Pay-per-click marketing, better known as PPC, is a tool many people use as a way to increase traffic to their websites. You can boost the profitability of your business if you know the ins and outs of PPC marketing.
However, if you’re not into the fine print, you might wonder why your own PPC campaign seems slow or ineffective. The reason is simple: There are a number of mistakes website owners make when creating PPC campaigns. Some are fairly obvious and will leave you wondering how you missed it in the first place and others might come as a bit of a shock.
Correcting these mistakes, however, can help you increase website traffic at a higher rate.
Using the wrong landing page
Here’s one that will make you shake your head in disbelief: You’re sending your customers to the wrong page. A PPC campaign is more likely to succeed if the landing page to your link is what customers expect.
Let’s say your PPC is about the most highly recommended item to have on hand when you bring home your newborn twins. But when your customers click on the link they are taken to your website’s home page instead of the particular article or item under discussion.
When they have to work to find the information they were promised simply by clicking on your link, they might not bother to look through the rest of your site to find it. Your landing page must include the promised material when customers go forward by clicking.
Failure to use negative keywords
Many website owners forget that negative keywords are just as important as target keywords. Your link is more likely to be found when you use negative keywords to your advantage.
For example, if your broad match keyword is “twin pregnancy” you might want to use negative keywords such as “triplets” and “first-time” to prevent your results from including sites about triplets pregnancy and first-time pregnancy.
Using your contact page as a landing page
Your clients and customers might want to contact you, yes, but they don’t want to click on your PPC campaign for the best double stroller and end up on your contact page, which asks them to fill out a customer form before they’re allowed to use your site.
There are plenty of other sites that sell double strollers and don’t require potential customers to visit contact pages. While your contact information is important, potential customers will find it if they need it. If that’s what they get first instead of what they were promised, they’ll probably exit out of your site.
Poor-quality footers
This has a little less to do with your PPC campaign than your own website, but there is a correlation. Your footer is the portion of your website that allows customers to find easy links to what they might want from you.
That may include your contact information, employee information, hiring information, copyright information, and even your blog. If you have an engaging and functional footer, clients that click on your PPC campaign can find more information about your site simply by scrolling down.
This will inevitably increase your website traffic. It also allows you to provide potential customers with the information you want them to have without compromising the content of your ad-specific landing pages. Giving customers what they want while providing them with the information you want them to see is good for business.
Pay-per-click marketing can be a little overwhelming and intimidating for those who have only begun to use it. It becomes easier to navigate and understand the more you use it. While it might take some time to work out the kinks in your first PPC campaign, avoiding these mistakes can speed up that particular process.
