Pay per click advertising is one of the most targeted and effective ways to get targeted traffic.
What makes PPC traffic so attractive?
Firstly, the bigger PPC traffic sources like Google generate this traffic by showing your ad whenever a user does a search for a keyword you are targeting. This is very lucrative traffic because your value proposition is being shown the prospect at exactly the moment in time that person is most interested in what you are offering.
The second biggest source of PPC traffic is when your ad is shown next to web page content that mentions the keyword you are targeting with your ad. Since most of the readers of that page is interested in a particular subject matter and your ad is related to that subject matter, there is a good chance they’ll click on your ad to find out more.
Given such relevance and targeting, it is no surprise that many markets enjoy lots of success with PPC ads.
However, there are certain mistakes and missteps you can take that can lead you to wasting your PPC ad budget. Keep the following mistakes in mind to increase your chances of PPC advertising success.
Picking broad terms
Too many PPC campaign managers are in such a rush to get their campaigns going that they can get quite sloppy in their keyword selection terms. One of the most common mistakes is to pick a term based solely on its search 
volume.
The problem is that while such terms get searched a lot, the people doing the searching have varying motivations. In fact, in a large number of keywords, most of the people searching for a broad term have no intention of buying anything.
They are merely researching or have other concerns. These searchers, obviously, aren’t your target customers.
Why pay hard-earned money to get their clicks when they will probably not buy whatever it is you’re offering?
Worst of all, these broad terms get search so much that they get a large number of clicks in no time. This is a problem because the majority of those clicks are from people who aren’t looking for what you’re offering.
While you can word your ad in such a way that you highlight the fact that they will buy, enough non-buyers still click through as to sink your PPC budget.
Picking non-commercial terms
All keywords are not created equal. There are certain phrases that are ‘slam dunks’ when it comes to commercial value. People would only type these phrases in if they are actually ready to buy.
If you pick non-commercial terms, you are rolling the dice and hoping that some of the people clicking will buy.
By focusing on purely commercial terms, you are increasing the chances that the people clicking through will actually buy or leave their contact information.
Sure, these commercial keywords cost more money but their return on investment (ROI) is usually better than that of non-commercial keywords.
Failing to do competition analysis
The good news for people looking to conduct PPC campaigns is that their competitors have already done their homework for them. These competitors have already set up a short list of keywords they’re paying PPC money for.
Work from their lists to find low-cost commercial keywords with decent search volumes.
Sadly, not enough PPC managers do this. Consequently, they often wage brutal bidding wars with competitors for certain keywords which end up depressing their ROI.
Instead of trying to beat your competition head on, look to swoop in on keywords the competition is neglecting.
Ignoring organic results
While Google has encrypted organic results from its search engine, you can use Bing to figure out what search terms people are using to find your website. Some of these organic terms may be low-cost commercial keywords that can delivery a very juicy ROI. ( See how to use Bing Keyword tool )
Use your stats to clue you in on keywords that might make your PPC campaign successful.