10 Google Ads Mistakes You Should Avoid
30.9.2024
10 Google Ads Mistakes You Should Avoid
Google Ads is a critical tool for ecommerce businesses and PPC professionals alike. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into traps that lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are 10 common Google Ads mistakes and how to fix them for more effective campaigns.
10 Google Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
1. Using Broad Match Keywords Without Caution
Broad match keywords allow your ads to be triggered by search queries that are only loosely related to your targeted terms. While this expands reach, it can lead to wasted clicks on irrelevant search queries. Broad match terms are especially risky for advertisers with specific targeting needs, such as niche ecommerce products or highly specialized services. Relying too heavily on broad match keywords without careful monitoring can inflate your costs and dilute the relevance of your ads, impacting both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
How to Fix: Start with exact and phrase match types to ensure your ads are shown to users with relevant intent. Once you’ve gathered enough data, gradually introduce broad match keywords while closely monitoring the search terms report. Continuously refine your negative keywords to filter out irrelevant queries and make the most of broad match without overspending.
2. Inaccurate Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the backbone of any Google Ads campaign. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up incorrect tracking, such as tracking non-conversion actions (e.g., page views) as conversions or allowing duplicate conversions to be recorded. Inaccurate data can lead you to believe that your campaigns are performing better than they are, causing you to continue spending on underperforming ads or strategies.
How to Fix: Conduct a regular audit of your conversion tracking setup. Make sure you're only tracking valuable actions, such as purchases or lead form submissions, that align with your campaign goals. For ecommerce, ensure your conversion values reflect the actual revenue generated. Use tools like Google Tag Manager to streamline your tracking setup and avoid duplicate entries.
3. Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are often an underutilized feature in Google Ads. Extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, provide additional information and increase the size of your ad on the search results page. They improve ad visibility, offer more click-through opportunities, and contribute to a higher Quality Score, which can lead to a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Despite their benefits, many advertisers either don’t use ad extensions or fail to tailor them to their campaigns, missing out on a simple way to enhance performance.
How to Fix: Always enable relevant ad extensions for your campaigns. Review which extensions are the most suitable for your business—sitelinks can direct users to specific product pages, callouts can highlight free shipping or discounts, and structured snippets can provide detailed information on your offerings. Google rewards ads that provide more relevant information to users, so regularly update and optimize your extensions.
4. Not Leveraging Automated Bidding Strategies
Many experienced advertisers prefer manual bidding, believing they have more control over keyword performance. While manual bidding has its place, Google’s machine learning algorithms are highly effective at optimizing bids in real time. Failing to use automated bidding strategies can limit your campaign’s ability to adapt to changing conditions like time of day, user behavior, or device type. Automated strategies such as Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) and Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) allow you to focus on optimizing higher-level strategies rather than micromanaging individual bids.
How to Fix: Experiment with Google’s automated bidding strategies, starting with Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on your goals. These strategies use machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on real-time data, helping you get better results with less manual intervention. Keep a close eye on performance and be ready to adjust targets as needed to align with your desired outcomes.
5. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are crucial for excluding irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads. When overlooked, negative keywords can lead to your ads appearing for queries that don’t align with your offerings, wasting your ad spend. For example, an ecommerce business selling premium furniture might inadvertently trigger ads for people searching for "cheap" or "discount" furniture if those terms aren’t added as negative keywords.
How to Fix: Perform regular reviews of your search terms report to identify irrelevant queries. Add these terms to your negative keywords list to refine your targeting. Negative keywords should evolve as your campaigns scale, so make it a habit to audit and update your list periodically to maintain relevance and efficiency.
6. Poor Geo-Targeting Settings
Geo-targeting is a powerful tool, but Google Ads’ default settings can lead to inefficient use of your budget. For instance, if you're running ads for a local business but use the default setting, your ads may be shown to users outside of your service area. This issue is especially problematic for brick-and-mortar businesses or ecommerce shops with location-specific services or shipping.
How to Fix: Navigate to the location settings in your campaigns and ensure you're targeting people physically located in your service area. Adjust the default option, which targets both people "in or interested in" your location, to target "people in" your specified areas only. This will help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks from users outside your geographic target.
7. Failing to A/B Test Ads
Even the best ad copy can be improved, but without A/B testing, you’ll never know what could work better. Many advertisers launch ads and then stick with the initial creative for too long, missing opportunities for optimization. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action, enabling you to discover what resonates most with your audience and improves your conversion rates.
How to Fix: Regularly set up A/B tests for your ad creatives. Start by testing one variable at a time—whether it’s the headline, ad copy, or even the landing page. Keep the experiment running long enough to gather statistically significant data before declaring a winner. Use the insights from these tests to continuously improve and refresh your ads.
8. Sending Traffic to Irrelevant Landing Pages
One of the most common yet critical mistakes is sending ad traffic to landing pages that don’t align with the ad’s promise or the user’s search intent. For example, if a user clicks on an ad for "blue running shoes," but lands on a generic homepage instead of a product page for blue running shoes, they’re likely to leave without converting. This not only wastes ad spend but also hurts your Quality Score, increasing your CPC over time.
How to Fix: Ensure that every ad directs traffic to a landing page that matches the user’s intent and the ad copy. Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group or campaign, optimizing them for relevance and a seamless user experience. Include the target keywords on your landing pages to align with the ad and improve your Quality Score.
9. Setting Unrealistic Budgets
Many advertisers either set budgets too low, resulting in missed opportunities, or too high, which can lead to wasted spend without delivering meaningful results. A budget that doesn’t align with the competition in your industry or the cost-per-click (CPC) of your targeted keywords can cripple your campaign's effectiveness. Setting the wrong budget can prevent your ads from entering the auction or result in running out of budget before the day ends.
How to Fix: Research the average CPC in your industry and set a realistic daily budget that allows your ads to compete effectively. Use Google’s keyword planning tools to estimate costs and adjust your bids based on performance. Regularly evaluate your budget based on campaign data and be flexible – sometimes increasing or reallocating budget can lead to significant improvements in performance.
