To run a PPC campaign requires more than just creating an ad and making it live. If you think that is the only thing, then you will run out of budget in no time. This is where the hero PPC audit comes to the rescue.
When you do a PPC audit, you will have a thorough explanation of the funds that are being used and wasted. This will make sure your client’s campaigns are aligned with their business goals.
You might have come up with the idea to do a PPC audit, but not sure if you should or not. Well, here is why!
Why should you give importance to a PPC audit?
Campaigns don’t go with the flow you want
Of course! This is one of the major issues every advertiser is facing. Have you ever been in this situation where you have planned on something and it doesn’t go the way you wanted it to? Yep! We know how frustrating it is! When things don’t go as planned, there could be huge variations in results. You might have set up the campaigns, chosen the best keywords, created a perfect ad and allocated a good budget, but it still doesn’t perform well. You want to know why? Just do a PPC audit and you will get your answers.
Find out those missed opportunities
When you regularly do PPC audits, it will help you review the entire customer journey and find out what you have missed and how you can fix it.
Since a PPC audit looks at the whole campaign, it will show you where exactly your client’s customers are moving off the lane.
Know whether the campaigns are aligned with the goals
Regular PPC audits help advertisers know if they are going off the grid. It clearly indicates the portion where it all went away from the goal.
The business goals and the audience keep changing, but you have to put the changes into the campaign for it to reach the goal.
Keep up with the changes
The market keeps changing day by day. Your budget may increase or sometimes may decrease; clients would want a new ad if they find their competitors have better ones and even the goals can shift too. This must be too much to handle, being an advertiser, but when you do PPC audits, you can easily bypass those changes without stressing out.
These are some of the reasons why you should do PPC audits on a regular basis.
So now you might have come up with the question of how to do a PPC audit? Have no worries!! Let us guide you through a step-by-step guide on how to conduct a PPC audit.
A step-by-step guide on how to conduct a PPC audit
Step 1: Define what to focus on!
Data can be separated, but know why you should do a PPC audit and what to find out. There can be many reasons you need to do an audit, but find out which one stands out first.
Is it because you wanted to?
- Reduce the cost
- Increase those conversions
- Make changes to the strategy
- Or even for regular maintenance
Your reason can be anything. Also, decide if you want to do a PPC audit for the entire account or for a specific campaign.
The PPC audit can be conducted with a time frame of 30, 60 and 90 days. So, make sure to prioritize what you want to focus and do the audit.
Step 2: Review your ad campaign and account structure
Start from the base, the foundation is one of the most important parts in the success of a PPC campaign. When you have a poor structure, it could drain your campaign budget and destroy your ad target.
So, it is important to check your account structure. This could be anything from product category, service type, or even the demographic location.
Every campaign has a unique goal to succeed, and an ad group will have a theme with relevant keywords that allows relevant ad copy and a better quality score.
To be honest, a well-structured ad account is easier to optimise and report.
Step 3: Check the Conversion tracking
In a PPC audit, conversion tracking is as important as aligning the account structure. How would it be to work so hard on the campaigns and not know what result to expect?
Don’t know where to start?
Start by reviewing the conversion set-up in your Google Ads or whatever platform you are working on.
Next, find if there are any valuable actions taken, like purchases, form submissions, or even phone calls. Make sure to check if they are just the one and no duplicates are involved.
If you have backend tracking codes embedded in use them to check or use Google Tag Manager.
If you are importing conversions from tools like Google Analytics, make sure that they are linked and are attributed to data accuracy.
Step 4: Have a look at your campaign settings
Evaluate campaign-level settings as they directly have an impact on the performance.
Network Setting: Check the network settings, then ensure that the search campaigns are not enabled on Google Display Network. If this is enabled, it can waste your budget by displaying your ads on unrelated placements.
Location Targeting: Check if the location settings are right and make sure to remove the location that you do not want to be included.
For instance, you can target the people who are at the desired location and not just the ones who are just interested in.
Ad scheduling: This is another factor that drains your budget. You don’t want your ads to be displayed 24/7. Instead, check the best performing hours and schedule the ad to that particular time to avoid unwanted waste of budget.
