Google Adwords is a quick way to easily bring a large number of visitors (potential clients) to your site. However, this can be a costly job if you have not set up your campaign correctly and if you have flaws that you are not aware of.

Adriahost, in addition to providing web hosting services, also deals with managing Google Adwords campaigns and advertising on the Google search engine and network. Over time, we have realized that identical errors are repeated with different clients who have tried to run their own campaigns independently, and here are the mistakes:

1. You use the wrong word match (Keyword match)

This is the most common mistake in Adwords and is reflected in the fact that people do not use the correct “broad match”, “phrase match” or “exact match” rule for the keywords.

Let’s recapitulate how keyword matching works according to the capabilities set by Google Adwords:

• If you use Broad match and advertise “website design”, anyone who type these words on Google Search will see your ad, will be able to click on it and the click will be charged. But, because you’re using broad match, this ad is also shown to people searching for a “free website design”. If you do not do these services for free, you can not use the broad match.
• If you choose Phrase Match for the same words, your ad will be shown to people who type “website design” in the search, but also to those who type “best website design” or “website design for gamers” but will not be shown to people who type “the best website free design“.
• In the case of the Exact match, the ad will only be shown to people who type these words in exactly the following order: [website design] or close variants. For example, [website for design] is a close variant of [website design] with the function word “for” removed.

Adwords recommendations:

For starters, you can use Exact match until you have enough results to expand your keywords using Phrase and Broad match.

2. You do not use negative words

Google Adwords has enabled the use of “negative words” to exclude the possibility that people see your ads when typing words that you think are not in the interest of your business.

For example, you want to advertise the words “web hosting”, but you do not want your ad to see people looking for “gaming web hosting” because you do not have it on offer. It’s enough to put “gaming” in negative words and these people will no longer see your ad.

You can add these words at the campaign level (Campaign level) or ad group level. This is good because you can easily exclude a word from a particular ad group, but keep it in another group where that word can be useful.

Adwords recommendations:

Negative words can be added manually in advance during campaign creation, or you can wait to see through which words people find your ad, and then you can mark the negative words.

3. You put your creativity above the statistics

Do not make one of the best, most beautiful and exciting ad that all people will love. Why? Because you will not be able to measure whether that ad gives results. Simply, you will not be able to compare it with other ads. Make at least two, three, four ads. Let them work and wait to measure the results.

Perhaps you are making the best Google ads with a copy you sell, but do not be surprised if you see that a “bad” ad has better results.

Adwords recommendations:

Put the numbers in the first place. Always test. When you find a bad ad, turn it off and create a new one. Find the best ad and try to create a new one that will achieve better results. Some optimal time to get the results for the measurement is a minimum of 1 month of active advertising.

4. You do not advertise your brand!

Do not worry, unless you do not advertise your brand, your competition will do that for you. Let’s explain it this way:

You have a product or service that is already in good standing and people are already searching on the Internet. The same product or service has your competition. Let’s assume that the quality of your product is such that the product has become recognizable and people began to associate the name of your company with the product. For example Adriahost servers.

If you are not bidding, your competition can do that. In this case, the people who are looking for you will go to your competition site.

Here’s a good example in the picture below. More people have heard about Dell servers than for these companies that advertise with keywords Dell servers:

Adwords recommendations:

Advertise your company name. Whether someone is already using your company’s name as a keyword can be checked by typing in Google search. Type your business name and see which ad is showing for your keywords.

5. You do not consider Lifetime Value (LTV)

What is Lifetime Value? – LTV is the value of earnings for the time your client stays with you and pays for a product or service. If you provide a service that customers pay $600 a month and the average time they spend with you is 6 months, the LTV value is $3,600.

So, in the example above, we see that one customer is worth $3600 for the time spent with you. As long as you invest less than this amount to get one client, everything is fine. However, if you spend more on Adwords to get a single client, you’re wrong somewhere.

Adwords recommendations:

Calculate how much your customers are worth and how much you invest in getting one client. Keep proper statistics and keep in mind at all times how much you can spend.

6. You do not know the competition

It is necessary to know your competition, what words they use, how their sites look like, how their landing pages look like. Put yourself in the position of your potential client who would be looking for what you want to advertise and go to your competitors website.

Is it easier to order a service or product on their site? Is it easier to contact your competition than you? Why?

Adwords recommendations:

Compare the pages, ad text, call to action and if is necessary fix your performance. It is not forbidden to learn from others, but do not do classic copy/paste.

7. You expect too much from Adwords

People often invest money, advertise for one month, and if their work does not immediately flourish, they give up advertising.

It happens that the company has a bad site, bad UX, the order form does not work, the contact form works, but nobody answers the e-mails. After the first month and invested $900 in Adwords without return through new customers and orders, the firm concludes that Adwords is not a good way to advertise and attempts to break through with other ways of advertising. This is definitely wrong.

Fortunately, this company turned to us where we pointed out the mistakes and we take over complete advertisements. With our tips on improvements on the site and the campaign we designed, we received excellent results and new orders for less than $900 per month.

Keep in mind that Adwords will not do your job. Adwords will place your ad in the way you set it up and nothing else. Adjust your ads properly and expect people to see your ad. Make good copies and people who see the ad will be interested. Interested people will click on the ad that leads to your site. If your site can not sell a product or service, Adwords will not do it.

Adwords recommendations:

Advertising is a process. It takes at least three months of active advertising to get results that you can measure, compare, explore, and find the best measure you’ll use in further advertising. During this time, you can improve all fields of activity starting with ads, site and landing pages.

Test it many times, call us if it does not work

Testing and Measuring is the key to success in every business, while in Adwords this can be key to streaming and optimizing your campaign. If marketing and Google Adwords are not in your area of interest, knowledge or simply do not have time as you handle your business, feel free to contact us and we will help.