Do - Know your audience

As with any marketing activity, it’s imperative that you understand your target audience to allow you to reach them effectively. Ask yourself questions such as; what are your ideal customers interested in? Which platforms are they active on? and when and where are they searching ? These will help you to deliver a more concise and targeted plan and will increase the efficiency of your Google Ads campaign. 

DO - Conduct keyword research

Keyword tools can help you discover cost, competition and volume for search terms. Finding those relevant keywords which best represent your business can be a difficult task. There are synonyms to consider, alternative meanings to negate, and long tail terms to unearth, all of which take time and the navigation of specialised tools. Without this research, you can end up overpaying for unrelated keywords or worse, identifying queries that are searched for so infrequently that you never get the chance to do any advertising. 

DO - Write killer ad copy

Not every advertiser also happens to be a copywriting expert. The key to success is a healthy balance between qualitative and quantitative components. To write copy that converts, focus on maximising click-through rate by ensuring every text ad has a pair of compelling headlines, a call to action and includes the keyword you’re bidding on. 

DON’T - Bid on broad keywords

Don’t try to be all things to all people. It's wonderful to deal with keywords that have 5,000 searches a day, or even 500 searches a day, but in reality, these popular search terms actually make up less than 30% of the searches performed on the web. The remaining 70% lie in what's called the "long tail" of search. The long tail contains hundreds of millions of unique searches that might be conducted a few times in any given day, but, when taken together, comprise the majority of the world's search volume.

Another lesson search marketers have learned is that long tail keywords often convert better, because they catch people later in the buying/conversion cycle. A person searching for "Ford Focus" is probably browsing, and not ready to buy. On the other hand, someone searching for "best price on Ford Focus 1.6L" practically has their wallet out!

DON’T – Dive into Google Ads without setting clear objectives for your business

I t’s important to set out clear goals and objectives before you begin, otherwise how will you know if you have been successful? How you structure your Google Ads account and the features you choose to take advantage of will impact on the response you receive. Realistic measurable goals are the foundation of every good Google Ads account. It’s likely you will have a specific goal in mind. Common ones include selling more products and services, improving lead quality and lowering cost per acquisition. The key is to make them SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed), which will enable you to more effectively measure the success of your Goggle Ads campaign.

DON’T – Forget to activate the conversion tracking tool

Testing, reviewing and evaluating performance is one of the most important aspects of PPC and if you fail to do this you will not reap the rewards in your future PPC plans. The Google Ads conversion tracking is a powerful tool that lets you identify how well your ad campaign is generating leads, sales, downloads, email signups and other key actions for your business. 

The data recorded by conversion tracking allows you to identify which areas of your campaign are working and which are not, so you can optimise your bids, ad text and keywords accordingly. The whole process relies upon placing a ‘tag’ on your website and then watching conversion data roll in. It sounds easy enough, but it can be tricky to get this linked. Getting it right is a necessity, because the only thing worse than no conversion tracking is inaccurate conversation tracking. 

Avoid the pitfalls

Google Ads can be a minefield for small businesses wanting to promote their business online, but many recognise the need to participate and develop a PPC strategy. So if you are thinking of investing in Google Ads, it’s key to understand the key do’s and don’ts to avoid the common pitfalls. Honing in on these elements will help create a solid foundation and deliver a stronger and more effective PPC campaign which has a higher rate of converting sales.

If you simply just don’t have the time or resource to deliver a PPC strategy, HoneyBadger have a team of in house experts who can help. To learn more.