Just as promised…more SEM information to help you grow your website traffic!
Five More Common Paid Search Mistakes
Posted by AnnPruitt
We’ve got even more paid search mistakes for you to avoid, in addition to yesterday’s list.
We remember Sherlock Holmes, and his expert ability to find clues. Your prospective customers need clues to be able to find your company, too.
#6 Poor or no landing page at all – Many newcomers to paid search don’t understand the impact of your landing page on your quality score. If your ad links to a page with irrelevant information, this will damage your quality score, causing you to pay more for clicks and appear lower in searches. This correlation is why linking all ads to your home page is such a bad idea. Creating specific and highly relevant landing pages will improve the effectiveness of your campaign.
#7 Poor ad copy – While this mistake should be obvious, there are a few simple rules to follow that will keep your ad copy fresh and click-friendly. First of all, never use the same word twice. You only have so much space and almost no words are important enough to use twice; think of a different way to state your offer. Also, as mentioned previously, you want to include the keyword pointing to the ad in your ad copy. Most engines will highlight the keyword if you include it, which improves the visibility of your ad. Lastly, you must clearly state the offer and use action words in your copy. If you’re going up against competition directly, make sure your offer at least sounds better than theirs. If they are offering a lower price, for example, you use a percentage number or other differentiating statistic to improve how your offer reads.
#8 Focusing only on “big” keywords and not the long tail – These long tail keywords are generally less competitive and less expensive. Additionally, their clicks skew towards searchers that are farther along in the buying process, because they are searching for a specific term, such as a model number like “Blackberry 8330”. According to some recent studies, 28 percent of terms searched in 2008 had never been searched before. This statistic speaks to the opportunities available in long-tail keywords.
#9 Not pairing SEO with paid search – If you’re not leveraging both, you’re missing out. There is so much commonality in the research that if you are doing one, you might as well do the other. Not to mention that doing both ensures that if something goes wrong, such as the algorithm changing or your paid search budget running out, you are still alive in the other part of search.
#10 Bidding on brand terms only – Bidding on non-brand terms is what brings you new customers. If someone is searching for a term with your brand name in it, they are already familiar with your brand and potentially your exact product. While you must cater to these people as well and complete sales, it is important to remember to seek new customers. The beauty of the internet is its broad reach, and if you do not bid on non-brand terms, you are not taking advantage of this reach to its full extent.
Give paid search a shot with a small campaign budget. Remember, even with a small budget, you can compete with big competitors. Provide the right clues for your prospective customers to be able to find you.
Elementary, my dear Watson.