10. Not Monitoring Campaign Performance Regularly
A successful Google Ads campaign requires continuous optimization. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and leaving it unchecked for extended periods. Without ongoing monitoring, campaigns can suffer from issues like underperforming keywords, irrelevant traffic, or budget inefficiencies, leading to wasted spend and missed opportunities.
How to Fix: Schedule routine audits of your campaigns to ensure everything is running as expected. Regularly review key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion. Make adjustments as needed – whether that’s pausing underperforming keywords, revising ad copy, or reallocating budget. PPC is not a "set it and forget it" strategy; proactive management is essential to long-term success.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a PPC expert, mistakes happen – and that's normal. The ever-evolving nature of Google Ads means there’s always room for improvement, and even top-performing campaigns may underperform in different seasons or quarters. The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and adapt your strategies to align with new data and market conditions.
Once you’ve identified the right thresholds for your campaigns, consider rule-based automation with tools like Shopstory. Automating manual, repetitive tweaks can save you time, money, and hours of effort each week, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Ready to give it a try?
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Google Ads is a critical tool for ecommerce businesses and PPC professionals alike. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into traps that lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are 10 common Google Ads mistakes and how to fix them for more effective campaigns.
10 Google Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
1. Using Broad Match Keywords Without Caution
Broad match keywords allow your ads to be triggered by search queries that are only loosely related to your targeted terms. While this expands reach, it can lead to wasted clicks on irrelevant search queries. Broad match terms are especially risky for advertisers with specific targeting needs, such as niche ecommerce products or highly specialized services. Relying too heavily on broad match keywords without careful monitoring can inflate your costs and dilute the relevance of your ads, impacting both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
How to Fix: Start with exact and phrase match types to ensure your ads are shown to users with relevant intent. Once you’ve gathered enough data, gradually introduce broad match keywords while closely monitoring the search terms report. Continuously refine your negative keywords to filter out irrelevant queries and make the most of broad match without overspending.
2. Inaccurate Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the backbone of any Google Ads campaign. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up incorrect tracking, such as tracking non-conversion actions (e.g., page views) as conversions or allowing duplicate conversions to be recorded. Inaccurate data can lead you to believe that your campaigns are performing better than they are, causing you to continue spending on underperforming ads or strategies.
How to Fix: Conduct a regular audit of your conversion tracking setup. Make sure you're only tracking valuable actions, such as purchases or lead form submissions, that align with your campaign goals. For ecommerce, ensure your conversion values reflect the actual revenue generated. Use tools like Google Tag Manager to streamline your tracking setup and avoid duplicate entries.
3. Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are often an underutilized feature in Google Ads. Extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, provide additional information and increase the size of your ad on the search results page. They improve ad visibility, offer more click-through opportunities, and contribute to a higher Quality Score, which can lead to a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Despite their benefits, many advertisers either don’t use ad extensions or fail to tailor them to their campaigns, missing out on a simple way to enhance performance.
How to Fix: Always enable relevant ad extensions for your campaigns. Review which extensions are the most suitable for your business—sitelinks can direct users to specific product pages, callouts can highlight free shipping or discounts, and structured snippets can provide detailed information on your offerings. Google rewards ads that provide more relevant information to users, so regularly update and optimize your extensions.
4. Not Leveraging Automated Bidding Strategies
Many experienced advertisers prefer manual bidding, believing they have more control over keyword performance. While manual bidding has its place, Google’s machine learning algorithms are highly effective at optimizing bids in real time. Failing to use automated bidding strategies can limit your campaign’s ability to adapt to changing conditions like time of day, user behavior, or device type. Automated strategies such as Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) and Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) allow you to focus on optimizing higher-level strategies rather than micromanaging individual bids.
How to Fix: Experiment with Google’s automated bidding strategies, starting with Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on your goals. These strategies use machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on real-time data, helping you get better results with less manual intervention. Keep a close eye on performance and be ready to adjust targets as needed to align with your desired outcomes.
5. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are crucial for excluding irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads. When overlooked, negative keywords can lead to your ads appearing for queries that don’t align with your offerings, wasting your ad spend. For example, an ecommerce business selling premium furniture might inadvertently trigger ads for people searching for "cheap" or "discount" furniture if those terms aren’t added as negative keywords.
How to Fix: Perform regular reviews of your search terms report to identify irrelevant queries. Add these terms to your negative keywords list to refine your targeting. Negative keywords should evolve as your campaigns scale, so make it a habit to audit and update your list periodically to maintain relevance and efficiency.
6. Poor Geo-Targeting Settings
Geo-targeting is a powerful tool, but Google Ads’ default settings can lead to inefficient use of your budget. For instance, if you're running ads for a local business but use the default setting, your ads may be shown to users outside of your service area. This issue is especially problematic for brick-and-mortar businesses or ecommerce shops with location-specific services or shipping.
How to Fix: Navigate to the location settings in your campaigns and ensure you're targeting people physically located in your service area. Adjust the default option, which targets both people "in or interested in" your location, to target "people in" your specified areas only. This will help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks from users outside your geographic target.
7. Failing to A/B Test Ads
Even the best ad copy can be improved, but without A/B testing, you’ll never know what could work better. Many advertisers launch ads and then stick with the initial creative for too long, missing opportunities for optimization. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action, enabling you to discover what resonates most with your audience and improves your conversion rates.
How to Fix: Regularly set up A/B tests for your ad creatives. Start by testing one variable at a time—whether it’s the headline, ad copy, or even the landing page. Keep the experiment running long enough to gather statistically significant data before declaring a winner. Use the insights from these tests to continuously improve and refresh your ads.
8. Sending Traffic to Irrelevant Landing Pages
One of the most common yet critical mistakes is sending ad traffic to landing pages that don’t align with the ad’s promise or the user’s search intent. For example, if a user clicks on an ad for "blue running shoes," but lands on a generic homepage instead of a product page for blue running shoes, they’re likely to leave without converting. This not only wastes ad spend but also hurts your Quality Score, increasing your CPC over time.
How to Fix: Ensure that every ad directs traffic to a landing page that matches the user’s intent and the ad copy. Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group or campaign, optimizing them for relevance and a seamless user experience. Include the target keywords on your landing pages to align with the ad and improve your Quality Score.
