Search Engined Marketing 101- My Misconceptions Revealed Part V
We have come to the last post in our series on pay-per-click advertising, that is, the use (or misuse) of Google AdWords. So far we have discussed the numerous misconceptions that can result in attracting unqualified prospects, ineffective advertising and blowing your budget.
Today, we examine one last misconception related to the use of your ad space and a final mistaken belief for the whole existence of pay-per-click.
Misconception#4: A company should include their name in the ad so people know who they are.
A pay-per-click ad allows for 25 characters in the headline and two lines consisting of 35 characters each. That’s not a lot of room to get your message across to qualified prospects while using your budget wisely. People often waste their characters repeating information.
For example, an ad will read “Great discounts at shoes.com” and the last line is the URL www.shoes.com
What I’ve learned: Every word counts in the pay-per-click ad space. Don’t waste your characters.
Google allows you to insert your website at the bottom of each ad, yet people still find it necessary to include it in the body. With such limited space, the body of a ppc ad must be used as efficiently as possible. Convey your message well and interest in your website will follow.
That’s right. I said convey your message to generate interest in your website. This brings us to my final misconception.
Misconception #5: Pay-per-click ads should be designed to sell the product.
People often fall into the belief that they need to sell their product with their ppc ads similar to the way they would with traditional advertising.
What I’ve learned: Sell your website and the product sales will follow.
Pay-per-click ads offer such limited space to convey a message which makes it very difficult to truly sell your product or service. Use your ad to create interest in your website and then set your website up to convert the people who come in via your ppc ads.
Overall, generating success with ppc advertising campaigns is a process that is built one component at a time. A successful campaign must be built on a deep understanding of your customer, well-researched keywords, a well-managed budget and thoughtful messaging. I hope that you walk away having learned something new about this subject. After all, I got to learn these lessons the hard way. Here’s hoping you don’t have to stumble through these same mistakes.
My next series will tackle usability practices and the common misconceptions about how people use websites. You’ll be surprised how common assumptions result in big losses of consumer traffic.
