Plenty of misinformation is spreading around related to Google Ads (Adwords) since its launch at the beginning of this century.

The evolution of Google's system and changes to the platform are some of the causes that gave birth to many myths that roll around this online advertising platform to this day and will undoubtedly live on as long as this platform exists. Because of their misconceptions, marketers face Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) platform as vainly unsuccessful.

Read on to learn about some of the most frequent myths that orbit around the most popular advertising platform.

#1 You must have all keywords in all match types for best coverage and results.

There is this misconception that having different match types will add more weight to the odds in your favor of triggering an ad with a keyword. Google doesn't see it as an added value, so it won't take it into account and simply grant you more coverage.

Since broader match types could also trigger queries as an exact match keyword would, putting this practice as unnecessary can be seen as some sort of an understatement.

That said, there are small chances that by implementing it, you will generate additional traffic.

#2 No one clicks on ads.

You don't click on ads, your family doesn't click on ads, your clients don't click on ads. No one clicks on Google ads?

You are somewhat correct; many people avoid ad clicking and skip it to proceed to organic search results to find what they are looking for.

However, you'd be surprised to learn how many people don't know or notice the little black bold "Ad" next to the top (and bottom) search results. This is partly thanks to Google's efforts to mask sponsored results. Before the black label, green outlined "Ad" labels could be seen, and before that solid green label, a predecessor to yellow labeling.

Statistics tell us that around 46% of searchers can't distinguish organic from paid ads on Google. This leads us to conclude that others are deliberately clicking on ads, either prone to making purchases or not.

#3 Single keyword ad groups (or SKAGs) help improve your Quality Score.

A miracle method to improve QS? There is an incessant debate on whether implementing SKAG is the right way for structuring accounts or not. Whether you read about it on different blogs or community networks like Reddit or listen to various podcasts, the oppressive disagreement between pro and anti-SKAG lead to different practices and preaching.

Does it affect the Quality Score? Some say that it does. Some PPC specialists swear in SKAG power and use it for all their clients.

Others think of it as a very outdated way of structuring your accounts, or that one shouldn't be bothered with creating too many SKAGs, as it would be hard to manage Ads account.

We would say that some keywords will just depict a low QS no matter what you do.

The issue with SKAG is that it's not a problem solver for all QS issues. It represents a granular account structure that, for many, will be hard to maintain.

#4 To sell, you have to be in the first position.

Some call it "ego bidding." When a client demands to be in the first position on the SERP and asks you to "do it," what do you say? Do you think that is relevant?

It makes sense to be aggressive and compete to appear on the first page of results because many people don't bother going to page number two, and by far, the most significant click share percentage is for the first page of results and top results.

That said, anyone could conclude with basic logic the rule "the higher, the better." But is it necessary to be number one?

Marketers go deeper into behavior and predict, measure, and analyze searchers' actions. They figured that many people click on the first couple of results, paid and organic. Many also judged that no correlation between ads' top position and conversion rate is evident. Going after the maximum number of conversions with the least possible spend is your race's goal, not to run for number 1 ad rank.

Numbers aside, the searchers are aware of the overabundance of options, and they merely seek the business that will satisfy their needs. The scenario is the following: A person made a search and now has a couple of tabs open, first 5-7 results. What happens next is evaluating whether your website, your message, and your products/service is relevant enough to keep the person stay, or will they close that tab and move along to other search results that better address and serve their needs.

Have you been following some of these practices that were shown to be, to put it mildly, false?

These myths are a piece of insight into how PPC specialists perceive advertising on Google and battle with it. (We might expose other myths in another post.) Many things confuse marketers when managing accounts and dealing with both clients and their accounts, and we hope that after reading this myth-busting post, you became a tone wiser.