The 5 Most Costly Adwords Mistakes…

Written by alain on January 6, 2009

1. Bidding On A Large List Of Poorly Targeted Keywords

 

One of the biggest mistakes most newbies make is to create a large list of irrelevant and generic keywords.

 

For example, if you were a mortgage broker who specializes in getting home loans for first time home buyers, it would not be in your best interest to target a keyword like “loans.”

 

 

 

Your Click Thru Rate (CTR) would be extremely low and your quality score will be poor.

 

This can cause that you pay up to $10 per click which obviously would make those keywords obsolete.

 

2. Not  Using Keywords In Your Ad Copy.

 

To improve your quality score you need to use the exact keyword you’re bidding on in the headline, and then again in the body text or in the display URL line.

 

If you use your keywords in your ad copy, Google will make that specific keyword bold and the ad text will stand out to the searcher, that will improve your CTR and at the same time decrease your costs!

 

3. Failure to Use Negatives In Your Keywords.

 

It is crucial to use negative keywords in your Adwords campaign. As a matter of fact you should be spending just as much time identifying negative keywords as you would with your initial keyword research.

 

This will make sure that your ad is not shown when any of these keywords are in the search phrase.

 

For example, you might want to exclude people from visiting your site who are looking for “free or “cheap” products.

 

To achieve this, you must type in the word ‘ - free’ at the end of your keyword list, and your ad will not appear under any search phrases that contain the word ‘free.’

 

4. Leaving the Content Network On.

 

The default on Google is that the Content Network is always on. When the content network is on, your ad will show up on other people’s websites all over the internet. 

 

Most of the time, people who aren’t really interested in buying, will click on your advert. Don’t waste your money, turn off the Content Network.

 

If you want to let the Content Network work for you, spend some time in learning how to use it effectively. 

 

5. Trying to Do It All Alone

 

Most newbies start off with pay per click (PPC) advertising in the hope that they will turn a profit, but they soon realize that Adwords is very complicated and its even harder to profit with.

 

You can save yourself a lot of money and heartache by learning from others who have gone before you.

 

Now this article is not about teaching you about Adwords, but to help you to avoid some of the common mistakes people make.

 

For more information on where you can get expert advice on Adwords training, you can click on any of the links in this article.