“I’ve already tried paid ads and it was a waste.”

When I hear the above statement, it makes me sad. I might be biased, but hearing a client describe how they just couldn’t find the return for their paid search advertising doesn’t mean PPC doesn’t work or can’t work for them.

So, what actually went wrong?

Why your Paid Search Advertising Went Wrong

Maybe you trusted your computer savvy nephew, or felt confident enough in your own abilities to get your paid search campaign up and running. Maybe your past agencies offered discounted paid search ads as a part of a larger service package, or the campaign was not properly aligned with your overall goals. Whatever the situation, there are probably various reasons that your paid campaign missed the mark:

1. You Have to Spend Money to Make Money

We’ve all heard it before. The question comes down to how much should you be spending. Depending upon your product or service, budget limitations and a high competition industry can be major factors in the success or failure of a campaign and one that you may or may not ultimately control.

While one of the benefits of PPC is the ability to start with small budgets and tightly focused markets. To grow in high competition markets like legal and insurance a single click may have a high cost and a small budget can constrain a campaign. You don’t want to drink water from the fire hose, or from an eyedropper. An overly restricted budget can force your campaign to run on fumes, just as much as an unrestricted or unmanaged campaign can quickly overspend.

2. Staying Relevant

Success in your PPC campaigns can be simplified down to 3 factors, Relevance, Attention and Experience. The initial setup of your account and ongoing optimization to these factors can determine how successful your paid search experience will be. A good digital agency will help you navigate the pitfalls of these factors, investing the research time and planning upfront to minimize obstacles to your success.

Search Term to Ad Copy

I’ve mentioned previously how important keyword targeting can be in the success of campaigns. Negative keywords and match types can mean the difference in paying for clicks on Belt, Drive Belt, BMW Serpentine Belt and Belt Positioning Booster Seat.

Recently I was trying to remember the names of the great lakes, and just couldn’t pull the last one from my brain (Lake Erie). A quick search on google led to a chuckle when a paid ad for online university courses appeared. Obviously this ad missed the mark when it came to relevancy. Granular and specific keyword strategy can make the difference in providing relevant ad copy to the user ensuring you are not serving fashion ads to users looking to repair their vehicles and vice versa.

Ad Copy to Landing Page

Just like the relationship of search term to ad copy, if you are driving users to a landing page where the message just doesn’t match the search or the ad, you are losing the attention of the user.

Using our previous example, if your ad is for a BMW serpentine belt, the best landing page should be for BMW serpentine belt. Forcing a user to navigate through menus of floor mats, vanity plates, accessories and fuel filters to get to the one product they were looking for can be a barrier to success.

3. Getting Attention

You got the click – the ad copy and the search term were in line driving the user to your landing page. You have the stats from your previous campaigns that show the increase in traffic to your site, but the campaign just never became fruitful? Then we need to look deeper.

Landing Page to Conversion

Truth is, not every click will lead to a sale. What can be done is to evaluate the attention ratio of your landing page and optimize the user experience to drive conversions.

Your digital agency can guide you through the process of careful planning, custom landing pages, tailored content and limiting both the number of calls to action and the exit points that do not lead to conversion on your landing pages where possible, and suggest appropriate site re-design suggestions to improve overall conversion.

4. Tracking the Experience

When you’ve got great ads and are driving to relevant content, there are still various factors that can be holding back a good paid search campaign and several can be outside the campaign itself. Tracking user experience throughout the process and understanding competition and competitive metrics are part of getting the information needed for success. Understanding and taking action upon those items make the difference.

There is a difference between agencies that will build and run paid ads, and an agency that will work with you to analyze the data and address core issues of the paid campaign that are affecting overall cost, quality and result. With a results focused approach, attention to detail and data, the right tools and an experienced team knocking down the barriers, there is no reason your next paid campaign should be anything less than a profitable success.

By: Jeff