Managing a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign can be difficult at times, especially when there’s a lot of competition for keyword phrases that cost a lot. Prices for the most coveted keyword phrases are rising and the overall cost of a PPC campaign in a competitive industry can be downright outrageous, with major corporations spending tens thousands of dollars a month on Pay Per click Advertising. Couple the high cost of a PPC campaign with someone doesn’t know how to manage a PPC campaign properly and it’s downright dangerous.

As someone who manages many Pay Per Click campaigns through the Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (and has been doing so for several years now), I often come across some pretty outrageous and costly Pay Per click mistakes. I recently uncovered a simple mistake that is costing companies thousands of dollars. This is my all-time favorite (funny) Pay Per Click mistake:

If you aren’t in the Keyword business, then don’t bid on the word “keyword”.

To explain this extremely common Pay Per Click mistake, let’s take a look at the search results on Yahoo! for the word “keyword”. Granted, there are companies (like keyword research services) that literally are in the business of selling “keywords” and “keyword phrases”. These businesses help search engine marketing professionals (and others who manage PPC campaigns) come up with keywords related to your business. But is it appropriate for Dell computers, Frisco Honda, the Quilling SuperStore, and Staples to be bidding on the word “keyword”? Certainly NOT! Take a look at the screen capture below for a sample (click the picture for a larger version):

This common Pay Per Click campaign management mistake doesn’t only take place on Yahoo! Search Marketing. People who are managing Pay Per Click campaigns are also making this mistake at Google, using the Google AdWords program. Let’s take a look at the same mistake made by people managing a Pay Per Click campaign at Google. Today, when I checked the search results at Google for “keyword”, there weren’t many people making this mistake, But, why is a law firm bidding on the word “keyword”?

Exactly how do these people who are managing Pay Per Click campaigns make such a horrible mistake? It all has to do with their lack of attention to detail. Let me explain.

When you’re managing a Pay Per Click campaign, you have to come up with lots and lots of keywords and keyword phrases that have to do with the product or service you’re selling. In many cases, the larger the PPC account the more money is being spent. And the larger the PPC account the more keywords and keyword phrases that are involved. So, many people will use a spreadsheet or other program to list all the keywords that they want to bid on. Here’s a sample list:

Keyword
——-
computer
computers
computer repair
computers repair
computer repairs
computers repairs
broken computers
broken computer
fix computer

As you can see from the short list that I’ve created, it would be fairly easy to copy the whole list, including the “heading” of that list, which is “keyword”. It would be easy to copy the list and paste it into your list of keywords that you’re bidding on at Google or at Yahoo!. So, if you were to copy that whole list and paste it you would be bidding on the word “keyword”. This is a simple mistake, but a lack of attention to detail causes companies thousands of dollars every month.