The Most Common Google Ads Mistakes for New Advertisers

When learning a new skill or attempting something for the first time, mistakes and failures are bound to happen. While this is a normal part of the learning experience, the last thing any beginner wants is for their mistakes to cost them money.

With Google Ads, common mistakes made by new advertisers can waste a large portion of their marketing budget.

Avoiding popular mistakes in Google Ads is crucial to a successful digital marketing campaign. Google Ads can be difficult to understand at first, but knowing what the possible errors are can help any new advertiser avoid them. Before getting started with a Google Ads campaign, take some time to educate yourself on what can go wrong so that you can do it right.

In this article, I will briefly go over some of the most common mistakes new Google Ads users fall victim to.

Location Targeting Errors

In the United States, Google Ads campaigns are automatically set to the entire nation. This means if the setting is not turned off, someone who lives in Chicago searching for a dentist on Google could get an ad from a dental office in Los Angeles. Unless they want to hop on a flight to California, it’s unlikely this click will result in any conversions.

Another mistake when it comes to location targeting is selecting “Presence or Interest,” rather than only “Presence”. The problem with the interest setting is the ad will also target people who have shown interest in your targeted location. This may sound ideal, but this causes a huge problem for businesses who do not serve outside of their targeted location.

• For example, if a business only ships within the U.S., but someone from Europe shows interest in the U.S. and the product, they may see and click on the advertisement
• Due to the Pay Per Click (PPC) model, that business now pays for a click that will not result in a conversion because they cannot deliver the product to this overseas customer

Instead, selecting “Presence” will target people in or regularly in one specific location. This is a simple fix that will prevent useless clicks, and ultimately save you money.

Not Monitoring Search Terms

Many times, people tend to ignore search terms and forget to review them frequently. Search terms are the words and phrases typed into the Google search bar. It is important to frequently check on the search terms that lead to someone finding your advertisement.

In order to gauge which keywords to pick and what to make negative keywords, you should check the search term list often.

• If a search term led to a conversion, you may want to add a new keyword
• If a search term was a dead-end click, this could help you expand your negative keyword list

The goal is to determine how to match to the searches that you want and know will result in conversions. Monitoring search terms at least once a week can help your search campaign go to the next level.

Using Old or Inaccurate Tracking

Tracking conversions allows you to evaluate the results of all the hard work you have been putting into your Google Ads campaign. By setting up the proper tracking code, you can monitor which campaigns or keywords led to someone buying a product, signing up for a service, or calling your office. This allows you to decipher which keywords worked best and which negative keywords should be added.

If the measurement is inaccurate or outdated, it is difficult to track the conversions correctly. You may receive unreliable data. This makes your entire campaign based off incorrect data, which is an easy way to lose money.

Most tracking codes can be added manually or hire a specialist to set up a new and accurate code for conversion tracking, and you’ll be back on the right track.

Only One Ad per Ad Group and Not Adding Ad Extensions

Having a only a single ad in each ad group is a big mistake that is only disorganizing and disadvantaging you in the long run. Instead, include multiple ads per ad group to test what works and what doesn’t.

• Optimally, you should have 3-5 ads in each group
• Then test your headlines and ad copy to find winning ads

Ad extensions are the add-ons on an advertisement such as links and phone numbers at the bottom. Ad extensions boost the quality score of the ad, which will help it rank higher in Google search results.

Adding ad extensions is an easy way to increase quality score as it takes only a few minutes to include.

Not Removing Display Network on Search Campaigns

Google Ads’ default option is set to include display network on your search campaign. Combining your search and display campaigns is a big problem because you cannot exclusively see the search campaign’s data. The display network setting will distort the data and make it difficult to determine if your keywords and bids are working well.

To run a successful search campaign, you need to manually disable display network. The conversion rate of clicks on display network is low compared to search, which increases Cost per Action (CPA) if you combine search and display campaigns.

Luckily, this issue is solved by simply turning off the display network. Display campaigns are beneficial and worth trying, but they need to run separately from the search campaign.

Relying on Automated Methods Too Early

I know what you’re thinking to yourself right now: “If there are so many possible mistakes a new advertiser can make, why not just choose the automated bidding system and let Google handle my advertisements?” While this sounds like the perfect solution, it’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make when you first start your advertising campaign.

• Google’s algorithm needs enough data to optimize properly
• If you begin with automated strategies without proper data, this will lead to poor results
• Unlike manual bidding on keywords, you have no control with automated bidding

Overall, manually bidding on your keywords in the beginning sets up a foundation for future success of your Google Ads.

Final Thoughts

Google Ads can be tricky to figure out, let alone master. Instead of losing money and making common mistakes, an easier path for a beginner to take is to team up with a Google AdWords consultant. A Google Ads marketing agency use their expertise to help your business optimize keywords and earn a big return of investment.

All beginners are prone to mistakes, but if you dedicate time to educating yourself and understanding the basic mistakes new advertisers make, you can run a successful Google Ads campaign. The best part about marketing is everything is trial and error, so don’t let one error stop you from trying again!