13 Most Common Google Adwords Fails

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The 13 Most

Common Adwords

Fails(Told Through Memes)

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Google Adwords...

Is THE best and most powerful small business marketing & promotion

tool available todayBUT, many small

business owners don’t think so...


“Yeah, I tried Adwords, but it cost me a lot of

money and didn’t work… So I turned it off”

Why Is This?

What I Hear From 99% Of Clients


• Setup correctly, Adwords will deliver between 5X and 10X return

• Setup badly, you’ll barely get your monthly spend back• And you guessed it – the majority of people set them

up badly!• Google will help people by setting up the campaigns for

them– How do you think they set them up? Options:

a) To target very specific visitors and maximise budget?b) To drive as many clicks as possible?

The Amazing System That Can Lose You A Lot Of Money

Google Adwords


• The fact is that Google only makes money when your ads get clicked

• Their whole system is therefore geared (skewed) to get you clicks – ANY clicks!

• They provide an infinite amount of options and settings to maximise your budget

• But most people use less than 5% of the options available to them

• And so waste their budget and run LOI (Loss On Investment) campaigns

Google Adwords

The Amazing System That Can Lose You A Lot Of Money


So What Are The

13 Most Common Adwords

Fails?

Fail #1:

Don’t Bother

Learning


• Adwords is a deceptively complex system

• There is great depth and breadth to the options and choices you can make

• Leave everything in “default” mode and you’ll lose money

• You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to learn beyond the basics

ACTION:• Study Adwords Or Outsource

The Creation/Management Of Your Campaigns

Fail #1: Don’t Bother Learning

Fail #2:

Send People To A Bad

Website


• Spending money to send people to a bad website is just crazy!

• Get your house in order before you spend a cent!

ACTION:• Is the design out of date?• Is the text engaging?• Have you checked for

spelling, grammar & punctuation errors?

• Do you have high quality imagery?

Fail #2 – Send People To A Bad Website

Fail #3:

Don’t Send

Visitors To A

Specific Landing

Page


• The human race is lazy• Ask people to jump through

hoops and they simply won’t• Your campaign should be

supported by a specific landing page with a strong Call-To-Action

ACTION:• Review your landing page/s• Are they impactful?• Do you “ask” for the

business?• Do NOT simply drop them

on the home page

Fail #3 – Don’t Send Visitors To A Specific Landing Page

Fail #4:

Generic Ad Text


• Again, the human race is lazy

• They won’t click on ads that don’t show the same keywords they typed in

• They won’t click on ads that don’t stand out

ACTION:• Make sure you include the

most important keywords in your ad text

• Format your ads to stand out

Quality Carpet CleaningProfessional Cleaning Of CarpetsRugs & Upholstery – See Our Offers

NOT

Expert cleaning companyComplete residential and commercialCleaning services – call now

Fail #4 – Generic Ad Text

Fail #5:

Use Simple

Ad Config


• Another example of Google driving their own agenda• Standard settings limit the control you will have over your

campaign, so Google gets to choose for you!• This will get you more clicks and each click might be lower

cost, but the majority will be “bad” clicks

ACTION:• ALWAYS select “All Features”

Fail #5 – Use Simple Ad Config

Fail #6:

Run All Ads Under

A Single Campaign


Account

Campaign

Ad Group

Advert

Advert

Ad Group

Advert

Campaign

Ad Group

Advert

Advert

Advert

1 Per AdvertiserEmail, Password & Billing Info

25 Per AccountBudget, Location, Languages, Networks, Devices, Extensions, Scheduling & More

2000 Ad Groups Per Campaign2000 Keywords Per Ad Group

Sets Of Keywords & Placements

50 Ads Per Ad Group1 URL Per Ad

• Google campaigns can be extremely structured, allowing great control over performance and reporting

Fail #6 – Run All Ads Under A Single Campaign


• It is VITAL that you plan your Adwords campaign structure properly

• Not doing so will mean unfocused campaigns that limit your control of spend and may cause certain ad Groups to be starved of budget

ACTION:• Be sure to setup a specific

campaign, with its own budget, for each product/service

• Be sure to setup specific ad groups for each keyword grouping

Fail #6 – Run All Ads Under A Single Campaign

Fail #7:

Using The

Content NetworkBecauseYou Can


• The “Display Network” (AKA “Content Network”) will show your ads on sites opted in to receive them

