PC Audit Handbook: How to Analyze Your PPC Campaigns

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is so much more than a simple click. Successful campaigns are the result of meticulous research, skillful preparation, and constant adjustments. That’s why scheduling a regular audit of your PPC campaigns should be on every company’s checklist!

What exactly is a PPC audit? 

A PPC audit is an analysis of how well your current efforts are working. This involves analyzing how well your site ranks, relevant keywords, identifying any issues with your PPC campaign, and making changes to improve performance.

How often should a PPC audit be completed? 

Frequent audits should be taking place year-round: at least once per month is necessary to ensure that campaigns are running at their highest level of success.

What’s the difference between strong and weak PPC performance? 

At its core, bad PPC performance occurs when advertisers spend too much money for every click they receive. Strong PPC performance means high conversion rates from paid search ads. Here’s an example from Google Ads: the goal should be to achieve at least a 1% click-through rate for each ad group, meaning out of 100 clicks, 1 person would click on your ad. Strong PPC performance also means that you achieve high conversion rates for keywords that are relevant to your business.

What is a PPC audit checklist? 

1. Start with an initial review of the campaign settings and content. Are there any issues such as keyword overlap or negative keywords? How many impressions or views does each keyword get?
2. Check out the landing pages and their conversion rates. Is conversion tracking even happening? What are your conversion goals? 
3. Compare them to your competitors’ numbers, or industry standards if that information isn’t available.
4. Make changes and start testing different ads and ad groups to determine which ones perform best.

What are common issues that a PPC campaign audit can uncover? 

• Poor landing page design with low conversion rates
• Irrelevant or overly competitive keywords
• Ineffective bid strategies 
• Expense price-per-click due to low-quality score 

How can you improve landing pages? 

When optimizing a PPC landing page, you should focus on improving the conversion rate and the user experience. Create a compelling headline that grabs attention. Write a clear description that answers all questions about what the product/service does for the customer. Finally, include calls to action that tell customers exactly what they need to do next. Make sure the page is are mobile-friendly and easy to navigate. 

How do you optimize keywords?  

The more targeted your keyword match types are, the more expensive your CPC will be. Consider looking into longtail or negative keyword lists instead to optimize your campaign! First, longtail keywords may have a lower search volume,  but there is usually lower competition, Second, a negative keyword prevents your ad from being triggered by a certain word or phrase that you don’t want to show up for. Using negative keywords can help to reduce and improve your CPC by ensuring you are not bidding on irrelevant terms.

How do you improve bidding strategy?

A strong PPC bidding strategy is one where you bid for keywords based on how much traffic they generate, rather than just blindly bidding for them all. If you do not know what keywords bring in traffic, use Google Adwords Keyword Planner tool to find out which ones bring in the most traffic. Then, you can bid on those keywords using the keyword planner tool.

What are some other ways to reduce cost-per-click?

• Avoid broad ad groups that cover multiple keyword groupings and focus on building out your account with tightly targeted ad groups.
• Spend time refining your CTA (call-to-action). Write persuasive ad copy that demonstrates why a searcher should click your ad rather than someone else’s.
• Take the time to analyze your competitors’ ads, note the similarities between those who are bidding on the ad space, and do something different. 
• Continually A/B test to improve your ad copy and measure the impact on CTR.

PPC audits are just a small sampling of our expertise!

If your PPC goals aren’t being met, reach out to ParaCore to take a deep dive into your PPC campaigns, and let’s get to work on maximizing your ROAS.