Even before many people write their first ad, they have already made one of the five killer mistakes that spell disaster for their Adwords campaigns.

Don't be like them. Check out the mistakes below and avoid them.

Mistake One: Targeting the wrong countries

Many people set their Countries and Territories Campaign Settings to 'All Countries and Territories' even though they probably can't sell to all those places. Why pay for a click from someone who will not be buying your products. Think carefully about which countries you can sell effectively too and only advertise to them.

Mistake Two: Don't advertise around the Clock.

Unless you are a truly Global company, there will probably only be certain times of the day when you customers are actively online. Therefore you really should be using the Ad Scheduling feature in the Campaign Settings. Pick your customers good times and don't advertise when they are active.

Mistake Three: Going for cheaper clicks on the Content Network.

Many first time users discover the content network and they can usually see much cheaper clicks. So in the mad desire for clicks at any price they pour more and more budget into the content networks. However the truth is that these networks rarely give anything like the conversion to customers that the search networks give. They are usually a tyre kicker's paradise so it's usually best to just avoid them.

Mistake Four: Ignore Conversion Tracking.

Come on hands up now. Who hasn't implemented Conversion Tracking on the campaigns?

Would you cross the road with your eyes shut?

Getting a great click through rate for a keyword is one thing but if that keyword doesn't give you any conversions to customers, is it such a great keyword?

Implement Conversion Tracking today and be prepared to be amazed at which keywords are really bringing in customers. You'll also discover the one that are bleeding you dry for no return.

Mistake Five: Too few keywords.

So many Adwords users set up their campaigns with the first one hundred or so keywords they can think of for their business.

The problem is that your competitors are doing exactly the same thing and you can bet they have come up with the same hundred keywords. So competition is going to be fierce.

You really should aim for thousands of keywords. People are getting more and more creative about the keywords they are putting into the search engines. They are actually using whole sentences rather than a keyword or two. So there is a massive wealth of untapped keywords out there just waiting for you. Unless of course I get there first!