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2 min read

3 steps to avoid paid search traps

3 steps to avoid paid search traps

As professionals, we often aim for perfection in all we do, but we are easily reminded of our human shortcomings when we trip – falling flat on the floor in front of everyone. You can laugh off the embarrassment and move on, but when you work in paid search, tripping up can have even more devastating consequences.

Avoid tripping over these paid search traps in your digital advertising efforts with "constant vigilance!" as Mad-Eye Moody barked. You're welcome to apply this mindset to pay-per-click (PPC) and Defense Against the Dark Arts alike. 

man running pay per click inbound marketing campaign

Eyes on the prize

It's easy to think that a PPC campaign needs no work after it's been set up. But that's not the case at all. Once your campaign has kicked off, it's a matter of measuring the results, monitoring the successes and failures, and adjusting accordingly. At times, it can seem as if the campaign needs to be tweaked daily, but that only ensures that you're working with the best keywords and strategies. PPC advertising is never set in stone – it fluctuates with the audience, and keeping a close eye on what's going on with your AdWords campaign is a tried and tested way to make sure you stay on trend and ahead of the curve.

1) Adapt your approach based on your target audience

Consider the difference in how you approach your boss or colleague about an issue, now imagine approaching PPC campaigns this way – adapting based on your audience and objective. After executing a few successful campaigns, be wary of assuming you understand everything. This is a surefire way to stunt a future campaign's success.

In PPC advertising, and most other marketing approaches, research is key to understanding just how you should market your product, to who, when and where. The data provides the answers to all the questions you might have about constructing your campaign. And because data sets change depending on their parameters, taking the structures of one campaign and overlaying it on another is doing yourself a disservice.

2) Find campaign-specific keywords

Keywords are the linchpin of PPC advertising. As Trond Lyngbo writes for Search Engine Land, "Your aim shouldn't be to target everything. Rather, you should aim to discover where the richest vein of gold lies, and then focus your efforts on extracting it."

In AdWords, keywords can often feel like a popularity contest. The trick to effectively identifying the keywords that will mean the most to you is to know your products, your audience, and how best to entice them. After that, building keyword lists that work is a simple matter of time and patience. And don't forget your negative keywords either!

3) Develop a thorough campaign check-list

Paid search mistakes can sneak up on you. There are dozens of them: paying for negative keywords; bidding on popular keywords; not optimizing your ad content; directing users to one landing page only; not tracking results; and ignoring seasonal copy.

These can catch up to you and wreak havoc long before you notice. The best way to deal with them is to develop a thorough checklist that is implemented at the beginning of every campaign and regularly consulted. It's hard for anything to slip by when you're checking in on a daily basis.

Image of person using laptop. Pay-per click advertising is a great technique to reach your target audience with inbound marketing.

PPC advertising is one of the many useful ways you can generate traffic for your website, and thus revenue that can help expand your brand. Seasoned professionals with PPC experience can help optimize your campaign efforts. If you'd like to find out more, download our eBook: The Ultimate Guide to Hiring an Inbound Marketing Agency

Hiring an Inbound Marketing Agency eGuide 

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