Essential Facts That Nobody Told You About PPC Audit

Here’s a little secret about pay-per-click (PPC) advertising:

There is no such thing as a perfectly configured account. It simply doesn’t exist.

You can try, but no matter how much time, effort, and money you invest, there will always be something that needs to be tweaked. And so, as the reality dawns, you’ll see that this is a continuous process that requires you to remain vigilant.

To give your campaign the best shot at success, you should get into the habit of conducting a PPC account audit. We’ll show you how it’s done.

How to Conduct a Google Ads Audit

By doing a PPC audit, you can scrutinize your account to discover the specific areas that need improving. This is critical if you are to get the best possible return on your investment (ROI).

We advise marketers to carry out an audit regularly so that they ensure their accounts are fully-optimized. This is more than a weekly check over your keyword bids – you need to really drill down into your campaigns to find flaws and identify missed opportunities.

There are three core aspects you should study during your PPC audit:

• Account Structure
• Targeting
• Weekly Optimization Tasks

 

Organizing Your Account Structure

Getting your account structure properly set up is undeniably time-consuming, but it is time well spent. Any marketer that wants to generate profits from Google Ads should get this sorted before proceeding, as even the best copywriting and smartest bidding won’t be able to compensate for a poorly-structured account.

The PPCexpo Account Audit Report allows you to compare issues in your account with the industry best practices at three different levels:

Campaign Diagnostics

Typically, you’ll spend the most time focused on your campaign budget and reach as you try to configure your ads and keywords to get the most bang for your buck. There are plenty of ways to organize your ad campaign, but with the report, you will be able to align your settings with best practices, ensuring there are no critical flaws.

Ad Group Diagnostics

Unlike the campaign diagnostic, there is just one correct way to structure ad groups – make them tightly themed. The Account Audit Report enables you to analyze ad groups and find any issues with your keywords, bids, extensions etc.

Ad Structure Diagnostics

The overwhelming majority of people in PPC advertising don’t take enough time to improve their ad copy. Considering it is the most visible part of the ad, people should do more with it. Using our report will help you optimize your ad copy for better engagement.

Review Targeting Settings

Once you’ve designed your ad, you need to use targeting to ensure it will be displayed to the right people, at the right time. You can do that in the following three ways:

Location Targeting

There’s no sense wasting your budget by advertising to areas that have a negative ROI. Instead, consider where your audience is. Perhaps you can target just one country or even the local area?

By reviewing the geo-location in your PPC reports, you can determine which areas are worth targeting, and which are best to exclude.

Review Device Targeting

Does your audience prefer mobile to desktop? Your ads must be optimized for all devices, and you can split your budget to reach more people on the devices that they tend to use.

Check Ad Scheduling

It’s best to have your ads show when people are more likely to convert. This will differ depending on your industry, your products, and your audience. With some clever analysis of your customer behaviors, you can schedule your ads to display at the prime time, whether that’s a Tuesday lunchtime or Saturday evening.

Account Optimization

The trends indicate that spending more time working on your PPC account will help you garner more success. So, just how much time is enough?

If you’re merely going through the motions with a few minutes of tinkering each day, you may be fooling yourself into believing you are doing what’s needed. The PPCexpo report tracks activities and times and helps you gauge just how effective your optimizations are.

Consider the following areas every time you are looking to optimize your account for better results.

Landing Page Diagnostics

Imagine you have your PPC account fully set-up, but discover that despite all your best-laid-plans, the account is failing to get any conversions. In this case, 99% of the time it will be the landing page that is at fault.

Look at your landing page and ask yourself:

• Is the landing page relevant to your ad copy and keywords?
• Does it work on all devices?
• Does the landing page load quickly?

 
If you said no to any of those questions, you need to correct the problem. Our audit report can calculate speed scores, and also give you some insider tips on how to optimize your landing page to maximize your conversion rates.

Keyword Relevancy

The cornerstones of your account are never to be underestimated. A few irrelevant keywords can quickly drain your budget with a lot of clicks from people who will never convert.

Budget Spending

It’s imperative that you really study your budget spending to see that it is being allocated wisely. A comprehensive analysis will allow you to find match types that are wasting money, and device types that are costing more than they are worth. Looking at daily trends and the results of your targeting is a vital part of optimizing your account.

The Way Forward is With An Analytics-Driven Approach

Data gives marketers a lot of power, but it is only useful if you are performing a solid analysis on a regular basis. In doing so, you can really dissect your Ads accounts to see what is generating results, and what is costing your business too much money.

With an analytics-driven audit, you can evaluate your campaigns to identify new opportunities to reduce your costs and increase your profits. All that to say, doing this type of audit of your Google Ads account will allow you to do much more, for less.

Make no mistake:

A PPC account audit is essential, and you shouldn’t waste another cent without integrating it into your PPC management.