1. Abandoning ad copy split testing after initial success
2. Misunderstanding margin and miscalculating ROI from PPC ad spend
3. Assuming top ad placement will result in the greatest conversion or ROI.
4. Not sending traffic to the most relevant pages
5. Disorganized campaign structure

Ok, I actually have 6 but "Top 5" sounds better so here is a bonus one:
6. Having too narrow or too broad keyword strategy

Got any other common mistakes you think should be on the list? lemme hear about them!

Overall, with our clients we see that the Pay Per Click ads on Google Search convert better (with a better ROI) than ads on the Google Content network. Ads on Google Search show up on the top and right hand side of the page when you do a search in Google, content network ads show on websites running Ad Sense (such as news and blog sites) that have content relevant to your keywords.

One of the biggest challenges I have had with running ads on the content network is that a major news story or popular event can trigger ads to receive a huge spike in impressions and clicks but not necessarily an increase in conversions. Without the ability to see which sites were driving all of the clicks, the only option was to scale back your bids on the content network or turn off the content network altogether.

Now with the Placement Performance report, you can see which content network sites are converting well and those that are not. You can use the site exclusion tool to eliminate sites that drive a lot of clicks but little conversions. And increase ad spend on the sites that drive the quality traffic that results in conversions and high ROI. This is accomplished with the site targeting feature.

I have also seen similar trends with ads on the Yahoo Search Marketing content network, where a news event triggers ads to receive a large increase in impressions, resulting in a large number of clicks with very few conversions. Hopefully Yahoo will continue to their strategy of copying the Google PPC platform and add this feature!

Actually, Yahoo recently did take one step to improving their content network by introducing Quality Based Pricing, realizing that all clicks from the content network are not created equal, something Google has been doing for a long time with their Smart Pricing.

So rather than shutting off your ads from showing on the Google content network when your cost per acquisition is high and ROI low, use this new transparency to improve your content network strategy by optimizing your ad for specific sites or weeding out sites that drive a lot of clicks but do not convert.

1. I fired up my Adwords Editor a few days ago and was prompted to install the latest version (v3.0). I have been using the editor for over 8 months now and have quickly grown to love the speed and ease of making large account-wide changes. The application has come in real handy for mirroring geo-targeted campaigns and making bulk changes to keywords and ad text. eWhisper has a good breakdown of all the new features in v3, but here are a few of my favorite:

• Export current view to CSV. Now you can export a custom view without having to export an entire campaign and modify a spreadsheet. This also helpful if you need to export certain keywords to add to another PPC account or a web rankings program.
• Pause / Resume Keywords, Ads, or Sites (see #2). This is great for when you need to pause a keyword but don't want to delete it or go through the trouble of creating a new ad group for it.

2. Google now allows you pause and resume keywords, sites, and ad creatives. In the past you were limited to pausing at the campaign and ad group level. This feature is cool because you can pause a keyword due to low inventory, seasonal changes, or poor conversion but keep it in its ad group, helping you maintain a well organized account.

3. Alright, the third is not live yet, but a big one that I am looking forward to. Soon you will be able to see URLs of the content sites that your ads are showing on. Previously, there was no easy way to find exactly which content sites were (or weren't) driving conversions and clicks. For example, I recently saw a huge jump in clicks from the content network in one of my accounts but absolutely no increase in conversions. When Google makes this update I will be able to go in and weed out the sites that are driving all the clicks and not converting, without opting out of the entire content network.

The JenSense Blog also makes a good point on how this will affect site publishers:

"From a publisher perspective, if you have good quality sites in the content network, you have nothing to worry about and a lot to gain. If you have sites that are less-than-stellar, the kinds of sites that advertisers wouldn't be so happy that their ads are appearing on, you might want to worry, or improve the quality of those sites."

• AdWords Ad Text - It is essential to split test your Google AdWords ad text. Just make sure you only have two ads running per ad group, accumulate clicks (over 30 per/ad), determine the winner, delete the loser and create a new ad to try to beat the winner. If you are running Google Analytics the Overall Ad A/B Testing report is a great way to see which ad text is driving visitors to your site. For example, through split testing I was able to determine that adding the word "New" to the title of my AdWords ads resulted in a significant increase in clicks and conversions. Don't forget that it is very important to look at conversion rates of the ads in addition to CTR. Generally you want to accumulate a good number of clicks before declaring a winner, however if you can't wait, check out SplitTester to see which of the two ads will really perform better over time.
• Email Marketing Campaigns - A great way to split test an email marketing campaign is to send out the email in waves. For example, if you are planning on sending out a promotional email to your list of 1,000, but are uncertain about which subject line to use, you can send out 100 emails with subject line A, and 100 emails with subject line B. Then compare the open and click through rates and send the remaining 800 emails the winning subject line.
• Landing Pages/Opt-in Pages - There are a large number of items you can test on a landing page such as the call to action text, the placement of the sign up form, inclusion of audio, etc... A service like Hypertracker will split your visitors between two pages and help you determine which changes to your landing pages will deliver the greatest increase in conversion rates.

Finally, to avoid skewing your data, it is important to split test at only one point of the sales process, Adwords, landing pages, sales pages, product pages, order pages etc...

That could -- and should -- be changing, according to the experts here. However, a big part of the problem is that online advertising isn't as easy as it should be for small business owners.

In the "Local Search Ads" session, Brad Geddes of LocalLaunch noted, "The typical small business owner's advertising effort usually involves just a few phone calls or conversations a year."

And in the session before that, Jupiter analyst Barry Parr observed that in local advertising, sales and service are a huge part of that business. "Creating an Adwords account and placing an ad on Google is not all that easy for someone who's used to placing ads in the yellow pages. Ad sales and service is the big missing link in online ads."

Seems to me that there's room for a smart entrepreneur to start serving the small business advertiser market more effectively. The big portals simply aren't cutting it. Either that, or (as Geddes recommended) the portals need to start offering more data and tools to agencies that are willing to offer the sort of support, guidance, and assistances that small businesses need in order to want to advertise online.

Direct from the Google Help Center, here's what the ads look like: Mobile ads contain two lines of text, with a limit of 12 or 18 characters per line, depending on the language in which you write your ad. Your destination URL appears on a third line if you choose to enter one. If you select the option that allows customers to directly connect to your business phone, a Call link will appear next to your destination URL. You can also set daily budgets and establish scheduled marketing messages.

The big advantage could be for advertisers looking to draw in local customers. For example, people who are on the road traveling and looking for a restaurant, hotel or service. David Utter from WebProNews.com commented on Google's strategy: "We know that Google and its competitors have been actively engaged in a battle for dominance in the local search arena. It makes sense to corner the mobile search market for advertising if possible."

Businesses purchase the ads through the Adwords interface, and must have either a mobile web site for pay-per-click ads, or a toll-free phone number for pay-per-call ads.

Now that mobile phones are fully integrated into mainstream America with over 200 million subscribers, mobile phones are and will continue to be an important place to deliver advertising.