A holistic digital marketing strategy can be a game-changer for a business. SEO can help brands achieve optimum visibility in the search results, but it may not be enough to cut through the crowd. Likewise, social media marketing may also fall short of the lead, traffic, and revenue targets.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can help fuel the rankings for your homepage, key website pages, and landing pages. The best thing about these paid ads is that they can fetch traffic instantly, making them a powerful addition to your digital marketing plan.

Let’s highlight some numbers first. Statistics show that search ad spending will likely reach $191 billion by 2024. Nearly 65% of small and mid-sized companies have PPC campaigns in place. Another impressive fact about paid ads is that they offer a 200% ROI rate, with a return of $2 for every $1 spent.

You will surely not want to miss joining the bandwagon, but jumping in without testing the waters is a mistake. PPC costs money, and your campaign may not yield the desired results if you approach it the wrong way.

Here are the potential blunders that may burn the PPC budget of small businesses:

Blunder #1: Not Creating a Realistic Budget

Perhaps the easiest way to go wrong with a PPC budget is by not creating a realistic one in the first place. Money talks when it comes to the success of these campaigns. You must crunch numbers like close rates, conversion targets, and cost per lead to arrive at an actionable figure. At the same time, you also need to consider qualitative factors such as geography, lead quality, and buying cycle.

Only experts can calculate a realistic budget considering these factors. Small businesses can outsource expertise from a PPC–Pay-Per-Click agency to save money on hiring an in-house team. With professionals doing all the heavy lifting, you can rest assured about the accuracy of the calculations while deciding on an ideal PPC budget for your business.

Bullseye Digital PPC and SEO Agency emphasizes the significance of sticking with your budget until you can comfortably increase your marketing investment. You may easily overspend your budget without the right level of commitment.

Blunder #2: Not Prioritizing Relevance

Relevance is about ensuring that your ads connect with your landing page and target keywords. Not paying attention to this factor can lower the ad’s Quality Score and the click-through rate (CTR). Both these factors determine how much you pay for each click. They also influence the return on investment (ROI) of your campaign.

Despite the importance of ad relevance, marketers often group different keywords into a single Ad Group. Further, they completely miss out on buyer intent when writing the ad copies and landing page content. These mistakes can diminish the ad’s performance and burn the PPC budget sooner rather than later.

Blunder #3: Not Using Negative Keywords

When it comes to keyword use, not using negative keywords can make your campaign less effective. Broad keywords get you nowhere, and using them for your PPC ads can cost you a fortune. Since they are highly competitive, you may never achieve the expected results. Conversely, using negative keywords can boost your PPC ad strategy.

With these terms and phrases, you can prevent your ads from showing up on specific search queries and results. For example, for “free” and “cheap” negative keywords, your ads will not be visible when users type queries with mentioned words. As a result, you can save your budget with these users not clicking your ads.

Blunder #4: Overlooking Mobile Users

According to statistics, mobile advertising spending in the US will reach $146 billion in 2023. Additionally, 53% of PPC ad clicks originate from mobile devices. Overlooking this advertising channel can affect your PPC budget adversely. You may never reach the most crucial audience segment despite spending on the campaign.

To avoid this blunder, you must design mobile-friendly ads and landing pages. Responsive formats provide a seamless user experience across all devices. Also, remember to dig deep and research your target audience to understand how many of them use mobile devices for searches. Even if it’s a small fraction, you must still optimize for mobile.

Blunder #5: Experimenting Too Much

Experts recommend testing new ads every month as an ongoing effort to improve your CTR. Elements such as copy, messaging, call to action, and design can make or break a PPC campaign. You can swap the weak points with better options to fine-tune your ads and get a better ROI over time. Testing small variations helps you monitor the CTR differences with each tweak.

While you should test and iterate regularly, experimenting too much is a mistake to avoid. Experimenting and split-testing too often can cost a lot of money. Moreover, you may do more harm than good if you are not careful.

Summing Up

PPC can be a power booster for small business digital marketing campaigns, but it also entails a significant investment. Avoiding these blunders can help you maximize your investment and get sustainable results from your campaign. Most importantly, you shouldn’t take a set-and-forget approach to PPC campaigns.

Without continuous monitoring and optimization, you may overspend on ineffective keywords and miss out on opportunities for improvement. Let an expert create a PPC strategy, track and monitor it, and fine-tune it to avoid burning your budget.