1. Simple ad copy split testing by having a control ad and coming up with a new ad to beat the control in terms of conversions. Don't forget to use ad text with limited time special offers, this will really set you apart from the set and forgetters.
   
   
2. Pause or delete keywords that drive a lot of clicks (cost) but do not convert, or keywords with a ton of impressions but no clicks. This will help improve your cost/conversion, drive more targeted traffic, and increase your quality score.
   
   
3. Bid price optimization to achieve your target ad positioning - increase the bid price on keywords with a good conversion rate and low cost per conversion and decrease the bid prices on keywords with a very high cost/conversion.
   
   
4. Add additional negative keywords (For example, if you sell bicycles but do not rent or have reviews/comparisons then it would be a good idea to add "rent", "review" and all variations to your negative keyword list).
   
   
5. Exclude web sites on the content network (adsense ads matched to a sites content) that are driving clicks but not converting. There can be a lot of worthless sites out there, but trust me, you will find some hidden gems with excellent ROI. (Google and Yahoo offer this feature).
   
   
6. Refine geo-targeting by adding or excluding certain regions. Use your site analytics and determine where the highest quality traffic is coming from and target that traffic with specific offers and regional ad copy.
   
   
7. Enable ad scheduling and choose what days of the week and what hours of the day you want your ads to run. For example, a company like Victoria Secrets may find their ROI decrease significantly after 10pm due to a different type of "visitor".

So pick a few items weekly from the above list and make it happen. Leave set and forget for cruise control, auto-pilot and cooking.

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.

Now that is some powerful ad text so naturally I was compelled to click on the ad and read the report, well this was the resulting page:

Yup, nothing but a bunch of Adsense and no information on why Costa Rica sucks. As an advertiser I may not mind my ads being shown on the above page because the search arbitrager is likely bidding on keywords that I am not and it presents another chance for a searcher to see my ad and visit my site. It all comes back to ROI and whether or not visitors from the arbitrage sites are converting well.

However, as a searcher I was annoyed that the original "Costa Rica Sucks" ad did not deliver the content it promised in the ad text and the ads being displayed on the subsequent page were only semi-relevant to my initial search of "costa rica + surf camp". And that is the biggest argument against search arbitrage, poor relevance and a negative user experience. Since Google's bread and butter is high relevance and user experience I expect them to continue to crack down on the practice.

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."