9. Setting Unrealistic Budgets
Many advertisers either set budgets too low, resulting in missed opportunities, or too high, which can lead to wasted spend without delivering meaningful results. A budget that doesn’t align with the competition in your industry or the cost-per-click (CPC) of your targeted keywords can cripple your campaign's effectiveness. Setting the wrong budget can prevent your ads from entering the auction or result in running out of budget before the day ends.
How to Fix: Research the average CPC in your industry and set a realistic daily budget that allows your ads to compete effectively. Use Google’s keyword planning tools to estimate costs and adjust your bids based on performance. Regularly evaluate your budget based on campaign data and be flexible – sometimes increasing or reallocating budget can lead to significant improvements in performance.
10. Not Monitoring Campaign Performance Regularly
A successful Google Ads campaign requires continuous optimization. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and leaving it unchecked for extended periods. Without ongoing monitoring, campaigns can suffer from issues like underperforming keywords, irrelevant traffic, or budget inefficiencies, leading to wasted spend and missed opportunities.
How to Fix: Schedule routine audits of your campaigns to ensure everything is running as expected. Regularly review key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion. Make adjustments as needed – whether that’s pausing underperforming keywords, revising ad copy, or reallocating budget. PPC is not a "set it and forget it" strategy; proactive management is essential to long-term success.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a PPC expert, mistakes happen – and that's normal. The ever-evolving nature of Google Ads means there’s always room for improvement, and even top-performing campaigns may underperform in different seasons or quarters. The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and adapt your strategies to align with new data and market conditions.
Once you’ve identified the right thresholds for your campaigns, consider rule-based automation with tools like Shopstory. Automating manual, repetitive tweaks can save you time, money, and hours of effort each week, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Ready to give it a try?
Google Ads is a critical tool for ecommerce businesses and PPC professionals alike. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into traps that lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are 10 common Google Ads mistakes and how to fix them for more effective campaigns.
10 Google Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
1. Using Broad Match Keywords Without Caution
Broad match keywords allow your ads to be triggered by search queries that are only loosely related to your targeted terms. While this expands reach, it can lead to wasted clicks on irrelevant search queries. Broad match terms are especially risky for advertisers with specific targeting needs, such as niche ecommerce products or highly specialized services. Relying too heavily on broad match keywords without careful monitoring can inflate your costs and dilute the relevance of your ads, impacting both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
How to Fix: Start with exact and phrase match types to ensure your ads are shown to users with relevant intent. Once you’ve gathered enough data, gradually introduce broad match keywords while closely monitoring the search terms report. Continuously refine your negative keywords to filter out irrelevant queries and make the most of broad match without overspending.
2. Inaccurate Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the backbone of any Google Ads campaign. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up incorrect tracking, such as tracking non-conversion actions (e.g., page views) as conversions or allowing duplicate conversions to be recorded. Inaccurate data can lead you to believe that your campaigns are performing better than they are, causing you to continue spending on underperforming ads or strategies.
How to Fix: Conduct a regular audit of your conversion tracking setup. Make sure you're only tracking valuable actions, such as purchases or lead form submissions, that align with your campaign goals. For ecommerce, ensure your conversion values reflect the actual revenue generated. Use tools like Google Tag Manager to streamline your tracking setup and avoid duplicate entries.
3. Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are often an underutilized feature in Google Ads. Extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, provide additional information and increase the size of your ad on the search results page. They improve ad visibility, offer more click-through opportunities, and contribute to a higher Quality Score, which can lead to a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Despite their benefits, many advertisers either don’t use ad extensions or fail to tailor them to their campaigns, missing out on a simple way to enhance performance.
How to Fix: Always enable relevant ad extensions for your campaigns. Review which extensions are the most suitable for your business—sitelinks can direct users to specific product pages, callouts can highlight free shipping or discounts, and structured snippets can provide detailed information on your offerings. Google rewards ads that provide more relevant information to users, so regularly update and optimize your extensions.
4. Not Leveraging Automated Bidding Strategies
Many experienced advertisers prefer manual bidding, believing they have more control over keyword performance. While manual bidding has its place, Google’s machine learning algorithms are highly effective at optimizing bids in real time. Failing to use automated bidding strategies can limit your campaign’s ability to adapt to changing conditions like time of day, user behavior, or device type. Automated strategies such as Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) and Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) allow you to focus on optimizing higher-level strategies rather than micromanaging individual bids.
How to Fix: Experiment with Google’s automated bidding strategies, starting with Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on your goals. These strategies use machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on real-time data, helping you get better results with less manual intervention. Keep a close eye on performance and be ready to adjust targets as needed to align with your desired outcomes.
5. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are crucial for excluding irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads. When overlooked, negative keywords can lead to your ads appearing for queries that don’t align with your offerings, wasting your ad spend. For example, an ecommerce business selling premium furniture might inadvertently trigger ads for people searching for "cheap" or "discount" furniture if those terms aren’t added as negative keywords.
How to Fix: Perform regular reviews of your search terms report to identify irrelevant queries. Add these terms to your negative keywords list to refine your targeting. Negative keywords should evolve as your campaigns scale, so make it a habit to audit and update your list periodically to maintain relevance and efficiency.
6. Poor Geo-Targeting Settings
Geo-targeting is a powerful tool, but Google Ads’ default settings can lead to inefficient use of your budget. For instance, if you're running ads for a local business but use the default setting, your ads may be shown to users outside of your service area. This issue is especially problematic for brick-and-mortar businesses or ecommerce shops with location-specific services or shipping.
How to Fix: Navigate to the location settings in your campaigns and ensure you're targeting people physically located in your service area. Adjust the default option, which targets both people "in or interested in" your location, to target "people in" your specified areas only. This will help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks from users outside your geographic target.
7. Failing to A/B Test Ads
Even the best ad copy can be improved, but without A/B testing, you’ll never know what could work better. Many advertisers launch ads and then stick with the initial creative for too long, missing opportunities for optimization. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action, enabling you to discover what resonates most with your audience and improves your conversion rates.
How to Fix: Regularly set up A/B tests for your ad creatives. Start by testing one variable at a time—whether it’s the headline, ad copy, or even the landing page. Keep the experiment running long enough to gather statistically significant data before declaring a winner. Use the insights from these tests to continuously improve and refresh your ads.
