Reaching large numbers of people in a short period of time isn’t easy for most small brands and businesses. With a limited number of options, these brands must carefully consider how best to allocate their resources. Without an established search engine presence, a vast mailing list or a huge social media following, the nature choice turns to pay per click (PPC) advertising.

Given the relative cheapness and ease through which PPC ads can be deployed, many people have got in on the action. However, this also leads to critical mistakes: many novice ad managers do not know precisely what to do – and not to do – in order to achieve the best results.

Below, we’ll talk about a few critical examples of how you may be screwing over your PPC campaign potential.

Using Improper Budgeting

First and foremost, it is vital to remember that PPC campaigns are ultimately constrained by their budgets. Even the most creative campaigns still need to be cognizant of how much funding they have to reach audiences. Yet there is more to consider with budgets than simply not having enough money.

Wasted spend is a major problem in PPC ad campaigns – often much more so than tightened budgets. Unlocking an existing budget to reach additional people is always possible, but improperly budgeting for each campaign – whether it be spending too little or too much – is a common mistake.

Failing to Articulate Success

What exactly are you wishing to extract from your PPC campaign efforts? From each ad campaign? If you can’t succinctly answer this question before any ads are deployed, then you’re messing up big time.

Pinging search engines and social media with ads that do not have defined goals is a recipe for wasted spend. Not only that, but it could also result in campaigns that are so poorly optimized that you even do damage to your brand’s image in the eyes of audiences (a scattered set of campaigns can muddy the waters of what you stand for, what you sell, etc).

Ignoring the Importance of Landing Pages

So many people forget that arguably the most important component of PPC campaigns is the effectiveness of the landing page. Whether the ad links to an existing page that is widely accessible via your website or links to a specific page created for the ad campaign, landing pages serve to convert those who are most likely to become customers, subscribers and fans.

While the content of an ad itself affects clickthrough rates, a poorly-optimized landing page can drive away those who would otherwise convert. Don’t assume that somebody clicking on an ad means you’ve done your job: make sure those who do click are secured via a strategy for designing each landing page efficiently.

Failing at the Targeting Game

Last but not least, arguably one of the simplest mistakes to explain is one of the most difficult to correct.

Too many PPC campaigns target the wrong individuals. Without comprehensive market research and an understanding of either your existing audience or the desired audience, it can be difficult to know who and how to target. Nevertheless, investing in market research to ensure that you’re targeting the most opportune individuals is just as essential as ensuring you’re pinging search engines with the most efficient keywords when seeking to rank in organic search.

Knowing the problem is half of the fight to fix it. These common PPC problems lead to lackluster campaigns and – in many cases – cause brands to ultimately fail. Make sure that you are no longer falling victim to these mistakes and give your brand a fighting chance in the PPC game!