5 Common Google AdWords Mistakes to Avoid

Nobody wants to mess up an AdWords campaign because of one obvious reason: it involves investing a considerable amount of money. It can be very costly when not done correctly, and there’s no point in continuing if the ROI is dreadful.

But online marketing is not as complicated as one thinks. All you need to do is know those things that can pull your efforts down. A well-managed campaign entails a good understanding of how AdWords works and how to take advantage of its features.

There are 10 common mistakes marketers commit when doing an AdWords campaign, according to Leon Krishnayana, founder and CEO at iSpionage.com : Keyword Research, in his blog post in KISSmetrics Customer Intelligence & Web Analytics. Below are 5 of these mistakes for you to check out and see if you’re guilty of any blunders:

Mistake #1: Not Grouping Keywords Correctly
Not using ad groups is one of the biggest mistakes people make. Instead of segmenting their ads into groups based around similar types of keywords, they lump all of their keywords into one ad group and show everyone the same ad. Recommendation: use no more than 20 keywords per ad group.

Mistake #2: Not Using the Right Keyword Matches
AdWords allows you to add keywords as a broad match, phrase match, or exact match. A broad match keyword means that your ads will show if the keywords are used in the search, regardless of the order. If you add “Nike running shoes,” for example, your ad will show up for people who type “Nike running shoes,” “Nike free running shoes,” and “where can I buy Nike shoes for running.”
A phrase match keyword needs to show up in the search as a complete phrase in the order you enter it. So when you enter “Nike running shoes” as a phrase match keyword, then your ad will show up for terms like “Nike running shoes” and “where can I buy Nike running shoes.”
An exact match keyword works just like it sounds. Thus, if you have “Nike running shoes” as an exact match, it will show up only when someone searches for “Nike running shoes” and won’t show up even if someone searches for “Nike running shoes for sale.”

Mistake #3: Not Using Negative Keywords
AdWords allows you to use negative keywords as a way to exclude keywords that are not a good match for your product and they can be added at both the campaign and the ad group level. Thus, if a word should be excluded from only one particular ad group, then you can exclude it at the group level, but if you want it excluded from the entire campaign, then you can do that as well.

Mistake #4: Not Trusting Numbers More than Your Creativity
You should always be testing your copy. You can try two different headline variations, the same headlines but different body copy, or the same copy but a different call to action. Testing different variations will help you to know what works best. Sometimes mentioning a benefit will increase click-throughs and/or conversions. Other times, a different headline will improve your results. You’ll never know until you test.

Mistake #5: Not Bidding on Your Own Brand
A lot of people assume that since they already rank for their own brand, they don’t need to advertise for it.

Recommendation: In many cases, it makes sense to bid the highest for your own brand since people who are searching for your company are the most likely to convert.

This content originally appeared at 5 Common Google AdWords Mistakes to Avoid This 2014