Your home, your car, your closet – they all benefit from a thorough spring cleaning. The same is true for your PPC campaigns.
Dusting off your PPC strategy should happen regularly; more often if your ads strategy is fairly aggressive.
And if you haven’t taken a long hard look at your PPC strategy in a while, it’s time to deep clean and declutter your campaigns with a PPC evaluation so you know your ads are performing at their best.
The Benefits of a PPC Evaluation
There’s a difference between ongoing management of your PPC campaign and a thorough sweep of your ad sets, full analysis of your keywords strategy, and a deep dive into your and your competitors’ share of voice to see where your campaigns may be leaving traffic – and revenue – on the table.
Beyond evaluating current results, a PPC evaluation forces you to look into the future and pair best practices with your ongoing strategy.
And this forward-looking approach to PPC strategy is key. Algorithm updates refuse to slow down, so your campaigns better keep up.
A PPC evaluation is the best way to understand where your campaign is today and whether you’re traveling down the right road to get to where you want to be tomorrow.
Expect to Learn a Lot from a PPC Audit
There’s a lot you can learn when you take a peek under the hood of your PPC campaigns. In particular, there are four potential PPC pitfalls to look out for when conducting your evaluation.
- Low Return on Investment
Just because your PPC campaign is converting doesn’t necessarily mean you’re maximizing the potential of your ad budget. Look at your ROAS over the past 12 months. Then look at it year-over-year. If your business is seasonal, view metrics through that lens.
However you slice the data, if you’re getting clicks but your overall ROAS isn’t generating the revenue needed to justify the investment, boosting your ROI is priority number one.
- Ineffective Account Setup and Structure
So much of your PPC campaign success hinges on the proper setup and structure of your ad account. During the setup phase, you’re building the account’s foundation. If it’s weak, you’ll inhibit the growth and optimization of your campaigns.
Account setup and ad structure must follow a list of best practices that, on many platforms, are continuously evolving. Making necessary fixes starts by keeping pace with those best practices and giving each of your ads a sweep to ensure they’re doing their job.
- Incorrect Targeting and Settings
In most cases, PPC ads are set up to capture intentional search queries. To serve ads that answer or touch upon a person’s specific question or need requires highly targeted ads with seriously fine-tuned parameters.
The best PPC ads on the planet won’t reach potential customers if they’re not targeting the right audience. Plan to check in on your audience targeting at least every few months.
- Unimaginative or Unclear Ad Copy
Finally, your PPC evaluation should include a thorough audit of your ad copy. Ad copy is the ‘make or break’ of your campaign – it’s where your audience will decide whether they believe your ad promises to meet their need. If that copy is unimaginative, redundant, or unclear, chances are you’ve lost that potential customer.
When evaluating your ad copy, focus on your click-through rate and conversion rates. If those metrics are lower than your industry’s average, your ad copy likely needs some freshening up.
An Evaluation from a PPC Strategist is One of the Best Digital Marketing Investments You Can Make
Our PPC strategists love nothing more than turning dusty ad campaigns into clean, clutter-free PPC strategies perfectly optimized to perform.
Sign up for a Free PPC Evaluation with our PPC strategists. We’ll share opportunities for improvement, suggest new strategies to boost your campaigns, and provide a customized evaluation report to help you take action and clean up your PPC strategy.