You Did What? Common PPC Mistakes

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No matter how many times a result has been tested, questioned, and tested again, someone will eventually come in all hyped on a “great new idea” of a test they can perform in their PPC strategy.

After weeks of performing a test already tested, the answer is the same; though that test can come at a high price as conversions can plummet, CPA’s can get blasted to Pluto (is that a planet again? or still no? let’s test it!) and numerous hours and dollars can be wasted finding a solution that has already been solved.

Here are three common PPC mistakes to avoid:

1. First Page Bid Default

Raising all your keyword bids above the “first page bid” sounds like a good idea, right? “By raising all my bids above the estimated first page bid, I’ll most certainly show up in the top positions and get the best result!”

That is not always the case. I’ve seen identical keywords side-by-side where the keyword whose bid sat below the first page performed better. I should know… I tested it 🙂

If you always keep all your keywords bids above the first page estimate by default, you are most likely overspending for the result. There are numerous other things that can be done for a better result than a monster bid.

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2. Home Page vs. Landing Page

Are we still having this conversation? Who came into the meeting today hyped on the idea that their home page might do better than a landing page? Sorry to crush the hype, but it won’t.

We talk about landing pages a lot at Disruptive Advertising because they are such a critical part of your success when advertising online.

A landing page specific to your product or service provides an unparalleled experience for your audience and provides benefits all the way down to the cost you pay for someone to click your ad who won’t ever become a customer.

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3. No Conversion Tracking

I’ve assumed responsibility of way too many PPC campaigns not properly tracking their conversions. Why is that such a big deal? As long as the sales/money are coming in, it’s not a big deal right?

Good question, but here’s a better question to ask: where are the sales coming from? What if all your revenue is coming from customer referrals or some other source and your entire ad spend is wasted money each month?

It’s not good enough to say, “my average position is high, and I’m getting lots of clicks with a good click-through-rate, so we must be getting sales from this campaign” – from a real conversation I once heard.

Don’t assume, and don’t be content just because money is coming in. Track your conversions so you can be sure where your money is coming from.

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These are common mistakes that can end up costing your business lots of dollars.

At the end of the day it’s the money that determines if you have your business to come back to tomorrow or not. Help prevent overspending by setting proper bids even if they are below the first-page bid estimate.

Always use a dedicated landing page for your product or service to get a higher conversion rate, then don’t forget to track those conversion. You need to know where your money is coming from and make smart decisions based on real data. By avoiding these mistakes you’ll save yourself the time and money it took someone else to already figure it out.

Questions? Let us know in the comments.