Avoid These Three Big Pay Per Click Mistakes

There's no shortage of information on making the most of your pay per click campaigns, but many newcomers to online marketing find it all to be a little overwhelming. With so many different approaches to maximizing ROI for your PPC efforts, it can be a struggle even for those who are relatively experienced in the field to decide which strategies can yield the best results from their pay per click ads.

It can be hard to tell what will work best for a given campaign, but you can give yourself a head start by avoiding the following three common PPC mistakes:

Poorly Designed Landing Pages

For some reason, the idea that landing pages have to be flashy in order to get people's attention. The end result of this approach is splash pages which are unattractive and filled with over the top hard sell ad copy which turns off most visitors. There's nothing wrong with keeping it simple, especially when it comes to landing pages. It may not seem as exciting, but what visitors want is to be able to quickly find out more about your business and perhaps see a testimonial or two. You should include a call to action here, but keep it subtle, short and to the point. Make your landing pages easy to read so visitors can find what they're looking for at a glance.

Testing Without Planning Ahead

One very common mistake is to test PPC campaigns without planning ahead or keeping track of their results. This leads to tests which don't end up telling you nearly as much as they should about how well your pay per click campaigns are performing and running the same tests over and over again. Many companies end up wasting a lot of time, effort and money on ineffective testing; in order to avoid this pitfall, plan ahead for every step of the process and know exactly what you're looking for in your tests. It should go without saying, but keep track of which tests you've done so you don't end up duplicating your efforts as so many other businesses do.

Not Adapting to Change

Online marketing is an incredibly fast moving field and significant change can occur quickly. Your keywords may not be as effective today as they were a few months ago, the ideal ad position for different sites may change – in other words, an effective PPC campaign requires constant examination and fine tuning. These changes could be as simple as making a few tweaks to your PPC ad copy or as large as resetting your cost per acquisition rules. There are a lot of different factors that influence your ROI here and being flexible enough to embrace change can make all the difference between a highly effective pay per click campaign and a waste of your marketing budget.