Google Ads offers every business a number of opportunities and can easily multiply the number of website visitors and customers. However, there are many pitfalls in setting up campaigns, and even one wrong setting can kill the success of your ads. That's why it's essential to get everything set up right - we're going to show you the 10 most common mistakes that are the easiest to make.
Use of Search and Display advertising network within a single campaign
If you're already using Google Ads, you may remember that when you create a new campaign, the first question the ad manager asks is what you're launching the campaign for, and the second is what campaign type you're choosing. You know, here you have to select whether you want to launch Search, Display or some other campaign. If you choose the Search campaign type, it's pretty clear that you want to appear in the search, right? After all, that's what the name says. But not to Google. Because the next screen pops up a setting that's easy to forget: which network you want your ads to appear on.
Well, well, well, somehow the Display network has reappeared! Google is offering you the opportunity to have your ads appear in even more places, on different websites, in place of the display ads. Of course, we'd love to see more appearances, and we love Display campaigns too. However, running a search campaign outside the Search network would be a big mistake! After all, our goal is to show our ads to the users who are searching for the right keyword. However, if we leave this option ticked, our ads can appear on the sidebars of different websites, at the bottom of videos or even at the top of mailings, in a tight rectangle, in a not very eye-catching way. Then you can imagine how many customers will come from these ads, as compared to the absolutely relevant ads that fit perfectly in the search network's results pages. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you only use Search and Display campaigns separately, customising your ads and objectives to the platform.
Geographic targeting by interest
Do you use geographical targeting in your campaigns? Unless you're running international campaigns, you've probably narrowed down your impressions to at least one country - but you may be using even more specific region, city or postcode-based settings. When you turned this feature on, did you look carefully at who exactly you were targeting? Because in the location-based settings for campaigns, there is a drop-down menu that can easily escape your attention. Clicking on the little arrow will bring up additional features, one of the most important of which is the geo-targeting method, which by default may not be the one you have in mind: "People in or interested in the targeted locations".
Don't be confused by the fact that Google says this is the recommended setting, listen to common sense! For example, if you've opened a hairdressing salon in London, there's little chance that people who live outside London but are interested in the city (like tourists) will become your customers. They are much more likely to be interested in the place only for travel reasons, so unfortunately your business cannot profit from them. For this reason, be sure to keep this little drop-down menu in mind when launching your next campaign!
Use of broad match keywords
You've finally got around to launching your first search campaign on Google Ads - you've thought about what keywords your customers might search for, and better still, you've done some keyword research. You've carefully sorted the terms into ad groups, and it's time to upload!
Not to be discouraging, but you may have already made your first mistake. What format did you use for the keywords? Just like that? This is what we call a broad match keyword. What does that mean? If there is such a form, there must be others, right? Yes! The keyword match form determines which search terms your keyword will appear for. You may not have known it, but broad match keywords will make your ad appear for synonyms and related search terms that you hadn't thought of. Think about it, if you advertise for the keyword "women's hats", your ads might even show up for "women's scarves". If you don't sell that particular product, be prepared to say goodbye to the money you will spend on irrelevant clicks!
What is the solution? Fortunately, there are other forms of combining keywords. The simplest is the broad match modifier - you can use this by adding a plus sign in front of certain words (for example, +women +hats) to ensure that your ads only appear if those words or close variants of those words are specifically included in the search.
If you want to better delimit your keywords, you can use phrase match keywords. You can do this by putting quotation marks around the words (for example, "women's hat"). This way, your ads will only appear if the term you enter is also used in the search in this form (or a very close synonym). For example, your ad may appear for "elegant women's hat", but not for "women's fashion hat".
If you want to take maximum control, you have the option to use an exact match. To do this, you need to put square brackets around the term (e.g. [women's hat] ). But be careful! Your ad will only appear if only the specified term (or a close version of it) is entered in the search - if there are any other words, you're out of the running!
That's why we recommend that when creating campaigns, you use a combination of these three forms to enter your keywords, but never in broad match form!
Search terms not reporting
Of course, don't go overboard - it's no good if your ad only appears for a few specific terms. For example, if you run a furniture store, it's great if your ad appears for the word "furniture", but many people might search for "living room furniture" or "oak furniture". As you now know, you don't have to be a mind reader and guess what your prospective customers are thinking - if you've entered your keywords with a general phrase modifier ( +furniture ) or a phrase match ( [furniture] ), Google can display your ad for any search that includes the word "furniture" (for example, "furniture store" or "corner furniture"). But have you ever wondered which terms your business actually appears for?
That's exactly what the search terms mean: they show you which searches your ads appeared for. In fact, it not only tells you exactly how many times you appeared for those terms, but also how many clicks you got from them, what your CPC and CTR metrics were, and exactly how much you spent as a result.
If you've never checked this report, you'll be surprised what you find here! Staying with the previous example, you wouldn't be happy if most of the clicks were on the phrase "free furniture to take away"... That's why it's very important to review your search terms at least every few days and revise them. You can do this at campaign or ad group level by clicking on the Search Terms option under Keywords.
