5 Mistakes You’re Making in Your Search Campaign
Properly executed pay-per-click (PPC) search campaigns can increase your exposure, financial success and brand recognition. But search campaigns can be tricky and frustrating! Companies start out with ambitious marketing strategies but see little return on investment (ROI).
Every marketer has been there — staring at low conversion rates, hoping for a miracle. But don’t give up hope yet!
Here are five mistakes you’re making before, during and after you’ve launched your campaign. You can understand your miscalculations, learn from them and do better — with a little help from The Deciding Factor.
- No Goal or Plan
Unfocused campaigns that lack a clear goal and nuance are a common mistake. What kind of leads do you want? Are you utilizing B2B or B2C strategies and how does that affect the setup of the campaign? Search campaigns aren’t successful when they don’t have conversion goals.
Many search campaigns also lack a distinct focus. It is possible to have too many goals — so you distract the algorithms from your purpose — or not enough goals, so you aren’t informing the platforms who you’re really looking for. You also don’t want to push too many products or services in one campaign.
It’s also important to be precise where you direct the customer and in your messaging. It’s a big mistake to have your search ads link to just another website page or your home page. And an unclear ethos will bleed into the ad copy and SEO of a landing page. Many marketers will overuse keywords in copy. When you try to please everyone, you don’t please anyone.
- No ROI Model or CLV consideration
Too many businesses will overspend on multiple search campaigns or on too many regions without deciding an acceptable budget for cost per click or cost per conversion. Often these decisions stem from not understanding industry standards for clickthrough rates and cost per click.
Many companies also lack adaptability in their marketing strategies. They don’t adjust budgets or pause campaigns when faced with new problems and opportunities.
It’s also a mistake to misjudge which customers should be prioritized. Weighing new customers over loyal long-term customers will hurt a company because they may miss repeat purchases. It’s all about identifying your ideal customer through a Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) analysis. Then you need to close the loop and tell Google the quality of your leads with a predictive CLV or a lead score.
- Not Testing Ads
Many marketers fail to provide the necessary care and planning to prepare and execute proper A/B testing. These campaigns are a great way to drive traffic and sales. But if you don’t test properly, you will have no way of knowing if your targeting and messaging are effective.
Marketing strategies that don’t involve monitoring what works and trying variations are not going to be successful. The biggest issues arise from targeting the wrong audiences, not clearly communicating offered products and services, and not highlighting your value to customers.
- Trusting Google or Microsoft’s AI Alone for Campaign & Ad Building
Relying on Google’s automated tools alone for keywords, creative and other campaign elements has been the downfall of many a search campaign. Sometimes, the default recommendations that Google provides are the very ones you want to avoid. Your goal is to generate sales. Google gets paid on your volume of clicks.
Following keyword recommendations alone will lead you to choose keywords that don’t follow your website’s intent and stated goals. Ineffective campaigns also result when keywords aren’t monitored and profitability isn’t considered. A keyword that is inexpensive could be great, but only if its producing profitable traffic. In addition, the content Google creates with its AI can be too generic and missing the special sauce that is your brand.
- Not Maximizing AI’s impact
If you’re not taking advantage of the millions of search and intent signals that the platforms and algorithims have access to, you’re missing out on the most effective advertising tools available. AI tools built into search advertising platforms can help your company run more efficient, effective, and personalized campaigns while maximizing your return on investment. Ad platforms are chock full of AI that helps you target better and bid in alignment with your goals. But the truth about AI is that it’s only as good as the questions you ask it – garbage in, garbage out.
Experience using the AI can help identify what should be automated and what shouldn’t be. When to trust the algorithm and when to select your own settings. This presents unique challenges for B2B marketers, where niche marketing is critical and understanding where the AI is steering you wrong.
For More Information
Do you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your search campaigns? Contact our digital marketing agency today to benefit from our experience and skill with optimizing search campaigns.
