The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers

I’ve been guilty of the following more times than I can count.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

Bad Habit #1

Ignoring The Fundamentals

The mathematics are pretty simple: when you put in $ 1 in advertising, it should give it back to you many times over. The number of times you get it back defines your ability to compete in search ad auctions and keep competing without concern of the cost.

There are businesses that can afford to pay hundreds of dollars for a single click, it is because the value that those clicks generate far exceeds the amount they pay for them.

Before ever advertising on Google, one should figure out the value they can get from a click, how much they can afford to pay for each and never exceed that number.

Figure out if your business has strong enough foundations to generate value from every paid visitor to your website.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

Bad Habit #2

Not Tracking Enough Nor Well Enough

I can’t count the number of times I was handed a Google Ads account in which conversion tracking wasn’t set up at all, or set up incorrectly. This is an absolute requirement.

It is impossible to know how much dollars your advertising is bringing you back if you’re not tracking it.

Furthermore, simply tracking conversions isn’t enough. You need to put a value to each conversion in order to know exactly what is profitable and what isn’t. Which keyword brings the most money, and which steals it. Which location drives the best customers, and which is defrauding you.

The right decisions are made from the right information. When the data isn’t available, you’re just making guesses, and I’ve seen more than one smart business owner manage his account blindly.

Bad Habit #3

Not Having Clear Objectives

Once everything is tracked correctly, how do you define success?

With clear goals.

How do you define the success of your Google Ads managers or agencies?

With clear goals.

What’s a clear goal?

“I want 10% more conversions this month.”

“I need to lower my acquisition costs to $ 50 or below from our current $ 86 within the next 3 months.

Those are clear objectives, and you’re either good enough to reach them or you’re not. In every case, having clear objectives defines the tools we use in Google to reach them as they are many. The skills required to reach specific objectives will vary.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

Bad Habit #3

Not Testing Enough

When I used to be a consultant, the first thing I did with a new client was to ignore their Google Ads account entirely and test new variations of their website instead.

Often times I could double their conversion rate which would, in turn, cut their acquisition costs in half. This made them very happy before I even touched their ads.

The simple mindset of constant experimentation is one that sets advertisers apart.

If you currently spending money sending people to a web page that is not being tested against another, you have already set yourself up for failure. If you have ad groups in which ads aren’t being tested against one another, you’ve set yourself up for disappointment.

Reaching the goals you’ve defined requires a fair amount of testing in order to reach them. Thomas Edison tested over a thousand different ways to build a light bulb. Testing a hundred ads to find a diamond shouldn’t be perceived as too much of a task, it should be natural.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

Bad Habit #4

Ignoring Data We Don’t Like

Brilliant ideas are only brilliant if they get results. It’s very easy to fall in love with a strategy we’ve uncovered and try to make it work even when the data says it’s not working.

I have a bad habit of falling in love with my landing page designs and be convinced they’re a good idea even while the data is telling me otherwise. Feelings have no place in advertising.

You may believe that autoplay videos are bad user experience. Yet, sometimes, they increase conversion rates. You may believe that exit intent pop-ups are a bad idea. Yet, sometimes, they’re the highest converting tools you may use. Using your own feelings instead of data may prevent you from discovering that little that makes the big difference.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

Bad Habit #5

Using Anecdotes As Universal Truth

Anecdotes are not data. If you did something in the past or someone told you about a great way of boosting performance, you need to test it for yourself before believing that it works. Trust, but verify and all that.

A friend of mine used to be convinced that day-parting (determining what time of day or which day of the week ads showed) was the key to improving all aspects of an account. She had read one story about someone that made major improvements to the types of clients that they were getting by scheduling their ads to show at a certain time of day and so she thought she’d found the holy grail.

What worked for one business will not necessarily work for another. What will work for your business will not necessarily work for the next.

I’ve oftentimes made the mistake of taking a successful strategy I discovered for one client and applying it to another client’s business, thinking the result would be the same. It usually isn’t.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

Bad Habit #6

Focusing On The Wrong Things

Customers often ask me why they keep making changes to their landing pages, but Google keeps giving them a poor quality score. I tell them it’s most likely related to their low ad click-through rates. They ask me how so? I say I’m not sure, I just know that it works. At first, my advice goes ignored until they come back in frustration ready to try something different.

I had a friend who’s website conversion rate was below 0.5%, despite me insisting that this should be improved in priority, he instead wanted to make sure his ads were always #1 on the search results, above his competitors. For some reason, that was most important to him.

Ignoring data we don’t like naturally leads to focusing on the wrong things.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

Bad Habit #7

Trusting In Google Too Much

Most of Google’s advice will make them more money than it will make you. It’s not uncommon to receive phone calls from official Google Ads managers offering to help for free. Beware. It is not uncommon for Google to push advertisers to try new options. Beware.

After more than 10 years in search advertising, I ignore pretty much everything that Google says. Testing is a better guiding principle.

If you’re dealing with a large number of ads or campaigns, you probably think automation is more valuable than your left kidney. Just remember that computers can be dumb. Artificial intelligence still is artificial.

If you tell a computer to insert keywords into an ad in certain places, it will. This is how you end up looking for love on amazon or selling your soul on eBay.

The 7 Bad Habits of Highly Ineffective Google Ads Advertisers | DeviceDaily.com

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Author: Christian Nkurunziza

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