PPC (pay per click) is almost the most efficient way for a small web based company to generate leads. Thanks to it’s unique ability’s to measure results precisely, target prospects in a narrow manor, and tightly manage your spending. That alone has made PPC one of the top lead generating tools ever.

However this technique does have it’s downside. Reason being is that PPC campaigns are so convenient, easy to set up and get started that the small business owner can easily spend upwards to thousand’s of dollars in just a period of weeks until they learn some hard lessons on what will be successful and what will bury you.

So here are some of the most common PPC mistakes, hopefully this is a useful outline on strategy that will start generating leads as quickly and efficiently as possible.

1. Problem: Using the home page as your landing page

There are many search engines that you can setup your PPC campaign with: Google, Yahoo, and others. It is your responsibility to decide where to direct the traffic that clicks on your ad. Most businesses send their traffic directly to the home page. Which seems to make sense since the home page is the equivalent to he store’s front door where you would think you would want to send your traffic. Right?

Wrong. Here is the dilemma in that. Most peoples home pages are so cluttered with information, and generally cover such a broad topic. It’s like pushing someone on to a site that contains the info. they need along with topics on totally unrelated issues. Good luck is what you mind as well say when they get to the home page. Obviously this will lead to a high frustration and failure rate.

Solution: Always take a clicker to a well crafted, easy to use and specific landing page.

2. Problem: Not bidding high enough to secure top spot

You are the advertiser. As the advertiser with PPC you have the option on how much you feel is necessary to pay for any particular search term. Being that PPC works on an auction model the more that you pay relative to the other bidding advertisers the higher up your ad will appear.

The most popular search terms will have up to a dozen or more ads listed on search result pages. This gives off the feeling that any noob can drive clicks with PPC. Consider this staggering statistic though, 85% of all PPC clicks are on the first page and on the top three positions! The scraps (15%) go to the remaining positions, which could number in the hundreds or more.

This all means that if you don’t bid high enough to get on the first page in the top three you are just wasting your own time. your not necessarily wasting money due to the fact that if no one clicks on it you pay nothing. Of-course if you make the decision to hide yourself further down the list it will be tough generating leads that will close the deals that you need to make.

Solution: Choose search terms and possibly less of them that will consistently make you appear in one of the top three spots.

3. Problem: Not making ad copy specific enough

With your two major search engines, Yahoo gives you 190 characters (including spaces) in your text ad. Google offers only 70. With no colors, pictures, or even a company logo. Only words. Many of the advertisers out there today waste this tiny space with vague, meaningless terms, or generalized statements that do not have a definitive uniqueness to what they are offering.

This leads to searchers not clicking on your ad, which once again does not cost you money but time and misses the whole objective. On the much more serious side of things the wrong searcher will click on your ad due to a poorly designed ad copy, realize when they hit the landing page that it is not what they were in sought of and you generate leads that will go no where but you paid for.

Solution: Be very specific and unique with your ad copy. If you have features that are unique to you or something that sets you apart from the others in your market this is a good place to make that known.

In short: PPC has a tremendous amount to offer your small business in terms of trafficking potential customers to you. Keep these few guidelines in mind when you start or revise your new PPC campaign and you will be transforming those clicks into a profit in no time at all.