Many vacation rental companies who use PPC advertising like Google AdWords make one very critical and common PPC mistake. That is, they send everyone who clicks on their PPC ads to their website’s home page. Why is this such a big mistake? It’s because your home page offers the user too many options, which makes it less likely that they will take the action you really want them to take. Instead of sending them to your home page, you should link each ad to a page on your website that is very closely related to the subject of the keyword targeted by the ad.

For example, when searching for “New York City Vacations” using Google, TripAdvisor’s AdWords ad appears first. When readers click on the ad, instead of being directed to TripAdvisor’s home page or even their main page for New York City, they are instead taken directly to “New York Deals,” a page displaying specific rooms, information and ratings where users can easily find NYC accommodations and actually book their stay. After all, booking a stay is the action TripAdvisor really wants the user to take.

Here’s another example. Say you are a vacation rental company in the Orlando, Florida area and you bid on the keyword “Kissimmee vacation rentals”. Instead of linking to your home page, your PPC ad should link to a page on your site that includes only vacation rental homes in the Kissimmee area.  This meets the needs of the user much better because the user is clearly looking specifically for Kissimmee rentals. The more precisely you can meet the needs of the person clicking on your ad, the better your chances are for converting that user into a booking.

You are paying for every click; therefore you should want to optimize each one to the fullest to increase the chances your clickers are going to take the action you want them to take. The best way to accomplish this is to send them to a page that only offers them one action that satisfies their need based on the keywords they have searched for.

This can also be accomplished effectively using landing pages. Create a landing page specifically for your PPC ad that contains a form to capture the information of the clicker, offering a deal or special, for example.

By following this simple rule, you can avoid making one of the most common mistakes vacation rental companies make with PPC and increase the ROI of your PPC campaigns.