Top 10 Common PPC Mistakes B2B Companies Make

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an integral part of a B2B’s marketing strategy across social media and Google Ads.

It provides targeted visibility, that increases the likelihood of your site being seen by the right industry individuals.

That being said, it can also be a bit of a minefield and if done incorrectly, result in a lot of wasted resources and budget.

By knowing these common PPC mistakes, businesses can avoid them and strengthen their overall ROI by an average of 200%.

1. Overlooking Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is the first step you should undertake before making any campaign decisions. It allows you to see what your competitors are producing, their overall messaging and landing page design, the USP’s they’re using, and any keywords targeted that your business could capitalise on. It’s a ready-made blueprint of what is and isn’t working in your industry.

To perform a competitor audit, identify your top 3 competitors and use a tool like SEMrush or Google Ads Auction Insights to see more information about their traffic and keywords.

From there, you can compare them to your own, identify keywords they’re ranking for that you’re not, and information on their Search and Performance Max campaigns, such as:

• Overlap rate: How many times you both receive an impression from the same search.
• Impression share rate: The number of impressions you got vs the number of impressions you could have been positioned in.
• Outranking share: How often your ad ranked higher than a competitor and when it showed when theirs didn’t.
• Position above rate (search only): How often your competitors ad outranked yours.
• Top of page rate (search only): The percentage of times you appeared above the organic search results.
• Absolute top of page rate (search only): The percentage of times your ad was the first result on Google.

These inform your overall strategy and any changes you might make to the keyword target, landing page and ad copy and budget allocations.

2. Neglecting Ad Settings and Features

There are tons of ways to strengthen and refine your PPC campaigns by fully utilising the ad settings and features available. A common PPC mistake is to just set a base level of information and hope for the best.

However, by honing in on specific niches and target audience through the use of features like ad scheduling, segmentation and location targeting, you drastically increase your conversion rate.

Not using these settings can be devastating to your ad campaign. Without this information, PPC ads will be shown to indifferent users, in the wrong locations, at the wrong times, resulting in lost ROI and a higher cost per conversion. By focussing on high performing regions, for example, your PPC ads reach can be extended where it performs best.

3. Failing to A/B Test Ads

A/B testing allows you to test bidding strategies, landing pages and keyword match types.

You can also compare different versions of your ad’s copy and visuals to see which resonates best with your audience.

Trialling these different elements provides clear indicators of what is and isn’t effective, allowing you to further refine your PPC advertising.

Without A/B testing you run the risk of missing out on valuable opportunities to improve clickthrough rates and conversions.

How To Use A/B Testing Effectively

To get the best, most actionable results from you’re A/B testing, make sure to:

• Test different tones of voice or themes: change your ad’s content and tone of voice to test different themes and see which has the best success. That way you can see which variable is changing the impact on your ad’s success rate.
• Monitor the metrics: Monitoring metrics before and after the A/B test helps determine whether the change in results is statistically significant.
• Have a clear goal: Decide what defines the success of your PPC ad – clickthrough rate, cost per conversion, cost per customer acquisition etc. and use these to define your A/B tests success.

4. Using the Wrong Landing Page

A common PPC mistake is using one landing page as a catch-all for your ads. But this creates a disconnect between the ad copy and the landing page content that results in high bounce rates and low conversions.

They should closely align, reinforcing the ad’s message and guiding users through to conversion.

How To Create an Effective Landing Page

• Align content with PPC ad: The landing page should reflect the ad’s message and expand on it to showcase company features. This consistency improves user confidence in your business and increases their likelihood of converting.
• Keep them clear and well structured: Your landing page should demonstrate expertise, experience and trustworthiness through direct, clear and concise copy. Make sure to highlight product features and provide case studies that demonstrate your knowledge, with the direct goal of making the user convert.
• Optimise for web and mobile: Your landing page should load quickly regardless of the device used to access it. Make sure all pages are optimised for mobile view and users aren’t clicking off due to poor loading speeds.
• Include a clear CTA: Your CTA should be directly relevant to the PPC ad used to direct users to the landing page, and repeated multiple times throughout the page to encourage conversions.

5. Using A “Set It and Forget It” Approach

The best PPC ads are nurtured and monitored throughout their lifecycle. Setting and forgetting PPC ads leads to shorter lifespans, poorer optimisation, and wasted budget without success.

By continuously monitoring and adapting a social media or Google PPC campaign, you can take advantage of changing marketing trends and patterns. This allows you to make necessary adjustments as soon as any potential roadblocks or issues arise, and capitalise on successful ads to achieve higher conversions.

Tips for Effective PPC Campaign Management

•  Set a regular review day
•  Monitor relevant PPC metrics that provide actionable insights
•  Continually adjust campaigns for stronger performance
•  Use automation tools and machine learning for routine PPC tasks to free up time for strategising

6. Ignoring Negative Keywords in Your PPC Campaign

Negative keywords are a list of keywords you don’t want to rank for. This prevents PPC ads from showing up for irrelevant searches and costing you wasted budget. It allows businesses to hone and specify targeting, increasing the relevance to the end user and improving the likelihood of a conversion.

