What are the Main Causes of the Failure of a PPC strategy?

What are the Main Causes of the Failure of a PPC strategy?

EWM. is a leading web development agency in Geneva but with offices worldwide. We specialise in providing precisely-crafted digital marketing services unique to the needs of the client.

Here we provide a quick list of some of the main causes of failure in an AdWords campaigns, in our experience:

· Tracking of targets is almost always incomplete, incorrect and often absent

· An account structure that makes it difficult to optimize and identify waste

· Poor communication (of ads and landing pages)

· Optimization interventions carried out on erroneous measurements

· Think about being able to do better than automatic systems by avoiding the use of automatic bidding strategies

However, the main cause is most likely the lack of strategy.  

Until a few years ago, search campaigns beat out display campaigns 9 to 1. This is because, apart from a few sectors, when we were looking for something, we were looking for it on Google.

With the increase in online traffic channels (devices and users always online) relying solely on the search network is often a limiting strategy.

A well-targeted poster campaign, with specific creativity for each audience segment, can yield surprising results.

This is because it seems to be specifically addressing a precise target market, focusing on an unmet problem/need.

That being said, in general, there is no standard recipe.

We have to analyse individual cases and study a marketing strategy that allows us to put ourselves in the user’s shoes, trying to understand their ways of doing things, thinking and acting. Technical tools always come later.

What are the trends for 2021 in the PPC industry?

First of all, the keyword will remain “segmentation”: in a sector where more and more competitors are adopting web marketing strategies, leading to higher costs, it is essential to analyze in detail the habits and preferences of an increasingly small audience.

Doing this will be more and more profitable (which ultimately leads to greater savings) and will also enable you to speak to more and more specific users.

Further, the integration between the different types of devices with which users connect, but especially between on-line and off-line, will be more and more predominant.

Once upon a time, there was the internet that represented the aquarium in which you could dive into a submerged world by pressing the "off" button of reality. Today, the internet is an ever-present reality. It guides our behavior offline and heavily influences our day-to-day lives.

Artificial intelligence will also reinforce this trend in incredible ways, predicting user behaviors through learning and being a true “life assistant” for all of us.

What should you pay attention to first when performing an AdWords audit?

First of all, you need to interpret the data; the numbers must always be interpreted. Even the most analytical and accurate tool will never know the marketing strategy you are pursuing, your long-term goals, or your client's business model.

Always be careful not to obsess over revisions: it takes time to do a realistic analysis. Abrupt fixes caused by haste or fear of "red areas" that our optimization tool points out to us, for example, can lead to evaluation errors and imbalances on AdWords.

What are your favorite ad plugins to significantly improve the CTR of a campaign?

Extensions are a very useful medium for your ad, especially when they complement it.

The important thing is that they work in synergy with the message: the fewer generics, the better. They represent a real advantage for CTR when they add useful information or elements that really distinguish your business from your competition.

Additionally, we always recommend that you spend a little more time creating dedicated price and bid extensions for each ad group, rather than leaving a single account-level extension. The more you talk to the specific user, the better. It still applies to everything.

What are the first steps to take to optimize a local PPC campaign?

From experience, we recommend creating and integrating Google My Business campaigns with AdWords to take full advantage of this synergy.

Then pay attention to the advanced location settings: they must be absolutely taken into consideration to avoid clicks from unwanted users. In this case, too, it always depends on the type of business you are operating.

For regional campaigns, we always suggest segmenting locations according to different provinces, so that we can get a more accurate idea of ​​where our campaign is working the best. Sometimes there can be surprising differences.

Normally, it is good to create two separate campaigns: one with keywords that include the names of the places where our campaign will take place, and the other without.

Local businesses are very affected by the way the territory thinks: being from this territory is an additional asset, especially in terms of communication.

EWM. offers proven international expertise.  Contact us today and we will build the success of your business on Google Ads for you!