Top Ten Mistakes in Pay Per Click Ad Campaigns

Being successful at buying keywords is not an easy task. While it may not be rocket science, there are more mistakes being made every day by people using Google AdWords.

In the spirit of readable online content, the following is a list of the top ten mistakes being made in the world of Pay Per Click ad campaigns:

1. Wanting to be #1 – Why spend the top dollar for a word when you can be #2 or even #5? These placements will show up above the fold and will be just as visible as #1.

2. Buying your company name as a keyword – Most companies rank well in organic searches. There is no need to waste your money on this.

3. Not tracking conversions – If you are not going to take the time to create landing pages and use the free tools to track your conversions, then there is no sense starting a campaign. How can you possibly know what is working and what is not working without doing a little leg work and looking at reports?

4. Writing bad ad copy – "Click Here!" is not good ad copy. You don’t have a lot of space, so be smart about what you say and how you say it.

5. Too many keywords – It is so tempting to go nuts and buy as many words as you can. You may think that you need to go as broad as possible. That is not the way to do it. Stay focused and narrow your word set. You will blow your whole budget if you choose too many words.

Next time, we'll discuss mistakes 6-10.