For example, a B2B content management system like Alfresco, might choose a negative keyword like “free”, or “small business”, if they’re predominantly interested in targeting large enterprise clients.

This makes sure they’re not showing up in searches where the product isn’t viable, and improves targeting toward their desired audience.

To not make this PPC mistake, make sure to compile a list of negative keywords, and review your search terms reports regularly to see if any new additions need to be made.

7. Going Too Broad with PPC Keywords

Broad matches might seem like great traffic scoopers, but this PPC mistake can cost businesses dearly, quickly sucking up a lot of their PPC ad budget. While they might reach a larger range of users, they’re less targeted and relevant. This thus increases the likelihood of an ad being delivered to uninterested users.

This results in low quality traffic and wasted ad spend. If a business is interested in broadening its reach and impressions, it’s a good idea to balance broad search terms with targeted highly specific long tail keywords, instead.

Choosing the right keywords

Control where your ads appear by choosing exact or phrase match types over broad match in Google Ads. This way they’ll only appear on searches that include either the implied meaning of your keyword or an exact search match.

Use long tail keywords to attract users looking for specific, highly relevant information.

8. Not Tracking Conversions

Tracking specific actions such as purchases, sign-ups, or downloads helps marketers measure campaign success. It’s an essential metric for every PPC campaign.

By implementing conversion tracking, you can gain valuable insights into how well your ads are performing and whether they are meeting your business objectives.

Failing to do this is a huge PPC mistake. Without conversion tracking, how do you know your ROI, or which elements of your campaign are performing well?

Hint: You don’t.

That leads to wasted spend, missed opportunities, and changes made based on guesswork rather than actionable insights.

How to track conversions effectively

• Implement tracking tools: Using platforms like Google Analytics and other platform-specific tracking codes streamlines your analytics data and allows you to see the direct link between your ad and the end result of the user journey.
• Use tracking codes: To compliment your tracking tools, use tracking codes or pixels on the appropriate website pages to signify a conversion.
• Assign conversion values: If a conversion is a non-monetary goal, like a sign-up or download, businesses can assign values to these to assess their ROI.
• Regular reviews: Make sure you’re regularly checking in on conversion rates and cost per customer acquisition to refine your PPC strategy.

9. Using Ineffective or Missing CTAs

Call-to-actions or CTAs, guide users to the end goal of the ad. Depending on business goals and the part of the marketing funnel targeted, that could be a sign-up, download or purchase.

A well-crafted CTA is clear and engaging, encouraging the user to take the extra step. The more personalised this is, the better, as personalised CTAs perform 202% better than generic ones.

Using incorrect or misleading CTAs can damage the hard work done on the rest of a PPC ad.

Generic terms like “learn more” for example, don’t offer a clear-cut reason to click, or give any information on what the user will receive if they do. Whereas something more targeted like “Improve your ROI” or “Download our free guide” informs the user of the goal of their clickthrough.

To create a CTA that converts:

• Make sure the language is direct and active. The user should know exactly what they’re achieving and why. Using words like “limited” or “today”, “now” etc. can help create a sense of urgency and compel users to act now rather than later.
• Test different CTAs. A/B testing should extend to trialling different calls-to-action. See which types of language are most effective on your target audience and test different visual ways of driving them to the expected action.
• Keep it short: CTAs should give a direct, clear action in just a few words.

10. Overlooking Microsoft Advertising or LinkedIn Ads

It might feel like it, but the world doesn’t begin and end with Google. There are other PPC platforms that are underutilised and therefore ripe for finding leads at a lower cost. B2B businesses will find Microsoft Advertising (formerly MSN) and LinkedIn ads are surprisingly effective platforms for reaching their target audience.

LinkedIn provides a dedicated audience of professionals who are already in the right mindset to be receptive to B2B ads. Using LinkedIn, businesses can target based on job titles, industry, and company size, making it highly targeted toward decision-makers.

Microsoft Advertising offers high-traffic sites with lower competition and targeting that includes professional attributes. It integrates and uses LinkedIn profile targeting to target professionals when they’re not on the platform.

Ignoring these platforms means potentially missing out on key segments of a target audience. With less competition, a business can also pay lower rates for greater reach, increasing the likelihood of an ad being delivered to the right persons. This can balance and support a higher Google Ads spend for better cost-per-acquisition.

Conclusion: Avoiding Common PPC Mistakes in B2B Marketing

Running PPC ads effectively requires time, A/B testing, continual monitoring, and effective use of direct, engaging language. Use actionable metrics to determine any changes to your campaigns and continually refine the targeting and keywords for a more effective ad.

If your business wants expert support for its PPC campaigns, contact Common Ground and improve your ROI today.