If your PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns aren’t performing at the level you think they should, it’s time to make some changes to your Google Ads campaign management strategies. Even small PPC management mistakes can limit performance and cause you to spend more money than necessary with dwindling performance overall. 

Not sure where to start? 

This blog post will go over some of the many mistakes eCommerce store owners make when managing their own PPC campaigns. We’ll identify how even a tiny error can make a significant impact and what you should do as a smart eCom store owner to prevent them.

Knowing what these mistakes are can help you manage your strategy more effectively and help your ads reach optimum performance. Though this might sound daunting, these campaigns don’t have to be too scary or complicated. 

Enough talk, lets dive into what effective PPC is, how it works, identify common mistakes affecting ad performances, and even some tips to help you manage your PPC campaign better.

PPC Management Mistakes and How To Fix Them

The very best way to ensure you’re not making PPC management mistakes is to hire out a third-party management agency that has laser-sharp focus and knows what they’re doing. However, we know that it’s not always feasible to hire out and get a special force of Google ads experts on your team. That’s why we want to cover a few mistakes we see all the time with client accounts and give you a bunch of resources to help you fix them.

What Is PPC?

We’ll start with the basics. Even if you’re past this level, it’s good to know that PPC (pay-per-click) is a digital marketing avenue that allows you to advertise online using search engines. Simply put, this means you can place and manage ads directly on the Google search network or Bing search network. These ads appear on those search results pages above the organically ranking results and have the “ad” identifier. 

A special section of PPC, known as Google (or Bing) shopping ads, is one of the most profitable avenues a lot of eCommerce store owners take to increase overall revenue and profits.

As this name hints at, PPC advertising only requires you to pay when someone clicks on your ad. However, it’s important to note that the amount you actually end up paying varies depending on a few different factors. These factors are determined by an auction that occurs every time any search is made.

PPC auctions are automatic, set into motion by search engine algorithms. Keep these things in mind when diving into PPC auctions: 

1. Your ad’s relevance to the search being made
2. Your ad’s eligibility
3. Total budget set by your business
4. The quality of the ad itself and the landing page being linked to
5. CPC (cost-per-click) budget you’ve set
6. Level of competitiveness

Generally, if your ad is relevant and high-quality, it is more likely to win the auction — as long as you have the budget to fight the competition. With all that in mind, you should go into any campaign with a focused plan and budget that is predetermined. 

We know that PPC can be a lucrative way to market your business and reach new targets, but only if you know how to manage those PPC campaigns. Even if you have a huge company and an even bigger budget, your campaign can still suffer if you make the following mistakes.

Choosing The Wrong Keywords

The first of the three PPC management mistakes we’ll discuss is choosing the wrong keywords. If you’re in a rush to set up ads and monitor their outcomes, you might overlook just how important using the right keywords actually is. However, we urge you to remember that people will only find you and see your ads using specific keywords and phrases.

When your customers come onto Google, they typically look for specific answers and information. To get the best results from your Google ad campaigns, whether they’re shopping campaigns or search campaigns, your ad needs to be relevant to those search terms. You don’t want to go too broad, as general targeting is typically expensive and ineffective. On the other hand, targeting words that are too niche specific can be limiting and cost you valuable leads and conversions. 

How To Avoid This Mistake

To avoid this, simply take the time to do your keyword research first! This will help you identify the right keywords for your audience and for the results you’re looking for. You can do this using Google ads keyword planner tool or other advertising tools (there are plenty out there!).

Remember that the keywords you choose for your PPC ads should be broad enough to reach a wide audience but specific enough to target those who will actually convert. Make sense?

Not Setting The Right Budget

The next mistake that we see all the time when it comes to PPC management is mishandled budgets. This could mean not having enough funding to spend or spending too much on the wrong things. Knowing how much money to spend on ads is often the biggest challenge for PPC marketers or eCommerce store owners in general.

How To Avoid This Mistake:

There are three things you will have to do (and keep doing as part of your ongoing management strategy):

• Reduce Your Budget  — Don’t be afraid to cut your budget on ads and campaigns that aren’t performing. The easiest thing you can do is look for ways to cut spending at the ad group level, ad level, or the keyword level so that you can allocate those funds elsewhere. Watch this video to find out how to properly optimize Google ads campaigns.
• Relocate Your Budget — If you did find a couple of ways to cut your budget, see if you can relocate that budget to other ads or ad groups that have more potential to perform or are already performing well. This can help you improve your overall metrics and reduce wasted ad spend. Practice the 80 / 20 rule.
• Increase Your Bid Caps and Budgets — Do you have the means to invest more in your PPC? In that case, you might consider increasing your ad spend in areas that worked well in the past. Reevaluate your data with the Google ads dashboard or with Google Analytics and identify where your ad account has the most potential.

Setting Incorrect Goals

This last thing on our list of PPC management mistakes is probably the first one you need to think about as it happens before you even set up your Google ads campaigns. Of course, before you do ANYTHING, you need to identify a clear goal for the ads you’re producing.

It can become nearly impossible to manage your campaigns and judge their performance if you have no idea what they are meant to do or what a successful campaign looks like. 

How To Avoid This Mistake

If you want to set up the right goals that are achievable for your business, then you’ll need to understand how PPC performance will support your other endeavors for your business. Consider:

• Your overall eCommerce business goals — Are you trying to grow at a specific rate? Bring in a certain amount of money? Hit certain profit margins?
• Your marketing goals — Who are you trying to reach? How are you measuring those efforts?
• Impact of PPC goals — How are the ads you’re monitoring contributing to your business overall? Are you focused on the right things? What should you rather be focusing on?

This is the time to really dig deep and define what those goals look like in terms of conversions, impressions, website visits, or any other key metrics. Having a clear view of “the bigger picture” can help you identify what a successful ad looks like for your business and give you an idea of how you’re going to get there. 

Lastly, we have to mention that a big part of launching a successful campaign that reaches your goals is targeting the right audience. If you’re targeting the wrong group of people or the wrong demographic, it’s likely your ad won’t resonate with people and you won’t get those desired conversion results.

Make sure you do the right amount of consumer research before setting up your ad. You could start by using your current business analytics and persona data to build out specific customer profiles. This research should consider the entire buying journey of the consumer. Mistargeting or leaving out other parts of the funnel can limit your PPC performance or completely destroy the optimization of your Google ad campaigns. On the other hand, ignoring the rest of the funnel could leave opportunities (dollar bills) on the table.

Optimize Your Paid Search Management 

We know that everyone makes mistakes, especially when it comes to PPC management. It’s a huge beast to tackle and it can definitely be challenging to get everything performing the way you would like it to. If your PPC campaigns aren’t up to par, you’re likely making one of the following mistakes:

• Starting a campaign with no goal or target
• Budgeting incorrectly
• Targeting the wrong demographic or objective
• Choosing the incorrect keyword phrases

Once you understand each step of the PPC management campaign process, you’ll be able to identify these issues. For more guidance, set up a free strategy call with Yoru Marketing today, and we’ll help you take your PPC campaign to the next level. 

At Yoru Marketing, all PPC campaigns are overseen by a real person trained by Shri Kanase. Plus, more often than not, Shri himself will be the one creating ads and launching shopping and searching campaigns. So you can be rest assured knowing that all strategies implemented will abide by Google’s policies and best practices to prevent any and all account suspensions. As a digital e-commerce agency, it’s our goal to ensure all client stores follow the procedures and get fantastic results. Ready to start creating havoc in the market?