8. Sending Traffic to Irrelevant Landing Pages
One of the most common yet critical mistakes is sending ad traffic to landing pages that don’t align with the ad’s promise or the user’s search intent. For example, if a user clicks on an ad for "blue running shoes," but lands on a generic homepage instead of a product page for blue running shoes, they’re likely to leave without converting. This not only wastes ad spend but also hurts your Quality Score, increasing your CPC over time.
How to Fix: Ensure that every ad directs traffic to a landing page that matches the user’s intent and the ad copy. Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group or campaign, optimizing them for relevance and a seamless user experience. Include the target keywords on your landing pages to align with the ad and improve your Quality Score.
9. Setting Unrealistic Budgets
Many advertisers either set budgets too low, resulting in missed opportunities, or too high, which can lead to wasted spend without delivering meaningful results. A budget that doesn’t align with the competition in your industry or the cost-per-click (CPC) of your targeted keywords can cripple your campaign's effectiveness. Setting the wrong budget can prevent your ads from entering the auction or result in running out of budget before the day ends.
How to Fix: Research the average CPC in your industry and set a realistic daily budget that allows your ads to compete effectively. Use Google’s keyword planning tools to estimate costs and adjust your bids based on performance. Regularly evaluate your budget based on campaign data and be flexible – sometimes increasing or reallocating budget can lead to significant improvements in performance.
10. Not Monitoring Campaign Performance Regularly
A successful Google Ads campaign requires continuous optimization. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and leaving it unchecked for extended periods. Without ongoing monitoring, campaigns can suffer from issues like underperforming keywords, irrelevant traffic, or budget inefficiencies, leading to wasted spend and missed opportunities.
How to Fix: Schedule routine audits of your campaigns to ensure everything is running as expected. Regularly review key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion. Make adjustments as needed – whether that’s pausing underperforming keywords, revising ad copy, or reallocating budget. PPC is not a "set it and forget it" strategy; proactive management is essential to long-term success.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a PPC expert, mistakes happen – and that's normal. The ever-evolving nature of Google Ads means there’s always room for improvement, and even top-performing campaigns may underperform in different seasons or quarters. The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and adapt your strategies to align with new data and market conditions.
Once you’ve identified the right thresholds for your campaigns, consider rule-based automation with tools like Shopstory. Automating manual, repetitive tweaks can save you time, money, and hours of effort each week, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Ready to give it a try?
Google Ads is a critical tool for ecommerce businesses and PPC professionals alike. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into traps that lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are 10 common Google Ads mistakes and how to fix them for more effective campaigns.
10 Google Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
1. Using Broad Match Keywords Without Caution
Broad match keywords allow your ads to be triggered by search queries that are only loosely related to your targeted terms. While this expands reach, it can lead to wasted clicks on irrelevant search queries. Broad match terms are especially risky for advertisers with specific targeting needs, such as niche ecommerce products or highly specialized services. Relying too heavily on broad match keywords without careful monitoring can inflate your costs and dilute the relevance of your ads, impacting both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
How to Fix: Start with exact and phrase match types to ensure your ads are shown to users with relevant intent. Once you’ve gathered enough data, gradually introduce broad match keywords while closely monitoring the search terms report. Continuously refine your negative keywords to filter out irrelevant queries and make the most of broad match without overspending.
2. Inaccurate Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the backbone of any Google Ads campaign. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up incorrect tracking, such as tracking non-conversion actions (e.g., page views) as conversions or allowing duplicate conversions to be recorded. Inaccurate data can lead you to believe that your campaigns are performing better than they are, causing you to continue spending on underperforming ads or strategies.
How to Fix: Conduct a regular audit of your conversion tracking setup. Make sure you're only tracking valuable actions, such as purchases or lead form submissions, that align with your campaign goals. For ecommerce, ensure your conversion values reflect the actual revenue generated. Use tools like Google Tag Manager to streamline your tracking setup and avoid duplicate entries.
3. Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are often an underutilized feature in Google Ads. Extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, provide additional information and increase the size of your ad on the search results page. They improve ad visibility, offer more click-through opportunities, and contribute to a higher Quality Score, which can lead to a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Despite their benefits, many advertisers either don’t use ad extensions or fail to tailor them to their campaigns, missing out on a simple way to enhance performance.
How to Fix: Always enable relevant ad extensions for your campaigns. Review which extensions are the most suitable for your business—sitelinks can direct users to specific product pages, callouts can highlight free shipping or discounts, and structured snippets can provide detailed information on your offerings. Google rewards ads that provide more relevant information to users, so regularly update and optimize your extensions.
4. Not Leveraging Automated Bidding Strategies
Many experienced advertisers prefer manual bidding, believing they have more control over keyword performance. While manual bidding has its place, Google’s machine learning algorithms are highly effective at optimizing bids in real time. Failing to use automated bidding strategies can limit your campaign’s ability to adapt to changing conditions like time of day, user behavior, or device type. Automated strategies such as Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) and Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) allow you to focus on optimizing higher-level strategies rather than micromanaging individual bids.
How to Fix: Experiment with Google’s automated bidding strategies, starting with Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on your goals. These strategies use machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on real-time data, helping you get better results with less manual intervention. Keep a close eye on performance and be ready to adjust targets as needed to align with your desired outcomes.
5. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are crucial for excluding irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads. When overlooked, negative keywords can lead to your ads appearing for queries that don’t align with your offerings, wasting your ad spend. For example, an ecommerce business selling premium furniture might inadvertently trigger ads for people searching for "cheap" or "discount" furniture if those terms aren’t added as negative keywords.
How to Fix: Perform regular reviews of your search terms report to identify irrelevant queries. Add these terms to your negative keywords list to refine your targeting. Negative keywords should evolve as your campaigns scale, so make it a habit to audit and update your list periodically to maintain relevance and efficiency.
6. Poor Geo-Targeting Settings
Geo-targeting is a powerful tool, but Google Ads’ default settings can lead to inefficient use of your budget. For instance, if you're running ads for a local business but use the default setting, your ads may be shown to users outside of your service area. This issue is especially problematic for brick-and-mortar businesses or ecommerce shops with location-specific services or shipping.
