1. Creating ad campaigns with “phrase match” or “exact
match“ keywords. The large majority of advertisers use a
broad match keyword when creating their ppc campaign. That
is actually the default for most campaigns so that is what
most advertisers use. As a result, that’s why most
advertisers waste their money. Using broad match will
result in your ad being displayed for many searches where
people are actually “not interested” in your product.

For instance, let’s say you were marketing a business
opportunity. Would you want your ad to appear in the
following search scam? Probably
not because there’s a good chance the person typing in that
phrase is looking for the dirt on your opportunity not why
they need to join.

2. Use special software and tools to generate keywords
and maximize results. Did you know that there are special
software and tools that are available in the marketplace
that will help you to find keywords that you would have
never thought of in a million years? Did you know that
many of these tools also help you to be able to spy on your
competition and let them lead you to the most profitable
keywords?

If you are managing your own campaign and you are not
using these tools you are literally throwing your money
away. If you are using a professional ppc bid management
service, they should be using these tools for you as well.
Otherwise what are you paying them for?

3. Use the dynamic keyword feature. This is a feature
that helps you get dramatically higher click through
ratings on your ads by having the keyword that your visitor
is typing appear in the ad that you have written. Many of
the larger companies use this feature all of the time. So
should you. If you aren’t using this feature, you are
probably paying more per click than you should be.

All of these features are vital to successfully managing a
ppc campaign. If you are managing your own campaign, you
need to make sure you do your research, learn all about
these features and tools, purchase the ones you currently
don’t have and use them. If you are using a ppc management
company, you need to talk to the company representative and
make sure they are using these features on your behalf so
you can get your money’s worth. Doing this will help you
to have a very profitable ppc campaign.

With that said, here are the 10 common mistakes made in
PPC management:

1. Having your ad appear in places that you can’t or
don’t do business. Always make sure that you explicitly
state what regions, cities and/or countries you want your
ad to display in.

For instance if you are a local business in Denver,
Colorado, it doesn’t make sense having your ad appear
everywhere in the United States or even the world.
Otherwise you are going to pay for clicks that have no
value to you because they are in a location where you don’t
do business.

2. Not doing enough keyword research. Keyword research
is vital to creating a successful ppc campaign. Most
advertisers select only the most obvious keywords for their
market.

However, many times it’s the not so obvious keywords that
make you the most money in your ppc campaign management.
Therefore you want to take the time out to properly do
keyword research and if you don’t know how, learn how or
hire a ppc management company to do it for you.

3. Trying to get the #1 position for a high traffic
keyword. Most advertisers strive to get the #1 position
for a high traffic keyword in their ppc campaign
management, even getting into a bidding war with other
advertisers to maintain it.

However, in most cases the #1 position for a high traffic
keyword is not the most profitable position. This is
because a lot of “tire kickers” click the ad for the #1
position. A better strategy is to shoot for obtaining
positions 3 to 5.

4. Not writing the ad with the keyword in mind. Whenever
you create a ppc ad, you should always write the ad with
the keyword or keywords that you are targeting in mind.
What is the state of mind of the searcher when they type in
that keyword? What are they looking for? How can you
describe what you offer in a way that will make the
searcher click on your ad?

Writing a generic ad for your company without factoring
into the process the keyword you are typing the ad for is a
surefire recipe for disaster in ppc management.

5. Sending the visitor to a page that has nothing to do
with what they are looking for. This is probably one of
the most common mistakes made in PPC management. If you
send a visitor to a web page that doesn’t provide that
visitor with what they are looking for, they are going to
leave.

Here are 4 advanced options in Google Campaign Management
that you may not be aware of and most importantly, how to
use them to maximize profitability in your campaigns. Each
of these options determines how your ads will be served and
thus has a major effect on how much money you will spend on
your ads.

1. Manual bidding – This feature was formerly known as
set maximum limits. This is the most common way an Adwords
management account is set up. What this does is allow you
to decide the maximum amount you are willing to pay for any
keyword in your campaign.

2. Conversion Optimizer – If you are using the conversion
tracker feature to track your opt ins and/or sales, this
feature is available to you. You decide how much you are
willing to pay for a conversion and then Adwords will
automatically optimize the performance of your campaign to
generate for you the highest return on investment.

3. Budget Optimizer – With this feature, you simply tell
Adwords how much money you want to spend every month and
then leave your account alone. Adwords will then
automatically manage your account to generate the most
possible clicks within that budget.

4. Preferred Cost Bidding – This allows you to decide
what is the average price you want to pay per click.
Adwords will then set your bids to make sure the average
price you pay for each click you receive is the amount that
you selected. This doesn’t mean that all of your bids are
going to be the average amount or less. Some bid amounts
may exceed the average amount and some will be lower.

If you are looking to maximize profitability from your
Google Adwords campaigns, the best option to select is the
manual bidding option. One thing you have to remember is
that not all keywords are worth the same.

As such, you want to manually control the bidding on all
your major keyword groups so you can identify which
keywords are making you money and which ones are costing
you money. Manual bidding is the ONLY option that allows
you to do this.

Budget optimizer is probably the biggest waste of money
out of all of the options available. It’s the lazy way to
do Adwords and you will pay for the laziness. You simply
select a monthly budget and Adwords does the rest. That
being said, there is nothing to verify that Adwords is
efficient with that budget. Adwords may be generating lots
of traffic for keywords that are not profitable to you.

Conversion optimizer and preferred cost bidding have their
place if you know what you need to pay to stay profitable
and you don’t care whether you are maximizing profitability
as long as you generate sales at the cost required.

These are the 4 advanced options available in Google
campaign management. Use them wisely and maximize the
profitability of your campaigns.