The beauty of any sort of advertising is that anyone can have a go. And, believe me, it seems that anyone is nowadays. No matter how cost effective Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) is, it is still a cost and can take up a good old chunk of your day, so you don’t want to get it wrong. Here’s the common mistakes and what do to avoid them.

1. Using one type of match type - Many people will stick all their keywords to broad match when they first start their campaign. This is a big mistake. Google will display your adverts against your keyword as well as any keyword it thinks is relevant meaning you’ll be displayed against a lot of irrelevant searches and will end up paying for clicks that won’t convert into business. The best option is to use broad, exact and phrase matching together and spend less on broad match as it is the most likely to bring irrelevant clicks.

2. Not having keywords in your ad copy - Google looks at how your advert copy matches the keyword you are placing it against. To better your ad position, you should have the keyword in your ad title, body and display URL. And if possible it should feature on the ad landing page. Emotive ads can be useful but keyword rich ads are always going to perform better on Google.

3. Having one campaign – Structuring your Google campaigns properly will eventually reduce your cost per click and will substantially reduce your spend. Our rule is to have separate campaigns for different match types: a campaign for exact keywords, a campaign for phrase match keywords and a campaign for broad match keywords. Google assesses each campaign separately and so if one is weak and has a low quality score it will not negatively affect the other campaigns. Structuring properly will also allow you to see what works and what ads and keywords should be removed.

4. Not checking your settings – When you set up your account Google will automatically display your ads across its entire network which means Google Search and millions of other websites. This is fine if you have a large AdWords budget but smaller firms will probably only want to be displayed on Google search to start off with. This can be changed through AdWords settings as well as many other factors like location, bidding options, and budgets. Check each one very carefully as all can affect your click through rate and ultimately the success of each of your campaigns.

5. Not using negative keywords - When using broad match and phrase match it is crucial to use negative keywords. Negative keywords are words that you don’t want your ad to be displayed against. By running a search query performance report you can find exactly what searchers that clicked on your ads searched for. If the searches aren’t relevant to your business add them to your negative keyword list. Google will reward good use of negative keywords by giving you a higher quality score which will ultimately reduce your CPC.

6. Not bidding on competitors’ brand names - Many believe that it is morally wrong to place ads against a competitor’s brand name. The simple truth is that is completely in the Google rules and just because you don’t do it doesn’t mean all your competitors aren’t. Because competitor brand names are so specific and heavily related to your own business the conversion rate is often very high. Clever adverts showing your strengths can really benefit your firm.

7. Having the same landing page for all your ads - It may seem like your home page is the best place for all your ads to be pointed at but this is not always the case. Ideally, your ad copy should match closely with the landing page the user comes to after clicking the ad. You should put thought into what the searcher is looking for after clicking the ad and make sure that information is on your landing page. This will only increase your ROI.

There are many many more. No one said it would be easy…