As a new member of the Gliffen team, I’ve been learning how to use Google Adwords to set up a marketing campaign for some of our clients. I  found an interesting read on common mistakes made when setting them up and wanted to share it. Kissmetrics Blog suggests that a poorly managed campaign on Adwords can result in a loss of revenue and thus I want to do it right!

Mistake one is not grouping keywords according to the specific ad you are running. When creating a marketing campaign, the keywords need to be separated according to the ad that they run with. The closer the ad to the keyword, the more likely the person is going to click on the ad.

Another common mistake is not using the right keyword match. There is a difference between a broad match, a phrase match, and an exact match. To create an exact match for your keyword, you surround the keyword in square brackets. Broad and phrase matches are not as specific and might produce people not interested in your product. However, exact matches can limit the amount of people who are shown your ad. The author suggests using exact matches and expanding as needed.

The author suggests using negative keywords to weed out people not interested in your site. Furthermore, you should not stick with an ad if your numbers are telling you that it is not working. You should also bid on your own brand to keep your competitors from snagging your potential clients, especially if you have an unique brand.

The author talks about the lifetime value of customers. Over the short term, the cost per ad can be expensive, but if you have a product that will be reordered, you can venture to spend more on the ad.  They have a different blog to help you determine the lifetime value of your business.

Other common mistakes include not testing the optimum position of your ad by raising or lower your bid, not researching who you are competing against, expecting too much from Adwords, and finally, not directing your clients to the appropriate page on your website (especially for ecommerce companies).

Overall, the author suggests that you should continue to review your marketing campaign to optimize it. Feel free to redo ads if the numbers are showing they are not working. Minor changes can help! Be sure to organize keywords appropriately into ad groups. Consider using exact keyword matches to minimize the amount of random clicking on your site.

In short, make sure you are using your marketing campaign efficiently and review it frequently to prevent going out of business.