.futoncoversoutlet.com would identify its core business strategy as selling its product online. Possible KPIs to focus on would include costs per leads and ROI. A site such as NeboWeb (our firm), might take a different approach and focus on branding efforts as well by using keywords like our firm’s name, employee names, or important industry terms such as “web design agency,” or better yet, “award winning web design”.

In this branding strategy, KPIs such as impressions, time on site, number of page view, etc. are very important to the overall strategy, along with cost per conversion of course. In general, KPIs should start off as broad objectives and funnel down to more detailed items. KPIs should be thought as primary information and other performance metrics as secondary information.

In Summary

An effective pay per click campaign is more than spend, clicks, and conversions. PPC has the ability to bring in highly targeted, immediate traffic at a relatively low price. Identifying potential problems and realizing constructive methods to alleviate these problems will help you to realize the full potential of your PPC campaign.

Brian Easter is the CEO of NeboWeb
As CEO, Easter has led NeboWeb to explosive growth, attracting Fortune 500 clients and driving strategic partnerships which have fueled NeboWeb’s expansion. He is well-known in the interactive marketing industry and frequently speaks about capturing the power and potential of online marketing.