The internet is an incredibly powerful tool — not just for consumers, but for business owners. Since 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engine results, it makes sense that pay per click marketing would provide an extremely effective way for businesses to be seen online. PPC marketing, unlike search engine optimization, allows websites to be featured more prominently in SERPs and can maximize clicks, traffic, and conversions.

That said, like any digital marketing tactic, PPC marketing isn’t foolproof. Developing a PPC campaign involves a number of complexities — and that makes it easy to make a mistake. To help you avoid derailing your marketing campaigns, take a look at some of the most common pay per click marketing mistakes below.

MISTAKE: Failing to Leverage Geo-Targeting

Whether your business serves customers all over the country or you’re strictly local, you need to be using location-centric keywords as part of your PPC strategy. When bidding on PPC ads, you can refine targeting to a specific geographical location. This can allow you to reach specific audiences while ensuring your ads don’t show up for web users in irrelevant areas. Although it might seem like a good thing to be seen by more people, remember that more clicks will translate to more expenses. If you don’t properly target your ads, you could end up spending a lot of money to have your ads shown to users who aren’t a good fit for your products or services — particularly if your business is restricted to certain areas.

MISTAKE: Focusing On the Wrong Metrics

Along those same lines, a lot of people assume that tracking just one metric is enough. But that simply isn’t true in a lot of cases. While your ad might have a high CTR (or click-through rate), that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be successful; if people are clicking but aren’t buying, this can be a real detriment to your business. You really need to focus on the conversion rate of your ads, as well. In some cases, a lower CTR may be good news if it’s accompanied by a high conversion rate. But you really need to consider both, along with other success metrics, to determine the health of your marketing campaigns.

MISTAKE: Ignoring Long-Tail Keywords

At first, it might seem better to go for broad keywords to appeal to as many users as possible. But remember that when you go for broad keywords, you’re opening up the possibility of irrelevancy. Moreover, broad keywords are going to cost a lot more per click. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are less competitive. Costs will be lower and you’ll have a better chance of having your ad show up in pertinent searches. As strange as it might sound, having those more specific long-tail keywords will better capture user intent and will be more successful in the end. Even if you have fewer eyes on your ads, the ones that see what you’re doing will be more likely to become actual customers.

MISTAKE: Forgetting to Bid On Your Brand Name

You might have heard that if your company’s brand name isn’t extremely well-known, it’s not worth including in your pay per click marketing bids. But if a competitor of yours is able to bid on your brand’s name, this can hurt your company and allow your competitor to gain traction. It’s also a good way to make sure that the name of your business appears close to the top of search results. This can mean greater visibility for your business overall.

MISTAKE: Neglecting Your Pay Per Click Management

Pay per click marketing isn’t a one-and-done endeavor. You need a comprehensive plan to develop and to manage your campaign over time. If you’re like most people, that’s not a task you can take on yourself. That’s why you might want to consider hiring an agency to handle pay per click marketing on your behalf. They’ll take care of choosing and monitoring keywords — and you’ll get to reap the rewards.

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