Here at the bSoftware blog, have been publishing a series of posts that explain what the basic terms of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising mean.

In this week’s blog, we will be highlighting 3 common mistakes that advertisers make when trying to optimise their PPC campaigns.

Not using geo-targeting

Geographic targeting, commonly called geo-targeting, allows you to decide which geographic areas your ads will and will not be shown in.

This function is of particular importance to businesses who only operate in certain areas close to their bricks-and-mortar location, and it also allows larger corporations to focus their campaign on one particular country or city.

When geo-targeting is ignored, this means that your ads can show in areas where you cannot provide the products or services that you are advertising, ultimately wasting your AdWords budget.

Forgetting to use negative keywords

Negative keywords are certain keywords, usually closely related to your targeted ones, that you do not want to trigger your ads. These are especially useful for campaigns and ad groups that make use of broad and phrase match keywords where certain terms can change the meaning of a keyword.

To use an example, if you were selling men’s winter coats, you can add the negative keyword “women’s winter coat” to ensure that that search term does not show your ad to that user.

By doing this, your ad will not show to an irrelevant customer, and they will not see an irrelevant ad.

Ignoring quality score

Quality score is a figure determined by Google that rates the relevance of your targeted keywords and PPC adverts. This is then used to determine your cost-per-click, and then multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad’s position, or ‘ad rank’, in Google’s auction process.

All of this means that the higher your quality score, the less Google will charge you when users click on your ads.

Your quality score can be found in your AdWords campaigns, and it can be improved with a few simple steps.

• Refine your ad text – Continually test different styles of ad copy to see what appeals to your potential customers. More effective ads will receive a higher CTR, which is the best way to improve your quality score.
• Add negative keywords – Add negative keywords to improve the relevance of your ads and stop wasting your budget.
• Optimise your landing pages – Ensure that users who click on your ad land on the type of website they were expecting, providing a consistent experience through from the click to the conversion.

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