How to Fix: Navigate to the location settings in your campaigns and ensure you're targeting people physically located in your service area. Adjust the default option, which targets both people "in or interested in" your location, to target "people in" your specified areas only. This will help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks from users outside your geographic target.
7. Failing to A/B Test Ads
Even the best ad copy can be improved, but without A/B testing, you’ll never know what could work better. Many advertisers launch ads and then stick with the initial creative for too long, missing opportunities for optimization. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action, enabling you to discover what resonates most with your audience and improves your conversion rates.
How to Fix: Regularly set up A/B tests for your ad creatives. Start by testing one variable at a time—whether it’s the headline, ad copy, or even the landing page. Keep the experiment running long enough to gather statistically significant data before declaring a winner. Use the insights from these tests to continuously improve and refresh your ads.
8. Sending Traffic to Irrelevant Landing Pages
One of the most common yet critical mistakes is sending ad traffic to landing pages that don’t align with the ad’s promise or the user’s search intent. For example, if a user clicks on an ad for "blue running shoes," but lands on a generic homepage instead of a product page for blue running shoes, they’re likely to leave without converting. This not only wastes ad spend but also hurts your Quality Score, increasing your CPC over time.
How to Fix: Ensure that every ad directs traffic to a landing page that matches the user’s intent and the ad copy. Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group or campaign, optimizing them for relevance and a seamless user experience. Include the target keywords on your landing pages to align with the ad and improve your Quality Score.
9. Setting Unrealistic Budgets
Many advertisers either set budgets too low, resulting in missed opportunities, or too high, which can lead to wasted spend without delivering meaningful results. A budget that doesn’t align with the competition in your industry or the cost-per-click (CPC) of your targeted keywords can cripple your campaign's effectiveness. Setting the wrong budget can prevent your ads from entering the auction or result in running out of budget before the day ends.
How to Fix: Research the average CPC in your industry and set a realistic daily budget that allows your ads to compete effectively. Use Google’s keyword planning tools to estimate costs and adjust your bids based on performance. Regularly evaluate your budget based on campaign data and be flexible – sometimes increasing or reallocating budget can lead to significant improvements in performance.
10. Not Monitoring Campaign Performance Regularly
A successful Google Ads campaign requires continuous optimization. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and leaving it unchecked for extended periods. Without ongoing monitoring, campaigns can suffer from issues like underperforming keywords, irrelevant traffic, or budget inefficiencies, leading to wasted spend and missed opportunities.
How to Fix: Schedule routine audits of your campaigns to ensure everything is running as expected. Regularly review key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion. Make adjustments as needed – whether that’s pausing underperforming keywords, revising ad copy, or reallocating budget. PPC is not a "set it and forget it" strategy; proactive management is essential to long-term success.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a PPC expert, mistakes happen – and that's normal. The ever-evolving nature of Google Ads means there’s always room for improvement, and even top-performing campaigns may underperform in different seasons or quarters. The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and adapt your strategies to align with new data and market conditions.
Once you’ve identified the right thresholds for your campaigns, consider rule-based automation with tools like Shopstory. Automating manual, repetitive tweaks can save you time, money, and hours of effort each week, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Ready to give it a try?
Google Ads is a critical tool for ecommerce businesses and PPC professionals alike. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into traps that lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are 10 common Google Ads mistakes and how to fix them for more effective campaigns.
10 Google Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
1. Using Broad Match Keywords Without Caution
Broad match keywords allow your ads to be triggered by search queries that are only loosely related to your targeted terms. While this expands reach, it can lead to wasted clicks on irrelevant search queries. Broad match terms are especially risky for advertisers with specific targeting needs, such as niche ecommerce products or highly specialized services. Relying too heavily on broad match keywords without careful monitoring can inflate your costs and dilute the relevance of your ads, impacting both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
How to Fix: Start with exact and phrase match types to ensure your ads are shown to users with relevant intent. Once you’ve gathered enough data, gradually introduce broad match keywords while closely monitoring the search terms report. Continuously refine your negative keywords to filter out irrelevant queries and make the most of broad match without overspending.
2. Inaccurate Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the backbone of any Google Ads campaign. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up incorrect tracking, such as tracking non-conversion actions (e.g., page views) as conversions or allowing duplicate conversions to be recorded. Inaccurate data can lead you to believe that your campaigns are performing better than they are, causing you to continue spending on underperforming ads or strategies.
How to Fix: Conduct a regular audit of your conversion tracking setup. Make sure you're only tracking valuable actions, such as purchases or lead form submissions, that align with your campaign goals. For ecommerce, ensure your conversion values reflect the actual revenue generated. Use tools like Google Tag Manager to streamline your tracking setup and avoid duplicate entries.
3. Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are often an underutilized feature in Google Ads. Extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, provide additional information and increase the size of your ad on the search results page. They improve ad visibility, offer more click-through opportunities, and contribute to a higher Quality Score, which can lead to a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Despite their benefits, many advertisers either don’t use ad extensions or fail to tailor them to their campaigns, missing out on a simple way to enhance performance.
How to Fix: Always enable relevant ad extensions for your campaigns. Review which extensions are the most suitable for your business—sitelinks can direct users to specific product pages, callouts can highlight free shipping or discounts, and structured snippets can provide detailed information on your offerings. Google rewards ads that provide more relevant information to users, so regularly update and optimize your extensions.
4. Not Leveraging Automated Bidding Strategies
Many experienced advertisers prefer manual bidding, believing they have more control over keyword performance. While manual bidding has its place, Google’s machine learning algorithms are highly effective at optimizing bids in real time. Failing to use automated bidding strategies can limit your campaign’s ability to adapt to changing conditions like time of day, user behavior, or device type. Automated strategies such as Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) and Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) allow you to focus on optimizing higher-level strategies rather than micromanaging individual bids.
How to Fix: Experiment with Google’s automated bidding strategies, starting with Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on your goals. These strategies use machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on real-time data, helping you get better results with less manual intervention. Keep a close eye on performance and be ready to adjust targets as needed to align with your desired outcomes.
5. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are crucial for excluding irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads. When overlooked, negative keywords can lead to your ads appearing for queries that don’t align with your offerings, wasting your ad spend. For example, an ecommerce business selling premium furniture might inadvertently trigger ads for people searching for "cheap" or "discount" furniture if those terms aren’t added as negative keywords.
How to Fix: Perform regular reviews of your search terms report to identify irrelevant queries. Add these terms to your negative keywords list to refine your targeting. Negative keywords should evolve as your campaigns scale, so make it a habit to audit and update your list periodically to maintain relevance and efficiency.
6. Poor Geo-Targeting Settings
Geo-targeting is a powerful tool, but Google Ads’ default settings can lead to inefficient use of your budget. For instance, if you're running ads for a local business but use the default setting, your ads may be shown to users outside of your service area. This issue is especially problematic for brick-and-mortar businesses or ecommerce shops with location-specific services or shipping.
How to Fix: Navigate to the location settings in your campaigns and ensure you're targeting people physically located in your service area. Adjust the default option, which targets both people "in or interested in" your location, to target "people in" your specified areas only. This will help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks from users outside your geographic target.
7. Failing to A/B Test Ads
Even the best ad copy can be improved, but without A/B testing, you’ll never know what could work better. Many advertisers launch ads and then stick with the initial creative for too long, missing opportunities for optimization. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action, enabling you to discover what resonates most with your audience and improves your conversion rates.
How to Fix: Regularly set up A/B tests for your ad creatives. Start by testing one variable at a time—whether it’s the headline, ad copy, or even the landing page. Keep the experiment running long enough to gather statistically significant data before declaring a winner. Use the insights from these tests to continuously improve and refresh your ads.
8. Sending Traffic to Irrelevant Landing Pages
One of the most common yet critical mistakes is sending ad traffic to landing pages that don’t align with the ad’s promise or the user’s search intent. For example, if a user clicks on an ad for "blue running shoes," but lands on a generic homepage instead of a product page for blue running shoes, they’re likely to leave without converting. This not only wastes ad spend but also hurts your Quality Score, increasing your CPC over time.
How to Fix: Ensure that every ad directs traffic to a landing page that matches the user’s intent and the ad copy. Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group or campaign, optimizing them for relevance and a seamless user experience. Include the target keywords on your landing pages to align with the ad and improve your Quality Score.
9. Setting Unrealistic Budgets
Many advertisers either set budgets too low, resulting in missed opportunities, or too high, which can lead to wasted spend without delivering meaningful results. A budget that doesn’t align with the competition in your industry or the cost-per-click (CPC) of your targeted keywords can cripple your campaign's effectiveness. Setting the wrong budget can prevent your ads from entering the auction or result in running out of budget before the day ends.
How to Fix: Research the average CPC in your industry and set a realistic daily budget that allows your ads to compete effectively. Use Google’s keyword planning tools to estimate costs and adjust your bids based on performance. Regularly evaluate your budget based on campaign data and be flexible – sometimes increasing or reallocating budget can lead to significant improvements in performance.
10. Not Monitoring Campaign Performance Regularly
A successful Google Ads campaign requires continuous optimization. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and leaving it unchecked for extended periods. Without ongoing monitoring, campaigns can suffer from issues like underperforming keywords, irrelevant traffic, or budget inefficiencies, leading to wasted spend and missed opportunities.
How to Fix: Schedule routine audits of your campaigns to ensure everything is running as expected. Regularly review key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion. Make adjustments as needed – whether that’s pausing underperforming keywords, revising ad copy, or reallocating budget. PPC is not a "set it and forget it" strategy; proactive management is essential to long-term success.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a PPC expert, mistakes happen – and that's normal. The ever-evolving nature of Google Ads means there’s always room for improvement, and even top-performing campaigns may underperform in different seasons or quarters. The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and adapt your strategies to align with new data and market conditions.
Once you’ve identified the right thresholds for your campaigns, consider rule-based automation with tools like Shopstory. Automating manual, repetitive tweaks can save you time, money, and hours of effort each week, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Ready to give it a try?
Google Ads is a critical tool for ecommerce businesses and PPC professionals alike. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into traps that lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are 10 common Google Ads mistakes and how to fix them for more effective campaigns.
10 Google Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
1. Using Broad Match Keywords Without Caution
Broad match keywords allow your ads to be triggered by search queries that are only loosely related to your targeted terms. While this expands reach, it can lead to wasted clicks on irrelevant search queries. Broad match terms are especially risky for advertisers with specific targeting needs, such as niche ecommerce products or highly specialized services. Relying too heavily on broad match keywords without careful monitoring can inflate your costs and dilute the relevance of your ads, impacting both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
How to Fix: Start with exact and phrase match types to ensure your ads are shown to users with relevant intent. Once you’ve gathered enough data, gradually introduce broad match keywords while closely monitoring the search terms report. Continuously refine your negative keywords to filter out irrelevant queries and make the most of broad match without overspending.
2. Inaccurate Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the backbone of any Google Ads campaign. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up incorrect tracking, such as tracking non-conversion actions (e.g., page views) as conversions or allowing duplicate conversions to be recorded. Inaccurate data can lead you to believe that your campaigns are performing better than they are, causing you to continue spending on underperforming ads or strategies.
How to Fix: Conduct a regular audit of your conversion tracking setup. Make sure you're only tracking valuable actions, such as purchases or lead form submissions, that align with your campaign goals. For ecommerce, ensure your conversion values reflect the actual revenue generated. Use tools like Google Tag Manager to streamline your tracking setup and avoid duplicate entries.
3. Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are often an underutilized feature in Google Ads. Extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, provide additional information and increase the size of your ad on the search results page. They improve ad visibility, offer more click-through opportunities, and contribute to a higher Quality Score, which can lead to a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Despite their benefits, many advertisers either don’t use ad extensions or fail to tailor them to their campaigns, missing out on a simple way to enhance performance.
How to Fix: Always enable relevant ad extensions for your campaigns. Review which extensions are the most suitable for your business—sitelinks can direct users to specific product pages, callouts can highlight free shipping or discounts, and structured snippets can provide detailed information on your offerings. Google rewards ads that provide more relevant information to users, so regularly update and optimize your extensions.
