Be Aware of PPC Defaults
There are several PPC defaults to be aware of
Keep an eye on the default settings within pay-per-click advertising because they can affect your PPC account.
There are several default settings in both Microsoft adCentre and Google AdWords to watch out for.
For example the locations tab in the Microsoft AdCentre is set to international, meaning your ads will automatically show worldwide. For a more targeted campaign then make sure you pick the specific locations where you would like your ads to show.
Google AdWords also has some potentially unhelpful location defaults. The location setting groups America and Canada together. So ads for America will be displayed in Canada if you don't change this.
Also, the exact keyword match in Google AdWords isn’t exact. Now by default new campaigns group together plurals, misspellings and other close variants of a word.
If you have slightly different variants of keywords separated in your ad account that all perform slightly differently, you will want to make sure you have this default switched off.
Google AdWords campaigns are also set to advertise on the Display Network by default. If you don’t want to do this then you have to uncheck the box in Network settings. As a rule, ad campaigns should be kept separate for Search and Display because audiences are different.
So when creating a PPC campaign, or managing your current ones, ensure that your settings are not using default settings that could be damaging your campaign or wasting your pay-per-click budget.
Published on 20/05/2012
