7 PPC mistakes that could be draining your budget right now

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is all about maximising return on investment (ROI), making every last penny work harder for your brand or client. But unfortunately, it can sometimes feel like throwing money away – for very little results.

This is why it’s important to be aware of the PPC mistakes and pitfalls that can drain your budget, and are best avoided. Cut out these errors and you can develop effective, impactful and fruitful PPC campaigns, confident that ad spend is justified and that you’re allocating budget to exactly the right areas.

So, let’s take a look at the main PPC mistakes that could be wasting your money.

1: Poor keyword targeting and negative keyword neglect

Using broad match keywords can waste ad spend, as it often results in matches with irrelevant searches. Instead, you should be aiming to use intent-driven, long-tail and specific keywords which deliver higher quality traffic.

It can be just as damaging to neglect negative keywords – those that inform Google when not to display your ads. This can result in wasteful clicks from consumers who aren’t looking for your product or service and are extremely unlikely to convert. For example, if you run a pasta restaurant and your ads end up displayed for searches for ‘pasta recipes’ and ‘how to make pasta from scratch’.

These irrelevant searches can very quickly drain your budget. In fact, a 2020 study from Disruptive Advertising found that over three-quarters of a typical Google Ads budget was wasted on searches that never convert or produce any value for the business.

2: Lack of audience segmentation and targeting

A big mistake in the PPC world is treating all audiences the same – ignoring demographic filters, lumping everyone in together and delivering generic messaging to all.

For effective results, you need to segment audiences and identify opportunities to connect with age groups, locations or income brackets most likely to convert. Create targeted campaigns with personalised copy, and make sure to extensively test each version.

You should also prioritise remarketing, as past visitors are warm leads who are likely to convert if they’re targeted with specific messaging.

3: Ineffective ad copy and creative

Even with the right targeting, weak or generic ad copy can sink your campaign. If you fail to offer a clear value proposition and a strong, compelling call to action (CTA) – you could be wasting your money.

It’s worth taking the time to craft and refine your ad copy. You should be aiming to speak personally to your target customer, clearly spelling out your USP and encouraging them to take action.

4: Ignoring landing page experience and conversion rate optimisation (CRO)

Getting that all-important click is the first step to PPC success, but you’ll have wasted the cost of it if your landing page fails.

Common mistakes include:

• Generic landing pages that don’t match the promise of the ad and the user’s expectations
• Slow page load speeds
• Landing pages that aren’t mobile-friendly.

So once you’ve got your ad copy and audience targeting just right, the next step is to prioritise conversion rate optimisation (CRO). You need cold, hard data to tell you what works and what doesn’t, so do plenty of A/B testing of headlines, layouts and CTAs. Aim for fast, relevant and fully mobile optimised landing pages, which are tailored to user search intent and give the visitor a clear path for what to do next.

5: Insufficient bid management and budget allocation

For successful PPC campaign optimisation, you need to be constantly monitoring, reviewing and tweaking. Yet too many campaign managers rely on a ‘set and forget’ system for bid management and budget allocation.

If you’re using the same bid strategy for months or years at a time, you’ll find when you dig down into the data that you’re gradually losing clients while the cost-per-lead increases. It’s a silent, insidious type of budget drain, which many brands aren’t able to identify until it’s too late.

The way to stop it in its tracks is to implement a proactive bid management strategy. You need to react to changes in the dynamic and constantly shifting Google advertising ecosystem, reviewing and adjusting your strategy on a weekly basis. A structured schedule is a massive help with this, and it can even help you anticipate changes in advance.

6: Not leveraging automation and smart bidding correctly

Google Ads offers powerful automated bidding strategies, but they’re only effective if used correctly. If you choose the wrong strategy – such as using ‘maximise clicks’ when your real target is conversions – then you could be wasting your money.

You also need to provide the tool with data. This means waiting until you have a minimum number of conversions per month, per campaign (around 30, as a general rule of thumb) for the algorithm to work with.

Remember though that smart bidding is a handy tool, but it shouldn’t be used as a replacement for strategic oversight or PPC expertise.

7: Failure to regularly review performance data and pivot strategies

Lastly, we have a common mistake – failing to review campaigns frequently enough. As we’ve touched on already, PPC requires constant refinement.

You need to be drilling into the data to spot the warning signs of underperforming ads, pulled out from click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC) metrics. This will give you the data to drive decisions and pivot strategy if needed.