Campaign Analytics Techniques: How to Best Visualize Periodic Changes in PPC Data

Visuals have more power than most people realize. When it comes to Google Ads, it’s vitally important to assess the changes in your metrics so that you measure progress from one period to the next.

When you’re only looking at stats and numbers, this can be a challenge. However, when you have a visual representation of the data to work with, the task is considerably easier.

PPCexpo has recognized the value of this method and is now helping advertisers visualize changes – both positive and negative – in their pay-per-click (PPC) metrics.

How?

Through its custom visualization, the PPCexpo Change Chart.

In this article, we’ll find out more about this tool, and discover just how valuable it can be for PPC advertisers looking to improve their campaigns.

How to interpret the PPCexpo Change Chart?

Before diving into how the Change Chart works, we need to get to grips with the meaning of positive and negative changes.

What is positive change?

Let’s imagine that the metric value in the most recent period is greater than that reported in the previous period. In this case, we would record that as a positive change.

Positive change = Most Recent Period Impressions – Previous Period Impressions

E.g. 70 = 100-30

What is negative change?

If the metric value in the most recent period is less than the value reported in the previous period we record that as a negative change.

Negative change = Most Recent Period Impressions – Previous Period Impressions

30 = 30-60

This chart is actually a combination of two separate visual geometries – Raw Measure Segment and Change Segment.

• The Raw Measure Segment helps marketers visualize the actual value of a metric in the most recent period compared with its value in the previous period.
• The Change Segment visualizes the intensity as well as the sentiment of the change.

Let’s look at both of these in more detail.

Raw Measure Segment – Top and Bottom Horizontal Axis

Along the top and bottom horizontal axis of the Change Chart, there are impressions based on your Google Ads data. Each horizontal blue bar represents the impressions for the most recent period, whereas the gray horizontal bars represent the impressions for the previous period.Raw Measure Segment – Top and Bottom Horizontal Axis

Change Segment – Top and Bottom Horizontal Axis

This scale measures the intensity of the change. The length of the bars represents the intensity of the positive or negative changes.

Anything on the left-hand side of the zero reference point denotes positive change and will be displayed in green. Anything on the right-hand side of the zero reference point denotes negative change and will be displayed in red.

How Do We Plot Data in the PPCexpo Change Chart?

When you sit down to assess your keywords data, you will be able to determine all the keywords that have undergone positive changes, as well as those which have undergone negative changes in the same timeframe.

This chart always plots an equal number of keywords from positive and negative sets, beginning with those with the maximum positive change. It then works downwards, until the positive set is complete, before proceeding to the negative set, starting with those keywords with the lowest negative change.

So, if you wanted to plot the top 20 keywords from a list of 200 keywords in your Google Ads account, you can use this chart.

• You will create two separate sets – one positive and one negative.
• The top 10 keywords for positive change would be added to the chart with their values sorted in descending order.
• The top keywords for negative change would be added to the chart with their values sorted in ascending order.

If you don’t have enough keywords in either the positive or negative set, the tool will select more keywords from the opposing set to complete the total count, thus creating a balance in the chart.

What Is The Benefit of the Top and Bottom Scale?

You’ll notice that this chart utilizes the same scale for the Raw Measure Segment and Change Segment at the top and bottom. Some may wonder why one scale was not used.

Let’s imagine you drew the chart over the full length of a page, and somebody else is reading it near the bottom. In order to see the values, they would need to constantly look to the top, which risks the possibility of losing their point of reference.

By using this bottom and top scale, it is easier for anyone analyzing the data to measure the metric values without losing the context.

What Google Ads Dimension Can Be Used?

While the historical analysis of keywords is critical to success, that’s not all that we can do with this tool. The PPCexpo Change Chart can be used to measure change in a range of dimensions and key metrics from Google Ads, including:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Ad
• Keyword
• Search Term
• Landing Page
• Device
• Match Type
• Geography
• Day of week
• Hour of the day
• Date
• Network type

PPC Data Visualization Provides Deeper Insights

By learning how to use data visualization to simplify complex data, marketers can gain the upper hand on their competition.

The PPCexpo Change Chart provides all the key details about changes in your PPC data, and it presents the findings in a way that makes it easy to glean quick insights at a glance.

With this snapshot view of visualized PPC data, advertisers can get a better understanding of the most significant changes in key metrics without wasting any time. Do you want to see PPCexpo Change Chart in action on PPC data? Run our Top Movers Report today.