4. Not Leveraging Automated Bidding Strategies
Many experienced advertisers prefer manual bidding, believing they have more control over keyword performance. While manual bidding has its place, Google’s machine learning algorithms are highly effective at optimizing bids in real time. Failing to use automated bidding strategies can limit your campaign’s ability to adapt to changing conditions like time of day, user behavior, or device type. Automated strategies such as Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) and Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) allow you to focus on optimizing higher-level strategies rather than micromanaging individual bids.
How to Fix: Experiment with Google’s automated bidding strategies, starting with Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on your goals. These strategies use machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on real-time data, helping you get better results with less manual intervention. Keep a close eye on performance and be ready to adjust targets as needed to align with your desired outcomes.
5. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are crucial for excluding irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads. When overlooked, negative keywords can lead to your ads appearing for queries that don’t align with your offerings, wasting your ad spend. For example, an ecommerce business selling premium furniture might inadvertently trigger ads for people searching for "cheap" or "discount" furniture if those terms aren’t added as negative keywords.
How to Fix: Perform regular reviews of your search terms report to identify irrelevant queries. Add these terms to your negative keywords list to refine your targeting. Negative keywords should evolve as your campaigns scale, so make it a habit to audit and update your list periodically to maintain relevance and efficiency.
6. Poor Geo-Targeting Settings
Geo-targeting is a powerful tool, but Google Ads’ default settings can lead to inefficient use of your budget. For instance, if you're running ads for a local business but use the default setting, your ads may be shown to users outside of your service area. This issue is especially problematic for brick-and-mortar businesses or ecommerce shops with location-specific services or shipping.
How to Fix: Navigate to the location settings in your campaigns and ensure you're targeting people physically located in your service area. Adjust the default option, which targets both people "in or interested in" your location, to target "people in" your specified areas only. This will help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks from users outside your geographic target.
7. Failing to A/B Test Ads
Even the best ad copy can be improved, but without A/B testing, you’ll never know what could work better. Many advertisers launch ads and then stick with the initial creative for too long, missing opportunities for optimization. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action, enabling you to discover what resonates most with your audience and improves your conversion rates.
How to Fix: Regularly set up A/B tests for your ad creatives. Start by testing one variable at a time—whether it’s the headline, ad copy, or even the landing page. Keep the experiment running long enough to gather statistically significant data before declaring a winner. Use the insights from these tests to continuously improve and refresh your ads.
8. Sending Traffic to Irrelevant Landing Pages
One of the most common yet critical mistakes is sending ad traffic to landing pages that don’t align with the ad’s promise or the user’s search intent. For example, if a user clicks on an ad for "blue running shoes," but lands on a generic homepage instead of a product page for blue running shoes, they’re likely to leave without converting. This not only wastes ad spend but also hurts your Quality Score, increasing your CPC over time.
How to Fix: Ensure that every ad directs traffic to a landing page that matches the user’s intent and the ad copy. Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group or campaign, optimizing them for relevance and a seamless user experience. Include the target keywords on your landing pages to align with the ad and improve your Quality Score.
9. Setting Unrealistic Budgets
Many advertisers either set budgets too low, resulting in missed opportunities, or too high, which can lead to wasted spend without delivering meaningful results. A budget that doesn’t align with the competition in your industry or the cost-per-click (CPC) of your targeted keywords can cripple your campaign's effectiveness. Setting the wrong budget can prevent your ads from entering the auction or result in running out of budget before the day ends.
How to Fix: Research the average CPC in your industry and set a realistic daily budget that allows your ads to compete effectively. Use Google’s keyword planning tools to estimate costs and adjust your bids based on performance. Regularly evaluate your budget based on campaign data and be flexible – sometimes increasing or reallocating budget can lead to significant improvements in performance.
10. Not Monitoring Campaign Performance Regularly
A successful Google Ads campaign requires continuous optimization. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and leaving it unchecked for extended periods. Without ongoing monitoring, campaigns can suffer from issues like underperforming keywords, irrelevant traffic, or budget inefficiencies, leading to wasted spend and missed opportunities.
How to Fix: Schedule routine audits of your campaigns to ensure everything is running as expected. Regularly review key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion. Make adjustments as needed – whether that’s pausing underperforming keywords, revising ad copy, or reallocating budget. PPC is not a "set it and forget it" strategy; proactive management is essential to long-term success.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a PPC expert, mistakes happen – and that's normal. The ever-evolving nature of Google Ads means there’s always room for improvement, and even top-performing campaigns may underperform in different seasons or quarters. The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and adapt your strategies to align with new data and market conditions.
Once you’ve identified the right thresholds for your campaigns, consider rule-based automation with tools like Shopstory. Automating manual, repetitive tweaks can save you time, money, and hours of effort each week, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Ready to give it a try?
10 Google Ads Mistakes You Should Avoid
Google Ads is a critical tool for ecommerce businesses and PPC professionals alike. However, even seasoned marketers can fall into traps that lead to wasted ad spend and poor performance. To help you avoid these pitfalls, here are 10 common Google Ads mistakes and how to fix them for more effective campaigns.
10 Google Ad Mistakes You Should Avoid At All Costs
1. Using Broad Match Keywords Without Caution
Broad match keywords allow your ads to be triggered by search queries that are only loosely related to your targeted terms. While this expands reach, it can lead to wasted clicks on irrelevant search queries. Broad match terms are especially risky for advertisers with specific targeting needs, such as niche ecommerce products or highly specialized services. Relying too heavily on broad match keywords without careful monitoring can inflate your costs and dilute the relevance of your ads, impacting both click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.
How to Fix: Start with exact and phrase match types to ensure your ads are shown to users with relevant intent. Once you’ve gathered enough data, gradually introduce broad match keywords while closely monitoring the search terms report. Continuously refine your negative keywords to filter out irrelevant queries and make the most of broad match without overspending.
2. Inaccurate Conversion Tracking
Conversion tracking is the backbone of any Google Ads campaign. Without it, you’re essentially flying blind. Many advertisers make the mistake of setting up incorrect tracking, such as tracking non-conversion actions (e.g., page views) as conversions or allowing duplicate conversions to be recorded. Inaccurate data can lead you to believe that your campaigns are performing better than they are, causing you to continue spending on underperforming ads or strategies.
