Top 6 Google Ads Conversion Mistakes to Avoid in 2022
Discover how to fix them and skyrocket your profits
Introduction
Google Ads have the power of driving more sales to your business. However, it becomes an expensive marketing effort if the ad campaigns are not well-managed.
As a marketer, wasted spend on underperforming campaigns is a sure thing you do not want. Instead, you aim for more clicks, more leads, and more conversions. Isn’t it?
But if you are not getting the desired results despite using high-value keywords, you need to identify the factors hindering your ad performance. Experts say that the reduced quality score could be one of the key reasons. The Quality Score of your ads is an overall rating of user experience with your ads and landing pages. It influences the position, frequency, and cost per click (CPC) of your ad.
Quality Score is calculated based on various parameters such as:
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Ad Text Relevance
- Overall Adwords Account Performance
- Keywords Relevance to the Ad Group
- Post-click Landing Page Quality & Relevance
Ads with good Quality Scores will have higher ad rankings and lower cost per conversion.
However, a poor quality score might not be the only reason for a higher cost per conversion.
Below are the six common mistakes that hamper Google ads conversion rates. All of these may not be in direct correlation with the Quality Score.
Ensure avoiding these to improve google ads conversion.
1. Remove Duplicate Keywords to Increase Conversion Rate
Keywords are an essential element that determines the success rate of your PPC campaigns. Hence, it is necessary to choose, update, and monitor the right keywords.
Duplicate Keywords are repeating search terms that share a wide variety of matching phrases belonging to different ad groups.
For instance, bidding on the exact match keyword [Women’s Gold Bracelet] twice in one search campaign. Eventually, your ads will compete against one another.
This mistake seems harmless in the beginning, but it can impact your overall ad performance resulting in:
- Reduced auction performance
- Increased wasted spend
- Adverse effect to quality score
Thus, bidding on the same keyword multiple times is not a good idea.
To avoid keyword duplication, segment your campaigns by geographical location. It allows you to use the same keyword with different targeting locations.
For instance, Women’s Gold Bracelet in ‘Mumbai’ or ‘Delhi’.
You have to adjust the location targeting at the campaign level.
The second way to avoid duplication is by adjusting the match type. You can bid on exact, phrase, broad, or modified broad match. Following this approach, you can track different metrics such as CPC, CTR, or CPM on each match type.
2. Overlooking Keyword Sculpting Strategy
Any PPC expert will not miss out on using the ‘Keyword sculpting’ strategy.
Here, the target is to match the bidded keywords to the closest phrases or queries using negative keywords.
Note: Normal negative keywords optimisation and negative keyword sculpting are two different things. For instance, if you run an ad campaign to sell ‘Levi’s jeans’ but get more clicks for the search term ‘Lee jeans’. Certainly, this will increase waste spend as you do not offer what users are looking for.
To avoid this, add ‘Lee’ to the negative keywords list. Now, the ads will not be triggered anymore for Lee related searches.
On the contrary, if you want to sell the latest collection of Levi’s jeans and have set up two campaigns. One with product keywords ‘Slim Straight Fit Jeans’ and the other with the brand keywords ‘Levi’s Jeans’. Here, if you notice in your product campaign that it has been also triggered on ‘Levi’s jeans’ on several occasions then you can use negative keyword sculpting.
You will have to simply add “Levis” as a negative keyword in the product campaign.
To summarise, in negative keyword sculpting you will add the negative keyword to be triggered but in a different ad campaign. Negative keyword optimization is a strategy where you will filter out the keywords that you do not want to trigger.
Negative keyword sculpting will control the traffic flow resulting in:
- Increased ROAS
- More relevant traffic
- Reduced CPC
- Increased CTR
Are you using ‘Keyword Sculpting’ for your ads?
If not already, start implementing it today and see your conversion rates improving.
Also read,Why do Facebook & Google ad campaigns underperform & how to fix them?
3. Not Choosing Right Keyword Matches to Increase Conversion Rate
You might be aware of the different keywords categories. These include:
- Broad Match
- Exact Match
- Phrase Match
One of the other common mistakes that marketers make is only using ‘Broad Match’ types.
Broad Match: The majority of the marketers consider this as a default keyword type for running the campaigns.
The broad type offers a wide reach. The search queries will match synonyms, misspellings, related keywords, keywords out of order, and anything else relevant.
You might get high CTRs, but it is essential to monitor irrelevant clicks.
Exact Match: Exact keywords are in square brackets. These have low reach but are highly relevant.
Here, the ads that will match the exact search term will get triggered.
Phrase Match: These keywords are in quotations. Here, your ad will appear when users search for the keyword in the exact order.
Close variants containing acronyms, misspellings, accents, abbreviations, singular and plural words may also be triggered.
Let’s understand this in a simple approach presented below:
For the best results, use the correct match type based on your objective. Besides, keep track of your ad performance regularly.
Tip: It is always good to start running your ads with a combination of match types. Further, you can delete keywords that are bringing in irrelevant traffic and the cost is high by going through the search term report.
4. Not Measuring Right Google Ads Metrics
Any PPC expert will not miss out on using the ‘Keyword sculpting’ strategy.
Here, the target is to match the bidded keywords to the closest phrases or queries using negative keywords.
However, you must measure the key metrics such as Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), Cost Per Click (CPC) for search campaign, Cost Per Impression (CPM) for display campaign, Cost Per Conversion, Click-through Rate (CTR), Cost Per Acquisition( CPA), and Conversion Rate.
Besides, you should also know Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).
Tip: Install Google analytics correctly and use a performance report.
5. Not Using the ‘Campaign Drafts & Experiments’ Feature
Google has this ‘Drafts & Experiments’ feature to test most of the ad elements such as landing pages or bidding mechanisms.
Preparing multiple campaign changes with drafts is easier. Besides, experiments will help you better understand the impact of the changes you are going to make to the campaign.
Image: Source
However, you must measure the key metrics such as Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), Cost Per Click (CPC) for search campaign, Cost Per Impression (CPM) for display campaign, Cost Per Conversion, Click-through Rate (CTR), Cost Per Acquisition( CPA), and Conversion Rate.
Besides, you should also know Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).
Tip: Install Google analytics correctly and use a performance report.
Benefits:
- Control Ad Budget & Duration
- Saves time to alter changes such as extensions
- Identify better converting campaigns
6. Not Using Ad extensions
If you are not using Ad Extensions then you are missing a lot of clicks. Undoubtedly, extensions work great for enhancing your ad performance.
Through ad extensions, users can take quick actions without engaging with your post-click landing pages.
Practically, your ad will look bigger if you use different ad extensions. Hence, higher chances to get noticed and drive clicks. There are many types of extensions such as sitelink extensions, callout extensions, call extensions, location extensions, structured snippet extensions, price extensions and more.
Below is the example to have a clear idea:
Image:Source
Also Read,
How Google Display Network Ads Can Help Your Business?
Best Practices for Google Shopping Ads During Festive Season
Conclusion
Above are the possible mistakes that might hurt your conversion rate. Ensure to rectify the same for increasing ROAS.
Besides, Mediaqart’s automated performance advertising and campaign optimization tool can enhance your Google campaigns performance effortlessly. This will result in:
- More Relevant Clicks
- Lower Cost Per Conversion
- Higher ROAS
Talk to our experts today!
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