Google AdWords is all the rage in the online marketing world, among small businesses and big businesses alike. The concept behind the service is simple: pay a small amount of money to put your company’s advertisement directly in front of your target audience.

Unfortunately, all too many people, even professional marketers and PPC (pay-per-click) advertisers, make mistakes. And these mistakes can easily come back to bite you. A poorly managed advertising campaign not only wastes your hard-earned money, it also lowers your potential for conversions and hurts your overall profitability.

Below are seven of the biggest Google AdWords mistakes that businesses both big and small often make. Avoid these mistakes and your ad campaign will take off in new ways.

No USP

Your company’s USP, or unique selling point, is one of the most important things to include in any type of advertisement. And with only 70 characters available for Google AdWords, you need to make sure that your message really counts. Use the space wisely to showcase your company’s unique selling point. Do this and you’ll get even more customers to click on your ad.

No Budget

Many people, especially small business owners, start to use Google AdWords as something of an experiment. They don’t really make a plan or set a budget. In other words, they just kind of wing it. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to spend way too much on Google AdWords (without achieving any real results). So set a budget and stick to it. More importantly, learn from your experience, and fine-tune your budget on a regular basis.

No End Date

It’s essential to plan a start date and an end date for your Google AdWords campaign. However, all too many people overlook this important detail. Without a clear end date, your advertising campaign will continue running, even if it was entirely unsuccessful, racking up costs along the way.

Overcomplicated Ad

With just 70 characters to use, it’s best to make your ad as simple and straightforward as possible. An overcomplicated ad will immediately turn potential customers off. Today’s consumers judge online ads in as little as half a second. If you can’t get their attention in this amount of time, they’ll have already moved on.

No Keyword

We place such a large emphasis on search engine optimization largely because of Google. So you can bet that they’ve made it an important part of Google AdWords. Be sure to include one of your brand’s main keywords in either the copy of your ad or its header. The more your ad matches keyword searches, the higher it will be ranked on Google. As always, don’t overuse keywords or you’ll be penalized.

Misleading Ads

Perhaps the biggest Google AdWords mistake you can make is creating a misleading advertisement. For starters, you must ensure that the ad links to a relevant landing page. At the same time, your ad copy needs to be consistent with your website’s landing page. If you’re trying to trick customers into clicking your ads, you’re going to fail.

No CTA

An online ad won’t accomplish much without a clear CTA (call-to-action). As we’ve mentioned several times already, you must be clear about the product or service you’re offering. You must also make clear the steps an interested customer needs to take in order to receive it. Simply put, make your intentions clear (with words like “buy,” “shop,” and “purchase”) to increase conversion rates and meet your campaign objectives.

Remember that Google AdWords is all about experimenting. Even if you avoid all of the common mistakes discussed above, your campaign is likely to fail if you just keep doing the same thing over and over again. So test your ads, see which ones do the best, and continue to fine-tune your marketing efforts. Do all of these things and you’re sure to be successfully using Google AdWords in little time at all.