• Google decides where your ads are shown based on relevance of website content to keywords in your campaign

• It is useful for those selling mass market products/services (MP3 players, music, ringtones, etc)

• In most cases it will simply waste your budget with bad clicks

ACTION:• Unless you have a really good reason to do otherwise, turn off the content network

Fail #7 – Content Network

Fail #8:

No Regional Targeting


• Adwords default is for adsto show nationwide

• Great if you have a nationwide business

• Not so great if you run abusiness with a smallerreach

ACTION:• Work out how far from your store/office you want to attract

customers• Implement regional targeting either using location or radius

targeting• You can also target multiple locations simultaneously (all towns in

an area)

Fail #8 – No Regional Targeting

Fail #9:

Using Only

Broad Matching


• There are 3 types of keyword matching options:

Broad MatchAds are served for any version of the phrase and variants of the phrase

A recent addition is the broad match modifier. You can use a + in front of a word to specify that Google should restrict the use of that word to it and plurals of it.

“Phrase Match”Ads are served when this phrase is entered exactly, but will also show when additional words are entered before and/or after the phrase - identified with “ ” surrounding the phrase

[Exact Match]Ads are served only when this phrase is entered exactly - identified with [ ] surrounding the phrase

Fail #9 – Using Only Broad Matching


Imagine You Sell Tree Houses:• Adding Tree House (broad matched)

would show your ad for searches such as: dead tree outside my house buy house with tree in garden Play house

• None of these are relevant and may generate bad clicks

• Adding “Tree House” (phrase matched) would show your ad for searches such as: wooden tree house tree house supplier



• Broad matching can be useful for those running brand awareness campaigns or selling mass market, impulse purchase products

• For everyone else use extremely sparingly if at all

• Exact match can be too specific and means you have to add many variants

ACTION:• Use phrase matching in most

situations


Fail #10:

Ads Run All Day & Night


• Do you really want to get clicks from people at 4.30am?

• Google provides the ability to schedule your ads to show only at times you specify But only if Advanced Ad Config is

used• It is useful to maximise your

budget by restricting the ads to certain days/times of day

ACTION:• Unless you run a 24-hour

business, schedule your ads• If you have a very small budget

schedule your ads to run only from the afternoon onwards

Fail #10 – Ads Run All Day & Night

Fail #11:

Never Reviewing

Your Campaign


• You would never simply keep putting ads in print without reviewing the perfomance and ROI

• Adwords provides a wealth of information on your performance and ROI

• At a minimum you need to spend 30 minutes per week reviewing your campaign

Fail #11 – Never Reviewing Your Campaign


WHATTO

CHECKAd

Performance




WHATTO

CHECK

KeywordPerformance


ACTION:Simple Weekly Checklist – 1 hour/week

• Adjust bids (Initially daily) – You can also have Adwords automatically bid for you

• Pause poorly performing keywords• Implement keyword expansion on top keywords (where

appropriate)• Move top performing keywords to separate ad groups• Review & pause ads• Review & add negative keywords


Fail #12:

Never Adding

Negative Keywords


• You would not believe the things people type into Google that can trigger your ad

• Typically your ad might be shown for location and product/service searches which are not relevant to you

• Adding negative keywords helps avoid “bad” clicks

Fail #12 – Never Adding Negative Keywords


ACTION:• Check the list of actual searches that triggered your ad• Compile a list of words that you do not want your ad to

show for in future• Add these words to the negative keywords list

Fail #12 – Never Adding Negative Keywords

Fail #13:

No Mobile Website


• Google data shows that 61% of people who hit a non-optimised website on a smartphone will immediately leave!

• All those visits = clicks = cost = wasted budget!• Google recently stopped you being able to turn off mobile ads• The good news is that mobile ads get more clicks and are cheaper than

desktop adsACTION:

• If you are going to advertise with Adwords, GET A MOBILE SITE!

Fail #13 – No Mobile Website


Need More Info?

Avoid These Mistakes & Enjoy Excellent ROI

ORHire The DG Group

For A Genuinely Small Monthly Fee

Special OfferFirst Month Free If We Create

Your Campaign

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Delivering Growth


13 Most Common Google Adwords Fails

Business

dead tree

tree houses

ad forsearches

garden play house

mobile ads

ad2000 ad groups

ad group1 url

bad clicks