By Derek Ashauer
Pay-per-click advertising is growing at an enormous rate. Industry-wide, small and medium-sized businesses are spending billions to reach customers through Google, Facebook, and other popular web portals.
But, experience has taught us that even though there are numerous companies who are using their ads to find targeted buyers at an affordable rate, they are just as many who feel as if they are flushing funds down the drain. In fact, lots of small business owners try PPC advertising for a while, but abandon their high hopes and give up before too long.
Given that there is so much promise in Internet advertising, why is it that so many PPC campaigns end up failing? Here are a few of the common and predictable reasons…
Without Research, There Isn’t Any Execution
Lots of companies barge straight into their pay-per-click campaigns when they would be better-served by doing a bit of research into keywords and demographics first. After all, if you don’t know what your buyers are searching, or which types of customers to target on Facebook and other social sites, then it’s very unlikely you’re going to get a positive ROI from the money you spend.
It’s Easy to Forget There are Two Types of Searchers
By running ads on Google, you can appeal to the most likely buyers of your product or service at the perfect time. But, as important as it is to find those buyers, it’s also critical that you not waste money by displaying your ads to the wrong prospects. Because lots of business owners never alter their campaign settings or add negative keywords, they end up spending money on clicks that aren’t going to convert into sales.
When Ads and Landing Pages Disagree, Bad Things Happen
When a searcher or social user clicks on your ad, they should be taken to a page that fits naturally with the message they saw initially. If there is a disconnect between those two items – if your ad and landing page “disagree” – then they are going to feel cheated, frustrated, or annoyed. Under those circumstances, you can bet they’re going to leave your website before taking the next step you want them to.
Marketers Target Clicks Over Conversions
A lot of new PPC advertisers fall in love with the notion of bringing lots and lots of traffic to their websites. After all, isn’t that what Internet advertising is all about? It’s important to remember, though, that conversions matter more than clicks do. No matter how many visitors you bring to your website, you aren’t going to be profitable unless a high enough percentage of them turn into buyers so that you’re able to offset your costs.
Businesses Make Changes Too Quickly, or Not at All
The instant nature of pay-per-click advertising makes it easy to study trends and make snap decisions. However, sometimes those decisions are made so fast that there isn’t enough time for any real insights to be made. On the other hand, you don’t want to simply set up your PPC campaigns and forget about them, either. Continual review and adjustment is important if you want to improve the percentages and returns you get from your campaigns over time.
There’s a big difference between setting up a pay-per-click campaign and executing one profitably. Unfortunately, that’s not something a lot of vendors (or even advertising platforms) want to tell you. If you could use a little help getting low-cost traffic from Google and Facebook and turning those prospects into real-world sales, call or email a member of our team today and let us show you what we’ve been able to do for other businesses just like yours!