How to Fix: Conduct a regular audit of your conversion tracking setup. Make sure you're only tracking valuable actions, such as purchases or lead form submissions, that align with your campaign goals. For ecommerce, ensure your conversion values reflect the actual revenue generated. Use tools like Google Tag Manager to streamline your tracking setup and avoid duplicate entries.
3. Overlooking Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are often an underutilized feature in Google Ads. Extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets, provide additional information and increase the size of your ad on the search results page. They improve ad visibility, offer more click-through opportunities, and contribute to a higher Quality Score, which can lead to a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Despite their benefits, many advertisers either don’t use ad extensions or fail to tailor them to their campaigns, missing out on a simple way to enhance performance.
How to Fix: Always enable relevant ad extensions for your campaigns. Review which extensions are the most suitable for your business—sitelinks can direct users to specific product pages, callouts can highlight free shipping or discounts, and structured snippets can provide detailed information on your offerings. Google rewards ads that provide more relevant information to users, so regularly update and optimize your extensions.
4. Not Leveraging Automated Bidding Strategies
Many experienced advertisers prefer manual bidding, believing they have more control over keyword performance. While manual bidding has its place, Google’s machine learning algorithms are highly effective at optimizing bids in real time. Failing to use automated bidding strategies can limit your campaign’s ability to adapt to changing conditions like time of day, user behavior, or device type. Automated strategies such as Target CPA (Cost-Per-Acquisition) and Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) allow you to focus on optimizing higher-level strategies rather than micromanaging individual bids.
How to Fix: Experiment with Google’s automated bidding strategies, starting with Target CPA or Target ROAS, depending on your goals. These strategies use machine learning to automatically adjust your bids based on real-time data, helping you get better results with less manual intervention. Keep a close eye on performance and be ready to adjust targets as needed to align with your desired outcomes.
5. Ignoring Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are crucial for excluding irrelevant search terms from triggering your ads. When overlooked, negative keywords can lead to your ads appearing for queries that don’t align with your offerings, wasting your ad spend. For example, an ecommerce business selling premium furniture might inadvertently trigger ads for people searching for "cheap" or "discount" furniture if those terms aren’t added as negative keywords.
How to Fix: Perform regular reviews of your search terms report to identify irrelevant queries. Add these terms to your negative keywords list to refine your targeting. Negative keywords should evolve as your campaigns scale, so make it a habit to audit and update your list periodically to maintain relevance and efficiency.
6. Poor Geo-Targeting Settings
Geo-targeting is a powerful tool, but Google Ads’ default settings can lead to inefficient use of your budget. For instance, if you're running ads for a local business but use the default setting, your ads may be shown to users outside of your service area. This issue is especially problematic for brick-and-mortar businesses or ecommerce shops with location-specific services or shipping.
How to Fix: Navigate to the location settings in your campaigns and ensure you're targeting people physically located in your service area. Adjust the default option, which targets both people "in or interested in" your location, to target "people in" your specified areas only. This will help you avoid wasting money on irrelevant clicks from users outside your geographic target.
7. Failing to A/B Test Ads
Even the best ad copy can be improved, but without A/B testing, you’ll never know what could work better. Many advertisers launch ads and then stick with the initial creative for too long, missing opportunities for optimization. A/B testing allows you to experiment with different headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action, enabling you to discover what resonates most with your audience and improves your conversion rates.
How to Fix: Regularly set up A/B tests for your ad creatives. Start by testing one variable at a time—whether it’s the headline, ad copy, or even the landing page. Keep the experiment running long enough to gather statistically significant data before declaring a winner. Use the insights from these tests to continuously improve and refresh your ads.
8. Sending Traffic to Irrelevant Landing Pages
One of the most common yet critical mistakes is sending ad traffic to landing pages that don’t align with the ad’s promise or the user’s search intent. For example, if a user clicks on an ad for "blue running shoes," but lands on a generic homepage instead of a product page for blue running shoes, they’re likely to leave without converting. This not only wastes ad spend but also hurts your Quality Score, increasing your CPC over time.
How to Fix: Ensure that every ad directs traffic to a landing page that matches the user’s intent and the ad copy. Create dedicated landing pages for each ad group or campaign, optimizing them for relevance and a seamless user experience. Include the target keywords on your landing pages to align with the ad and improve your Quality Score.
9. Setting Unrealistic Budgets
Many advertisers either set budgets too low, resulting in missed opportunities, or too high, which can lead to wasted spend without delivering meaningful results. A budget that doesn’t align with the competition in your industry or the cost-per-click (CPC) of your targeted keywords can cripple your campaign's effectiveness. Setting the wrong budget can prevent your ads from entering the auction or result in running out of budget before the day ends.
How to Fix: Research the average CPC in your industry and set a realistic daily budget that allows your ads to compete effectively. Use Google’s keyword planning tools to estimate costs and adjust your bids based on performance. Regularly evaluate your budget based on campaign data and be flexible – sometimes increasing or reallocating budget can lead to significant improvements in performance.
10. Not Monitoring Campaign Performance Regularly
A successful Google Ads campaign requires continuous optimization. One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is setting up a campaign and leaving it unchecked for extended periods. Without ongoing monitoring, campaigns can suffer from issues like underperforming keywords, irrelevant traffic, or budget inefficiencies, leading to wasted spend and missed opportunities.
How to Fix: Schedule routine audits of your campaigns to ensure everything is running as expected. Regularly review key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion. Make adjustments as needed – whether that’s pausing underperforming keywords, revising ad copy, or reallocating budget. PPC is not a "set it and forget it" strategy; proactive management is essential to long-term success.
Conclusion
No matter how experienced you are as a PPC expert, mistakes happen – and that's normal. The ever-evolving nature of Google Ads means there’s always room for improvement, and even top-performing campaigns may underperform in different seasons or quarters. The key is to stay vigilant, continuously optimize, and adapt your strategies to align with new data and market conditions.
Once you’ve identified the right thresholds for your campaigns, consider rule-based automation with tools like Shopstory. Automating manual, repetitive tweaks can save you time, money, and hours of effort each week, helping you stay ahead of the curve. Ready to give it a try?
