There’re many ways to market your business to the public other than social media, such as Google Marketing. But, Google Ads has changed a lot over the years and it’s super easy to make mistakes if you are new to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
In this blog, we will go through the 5 common mistakes Google Ads beginners are doing without realizing.
1. Lack of ad extensions
Ad extensions are a function that displays extra company info on your ad that will motivate users to click it. They’re very important and can improve the performance of your Google Marketing campaign. Even though extensions can generate more leads for PPC campaigns, many companies still don’t use them.
5 types of Google Ads extensions:
Location extensions
It lets you include your company address inside the ad which makes it easier for your target audience to see where you’re located. It’s also useful as they can find your address very fast and enter it into Waze or Google Maps.
Sitelink extensions
You can add more links to your page and drive leads to specific product or service sites based on their interest. As you direct leads straight to your page, it’s a good way to gain conversions.
Call extensions
You can include your company’s phone number inside the ad, which makes it easier for them to contact you and learn more about your company.
Callout extensions
Different from call extension, you can include descriptive information about what makes your company unique. Examples of the terms are “24/7 customer service” and “free shipping”. This will make the target audience click on the ad if they are interested in those terms.
Structured snippets
Structured snippets let you include the product or service information that you want to promote. It’s a good way to showcase your product or service and attract individuals that need your offerings. An example is “Free Wi-Fi” and “Pool”.
2. Poor keyword research
It’s very important to have the right keyword when conducting your Google Marketing campaign. You will not drive the correct leads to your business if you do not choose important keywords.
Short-tail keywords are made up of only one or two words and many businesses make the mistake of targeting this type of keyword with high bidding. They’re general terms like “running shoes” and “denim shorts.”
As they’re very broad, many users will get attracted. There is also a lot of competition for these terms, so the cost-per-click (CPC) is high.
When conducting keyword research, concentrate on long-tail terms. These are keywords of three or more words. Long-tail keywords are preferable for your Google Marketing campaign since they attract the most interested prospects.
Long-tail keywords will attract more interested leads to your page. This will help you in getting excellent leads that will help your business expand.
3. Creating only one ad version
Another Google Marketing beginner mistake is to only create one version of the ad. The first ad you’ve created might not be the best version. The problem is that your initial ad may not produce the best results for your Google Marketing campaign.
It is important to test out several variations of the ad to see which one works best. While you may think that one version of your ad would be the most successful, testing your ad may show that another version is bringing visitors to your page.
When you don’t test your ad, you don’t help your Google Marketing campaign to improve and match the demands of your audience. Because your audience’s preferences always change, it’s important to test your ad on a regular basis to see if there’s a newer and better version that can help you generate more leads and conversions.
4. Using only broad match keywords
There are three keyword match kinds available in Google Ads: broad, phrase, and exact.
Broad match is a sort of keyword match that search engines use to identify which search keywords your ads can match against. It’s named “broad” because it lets your ad match the broadest possible range of keyword searches that are still somewhat connected to your keyword.
The disadvantage of broad match keywords is that they may be activated by anything even vaguely related to the term; So if your product is a wedding dress, and the users type in words such as “flower girl” and “Bridesmaid dresses”, your ad will pop out as well.
5. Neglecting negative keywords
No matter what match types you choose for your keywords, you’re likely to match to queries that aren’t a good fit for your company. You can let Google know that you don’t want your ad to be displayed for certain searches by using negative keywords.
Let’s say you’re selling clothes, and someone typed “Free clothes” on Google. If your clothes are not free, you should include the word “free” as negative keywords so your ad won’t appear when users are looking for free things.
6. Conclusion
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by Google Marketing especially when there are so many functions available. Hopefully, this list could help you to manage your Google Marketing campaign better and achieve better results.