July 26,2022

5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating an SEM Campaign

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a quick, effective way to promote your business. Unlike search engine optimisation (SEO), SEM can give you instant web visibility by posting your ads on search engine results pages. 

But to get more traffic and leads, you can try combining SEM with SEO. However, be aware that there are many pitfalls you must avoid when it comes to SEM. As such, it’s crucial to study the ins and outs of SEM before you implement an SEM campaign. 

Here are some pitfalls you could encounter when creating an SEM campaign.

1. Forgetting to Enhance Your Website

The ultimate goal of setting up paid ads is to drive traffic to your website. However, the problem is that some people focus more on their ads than on enhancing their website! 

Even if you do get traffic from your paid ads, it doesn’t guarantee conversion. The success or failure of your advertisements still depends on the quality of your landing page. It has to have good aesthetic visuals, site navigation and site speed. 

Remember to enhance your website with high-quality content and a smooth interface when launching an SEM campaign for your company. Doing so will help improve the user experience of the potential customers visiting your website.

2. Disregarding High-Ranking Keywords to Save Costs 

Most small business owners often try using the cheapest keywords to reduce ad costs. But that can lead to disappointing results. 

It’s better to diversify your SEM campaign by adding a good mix of expensive keywords to your ads to get the best possible results. High-ranking keywords have high conversion rates because they bring more visitors and clicks. As a result, you may get more leads from your ads. 

Popular keywords are so expensive because they have a higher chance of leading you to your target audience. That’s why it’s wise to take the risk and invest in such keywords. After all, if your SEM campaign is successful, the returns on your ad investments will pay for themselves.

3. Avoiding the Use of Negative Keywords

Business owners often misunderstand negative keywords. While it might seem like a negative keyword will drive away customers, the opposite is actually true. In fact, it allows you to exclude search terms from your digital marketing campaigns and focus on only the keywords that are relevant to your customers. 

For example, if you sell whisky and people search for ”how to drink whisky,” your ad should not appear when they search for ”how to drink scotch whisky.” To do this, you should include this search term as a negative keyword in your SEM campaign. 

4. Not Asking for the Sale 

A call to action (CTA) is what you use to encourage readers to choose your company’s SEM campaign. Asking for the sale is expected. Don’t make your readers guess whether your campaign was good for them or not. 

To create a CTA, focus on the value you can provide for your audience and create an offer that entices them to click on your paid search ads. For example, you could say “learn more” in your meta description to motivate users to click on your SEM campaign.

5. Neglecting the Use of Ad Extensions

Google is an excellent tool for marketing for several reasons, including that Google Ads allows for search engine marketing (SEM). Google Ads will let you enhance your ads with ad extensions to reach your target audience.

To enhance your SEM campaign with extensions, visit Google’s support centre.

Conclusion

The rewards for a successful SEM campaign are worth your hard work. Unlike SEO, you can get quick results and exposure for your business with SEM. Following these tips and preparing yourself for the worst can help ensure your SEM efforts will succeed.

Hurrican Digital will help you build effective SEM and SEO strategies for your small business. We are an SEO agency in Brisbane that specialises in helping local businesses take their marketing to the next level. Get in touch with us today!

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