B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Cardinal sins of PPC campaigns

July 10th, 2009 Posted by: Bill Gadless

PPC is so easy to start that it’s also easy to do it wrong – or at least sub-optimally – and probably not even know it (kinda like how computers have enabled us all to screw things up much faster).  So it was good to see that search marketing guru Todd Miechiels has updated this evergreen topic in “7 Cardinal Sins of B2B Search Engine Marketing” (a 5-page pdf, and well worth a read) …to include such points as:

• not having a clear, realistic goal
• not having fundamental sales and marketing elements in place
• not being diligent about testing and refining

Commenting on Todd’s piece for SherpaBlog, Sean Donahue adds an eighth sin:  neglecting your PPC landing pages.  As he points out, landing pages are the linchpin of any PPC campaign;  it’s where a click becomes a lead (or not).

To avoid this mistake, Sean suggests actually starting with the landing page and working backwards, focusing on the key elements that will drive your conversion rate.  With a good landing page in hand, it’s then easier to work back to the ads that will drive traffic to the page.  But going the usual way – spending all your energy on the ads, and treating the landing page as an afterthought – is responsible for way too many PPC “bridges to nowhere.”

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, PPC, Search Engine Marketing