Lack of exclusion keywords
You may have seen from the search terms report that your ad can appear for a wide list of keywords and hopefully result in many useful clicks - but in many cases irrelevant search terms can also trigger your ads, which can spend a significant part of your budget. Therefore, it is very important to exclude terms that are of no benefit to your business from your campaign or ad groups by using exclusion (also known as negative) keywords.
You might run a jewellery shop and run ads for all your products. In this case, the words "necklace", "earring" and "bracelet" are likely to drive potential customers to your website, but your ad for the keyword "rings" may also be targeted at people interested in gymnastics or cooking rings. In this case, you might want to consider adding the words "gymnastic rings" and “cooking rings” to your exclusion keywords to prevent irrelevant clicks from wasting your budget. You can do this within the campaign or ad group by clicking on Exclude Keywords in the Keywords menu. Remember, the first point in this article may also apply here: only enter your exclusion keywords in a broad match format if there is no risk that this will exclude terms that are relevant to you!
#m1-p#Wondering how to get more out of your campaigns? Request a free audit for your Google Ads account!##
Using too many keywords per ad group
You can organise your keywords into ad groups in many different ways - you can separate them by service, product category or even brand. For campaign planning, keyword research and consistent, non-overlapping grouping of search terms is essential anyway. At first, it may be difficult to know where to set the line - which keywords to pair together and which to separate. It's easy to make the mistake of including 30-40 (or more) keywords in a single ad group. True, this is a very time-saving solution, but it's a bad decision in terms of optimising your campaign! Trust me, you will be rewarded if you put more effort into this process!
To keep your quality score high, segment your keywords better and put a maximum of 15 closely related search terms in an ad group! This way, you can write ad copy for each ad group that is most relevant to the audience searching for that word - Google will also appreciate if the keywords in the ad group appear in the copy, and you can move up the results list. Not to mention that it will also be much easier for you to see exactly which of your business's products or services are in greatest demand.
Lack of brand advertising
The keywords seem to be in order now. But wait! You may appear at the top of every search in your industry, but what about when you search for your own name? You could be in for an unpleasant surprise if you find out that one of your competitors is already advertising your name, so you don't appear in the first place for people searching for your company. Don't let your competitors steal your most valuable customers, and if you haven't already, start a Brand Campaign!
But what is the Brand campaign? We use this type of campaign on the search network when we want to ensure that a company appears in the first place when its name is searched. So don't include any keywords in this campaign, other than your company's brand name - in different forms if available! For example, if you run a professional laptop service called LapToppy, don't just include the phrase "LapToppy professional laptop service", you could also add the keywords "LapToppy professional computer service" and "LapToppy professional laptop repair".
Since your ad and landing page are guaranteed to be the most relevant for the keywords, you can expect a much higher click-through rate and a much lower click-through cost than for your other campaigns - and your company will definitely be found when people search for your name.
Use a single ad per ad group
Once you've navigated your way through campaign and ad group-level settings, you can breathe a sigh of relief because creating an ad is the easiest process on Google Ads. But don't underestimate them either! You may feel like you've created the holy grail of advertising, but it may not be the copy or creative that will give your customers that 'wow' feeling. That's why it's so important to follow a basic rule of marketing when writing ads: test, test, test.
The general rule of thumb is to upload at least 3 ads in each ad group - two text and one responsive version, as recommended by Google! This way, different ads may appear for different keywords and users, which may work better in a specific situation. Not to mention that if the keywords in the ad group appear in different copies, you can also increase the relevance score of the ad. So the next time you create ads, don't settle for just one version! Make more than one, as they might save you a lot of money!
No ad extensions or use automatic extensions
With search campaigns, there is not much room for manoeuvre in the way ads are customised, as all advertisers have the same three headings, two descriptions and two route fields. You don't have the option to upload eye-catching images or videos, or even put an emoji in the text. So how do you stand out from the competition? The solution is to use ad extensions! Not using them yet? Make sure you do, as not only will your content be more visually striking, but Google will also appreciate your diversity and using plugins will increase the quality of your display.
It may come as no surprise to you to learn that the ad manager has a simpler solution for this, too, and that's automatic ad extensions. Of course, it's still easy to set up and will get you a lot of visitors, but it might not work to your advantage. After all, do you want the algorithm to create these little add-ons on its own, based on the wording of your website? All you need is for it to copy something you don't want into your ad text. That's why we recommend you use ad extensions, but don't leave it to a robot!
Automatically applying recommendations
If you're already using Google Ads, you'll know that the system provides you with useful suggestions all the time. This is actually great, because while you're sleeping, eating or doing anything else, the algorithm will monitor your campaigns and tell you if any of the settings are not right. But that's also the downside of these suggestions: a machine doesn't know your business, so it can't give you personalised advice. Besides, Google's goals are clear: spend as much as you can on the platform - and that may not always serve your goals.
For this reason, it is definitely worth thinking twice before accepting these recommendations, and if you feel that they would not help your company, you can reject them by clicking on "Dismiss all". (Pro tip: you do not have to fill in the questionnaire after rejecting them.)
In summary
There are many pitfalls in setting up Google Ads campaigns, so it's always worth double-checking your settings to make sure you're not spending your budget on unnecessary clicks.
#promobox#Tired of changing campaign settings? Would you rather focus on developing your business?##
