You’re Doing it Wrong

5 common mistakes that can hurt your ads’ performance

Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of posts we’re calling “The Best of the YSM Blog.” These are posts containing timeless advice and best practices that never go out of style. Even if you read it the first time, it’s not a bad idea to review this information periodically to help get maximum performance from your advertising.

Originally posted April 24, 2009

No one likes to be told they’re doing something wrong. And most of the time we try to focus this blog on the positive changes you can enact to help your account run better. But our Advertiser Solutions team sees advertisers make the same mistakes over and over when they set up their accounts, and so in this post we’d like to review the top five—just to make sure you’re not making them, too.

1. Using geo-modified keywords in geo-targeted campaigns
This can result in a lot less traffic, since there is a strong chance the ads will not display due to a “geo-targeting mismatch.” One solution for this: use geo-modified keywords only in campaigns not using geo-targeting. To know when to use geo-targeting and when to use geo-modified keywords, read our post, “Geo vs. Geo.”

2. Duplicating keywords across ad groups or campaigns
When you have a good keyword, it may seem like a smart move to spread the goodness around to all of your ad groups and campaigns. However, duplicate keywords won’t help your performance—in fact, they can hurt you quite a bit, because our systems de-dupe on multiple levels. (That’s a fancy way of saying it looks for duplicates and removes them.)

For example, if you want to test Advanced and Standard match types by running both concurrently in identical ad groups, your keywords will compete against each other and drive up your cost-per-click. We’ve also seen advertisers duplicate keywords with multiple landing pages. The duplicated keywords can result in a lower quality index score and a higher cost-per-click.

3. Jumping the gun
“All we are saying, is give bids a chance.” Many times, we’ve seen advertisers make bid adjustments, or pause or delete keywords well before enough data has been collected to make an educated decision. For example, your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) target might be $40, and because you think your keyword isn’t giving you enough impressions or clicks, you pause it. Our experience has shown that many advertisers do this too quickly. A good rule of thumb is that if you haven’t reached your $40—or whatever the amount was you set for your target—it’s too early to judge your metrics.

4. Putting your phone number in your ad
This one may sound odd—why wouldn’t you want to give your prospects another way to contact you? However, a phone number in your ad can decrease your click-through rate and quality index score, which in turn drives up your cost-per-click and pushes the ad further down in results. With search advertising, you want people to click your ad. That’s the way to get them to your website, and ultimately convert. It’s also the way to improve your quality score and get all the benefits that come with that.

5. Bidding on competitor’s keywords
Nope, it’s not OK to see what your competitor is using and then simply copy them. Doing this will result in your irrelevant keywords being removed by our guidelines review team, and could have legal consequences, as well.

So, do any of these mistakes seem familiar? Fortunately, they’re not too tough to fix. If you run into trouble, just contact us—the Advertiser Solutions team is here to help you with your questions, troubleshooting, and optimizing your account.

— Kastle Waserman, Communications Manager, Advertiser Solutions