Tweet

#1 Pay Per Click Mistake On Google And How To Fix It.

Guest post by: Peter Grundner

Article Overview: Pay per click advertising can be powerful when done right. It can cost you a fortune if done wrong. This article looks at the #1 mistake when doing Google PPC.

#1 Pay Per Click Mistake On Google And How To Fix It.

The #1 Google PPC mistake that costs online advertisers a fortune 95% of advertisers make this mistake. As discusses in my other article titled "How Google evaluates Your Adwords Campaign", Google works very differently from other search engines concerning pay per click campaigns.

So what's the #1 mistake that costs the average advertiser thousands? The answer is encompassed in two simple words - "Content Network". Google will probably never tell you this because they make too much money from unknowing novices spending more than needed, being unaware of their "Content Network".

When setting up any pay per click campaign in Google (Google Adwords), there are three main areas in which you can display your ad:

Google Search

Google Search Network

Google Content Network

Google Search and Google Search Network normally deliver relevant searchers. By default however, Google already has their Content Network checked for you on their ad set-up page. But how closely matched is the Content Network to your Adwords? Usually it's not well matched at all. You will get lots of clicks from responders to these extended relevance sites, however, the quality of this traffic is horrific at best. Not only is the traffic terrible, your click rate will be much lower when including the Content Network. What's worse, if you remember my last article, one of the key factors that affects your ad position is your "average click rate", so this can be a double negative whammy. By just de-selecting "Content Network" (in the "Edit Campaign Settings") you can significantly improve the click rate of your campaign which will then also give you better ad positioning.

Remember, the better your click rate, the higher your ad will be positioned. If your click rate drops below about 0.5%, your ad will rarely display at all. On the other hand, if you have a click rate of 2%, 3% or even higher, your ad will be positioned much higher than if evaluated by price alone.

One more negative alert - click fraud within the "content network" is much greater.

Another great way to improve your ROI and lower your cost per click is to examine where your traffic is coming from within the Google Search Network. If you determine that a lot of traffic is coming from partner sites like ask.com for example, you could eliminate the "Search Network" targeting as well and save some additional money. Advertising on these partner sites directly will save you about 50% for each click. The downside, of course, is that it will take more time to manage the extra campaigns. It

also depends on your overall budget. The more you invest, the more it is worth looking at the option of eliminating the Search Network as well and setting up separate campaigns on sites like ask.com.

The bottom-line is that, just by de-selecting "Content Network" you will dramatically improve your results and save huge amounts of money.

Look for our next article, where we'll look at the 2nd biggest mistake when doing Google Adwords. See the Author Box for a link to other articles about marketing.

Related Articles
  Google AdWords - 4 Factors That Determine How Much Money You Make (Or Lose)
  Avoid Sabotaging Your Own AdWords Campaign With The Google Ad Preview Tool!
  How Emotional Words Play a DeadSerious Role in Google Ads Blog Post Titles
  Google Adsense and How It Works
  How To Avoid Google Adsense Click Fraud In Any Online Business
  Internet Based Business - Pay Per Click Advertising
  Article #39 How To: Online Advertising & Pay Per Click
  Google Instant Preview Can Save You Time
  Google Profiles – Create Yours and Be Found On Google
  Keyword Research Techniques (How To Find Buyers Not Searchers) "Jiri Majkus"
  Instant Gratification
  search engine marketing means back linking
  Google Slapped or Slapped by the Hand of God-Which is the Most Effective?
  Pros and Cons Promoting Your Home Internet Business Using Google Adwords
  What Do You Want To Know About Google AdSense?
  Do You Know How Google AdWords Can Grow Your Business?
  Mis-Spellings: The Keywords That Prospects Search But Few Advertisers Bid On
  Article #38 Simple How To Web Analytics
  Google Adsense Is Still a Good Way to Make Money on the Internet
  Writing Description Tags to Attract Visitors

Article Tags: Pay per click, pay per click mistakes, PPC mistakes



Related Forum Posts
Re: Google Chrome is not faster than firefox 3.1 - Just a quick update here for Beat, To copy your bookmarks (and history, passwords etc if you want) from IE to Firefox: Open Firefox, Click File (top left of browser) Click Import Select IE Click Next follow the instructions provided, hope this helps, Carol
How To Add A Paypal Button To Blogger - Hi Brendan, The blog is looking good. If possible, try to post something on it every day. You can vary the length of the posts, just something short when time is tight. There are two parts to getting the Paypal code on your site. First is getting the Paypal code! Second is getting it on your site! HOW TO GET YOUR PAYPAL CODE 1. Log in to Paypal 2. Click Merchant Services 3. Find the Key Features box on the right and click Donations. 4. Donations Page 1: Fill in the fields with your Donation name and a ref no. (the latter is not necessary). Choose a "Donate" button - I suggest the one with the pic of the credit cards beneath. It is up to you whether you "encrypt" or not. As you do not have a website there is no need to go to "Donations Page 2" for "more options", so you can just click "Create Button Now". 5. On the new page, click "Select All" for the "HTML Code for Websites" box and copy and paste the code to your blog. HOW TO GET YOUR PAYPAL DONATION BUTTON ON BLOGGER 1. Go to your Blogger.com dashboard. 2. Click the "Layout" tab. 3. Click "Add A Gadget" 4. Scroll down to HTML/JavaScript and click the + sign. 5. A small screen will pop up and you can PASTE your Paypal Donation Button code there and add a title if you wish. 6. Click SAVE on the small screen. 7. Now, back on the main screen you can preview and then SAVE. If all has gone well, you should now have a Paypal Donation button on your blog. === Best wishes, David H
How Do You Check Google Ranking? - Now that Google is so responsive to your own search history, how can you get a good idea of what your Google ranking really is for your web pages? Whenever I check my ranking for specific keywords on Google, my web pages appear on the front page, or suspiciously high. My way around this is to check Google ranking via other computer Internet links, i.e., whenever I'm working in a library I will use a library computer to check. I check Google ranking before logging into my Gmail or other Google-related accounts. Does anybody else have any other tips for discovering your Google ranking? Nowadays, I check Bing.com for my webpage ranking as it gives a much less favourable (and so, I guess, "truer") ranking for my webpages than Google does...
Re: Cool Video - How Google Updates it's Search Algorithm - Great Video Evan! As per the recent Google Algorithm update. Google also give more value to content and even shows rich snippet in Google SERP's.
Re: FaceBook - Pay Per Click ads can get the ball rolling.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How To Master The Ins and Outs of Google+

Using your social media profiles to drive traffic

Starting A Set of Books

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.