Google Adwords

Common Ad Campaign Mistakes

Many newcomers to the Adwords program are lead to believe that using the system is easy, and anyone can do it. While it's true, anyone can use the system effectively, what's not explained is how steep the learning curve is. Indeed, using the Adwords system does require education and learning, before receiving the benefits it provides.

For instance, the average newcomer will design one advertisement, usually text, advertise it on all networks, choose a budget, perhaps a target area and language, and then add their keywords. What's wrong with that ? Nothing. Except that's only a start.

One advertisement does not a campaign make, and especially if you've chosen many keywords, all broadly matched. It is believed, that your one ad will show up when ever anyone uses the keywords you've chosen, combined with other factors in your campaign such as budget, location, and your maximum bid. This is far too simplistic, and Adwords will not reward those who have not researched how the system works.

Another common mistake, which can also compound the simplistic example provided in the previous paragraph, is setting your auction bidding to automatic. The automatic bidding feature will not display what it will take, or how much it will cost, to appear on the 1st page of ads. Instead, this feature operates under the assumption you want the system to manage your cost-per-click, based on your target budget, and does not assume you have a ad position preference. And, if your competition is paying more or has more quality, relevant ads, your ad may not show at all.

What Happened To My Successful Campaign ?

Many advertisers can suddenly see a drop in traffic to their website, a direct result of their Adwords campaigns no longer functioning as it once was. It can come as a surprise, as many are dumbfounded as to how this could happen when they haven't changed anything with their ad campaigns - they left it alone, afraid of tampering with the success - “ If it ain't broke, don't fix it ”.

Now, suddenly, the success is gone, and along with it, the customers that once visited the site and the revenue they produced.

They log into their Adwords account and discover the ad impressions are gone, or have dropped significantly. How can this be ? In some cases, the lack of impressions can be due to the account being under review by the Adwords Reviewing Team. They often do not inform advertisers of a pending review, and there are no notices for the account holder to be aware of. However, you can email Adwords, through your account, and ask to verify whether the account is actually being reviewed. And, most times, they will respond with a yes or no.

Unfortunately, account reviews are few and far between, for individual advertisers, and losing impressions that once were, are more likely a symptom of the account, the ads chosen, the keywords, the landing page, or the historic account CTR.

Adwords provides a multitude of statistics, and perhaps the most important stat to examine, when losing impressions, is the account historic click-through-rate, or CTR.

When viewing the impressions and clicks for past date periods, choose the all-time statistic. This stat will usually tell the tale, as to why your impression share has decreased. If your historic ( all-time ) CTR has dipped below 1.00%, chances are, that's an important factor in determining why your ads aren't receiving enough impressions.

However, take heart, the end is not near, and doom is not upon you. What's needed, is to get that CTR flowing the opposite direction - up or increase. To achieve a better CTR, you'll have to examine your ads and your keywords, to see which are the under-performing ones ( dead weight ) and which are performing well. Delete or adjust any ad or keyword that has maintained a poor CTR. Sometimes deleting the poor performing ones is the best action, as you can see, or calculate the difference, when they are not tabulated in the results - perhaps resolving to a higher CTR overall without the poor performers.

When examining the successful keywords or ads, use those to create similar keyword or ads, to help improve impressions and your overall CTR. In other words, learn from both your success, and failure, to determine the best course of action you can take. And, as you make changes and adjustments, the Adwords system will refresh, updating your campaigns, and slowly get the ball rolling for you again.

Do not be surprised if your cost per click has subsequently increased, as a result of your poor performing ads and keywords. You will have to prove yourself to the system all over again, and it will take time before you costs drop to a more desireable level. However, the experience and knowledge gain will help you in future endevours with Adwords, so you will not duplicate the same mistakes.

Other Concerns About Lack of Impressions

If you are not receiving impressions, and your historic CTR is above 1.00%, for the search network, you may have another problem, separate from your account or campaigns. It may be helpful to look at the status messages that are being generated by the system for your keywords or your ads, to see if Adwords is providing you with a status message indicating the problem.

Poor landing pages will, of course, impact your impressions, and preclude the system from showing any of your ads. If any of your status messages read landing page = poor, your website is the root of the problem, and will need to be fixed, to comply with Adwords Policy and Guidelines.

Read: Why Is My Landing Page Poor ? for more information about why landing pages are, or can become, poor quality.