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Challenge #1:
Making sure your campaign has an audience.
A rookie mistake when starting in Google Ads is to
build out campaigns without fully researching your target audience.
Sure, you could get lucky and add the right keywords without any help —
but more likely you’ll either get a trickle of traffic, or worse, get
lots of traffic from tire kickers!
Make sure that doesn’t happen by using the free Keyword Planner tool
found in Google Ads. You’ll find the demand for various relevant
keyword terms along with estimates for what you’ll pay per click.
Challenge #2:
Not overspending on clicks.Google loves making money just as much as you do. When
launching campaigns I recommend starting with high bids because you’ll
put your ads in a position to get more clicks, which leads to
high-quality scores and ultimately, cheaper clicks. Bid too high,
though, and you might blow through your advertising budget with a
negative return on your investment.
It’s a balancing act, but you can take out the
guesswork with some simple math. Calculate your maximum bid with this
formula:
Max
CPC = (average profit per customer) x (conversion rate of your online
customers) x (1 – desired advertising profit margin).
You’ll need to estimate these numbers if you’re
just starting out, but you can plug in real data as you go. Check the
Google Keyword Planner tool and focus on keywords with estimated costs
below your calculated Max CPC.
Challenge #3:
Keeping up with your competitors.
As you know, one of the keys in business is to
stay one step ahead of your competitors. The same is true in Google
Ads.
To keep an eye on what your competitors are doing,
I recommend using a tool like SpyFu. You’ll be
able to “spy” on your competitors’ ad copy, keyword terms, and even see
how long they’ve been using certain ads and keywords. This is
invaluable information you can use to improve your campaigns and give
you a competitive advantage.
Challenge #4:
Defining what makes your business special.
Why should Google users click on your ad over all
the others?
To answer this question is to define what makes
your business special. That alone can be surprisingly challenging;
then, you must summarize that uniqueness in a very limited space using
text ads. Focus your ad on whatever it is your business does better
than everyone else, and build from there.
Challenge #5:
Saying everything in limited characters.
Your ads must be compelling enough to grab
attention and drive conversions. However, with standard ads, you only
get 30 characters for your headlines and 90 characters for your two
description lines.
That’s not much space to work with, especially
when your ads should:
·
Convey what makes your business special.
·
Make an irresistible offer.
·
Include a call to action.
Like all writing, the most important step is to
start. Once you have a few drafts, then you can refine them to find the
best 2-3 variations you want to test first. Remember, no one knows for
sure which ad copy will perform best so always run multiple variations
and let the data guide you.
Challenge #6:
Make sure your landing page follows through.
It’s all too easy for adjustments to your ad copy
to accidentally become promises your landing page doesn’t keep. This
happens when you only focus on your ad copy rather than reviewing your
ads and landing pages together.
Your Google Ads quality scores can plummet over
poor landing page experiences, resulting in less traffic and more
expensive clicks. Google can even suspend your ads over what it deems
to be false advertising. In addition, you’re likely to end up irritating
people who might have otherwise become customers.
Before changing your ad copy, first make sure that
whatever you plan on writing is well represented on your landing page.
If your revised ad offers free shipping, then people who click that ad
should instantly know what to do when arriving on your website. Those
irresistible offers play a huge role in bringing people to your site,
but if you don’t follow through on your landing page, neither will your
prospects.
Challenge #7:
Getting your website to work on mobile.
Most web developers today will build websites to
be functional on both mobile and desktop platforms. However, many small
businesses websites were built before mobile took off.
Two things will happen if you advertise to mobile
devices without a mobile-optimized website:
1. Prospective customers will bounce
because the page will not look or function properly on their mobile
(aka you’ll lose sales)
2. Your quality scores will suffer, which
leads to higher costs and lower ad positions
Sure, you can choose to not advertise to mobile
devices, but keep in mind that an estimated 100 billion Google searches
per month originate from smartphones and this number is growing!
Challenge #8:
Setting up conversion tracking.
Enabling conversion tracking is an absolute must.
Without it, you won’t ever know which ads are driving the most leads
and sales.
Get your conversion tracking code from Google Ads
and embed it within the page of your website that signifies a completed
transaction. If your goal is to drive sales, then embed the code on
your receipt page.
If you want to drive leads, then embed the code on
the page that shows after your contact form is submitted. This code
allows Google Ads to track when prospects complete your forms so you
can see exactly which ads and keywords result in more conversions.
Plus, if phone calls are important for your
business, then don’t forget to set up phone call conversion tracking.
This is additional code you’ll need to embed on the website so you can
see which ads and keywords are driving phone calls.
Challenge #9:
Learning and using extensions.
Extensions are additional bits of information that
can make your ads much more enticing to Google users — especially those
who are searching for local goods and services. Ad extensions include
call buttons, additional links, your company address and more.
Google does display some extensions automatically,
but you’ll miss out on the most useful extensions if you don’t set them
up manually.
Activate this feature under the “Ad extensions”
tab in Google Ads and follow the directions to set up each extension.
Challenge #10:
Optimizing your campaigns.
Optimizing your campaigns is an ongoing effort.
From the day you launch the ads, you should always be split-testing ad
copy, adjusting your bids, testing new keywords, pausing poor
performing keywords, testing different targeting options, and
split-testing landing pages.
Successful campaigns eventually require less
optimizing and, like everything else with Google Ads, it gets easier
over time.
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