SEM Campaigns: 4 Mistakes to Avoid

The Internet has become an indispensable tool for any business, but, within this, SEM campaigns should be highlighted. 

What are SEM campaigns? 

SEM campaigns refer to the strategy of carrying out search engine advertising campaigns. 

The great example is Google, with its Google Ads tool. 

These campaigns aim to The main objective is to appear in the top positions of search results, all based on the terms and concepts most searched for by users. 

What are the most important concepts to take into account in SEM campaigns? 

Although there are several concepts to know, we will highlight some fundamental and basic ones below: 

• Keyword:

It is arguably the most basic and important concept of any SEM campaign, as they all work on the basis of keywords. 

These keywords must be purchased, so that every time the user uses them in the search engine, our campaign appears. 

We must also remember that they must be chosen carefully and based on the needs of our audience. 

We must not forget that we also cannot use our competitors' brands as keywords.

• Cost per click (CPC) and pay per click (PPC):

Both concepts refer to the performance of the user who accesses our advertisement. 

In this sense, the CPC is the value that we are going to pay for each click received and the PPC is the effective clicks that we must pay, since the CPC is only paid if the user accesses our link. 

• Quality Score or quality score:

Finally, it is worth mentioning the quality level, a metric that helps us to know whether we are good advertisers or not and which rates us on a scale of 1 to 10. 

Thus, the higher our score, the better our ads will be positioned and the less expensive they will be. 

What are the most common mistakes in SEM campaigns? 

Having seen some of the most basic and important concepts of SEM campaigns, we are going to comment on the most common mistakes, most of them affecting some of the terms mentioned. 

1. Incorrect grouping of keywords 

One of the functionalities of SEM campaigns is the possibility of grouping keywords that have something in common or are related to each other. 

Unfortunately, such groupings are not common and are often grouped together in the same ad group, which is often not very effective. 

For this reason, It is advisable not only to ignore possible groupings, but also to do it in an appropriate way, being more effective the distribution of words in different groups of ads, thus allowing to adjust them more precisely. 

2. Lack of negative keywords 

Just as we must include those terms necessary to define the search and for our ad to appear, we must not forget about negative keywords. 

LNegative keywords are necessary to exclude our ad from certain searches, helping us to better adjust the SEM campaign. 

3. Ignore the Quality Score 

As we have already mentioned, the Quality Score or quality score allows us to know in which position our ad is placed, as well as determining the cost per click (CPC). 

For this reason, It is essential not to overlook this metric, as it will not only help us to understand the status of our SEM campaign in order to consider possible improvements, but it can also reduce our cost. 

4. Inadequate Landing page 

Finally, and perhaps the most serious mistake, is not to set up the right landing page, i.e., that the user is redirected to a landing page that does not correspond to what is advertised. 

In this sense, We must be very careful with the landing page chosen, as this mistake can lead to the loss of potential customers for your business and render your SEM campaign ineffective.