Biggest Google Ads Mistakes SaaS Businesses Make Every Time
Google Ads mistakes can cost your business a fortune. For that not to happen, here are some of the most common mistakes SaaS businesses make (and how to avoid them!).
As a marketer and business owner, setting up Google Ads can be a great way to boost brand awareness and make sure customers can easily reach the product or service you advertise. However, while the basics of Google Ads aren’t rocket science, you could end up making a mistake that’ll cost you more than the potential profits they bring. When you sum everything up, you’ll be left with a campaign that doesn’t bring you the ROI and performance you expected, and you’ll be scratching your head trying to figure out what you did wrong.
We want to make things easier, and to do that, we’ll briefly go over four common Google Ads mistakes that any marketer could be guilty of making, and we’ll talk about how to avoid them in the future. Let’s not waste any time and dive in!
Using Display Network for Ads
When you’re trying to create a campaign to advertise your business, Google will give you the choice between displaying your ads on the Search Network, or the Display Network. Or, you could even go with both if you think that’s a good idea, but if you ask us, it’s actually a mistake.
The problem with the Display Network is that it comes with a notoriously low conversion rate, especially when you compare it to the Search Network. You probably see where this is going, right? Subpar performance, every step of the way.
If lead generation is your goal, Search Network is the option you need. This way, targeting a keyword will have you show up on Google and its search partners only. On the other hand, if you opt for Display Network, the algorithm will add your ad on relevant, matched websites, but that’s not exactly targeted traffic. Stick to Search Network – that’s the relevant, matched traffic you need, and that’s the traffic that will convert.
Not Creating Multiple Google Ads Variations
Do you know what happens when a potential lead sees your ad pop up multiple times, and it’s always the exact same thing you advertise? You might think they’ll still convert, but the actual answer is that they’ll get bored. Rather than heading to your website and checking out your brand, they’ll steer well clear of you because they don’t want to work with a boring brand.
We aren’t talking about creating multiple ads – just go for different variations. Change the graphics, change the text, add small things that make a difference while keeping the gist of it the same. A/B testing helps a lot as a marketer, as it’s an easy way to figure out what has better performance without spending too much money on separate campaigns for each variation.
When you have a couple of variations to advertise, you can start rotating them. Go for three or four matched variations, and rotate them after a day or two. Finding the sweet spot here is going to be tricky, but once you get it right, you’ll be generating more leads than you know what to do with.
““I’ve worked with WLDM for over two years for SEO, PPC, and Conversion Rate Optimization. The team has been great at meeting the needs of our direct to consumer e-commerce brand by helping us leverage a multi- channel marketing approach. The output, communication and value are excellent. ” Elizabeth Grojean
Using Just the Ads Google Serves, and Not Extensions
Google has a nifty addition to their ads – and those are extensions. Think of it as several options when you’re trying to spec out your new car at the dealership – you’re adding more things to make it stand out from every other car. And it’s the same with extensions, which, if you aren’t using, you’re making a mistake.
Here are a few examples any marketer should be considering:
- Sitelink extensions will show a different link to your website, and send searchers to the relevant page depending on what their search term is
- Callout extensions allow you to showcase, within the ad, anything unique you’re offering with your brand, such as major selling points.
- Call extensions (or message extensions) allow potential customers to call you (or send you a message), right from the ad itself
There are quite a few of them you can add, and they’re all located in the Extensions section within Google Ads.
Something to note with extensions is that while you have full control over which ones you use, you can’t control how they appear – that’s up to Google’s algorithm. It decides which ones will appear on the ad and for which ads, similarly to running the actual ads. And also similarly to running the ads, you can see which extensions convert more and have better performance, and pause the ones that aren’t performing as you’d like them to.
Not Being Thorough with Keyword Research
Not only is this one of the most common Google Ads mistakes, but it’s also one that can end up costing you the most. Keywords aren’t chosen based on what you think people search for when looking for your brand, nor are they chosen based on what you would search for with that same intent. Using something like Google’s Keyword Planner is a solid choice to get things started, and it’ll give you a good list of relevant keywords for your business.
And it’s not just the research, there’s one more thing that you should pay attention to, and that’s the keywords’ match type. The broad match might seem like the one that’ll get you the most traffic, and that’s because it is. But on the other hand, the majority of that traffic is completely irrelevant to you and it’s not something you actually need (or want).
On the other hand, what you could do is select 15 to 20 keywords you know should lead to your business, and combine phrase match, exact match, and broad match modifiers for them. This way, you’re looking at multiple variations for each keyword you’ve chosen, so you’re still focusing on the targeted audience.
As the last one of the Google Ads mistakes, you shouldn’t be using all the keywords you’re trying to rank for in one ad group. This fits in nicely with what we said about creating different ad variations – split them into those different ad variations, and see if you can have ad groups that specifically target some of your landing pages. Additionally, don’t forget Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) – they’re also a thing to consider within Google Ads.
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