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Pay-per-click account management (Google™ Adwords or otherwise) is a challenging role because of the complexity, real-time action, and consistent evolution. We’ve all made our mistakes with Google™ Adwords, however,
one mistake could cost you $1000s in higher CPCs (cost-per-clicks) or higher CPA (cost-per- acquisition, meaning the total Advertising cost to capture each lead or sale.)

Today, I’d like to focus on the Google™ search network, and the top 10 mistakes companies make. They are:

1. Bidding for the number 1 position.
2. Solely geo-relating campaigns by Country.
3. Using only broad keyword searches.
4. Excluding the exact keywords in their ad title, copy, and URL.
5. Running only one Ad at a time.
6. Ads set to send visitors to their homepage by default.
7. Oversimplifying the organization of their account structure.
8. Inability to prove or report a return on investment (ROI.)
9. Bidding on high-priced keywords with low CTRs.
10. Under-educating themselves about Google™ Adwords.

Don’t worry, help is just below…

How to “Do-it-Yourself” – Fixing a Costly Mistake

Below are 10 ways to increase your Google™ Adwords PPC (pay-per-click) account management effectiveness, and save your company $1000s.

How will they save you money? The below suggestions (following) will increase your CTRs (clickthrough ratio) through precise targeting. Accordingly, Google™ rewards a higher CTR by decreasing your CPC (cost-per-click), resulting in more sales converting for an overall lower CPA (cost-per- acquisition.)

1.“We’re number two, we’re number two.” Depending on the number of Google™ highlighted “sponsored links” on your SERP (search engine results page), your goal is to be the highlighted sponsor link (paid Ad) positioned right above the organic searches (non-paid listing) or the first sponsored link on the right side of “sponsored links”. Stay in the positions of 2 to 5 (which are often more profitable than number one) or an average position of 2.5.

2. “Local customers.”Always try to “geo-relate” your campaign by city, state/province, or nation. By using the “Location Targeting Options” for a particular city (or state), you exclude areas of the state or country that are unlikely to buy your product or service. You also have the advantage of the city’s name (or state’s name) appearing below your ad.

3.“Exclude tire kickers.” To exclude visitors or searches unlikely to buy your product or click on your ad, use brackets for exact [keyword] matches or hyphens “-“ to use negative words. Both will help exclude keywords/phrases such as “free”.

4. “The keywords are the key.” Always add the keyword to your Ad’s title and copy because the keyword will appear bolded and say to the searcher, “Click me, I am relevant to what you are looking for.” Additionally, the keywords will increase your Google™ Quality Score, reducing your minimum CPC to active your keyword.

5. “Let the best Ad win.” Did you know you could run multiple Ads at the same time, and for the same Ad group? By simply adding a new Ad under the “Ad Variations” tab, you will be able to test what Ad works best for you.

6. “Give them what they want.” Save your visitors’ time, and ensure they get what they want, by sending them to the exact page (landing page) that relates to your Ad’s keyword.

7.“More specific please.” Generally when I create a Google™ Account for a client I have 3 services or products, which I Geo-relate individually for both local (cities), state, and international. Thus, I usually start off with 9 campaigns, giving each campaign and Ad Group a descriptive name to help me manage the account without memorizing what each of Ad Groups includes. For maximum effectiveness, group your keyword list into similar items, either by product/service line or keyword theme, for example: corporate team building, team building activity, team building event. You could have 2 to 50 Ad groups per campaign, and an average total of 100 Ad groups per account (Google™ maximum.)

8. “Results are the name of the game.” To increase and improve your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), if you haven’t already, I highly recommend installing your Google™ “conversion page code.”

9. “Focus and finish.” If you implement a more specific pay-per-click account management structure (suggestion #7 above), you can bid on competitive words by getting higher CTRs and still get fairly low CPAs. If you still have higher CTRs (greater than 5%) and your CPAs are high (greater than $20), then delete the keywords within the Ad groups, use more specific keywords or delete the Ad group altogether.

10. “Professional help.” Without any form of payment from Google™, we recommend you become a Google™ Qualified Adwords Professional by investing 9 to 15 hours at the Google™ Learning Center – home of the best e-course this author has ever taken. Otherwise hire a Google™ Qualified Adwords Professional to save you the time, money, and frustration.

For the love of the web, I sincerely hope you implement the above 10 pay-per-click account management suggestions. By doing so you could save 25% to 400% in CPCs and CPAs, while increasing your leads and clicks by 25% to 200%.

By: JP Richards is a Google™ Qualified Adwords Professional & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consultant