More business from Web Traffic

It amazes me how many people are just pouring their hard earned cash down the drain every day with Adwords.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big believer in Adwords as a fantastic channel for bringing in new business. A good Adwords campaign can make you a lot of money. A bad one can break you!

What it is that amazes me though, is that I see the same seven mistakes time and time again. These mistakes can really kill an Adwords campaign stone dead and they are so easy to fix.

I call them my Nine Deadly Adwords Sins. Here’s how to fix them.

Deadly Sin Number 1 is not using Conversion Tracking. I hear so many people talk about how they are getting a great click through rate or really cheap clicks but when I ask them if they are actually turning those clicks into customers, they suddenly go very quiet.

A great click through rate is completely pointless if very few of your clicks generate any business. So you need to know which keywords and which adverts are converting well. The only way to do this in my book, is to install conversion tracking.

Why people don’t install it is beyond me. It’s free and Google make it very easy. Just click on the Conversion Tracking link next time you are in Google Adwords and follow the simple steps.

Deadly Sin Number 2 is chasing the top spot. So many people get obsessed about getting their ad into the top spot. I’ll let you into a secret. The best converting spots are usually positions two and three. The theory here is that many people just click on the top spot without really reading the advert. They “expect” the ad to be the most relevant. If someone clicks on the second or third ad then they are clearly reading the ads to pick what they think is the best. Therefore they are likely to be more targeted to what you have to offer - always assuming your ad is relevant to your offer (see Deadly Sin number 3!).

The top spot is rarely the best spot. So why pay for it!

Deadly Sin Number 3 is writing ads that are misleading. I see this so often. People get so hung up on getting clicks that they make their ads completely misleading just to get the click. For example, they offer something for free but when you get to the site, you actually find that what you were offered is not there. So click through might climb but conversion rates plummet. Eventually, Google senses the poor conversion rate and starts to charge you more for your clicks.

This is generally when people start to spend more on their clicks and make even more outrageous claims in their ads, just to keep their click through rate high. Thus, they get into a deadly spiral and soon their clicks become very expensive.

Deadly Sin Number 4 is advertising all the time. Chasing those clicks around the clock might be a bad idea. Google Analytics gives a great report that shows you what hour of the day you are getting your conversions. So you should target your better hours using the Adwords scheduler in the campaign settings. Also, check out which days of the week you are getting most of your conversions. There is nothing to stop you having multiple campaigns that are set to run only on certain days of the week and at certain times.

Deadly Sin Number 5 is advertising in every country. If people can’t buy or use your product in their country, why allow your ads to show to those countries? Again take a good look at your conversion rates and see what countries you are being more successful in. Adjust your campaigns so that you are only advertising in those countries.

If you want to get very clever, you can create campaigns that target different countries with different combinations of times of the day and days of the week!

Deadly Sin Number 6 is not using the broad, phrase and exact matching options for your keywords. Google sets up your keywords using the broad matching option as standard. However both phrase and exact matching are usually cheaper and provide a targeted click that is more likely to convert.

Deadly Sin Number 7 is not using negative keywords. A negative keyword stops your ad being displayed if that word is being used in the search. So, for example, if you are selling a product, then you probably would not want your ad showing when someone types the word free into Google. So spend some time thinking up negative keywords for your campaigns. It will save you a small fortune in wasted clicks.

Deadly Sin Number 8 is not using the reports in Adwords. There are lots of really useful reports that tell you a lot about how your campaigns are doing and they allow you to spot lots of improvements you can make. For example, you can see what keywords people are actually typing into Google to trigger your ads. This allows you to see what extra words they are using that trigger your ads. This will give you some great ideas for new keywords as well as negative keywords.

The reports can be set up to run regularly and email you with the results. It’s that easy. So if you have never tried the reports, then please go and spend some time looking through them. You will be amazed.

Deadly Sin Number 9 is not taking my Adwords Course! OK - maybe that’s blatant advertising but so many people just launch into using Adwords and waste literally thousands of pounds (dollars, euros, whatever!). Why wouldn’t you want a full two hour training video that tells you all you need to know!

So there you have my list of Deadly Sins that are happening every day on Adwords.

Don’t go to confession - just sort out your campaigns instead!