Let’s talk about the three biggest mistakes one can make on Google AdWords, costing companies thousands of dollars without generating desired leads.

Make sure you do not start your AdWords campaigns without reading this!

Bidding on the wrong keywords

If you are bidding on the wrong keywords, no matter how good your website is, and no matter how good your ad copy is you are not going to be successful because you are bidding on keywords that might look like perfect fits for your business but actually are not!

If you are bidding on a general keyword that people who are researching initially to know about a product look for on Google, then you are targeting people who will most probably not buy from you.

They are just looking for information, and targeting such people will bring in no immediate RoI because your ad-spend will not result in a sale.

For example, if you are selling women’s apparel, choosing generic keywords such as ‘women’s apparel’ or ‘jeans’ will not be effective because these are too generic, and serious buyers are not typing these keywords. Instead, they are searching for specific keywords such as ‘blue pencil-fit jeans for women’.

People who are ready to buy, search with a specific intent in mind, therefore successful digital marketers use intent-based keywords or key-phrases to target serious buyers. This, in turn brings in immediate RoI for the money they spend on Google AdWords.

Not Adding Negative Keywords

Not adding negative keywords means that you are spending money on keywords that are not related to your business at all, but you are still paying for them.

Negative keywords mean; when somebody searches for a product, you don’t want to show your ad for that search.

Let’s take the same example of women’s apparel. If you are in this business, and you want to advertise your product ‘blue pencil-fit jeans for women’, but you don’t sell ‘blue pencil-fit gunshot jeans for women’ you don’t want to show your ads to people who are searching for the second key-phrase.

This means, you add ‘blue pencil-fit jeans for women’ as your preferred keyword and ‘blue pencil-fit gunshot jeans for women’ as a negative keyword. This way, you will filter your ad viewers to a great extent, and stop spending on ads being shown to people who are searching for products you don’t sell.

It’s important that you make a long list of negative keywords and add them to your Google AdWords account before you start advertising.

Not Reviewing AdWords

This is a mistake most AdWords beginners make. It’s important that you review your AdWords once in every few months.

Remember that you are paying for data, and it’s important to review periodically if you are ad budget is being spent rightly and whether your data is telling you it’s time to figure out what is working and what is not.

This way, you can refine the list of your keywords, and take a relook at how much to bid for which keyword.