Pitfalls of Pay Per Click (PPC) projects
A relatively new advertising medium such as Search Engine Advertising poses real challenges. There is the potential to make costly mistakes.
1. ‘Dabbling’ with PPC
“Small businesses tend to look to the web for cheap or free resources and advertising. What they forget is that it’s not the web, not the medium, that’s important – it’s the fact that they’re competing with their competitors. They need to out-spend, out-knowledge, out-experience their competitors – it’s irrelevant whether they do that on the web or in a magazine.”
Luke Farley, Founder, LCubed.
Many companies ‘dabble’ with Pay Per Click – somewhat flippantly deciding to start a campaign and see what happens. Generally, this does not work because there is no plan. Companies need to more rigorously understand the wider PPC processes before they begin a project.
2. Underestimating the effort required
Not understanding the depths of Search Engine Advertising tasks leads many smaller companies to conclude that PPC ‘doesn’t work.’ These companies completely underestimate the amount of effort they need to get it working.
3. Failing to plan for increased traffic
Companies often do not plan for the increase in traffic from the PPC campaign. They send visitors to their homepage – a classic, costly error – forcing the visitor to start their search again on the company’s website. This drives most searchers away from your company’s website, and back to the original search list where your competitors wait.
4. Faulty site architecture
“You can lose a huge number of people if they land on your site and don’t find what they were specifically looking for. They just click back and start again with your competitors.”
Not having the right information and site architecture, and not understanding the ‘flow’ of the user’s search is a common mistake. Ultimately, results will be disappointing if:
- the landing page is not appropriate
- the keywords aren’t working because they are too vague, or not targeted correctly
5. Ignoring competitors ‘on the field’
Not understanding the fluid, competitive nature of web marketing leaves many companies drifting on the boundaries of this wide playing field, unaware of how to effectively compete.
6. Inexperience with web marketing
You may be experienced, knowledgeable and successful in your marketing with traditional media, but this does not automatically transfer across to the web. New online media present a steep learning curve for even the most experienced marketing professionals.
7. Abandoning the PPC campaign too early
Many companies do not invest enough time to keep refining the campaign before it is abandoned. Google factors in the length of time a company has been advertising when it calculates its quality score. This score has an effect on both fees and ranking. Getting in ahead of your competitors and becoming a ‘stayer’ could be considered a wise long-term investment decision.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
