Google Ads – The Business Place

Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Running Google Ads

No business that lasts for some time has ever got there without its owner or management making some mistakes. Making mistakes is how we learn, and you can be certain if any of the mistakes made within a business cost it money or reduced its profit, it is a mistake that will not be made again.

Online advertising is where countless mistakes are made, and that certainly applies to Google Ads. Whilst at face value Google Ads is an extremely simple concept (bid the highest on a keyword and your ad appears) being able to get all the moving parts in line, can be far from simple. At least it will be if you continue to make certain mistakes.

To help you we have outlined some of the core mistakes that are made within a Google Ad campaign, and which mean the results that are achieved are poorer than were expected. This means that a business might spend more on ads than it needs to, or get fewer clicks than it should. Here are five of the mistakes we are referring to.

Not Planning Or Running The Numbers

One of the key elements of a successful Google Ads campaign is planning and knowing all the applicable metrics, beforehand. Tasks like checking average CPC for your target keywords, calculating what your maximum bid is and even checking your competitors’ ads for ad copy ideas are but a few of the many ways you can help plan for a successful Google Ads campaign.

How To Calculate If You Can Afford To Bid On The Top Keywords On Google Ads

There are lots of businesses that could benefit enormously if they were to implement a Google Ads campaign, but many do not because of concerns they have. One of those concerns is not knowing whether or not they could afford to bid on the keywords that they wish to target. Given that within any single business niche there could be hundreds of possible keywords all with varying costs per click (CPC) then the level of uncertainty can be high.

We are not here to criticize business owners for their uncertainty over whether they can afford to bid and that stopping them from proceeding with a Google Ads campaign. After all, it would be foolish to plough ahead into the unknown in any element of your business if you were not aware of what the costs are going to be. However, what we can do is give you a simple formula that you can apply to every keyword and establish if it is affordable for you.

To begin the analysis there are 4 specific numbers or pieces of data that you need. These are:

Profit Per Sale ($) e.g. $350
Profit Margin As A Decimal e.g. 30% Profit Margin = 0.3
Website Conversion Rate As A Percentage Converted To A Decimal e.g. 1 In 100 = 1% = 0.01
Estimated Cost Per Click Of Each Target Keyword As Per Google Keyword Planner e.g. $4.75

What Services Does A Digital Marketing Agency Offer?

The services each individual marketing agency will offer may differ slightly from company to company but you should expect them all to offer a similar set of core services. The primary one is likely to be search engine optimisation (SEO) which involves a comprehensive strategy and several actions to try and improve the search engine rankings of the client’s company website.

Another core service will be pay per click advertising (PPC), and this is most likely going to focus on Google Ads, although there are other PPC networks. Additional services that can be employed separately, although more likely in conjunction with the above, will be content management, link building, conversion optimisation, and reputation management.

Do I need a blog?
While it is not essential, if you don’t have a blog you are missing a great opportunity to communicate with visitors to your website, create trust with them, and enhance your brand. On top of that, there is also the boost to your SEO that having excellent content on your website in the form of your blog can provide. If you are concerned that you do not have the time or would struggle to come with ideas to write about, then be assured these can both be overcome.

The easiest way to do so is to employ a third party to take care of your content management, including your blog. A digital marketing agency will have a team of writers who can produce high-quality content for your blog on a regular basis, allowing you to get on with running your business.