Today, we’re talking about 6 huge keyword mistakes that people make when they’re setting up their Google Ads campaigns. And make sure you stick around to hear all of them because every single one of these mistakes will cost you money.
Today we’re talking about six huge keyword mistakes that we see people make all of the time, and every single one of these mistakes will bring up that dreaded term wasted ad spend, because every one of these will cost you money. So let’s dive right in.
Not Selecting The Right Match Type
Number six, and this is probably the most obvious one, but it’s not selecting the right match type, whether that is phrase, exact, modified broad or broad match. Obviously there are a lot of different options.
While I would suggest hardly ever using a broad match keyword, we still find a lot of people who aren’t very experienced with Google Ads putting those broad match keywords inside their campaigns. Broad match keywords will obviously bring in a plethora of searches that you probably don’t want. We still see this mistake made all the time.
Chances are they’re very few times in a campaign where you’re going to want to use a broad match keyword. If you have a service or a business or a product, you’re probably going to want to use phrase or exact match keywords.
Keywords Are Too Small
Number five, your keywords are too small. Now, I’m going to use a very simple example to show you exactly what I’m talking about here. If somebody types in the word car, they could be looking for a number of things. Whether that is a car dealership, car repair, car paint shop, car body shop.
You get my point. They can be looking for a number of things. Narrow it down with your keywords. We still see this a lot. People still put in every single keyword that they can find that has to do with their service or their business.
So if you’re selling a 2019 Jeep Wrangler, that should be one of your keywords, 2019 Jeep Wrangler for sale. Obviously that keyword is a lot longer, but it’s a much more descriptive keyword.
And you are going to get way more searches that are relevant to what you’re trying to sell than if you use just a single word. Stretch it out, get more defined and you get more of the right types of clicks.
Using Keywords With Not Enough Searches
Number four, using keywords that there are no searches or very few searches for. Use the keyword planner. Use other keyword tools. There are going to be a lot of keywords out there that maybe you think is the best search possible.
This is the one that’s going to bring us all the business. This is going to bring us all the clicks. Use those tools at your disposal to prove whether you’re right or wrong.
If you’ve got a keyword or a bunch of keywords that show there’s really no searches for it this time, then perhaps it’s too early to put it in your campaign.
You don’t want a bunch of dead keywords inside your campaign dragging it down or pulling a click or two here and there. You want keywords inside your campaign that are going to be profitable. That’s the key word, profitable.
So make sure that the keywords that you’re going to put into your campaign are going to be pulling clicks.
Adding Too Many Keywords
Number three, adding too many keywords to your campaign, especially for your budget. This is a mistake a lot of people make because they want every search out there. I don’t care how many keywords I have to put into my account, I want all of the searches.
I’m willing to pay for it. And I really think that’s the wrong way to look at this.
We have to go back to the old 80 20 rule. 80% of your business is going to be driven by 20% of your keywords. That 20% of your keywords, you want to find that as quick as possible and you want to double down on those keywords.
Of course there’s still business to come from some of those other keywords, but if you’re just throwing money out there at a click here, at a $4 click there and a $10 click there and the $2 click here, you don’t realize that if you have a thousand keywords in your campaign, that is a lot of money that you are wasting on a monthly basis.
We’ve gotten into campaigns that have had literally over 26,000 keywords in a single campaign and through the entire life of that campaign, which was something like two years, only 300 of those keywords had actually even gotten clicks and out of those 300 some odd keywords that had gotten clicks, only about 60 of them had ever brought in business.
See what I mean? You don’t have to have 26,000 keywords. You don’t even have to have 300 we’re looking for those 60 keywords or even 40 of them that are driving the bulk of the business and we’re going to throw the majority of our budget at those keywords.
Too Many Keywords Per Ad Group
Number two, too many keywords per ad group. If you’ve got more than 15 to maybe 20 keywords at maximum in a single ad group, you need to break those out and put some in other ad groups. And you want your ad groups very tightly knit together.
So if you’re a plumber and you’re in Minneapolis, in one ad group, you’re going to want keywords that have to do with plumbers in Minneapolis. Minneapolis, plumbers, plumbing companies in Minneapolis, plumbing contractors in Minneapolis. See what I mean?
The next ad group could be another city. The next ad group could be another service, such as residential plumbers or commercial plumbers. But you want all of those keywords very tightly knit because you want your ads written around that one group of keywords.
The more relevant that your ad is to that group of keywords, the more likely someone is to click on it and the more likely you are to get that conversion or that business. Make sense?
Trying To Get All Of The Keywords
And last but not least, number one, trying to get all of the keywords, I’ve already touched on this, but I think it absolutely deserves its own spot. You do not want every single keyword for your service or product inside your campaign. You want the ones that are going to make you money and get rid of the rest. As a business owner, I get it. I want all of the business I can get.
However, if I can get three times as much business for my budget by using five profitable keywords over a hundred others, I’m going to take more money, more sales, more clients, any day of the week. You need to look at it like that. How many customers can I get for this chunk of money? Think about it that way.
It’s about customers, it’s not about clicks. It’s about conversions and it’s about making you and your business more money.
So do you have any other key word mistakes that you’ve made in the past or you see people making? Do us a favor, let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear about those.
And if you liked this video, do us a favor, hit the like button below and the subscribe button and the little bell icon and you’ll be notified of when we release new videos each and every week.
And if you like videos like this over to the right hand side, we’ve got a couple of other keyword videos, our keyword research lists for service businesses and our keyword research tool where we have a free download and you can get that right there.
Thank you for checking our post on: Google Ads Keywords Mistakes
Check Out Some Of Our Other Great Posts:
6 Reasons Why I Love Google Ads
Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
Why I Hate Google Ads… a Rant. Frustrations, Complications and More