Regular management and maintenance is vital to the health of any PPC account; constant updates, the rise of Google’s AI and ever-increasing competitor action means that any account which isn’t being constantly refined can only fall further behind.
The first step to improvement is a full audit to identify exactly where weaknesses and opportunities can be found; having a fresh pair of experienced eyes run through the inner workings of your account from the ground up can open endless opportunities for improvement, cut back on waste and amplify your performance at once.
When auditing the accounts of our clients, there are several areas that need looking into in all cases, these are;
Often overlooked, but a vital aspect of any well maintained account. A well structured account with clear naming conventions and single-intent AdGroups not only lets you find the data you need in a fraction of the time, but cuts down on potential for cannibalisation and other technical issues that could damage performance.
As naming conventions and keyword organisation are matters of logic, this is a task that is only suited for manual review and is often missed by agencies who rely too heavily on automation and AI.
The most important part of any PPC account is the targeting. No matter how high your budget and how perfect your ads may be, if they don’t get in front of the right people, it will all have been for nothing.
Reviewing the audience of your account will first require an in-depth understanding of who you’re trying to reach; be it location, personal attributes such as age or gender, industry or simply the need they have at the specific moment of search. Once this has been established, this can be sense-checked not only against the targeting of each of your PPC campaigns, but also against the intent of the keywords being bid on; do they match the need of the target audience, or is the phrasing leading to irrelevant traffic.
As an example of why this is such an important factor; one client we audited in the past had set their target audiences to “observe only”, meaning the affected campaigns were showing globally to all audiences, not just the target audience. Shutting down the affected campaigns reclaimed over $55,000 yearly budget for our client with zero loss in core conversions,
The best way to check if the intent of your keywords matches your core audience is to use real data; in this case that refers to the search term report. The search term report can be found in the “Insights and Reports” section within AdWords and will show you a cross-section of the actual searches which have triggered your ads to show.
Careful review of the search terms report can offer insight into exactly when you’re reaching your audience; what the intent behind their searches are and whether it matches your goals. Regular review of this report allows you not only to identify poor performing terms in need of removal, but also to build a negative keyword list aimed at blocking irrelevant variations of relevant keywords over time.
A common example of this is jobseeker traffic; when offering a specific service, your ads will almost certainly also show to users looking to enter that industry themselves. Careful analysis of search terms and the application of negative keywords is a quick and effective way of maximising your budget by minimising wasted spend.
Having your ad shown to the right audience is only half the battle; you need to provide them with a compelling reason to choose your advert over your competitors' entries and all organic listings too. The secret to this is to address their needs directly; what are their pain points, what are they looking to accomplish and how does your offering serve that end goal. A fine balance needs to be struck between appeasing Google’s algorithms and aiming for the highest possible quality score and writing AdText compelling enough to drive clicks, even if this may result in lower quality score and higher CPCs overall.
When reviewing your ads performance, CTR is the most important metric to review as this directly measures how often it’s been seen versus clicked, however this is only part of the full picture. For a fair analysis, you’ll also need to consider the position the ad you’re analysing appears in, as CTR drops sharply the further down the page you appear, as well as how relevant the text is to ALL keywords within the campaign, not just the highest volume terms; you may find that it isn’t the advert, but the keywords which are the core issue.
It’s good practice to split-test your poorer performing adverts on a regular basis with new ad copy, which can be a good time to try out new tactics and phrasing and see what engages with your audience the most.
A good landing page has a large number of considerations to factor in. Firstly, it needs to be engaging; keeping your users on the page and digesting the content rather than bouncing and looking elsewhere, but also needs to be compelling enough to drive readers towards the core action you want them to take, which is most commonly achieved through the use of CTAs or forms which clearly show value to the user and a stripped-back nav to cut back on distractions.
A landing page also needs to take Google’s quality score into account. You’ll be rewarded for offering a clear and consistent user journey from keyword, to ad, to landing page content. A well refined journey returns a high quality score and therefore lower costs overall.
When analysing your landing pages, we take into account your target audience and their intent, the keywords pointing towards the page, the content, calls to action and overall relevance to determine whether improvements are needed. In many cases, small tweaks to phrasing can be enough to make a difference, other times entirely new landing pages may be needed to target unique user intents not catered for, or suitable for the current page.
Data is the backbone of any analysis; the more comprehensive the data the more accurate the analysis. To be able to prove ROI through PPC and allocate your digital marketing budget effectively, proper conversion tracking is a necessity.
The types of conversions you track, level of granular detail and value you assign to each will vary depending on your industry, budget, volume of traffic and company goals. When evaluating your conversion tracking, we’ll always start with a conversation about your goals and work backwards from there, analysing whether your current approach matches your desired outcome, whether all conversions are firing correctly and if changes are required.
Once we have enough data to show the performance of your account in detail, we create a reporting dashboard as standard; showing all the metrics most important to you in an easy-to-digest format bespoke to your needs. This not only allows you to understand your performance at a glance, but also takes the effort out of your own internal reporting too.
If you’re concerned you’re not getting the most out of your Google Ads Account, contact our PPC experts, or read more about our PPC audit services here.