Three Pay-Per-Click Advertising Mistakes to Avoid

Business consultant Justin Steinle earned his bachelor of science in business administration from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. In his current role as a senior marketing executive, Justin Steinle uses a wide range of tools and services to help clients establish stronger marketing and advertising channels, including pay-per-click advertising (PPC).

A company employs pay-per-click advertising by paying a fee any time that one of its advertisements is clicked after a potential customer runs a relevant query through a search engine. PPC can be an extremely effective way to drive traffic to a business website, but to achieve optimal results the following three mistakes must be avoided.

1. Making keywords too broad. The keywords that a company uses in PPC advertising will determine how beneficial the campaign actually is. Using keywords that are too short, generic, or broad will cause a company to pay a significantly higher price for clicks amid a greater amount of competition.

2. Linking an advertisement to a home page. When a company’s ad promotes a specific product to fulfill a customer’s needs, the ad should link directly to the product page. Linking PPC ads to a home page creates unnecessary work for the customer and increases the risk of losing a sale.

3. Leaving out negative keywords. Negative keywords in a PPC campaign play a crucial role in promoting ads to a relevant customer base. A company that doesn’t take advantage of negative keywords may create a PPC campaign that is too broad and end up paying for site visitors who have no interest in or need for its products.