Comments on: Do You Make These 12 AdWords Mistakes?

By: Net Age

Net Age — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:53:04 +0000

I myself am no PPC expert, but I do have a healthy respect for people who have turned effective PPC into an art and a science. It seems like you’ve covered the basics well here, even if this post is a couple of years old. What I am seeing these days is that internet marketers are looking way beyond Google and their slaps, and are exploring many new options that have come to the market over the past couple of years.

By: Dave D

Dave D — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:10:09 +0000

Hi Dave,
Wonderful Post Buddy..

can you talk about PPC (Adwords) on Content Networks..
How Keyword Choosing and Bid Choosing gets different with PPC(Adwords) on Search Network..??

By: joel

joel — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:50:39 +0000

Thanks for the great tips Dave.When i started with PPC, I did most of the mistakes you have mentioned.I needed this long before. But still it is a very useful article which all must read because it will for both beginners and experienced ones in PPC.

By: Maxine Business Performance

Maxine Business Performance — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:27:02 +0000

All this information can be a little intimidating, especially for some one very new to SEO, but I do have to say Dave that you are very clear in your explanations and it is helping me tremendously, I have only used the very basics when it has come to setting up a campaign but I look forward to using some of your great tips.:)

By: Brenda | Trade Marks

Brenda | Trade Marks — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:44:53 +0000

Dave those tips are just great and I have passed this on to a friend of mine that is involved with using ad words and I think that this is going to come in very handy for her. Thanks for sharing, and for someone how is new to this blog the post are just fantastic.

By: Essex Search Optimisation

Essex Search Optimisation — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:28:00 +0000

I currently only use one form of analytics (take a guess) for my adwords campaigns, if you were to have two sets of data would you take the average between the two and report that to the client?

By: Adam Boulton

Adam Boulton — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:57:20 +0000

We’ve had just finished a little research about the optimal Ad position to be in to maximise profit from your PPC campaigns.

Let me know what you think
http://connect.icrossing.co.uk/paid-search-higher_902

By: Mickael

Mickael — Sat, 24 May 2008 10:24:04 +0000

Hi! thx for sharing this info. I’d add just one thing concerning the search query report. They’re very useful and must be generated on a weekly basis. But I’d advise to go further by using server logs and/or a web analytics tool like Google Analytics (free). If well configured, it can display actual search queries and not only AdWords keywords inserted in the initial keyword list.
http://ads-optimization.com/adwords/adwords-secrets/adwords-actual-search-queries.html

Good luck all for your adwords campaign management!

Mick

By: Virginia Greg

Virginia Greg — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:20:50 +0000

I’d say another mistake folks make is giving up too soon. If things don’t work out for a few days, they quit.

By: Dave Davis

Dave Davis — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 16:30:50 +0000

Hi Nathan, thanks for stopping by. You are very welcome. If there is a particular topic that you would like covered, please let us know!

By: Nathan Libbey

Nathan Libbey — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:12:13 +0000

Dave, Thanks for this great post. I’m just about to start my first Adwords campaign, so I’ve really been needing some guidance. This will help get me on my feet.

By: Dave Davis

Dave Davis — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:05:33 +0000

Thanks Steve. I have noticed that too but quite rarely actually. Many of our clients have quite a large budget and often struggle to actually spend the money daily.

Seasonal PPC management can be very difficult too, you’re dead right. Done right however it can really make a difference on the bottom line of a campaigns quarter results.

By: CustardMite

CustardMite — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:07:18 +0000

Hi Dave,

Great post.

Hard to argue with any of what you’ve written. I’d personally add one more that I find – even when I’m taking over accounts from other agencies (which is a bit scary).

Quite often, the daily budget is running out by about mid-afternoon. Clearly, if you bid less, your advert will appear lower, and hence your clickthrough rate will be lower. Perhaps this puts people off reducing their bids, but if they did, they’d be able to make their budget last all day, and more importantly, get more clicks for the same money (since the cost per click would be lower).

I find that adjusting the bids to allow for seasonal variations in the traffic is one of the things that I spend the most time doing on the accounts that I manage..

By: Amy Konefal

Amy Konefal — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:10:00 +0000

I agree whole-heartedly with the comments above. You have some great quality posts, this one no exception (and dead on to the mistakes we find when auditing PPC accounts as well – namely no separate content bids, horrible landing page experiences and no conversion tracking whatsoever – yikes).

Added you to my subscription list as well. Best to you and keep up the great work…

By: Elixir Blogger

Elixir Blogger — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 23:00:35 +0000

Great tips, Dave. I only started using the Search Query a few weeks ago and it’s making a difference in costs and targeting already. I just found your June post on bidding on the company’s name and will be referring one of my clients to it. Maybe he’ll listen if he hears it from more than just me.

thanks!

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:38:32 +0000

Why do I always forget that!?

Thanks, just did. :)

By: Dave Davis

Dave Davis — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:32:48 +0000

Thanks Dave! Very much appreciated! You could always subscribe to the feed too.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:27:14 +0000

I totally agree – I always check this blog every few days in the hopes that Dave has written another post… I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in PPC marketing, but I always learn a thing or two from your posts. Thank you, and please keep them coming!

- Dave

By: Dave Davis

Dave Davis — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:26:25 +0000

Thanks Daryl. I agree and I feel a blog should be anything but self promotional. There is no way to “hide” information from people, our skills and value to a client lie in our experience, creativity and nack for detail. Any business based on withholding information from customers is just plain silly. There is no “secret sauce” to any SEO or SEM campaign and PPC management is just that, PPC management.

Thanks for the mention on your blog. Very much appreciated. I have added your blog to my ever expanding RSS subscription list.

By: Daryl Clark

Daryl Clark — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:16:37 +0000

Dave it is nice to see someone offering some tips of real value vs. the self promotional stuff I usually run across from other marketing firms. I’m posting a link to this article on my blog today and will be linking back to other articles of yours in the future. Keep up the great work!

By: Dave Davis

Dave Davis — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:51:40 +0000

Thanks for stopping by Janine. Glad the post was of some help. It’s a shame PPC advertising is given the “mystery” status that it is. It is just like anything else, you get out of it what you put in (In the form of time and effort).

There are actually a few good AdWords books out there but they are overshadowed by all the spammy scammy ones that pollute the Internet. I have yet to come across a guide better then the official AdWords learning center. 100% of the basics are covered there.

As for writing a book, I think I will leave that until I am retired :)

By: janine

janine — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:34:50 +0000

Excellent post, Dave. One of these days, I intend finally running some AdWords campaigns and thorough explanations in fairly layman terms are a great resource for people like me. Those who have been wasting money on inefficient AdWords campaigns will be even more appreciative I’m sure :) I actually bought an AdWords book on a whim lately, and I have learned a lot more from a couple of your posts. You should write your own one! :)