Mistake No. 1: You’re not tracking conversions
Analytics tools allow you to accurately track where your visitors came from, where they went next, whether they made a purchase, and much more. Make the most of this. If you don’t measure conversions, you can’t assess what your advertising has achieved.
Every advertising system allows you to track the number of clicks and the total number of conversions. Google Analytics then allows you to compare individual channels with one another.
Below are statistics for the designer bottle shop Labeloo.cz. The results are in line with expectations. And they also clearly show that advertising on Google is more effective for this shop than on Sklik.
When evaluating conversions, it is also important to consider how much you are investing in a given system. Labeloo, for example, invests very little in Facebook advertising. That is why Facebook achieves such poor results.
You can also filter results by ad set type. This allows you to easily track which ads your customers find interesting and which they do not.
Mistake No. 2: Ads lack a call to action
A call to action isn’t just some nonsense that marketers have made up. It’s a clear instruction on what users should do. For example: Get a discount, Choose your product, Buy now, and so on.
Compare the difference for yourself. The first advert is designed to prompt action, whilst the second serves to build brand awareness.
Every advert aimed at a specific conversion should include a call to action. Conversely, you won’t often find them in adverts designed to build brand awareness. Such a call to action should also feature in display adverts within the content advertising network. In this case, the call to action is most often placed on a button.
Mistake No. 3: The campaign lacks UTM parameters
You can either use automatic campaign ‘tagging’ or UTM parameters; the result is the same. This allows Google Analytics to distinguish which advertising campaign is successful and which is losing money.
What UTM parameters look like:
- Campaign source (utm_source): utm_source=adwords
- Campaign medium (utm_medium): utm_source=cpc
- Campaign name (utm_campaign): utm_campaign=redakcnisystem
- Campaign query (utm_term)
- Campaign content (utm_content)
All data is then incorporated into the URL. This might look something like this: www.aitom.cz/?utm_source=adwords&utm;_medium=cpc&utm;_campaign=redakcni system
Thanks to these parameters, you can then filter this data in Analytics:
Mistake No. 4: Poor campaign structure
It is important to structure campaigns as precisely as possible. Not only is this more practical when managing campaigns, but it also allows you to evaluate them more effectively. Thanks to this structure, you will know exactly which ads and keywords are performing best. Advertising also becomes much easier to manage; you won’t be targeting 150 keywords in a single campaign, but only the 20 most relevant ones.
Advertising is divided into campaigns, then into ad groups, and it is within these ad groups that specific ads are placed. For example, the AITOM agency has a total of 13 campaigns, 35 ad groups and over 250 ads.
Campaigns are divided by type (text and display ads) as well as by topic, whilst ad groups are divided by key categories or service offerings. You can, of course, design a different structure.
Mistake No. 5: You’re not using negative keywords
Most people only consider keywords when setting up PPC advertising. Choosing the right keywords is, of course, absolutely essential. However, regularly updating negative keywords is just as important. The basis for selecting keywords is a careful keyword analysis, which should also include negative terms.
If you do not update your keywords and negative keywords, you will be advertising unnecessarily on terms that are not relevant, or conversely, you will be omitting some important ones.
Let’s take AITOM as an example again: they target their ads at nearly 1,200 keywords and over 900 negative keywords. Among the negative keywords used by this digital agency are, for example: ‘free of charge’, ‘copyrighting’ (as it is often confused with ‘copywriting’), or ‘online SEO test’.
Are you worried that you might be making mistakes too? Have your advertising checked. This service is called a PPC audit. You won’t just get an audit, but also valuable tips on how to take your advertising to the next level for better performance.