Running a successful pay per click campaign is not easy. It’s for this reason that many firms choose to employ an online marketing company or specialist pay per click agency to manage the campaign on their behalf. However, it is possible to run a PPC campaign in-house. If you do choose to shun the management fees of an outsourced pay per click agency, here are five mistakes commonly made by those in your shoes, and advice on how to avoid making them yourself.
1. Focusing on getting the number one spot
While having a number one position in the organic listings is invaluable, when it comes to your pay per click campaign, position two or three can actually be more lucrative.
Those who click on paid advertisements are often looking to buy. However this doesn’t mean they will buy from the first ad they click on. They may choose to compare two or three different companies before making a decision, and if they clicked on your advertisement first they might forget about you by the time they reach the third advertisement.
In addition; the further down your ad is placed, the less you will be paying per click.
2. Not being unique
Those new to pay per click marketing commonly make the mistake of copying what their competitors are doing. A good pay per click agency will advise you need to make your advertisements stand out.
Look at what your competitors are doing and of course, take note of what it is they are doing that works. However you need to take this information and put your own spin on it in a way that is relevant to your target audience while also having the originality and flair to draw their attention to your ad instead of your competitors.
3. Not bidding for your company name
Not only will an ad for your company name have a very low cost per click, but those searching for your company name are looking for you because they already know of and are interested in your company – meaning that they have a very high chance of buying.
4. Directing potential customers to your homepage
This is a common mistake that you should not need an online marketing company to point out. If your advertisement talks about ‘women’s sandals’ or ‘teenage novels’, then you need to direct the user to the page that sells ‘women’s sandals’ or ‘teenage novels’. If you send the potential customer to your homepage and they struggle to find the relevant products, they will leave and go elsewhere.
5. Choosing the wrong keywords
Many companies make the mistake of choosing keywords that are too ‘generic’. For example choosing the keyword ‘shoes’ if you actually sell only men’s trainers.
Generic keywords may result in many site visitors, but your conversion rate will be very, very low. Something such as ‘men’s Adidas trainers’ will yield much better results since visitors to your site are more likely to find the product they are looking for.
Choosing an exact product name can also offer great results. While an exact product will incur fewer searches, those searches which are made will results in a much higher conversion rate since visitors to your site will be looking for, and should find, that specific product.
A final note
Despite the fact that all this advice is targeted at those choosing to take their pay per click campaign in-house, this does not discount the value of employing a specialist pay per click agency or even a more general online marketing company to manage the campaign for you.
Outsourcing your pay per click campaign will free up time for jobs at which your company is more skilled, but you will also get the benefit of seasoned knowledge, experience and trial and error.
James Harper wrote this post on behalf of Boom Online Marketing. James is an SEO professional who writes on a number of subjects relating to business and the internet.