AdWords is a great way to grow your business digitally and, if you do it right, get a high return on a relatively low investment. If you are not seeing a good ROI from your AdWords campaign, it might be that it just isn’t a good fit for your marketing needs – yes, that is a possibility! Any PPC (pay-per-click) account can be a money sucker if you don’t have the time and knowledge to dedicate to it, which is a problem we see in smaller businesses all the time. If you are not seeing the results you want from your AdWords campaign, it might be because you haven’t done the research, followed through with your campaign, made the click count, don’t have a solid ad rank, or simply because you can’t afford it. Let’s take a closer look: 

DO THE RESEARCH

Efficiently setting up your AdWords account setup takes time. If you don’t have the time to dedicate to configure your account (which for most small businesses also means doing the research to first learn about AdWords), then it might not be the tool for you. Google will automatically setup your account with ‘default’ options, which will end up wasting your money rather than utilizing it for the best results. If you are going to use AdWords, take the time to understand how it works! 

FOLLOW THROUGH

Again, AdWords takes time, and most importantly you need to follow through with your campaign. PPC ads are not a one-and-done process. In fact, you have to keep a close eye on how your ads are performing so that you can alter your settings (and maybe even the appearance of your ad – verbiage, style, image) to see better results. When you start your campaign, you are starting an ongoing process that takes a lot of attention. If you don’t have the time to follow through on your account, AdWords might not be right for you. 

MAKE EACH CLICK COUNT

Companies will pay a lot to for a click that simply takes a potential customer to their website – this is not even a solid sale yet! So be sure to make each click count. Create a specific landing page for your ad so that when a customer clicks on your ad they are directed right to the page they are looking for. This will help with overall sales. For example, if someone is looking for a divorce lawyer and clicks on an ad for Divorce Lawyers, your landing page should NOT be your homepage or a generic family law page. Your landing page should be your Divorce Law page.

If your sale depends on a customer coming into a store or talking to a live salesperson, then you might want to rethink using a PPC account. At this point AdWords would be generating leads instead of sales (which are still worthwhile in some cases) but might not be right for every business. 

AD RANKING FOR SMALL COMPANIES

Small business’ know that ad ranking can be a nightmare when competing against the bigger conglomerates. One of the largest factors that will help you create a result-driven AdWords account is making sure you have high ad ranking. This depends on your quality score, which you can increase in a number of ways (visit our post on Ad Ranking to learn more). But ultimately, if you don’t have the time and money to spend on monitoring your account, it will be hard to beat out those big box companies for a top ad spot. 

IT’S TOO EXPENSIVE

PPC accounts can get pricey real fast. Some business’ might be priced out of the market with regards to cost per click. For example, clicks for personal injury keywords on Adwords can cost more than $100, and there are others that top out at $550 per click! It is true that the better quality score you have, the better ad rank you get, the lower your investment will be for a  result-driven campaign. But in every campaigns’ early stages you will have to put up the money. If you don’t have the funds to put behind your account, it just might not be the right tool for you. 

AdWords, and PPC in general, is a great way to boost your business traffic and sales – most of the time. But for some, it might be worth looking elsewhere for your advertising needs. If you relate to one of the above reasons your AdWords account isn’t performing, you have options. You can go to other marketing strategies in order to drive results that are in the realm of your ability, or you can schedule an appointment with Cascade Digital Marketing to see how we can help make your PPC account a good investment – that you can afford!