Device Targeting: Analyse how your ads perform on different devices. Sometimes your ads may perform better on mobile devices when compared to desktops. You can adjust the bids according to it.
Step 5: Check your Keywords and Match types
Keywords can be called the heart of your PPC strategy. When you do the PPC audit, check if those keywords are actually relevant, have quality, and are they performing well.
Review the match types, whether if it is a broad match, phase match or an exact match. Keep an eye on those broad match keywords as they can display your ads for unwanted queries.
Search terms reports are another factor that can help you know what queries trigger to display of your ads. Get to know those irrelevant search terms and add them to the negative keywords.
Another factor is the keyword performance metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), cost per click, conversion rate and the quality score. Look out for it and pause anything that isn’t doing well.
Also, make sure there are no duplicate keywords used, which could kill the performance.
Step 6: Check your Ad Copy and Ad Creatives
After checking all those, make sure to evaluate the quality of your ad copy. When you have a strong ad, you will be able to see the impact of it on the CTR, the quality score and in the performance of the campaign.
Know that each ad group should have three ads that include Responsive Search ads.
Ask these questions to yourself, looking at it,
- Does your ad align with the keywords?
- Are your headlines attention seeking?
- Does the ad give clear information?
- Will the audience be compelled to click the Call to Action button?
These answers will help you compare the performance with the variations.
Make sure to check those ad extensions, whether they are correctly linked, check those call-outs and snippets as well.
Step 7: Check your landing page
All Call to Actions direct the audience to the landing page, so make sure to create an engaging landing page. You might have the best ad, but if the landing page isn’t proper, then you could easily lose the audience.
Make sure to check whether the landing page is relevant to the ad.
Also, check if the landing page is mobile-friendly and does it take a lot of time to load.
Different landing pages give you different conversion rates, so make sure to check them as well.
Step 8: Analyze the budget and the bidding strategy
Wiser use of the budget is essential for better returns. Start from the budget that is being allocated to different campaigns.
Check if you are correctly funding for those performing campaigns. Check if you are underfunding for the high-performing campaigns and overspending on the under-performing campaigns.
Review your bidding strategy: Whether you are using manual CPC or enhanced CPC, or automated bidding, Target CPA or Maximum conversion, check if they align with the campaign goals.
Step 9: Remove Negative Keywords
As you already know, negative keywords have the power to reduce unwanted ad spend. During the PPC audit, make sure to check the negative keywords list and check whether they are applied to both the ad group and to campaign level.
Keep your eyes on to the search term report and find out the low-performing keywords and add them to the negative keywords list.
Know that words like “free” or “jobs” or competitor names could waste your budget, so it is better to cut down on these to ensure the ad budget is used for high-intent keywords.
Step 10: Assess Audience Targeting and Remarketing
PPC is not everything about keywords; it is also based on how users react to the ad. It is best to adjust the bids according to the value of how the audience perform.
Next, preview and make changes to the remarketing strategy. Check if you are using,
- Remarketing List for Search Ads
- Display remarketing
- YouTube remarketing
Then categorize the audience based on their behaviour, such as product viewers, cart abandoners, purchasers from the past and customize the message accordingly.
Step 11: Review the Campaign Performance Metrics
If you have so far checked everything, it’s time to dive into the core metrics that decide the overall performance of your ad campaign.
Focus on,
- Click through rate (CTR)
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Conversion rates
- Cost per conversion (CPA)
- Impression on shares
Look out for these and optimize accordingly.
Step 12: Make it into a Report
Finally, put everything into a report of your findings. Categorize them according to sections, account structure, tracking, performance of the keywords, ad quality, budget and the bidding strategy.
Coming to an end, when you do a well-executed PPC audit, you will be able to find out what’s going wrong and rectify it. Starting from the account structure to the landing page, everything can be checked under the PPC audit.
So, now you know why it is important and how to do a PPC audit on your own. If you are finding it difficult to do a PPC audit, feel free to call us. We are happy to help.
