Let’s be honest: promoting your products or services is not a cheap endeavour, no matter what type of strategy you have in place. But business owners know they have to spend money to make money, and spending on pay per click campaigns, for instance, will ultimately prove worthwhile when the leads start coming in.
But there’s a big difference between investing more to get better results, and paying a lot for something that does nothing for your business. And if your ad spend has gone through the roof, but the other metrics still haven’t budged, such as the conversion rate, then you may be making some errors in your Google Ads campaign that’s costing you.
Here are some common mistakes and how to fix them to lower your PPC campaign spending.
Is Google That Expensive?
It’s been a misconception of a lot of people, that Google Adwords is the most expensive of all online advertising efforts out there. Google ads could be expensive, but it doesn’t mean they should.
At its core, the system is simply a pay per click advertising platform that allows businesses to promote their ads on the Google Search Network, or Google Display Network. Google doesn’t really have a fixed price for delivering ads – the cost is determined in the auction process.
All ads that could be shown on a website or result page (meaning they match the user, the keywords, and other criteria), first go through an auction process. This process will ultimately decide which ads get delivered and in what order.
Here, Google takes into account your bid, meaning how much you say you are willing to pay per each click should the ad be delivered. Bidding higher doesn’t guarantee your ads get shown, however, because Google will also look at the quality score, but your bid does determine how much you pay for the click or other action you choose.
The reality is that some keywords just cost more because they are a part of more competitive industries. For instance, for the advertising industry, the keyword “top 10 help desk software” costs a whopping $95 per click, and businesses can either match that or think of new keywords that cost much less.
But an expensive industry is something you can prepare for. There can be other issues that are driving up your cost per clicks, and likely also affecting ad performance.
Why Is Your Ad Spend So High?
If you think you’re spending too much for your Google Ads campaign, consider these probable explanations:
1. You Don’t Target Based on Location
Geo-targeting is a great way to control how much you end up spending for your Google Ads campaign. In a nutshell, you can tell Google to show your ads only to users located in a specific area, either country, city, or even a radius.
Your ads may not be of interest to all Google users, and the sheer location could be the cause. Except, if your ad shows to a user outside of your location, they may end up clicking it to see your landing pages. Because they are outside your area, these users don’t end up doing anything, so you paid for a click that was never going to convert.
Consider restricting the location where your ads show up to avoid users you cannot interact with.
2. Your Timing Is Wrong
People look up things on search networks any time they feel the need to, but your ads may not need to be active 24/7. You should check your time report tab to see if you’re paying for ads to be delivered at times where your target audience may be more on the look for products or services, just not in the buying mood.
For instance, if you run an ad with a call extension because you want people to call your office, you should only run it when you have office hours, and avoid the weekend if you’re closed. In your report tab, you can see which are the dates and times that don’t bring as many results, but still drive up your cost, and change your timing to optimise spending.
3. You Don’t Use Negative Keywords
Negative keywords tell Google when not to run your ads, even if the user may have a query that matches your criteria and uses keywords similar to what you’re bidding on.
You want the people clicking on your ads to be the ones most likely to make a purchase or take action when they reach your landing pages. Sometimes, even if you set your targeting right, there can still be certain nuances in a user search that make Google deliver an ad to the wrong people. Negative keywords are a way to tighten your targeting, and it’s important to have them throughout all your ad groups.
4. You’re Using the Wrong Match Type
Most first-time advertisers tend to choose the broad match and let Google deliver their ads to any search query similar to their keywords. For a small business with less money to spend, the broad match may prove too expensive.
You should review your keywords and see how they are performing. If some are getting good results, then you can leave them on a broad match, since it’s unlikely that’s the reason you’re paying more for paid search results. If the results aren’t that good, you either need to change the match type or even change the keywords.
Back to You
Do you need help perfecting your online marketing efforts? Then Australian Internet Advertising is happy to be of assistance. Book your free 30-minute strategy session with our Google Ads Experts now to get started on improving your Google Ads campaign efforts.
