Google advertising is one of the best and most time-tested strategies to get more people to reach your business. If you have not been using Google ads to drive more traffic to your business, then you are losing out on a huge opportunity.
As Neil Patel says, “More clicks translate into more visitors, leads, and customers.”
And, you can make it happen quickly if you don’t make the common mistakes advertisers tend to make when setting up Google ads.
That’s precisely what we will be talking about in this post, along with some important tips on how to create high-performing Google advertising campaigns.
Let’s start.
Mistake #1 – Targeting the Wrong Keyword (KW) Matches
One of the first things you need to become familiar with before getting started with Google Advertising is the keyword match type.
There are three categories of keywords: Broad Match, Phrase Match, and Exact Match.
The names are quite self-explanatory as to how they function. However, to help you understand better, let’s take an example.
For instance, you are running a Google Ad for sports shoes and want to target the keyword ‘best sports shoes.’ When picking a broad match while setting up your campaign, your ad will show up every time someone searches for your given keywords regardless of the order of words. E.g. best shoes for sports, sports shoes best buy, sports shoes for best running, etc.
In phrase match keyword type, the words have to be in the exact same order. So, even if someone searches for ‘where to buy best sports shoes,’ your ad will show up. In the exact match keyword type, your ad will show up only when the exact keyword is searched.
Depending upon your end goal, you can pick the keyword type for running your google ads campaign.
Pro Tip: if your ultimate goal is conversions, then using exact match keywords is the best bet, while if you are looking only to get more footfall or impressions, using a broad match keyword should be the go-to option.
Mistake #2 – Not Using Ad Extensions Effectively
To make it easier for you to create impactful, high-performing ads, Google has given you a great option in the form of ad extensions.
When you log in to your Google Ads account, you will notice a tab named ‘ad extensions,’ using which you can add links and other important pieces of information in your ad copy.
Pro Tip: Think of it as a rich snippet that will give your customers more reasons to click on your ad and create your ad extensions accordingly.
Mistake #3 – Not Testing Enough
Split testing is great to find the best performing Google ad for your brand. However, a number of people are scared to test, even when there’s an amazing feature like ‘Experiment.’
Using the Experiment feature, you can test various elements of your ad copy including landing pages and even the bidding mechanism.
Create a non-running version of an already created campaign in your account, change the parts you want to test run for a predetermined time and see how the Experiment works.
Pro Tip: Start using the recently added ‘Ad Variations’ feature that lets you split test your ad copy way faster than having to manually upload everything like earlier.
Mistake #4 – Using the Wrong Bidding Strategy
Google automatically recommends a smart bidding strategy according to the goal that you have selected for your campaign. However, it is always a good idea to create a manual bidding strategy, according to your requirements.
That’s because not optimizing your bidding strategy can prove to be quite costly in the long run.
Pro Tip: It’s always a good idea to optimize results by using a manual cost per click (CPC) or target cost per action (CPA) strategy while bidding.
Conclusion
No matter the kind of business you run or your end goals, staying away from these mistakes can be the best way to get great results from your Google Advertising campaign. You can start by implementing the simple tips that we’ve shared here. Just in case you find it too difficult to master the art of successful google advertising, you can always get in touch with Google ads experts like IDA Growth and let them do it all for you!
