PPC Campaigns, Pay-Per-Click Ads isn’t bringing you any results. You created an account, searched for keywords, produced the ad copy, inserted your credit card information, and spent money on advertising… and there’s not much going on either.
Alternatively, you may have recruited a full-time employee, but the system still isn’t working.
Finding suitable keywords and paying for those hits may seem like an easy strategy, but driving traffic that really converts is a far more difficult challenge to overcome.
This article will cover some of the most typical PPC campaign issues we’ve observed, as well as solutions.
What Are The Reasons For The Failure of PPC Campaigns?
If your PPC campaigns aren’t bringing in the results you’re looking for, you’re most likely dealing with one or more of the following:
- Configuration issues with the ad platform.
- The landing page has problems.
1. Configuration Issues With The Ad Platform
You’re spending for traffic that doesn’t reach your target audience, and you’re paying for traffic that doesn’t provide you with the results you want.
Optimisation techniques can be the distinction between a lucrative and unprofitable account, for this reason.
Audience
Start by making sure you’re bidding on the proper keywords in order to reach the individuals who require your service or merchandise. Check at your search terms report to discover what terms people are really using to find your advertising. Even if Google doesn’t disclose all of them, this analysis is still a must-have for auditing.
Search for the keywords you’re bidding on and look at the other advertisements to see whether this is the right place for your business. Do they exist in your line of work? Are they the same thing?
This includes making absolutely sure you have not selected “People in, frequent or interested” as a location target when creating a marketing campaign. This will be deemed “recommended” by Google. It isn’t in the majority of cases.
Let’s imagine you’re a company that solely sells to Singaporeans. Leaving this setting on will show adverts to those “interested in” Singapore even if you simply want to target Singaporeans. Really?! No. That’s not something we’d like to happen. The squandered money is already starting to build up, and it’s becoming louder by the minute.
● Incorrect or No Tracking of Conversions
If you want to know if your campaigns are working, you need to be able to measure conversions. If you’re running banner advertisements for brand image and don’t pay too much attention when someone visits your site – although you should care – this is an exception.
Don’t bother with display advertisements, and save yourself some money in the process.
● Copy for an Advertisement
When it comes to website traffic, what is your “click-through rate?” The copy should be re-evaluated if it’s falling below the 2% threshold.
Bad text is the fastest way to sabotage the success of a search ad. It may be worthwhile to spend some time honing your persuasive copywriting abilities before attempting again.
Try to include additional keywords, perks, and appealing CTAs (calls to action) in your writing.
● Structure of the Accounts
It’s critical to structure your PPC account so that you can immediately access the data you want and assess ad expenditure in light of goals, locations, and other considerations. As a result, your ROI will suffer if you invest too much money in a campaign that isn’t producing results.
Grouping campaigns by product, type of goods, or offer is an effective strategy. Landing pages may also be used as a metaphor for this.
Your ad groups and keywords should be organised into themes inside this. It’s not necessary to include so many keywords; in fact, the opposite is true. Focus on a small number of relevant and on-theme keywords, no more than five.
Let’s imagine, for example, that I’m conducting a series of vacation promotions. A campaign for each landing page on my site would be created, and ad groups would be created for different topics. Based on the exact keywords and search traffic, a summer design, a cheap flight concept, and a holidays theme may be examples.
● Types of Match
That’s why we advocate utilising phrases and mainly attributed keywords in your ads as Google is phasing out the use of “wide match modifiers.” Even if your budget is limited and your Cost-Per-Click (CPC) is high, you may want to just use a precise match. You may separate them per ad group, but I prefer to keep them in the same ad group for the most part.
The idea here is to avoid using broad phrases, especially if you’re on a tight budget. When you’re bidding on “instant coffee,” Google will correlate your ad to a search for “Starbucks” even if you’re actually bidding on “instant coffee.”
● Negative Keywords
Using the wrong keywords might slow down your campaigns and waste your advertising dollars.
You need to get rid of keywords that bring in visitors who won’t buy your product or become a lead, so you can focus on the ones that will. Search intent and how it affects conversions should be studied.
Examine your search term report and remove any irrelevant keywords from the list. Through your personal knowledge of your brand and how your client searches, you may uncover negative keywords. Men’s smartwatches, for example, may have “women’s smartwatches” as a negative term in a campaign.
● Budget
You ought to spend a lot of money. The way PPC operates is the same way it always has been. Consider a stranded vehicle in the snow: without adequate traction, it will never be able to be extricated.
Same here: The less money you put into it, the less time and effort it takes you to learn, and the more you believe it’s not working at all! To put it another way, PPC isn’t a good fit for every company.
2. The Landing Page Has Problems
Even if you spend 95% (or more) of your time on advertisements, you should never lose sight of the fact that where you direct your traffic has a significant influence on your return on investment.
You can’t expect the most eligible, ready-to-buy consumers to take actions on a webpage that doesn’t adequately convey the value in your product or worse, imposes hurdles to conversions like sluggish load times and terrible checkout experiences or faulty forms.
● Consistency
Do keywords and advertising text match the content of a landing page (LP)? It’s essential that it is.
In order to get a free demo, you must include “Get a Free Trial” as the CTA in your LP. Product-related campaigns and advertising necessitate the use of the LP that represents the product.
● It’s the Deal
This is massive. If you want the LP to take action on your offer, it must be both enticing and tiny enough to justify their time and effort.
Videos, high-quality product images, selling points/benefits/social proof, and more are all necessary for high-ticket e-commerce businesses to keep a visitor moving toward fulfilment.
Remember that the perception of worth is the most important factor. Perceived value is not the same as actual value.
What happens here is typical of high-end brands and how they operate.
● The Content
Humans make emotional decisions that they subsequently reason. Because they appeal to the heart, benefits are essential to the long-term success of any advertising effort.
In order for features to generate conversions, your audience must care about them. Features are pointless unless they provide the benefit (i.e. they address a problem).
A solid LP best practice is to use captivating copywriting to showcase the major value of a product or service.
● The Design
Straightforward, and simple are the three guiding principles for writing your LP’s content.
Clutter-free: everything is neat and orderly. In B2B, specifically, I do not advocate using navigation. Basically nothing you don’t need.
Clear: A single call to action. There are only one and only one of them.
Simple: All you need is a clear call to action (CTA), a demonstration of the product’s features, and perhaps some social proof. Complexity is overrated in this case. Save it for your inner pages or a chat once someone booked their demo, and instead focus on the most important aspects of your product.
Product or service ROI should be your primary focus. Is it more efficient than doing it the old-fashioned way? Is there an increase in revenue as a result? Is there less churn? You’ll have a great record if you can do this and charge a fair fee for it.
Conclusion
In other words, if you’ve done the arithmetic and found that PPC may be successful, following the suggestions in this article will help you get there.
Even while PPC is very powerful, that doesn’t negate the need for nuance, complexity, and, in the end, a great deal of planning and effort. There are a number of things that might go wrong if your account isn’t bringing in a return on investment for your organisation.