Establishing a successful Google Adwords campaign can be tough for both beginners and experts alike. Tougher still if you are entering a new niche or just starting to operate in an unfamiliar market. You can always spend a lot of time on market research and spying on your competitor but you will only advance once you create an ad and concentrate on optimizing it. Then again, just placing an ad out there won’t instantly lead to success. The truth is a lot of people discover how quickly they can lose all their time, effort and money invested in Adwords by committing simple mistakes.
These costly mistakes are addressed in the book The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. Written by Perry Marshall, the book is all about getting excellent results from Adwords campaigns consistently.
Below are five common mistakes you must avoid to get you started in raking in huge traffic from your target market:
1. Writing keyword-less ads. By this I mean writing keywords only in the headline of your ad. Posting 1-2 keywords or keyphrases in the body of your ad will make it more relevant in the eyes of both your target market and Google.
2. Directing all traffic to your homepage. Don’t ever send your visitors to your homepage when they click your ads. In most cases, a homepage is used to give general information about a company and its products or services. Those who click on ads do so for a specific reason. Give them what they’ve came for by directing them to a landing page listing your value proposition for them.
3. Using ‘broad match’ in the Google Adwords Keyword Selector Tool as the basis of your research and campaign. As the name suggests, the ‘broad match’ selection is only useful for an overview of your chosen niche or market. The whole point of keyword research is to know the precise words or phrases your target market uses when searching for information in Google. Make use of ‘phrase match’ and ‘exact match’ instead to find out the exact keywords or keyphrases that will lure in your prospects.
4. Using irrelevant keywords. Do not rush to find out what your target market is actually typing in search boxes. Some people make the mistake of assuming that their target market also uses the same words they use to find products and services. This results in a keyword list that gives you sub-par results. To avoid this, utilize the ‘synonyms’ function in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This function will list related keywords from your original keywords giving you vital details on how to best conduct your campaign.
5. Stating your offer solely on the body of your ad. The first thing people see on ads are headlines. Having a solid headline will determine if the person viewing your ad will read on and click it or just ignore your ad and move on. It is critical to state the one benefit that can change lives in your headline. But do not forget entirely about your ad’s body as people don’t just ignore these 3 to 4 lines of text. Capture them with an attention grabbing headline and follow up with a well composed body.