Auditing Your PPC Campaign: How to Do It & Identify Metrics

If you supplement your organic SEO efforts with paid search advertising (i.e., Google AdWords), you know there are a lot of metrics available to track and analyze: cost per click, cost per acquisition, cost per lead, average position, conversion rate, etc.

Understandably, it can get overwhelming and confusing. It's vital to narrow down key metrics that gives you meaningful insight into what works (and does not) in your paid search campaigns.

Read on to learn more about how to audit your PPC campaign and important metrics:

Check The Settings For Your Location & Target

The ideal starting point for PPC campaign auditing is to check your targeting and location settings. Make sure that you properly set the regions that your business serves. Keep in mind that you'll be able to exclude locations your company can't ship to or doesn't have stores at.

You will also be able to review geo-reports, determining what locations are the best-performing ones. It will help you prioritize your ad budget.

Compare Your Ad To Your Landing Page

It's possible that your analytics review will reveal your PPC ads not converting. Look at your ads and landing pages to make sure that the landing page matches the expectations set by the ad.

If there's "Free CMS" marketed by an ad, but the landing page is focused on an inbound marketing certification, that's a rough disconnect. Make sure your headlines and ad copy match the landing page you're linking.

Make Use of Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are one of the best ways to make your ad stand out from the crowd. Ad extensions give you the option of giving more information about your product or service to your potential customers by including links or phone numbers. The information can be a phone number, site link, or even star ratings.

If you've got nothing set up to this end for your PPC campaigns, it may be time to enhance ads with them.

Do A Keyword Assessment

The tools in Google AdWords are great for managing your campaigns. When you choose keywords for your PPC campaign, you can use tools in the Keywords tab to analyze your keywords. For example, you can look at the keyword ideas and the negative keywords.

Make sure to target keywords relevant to your product or service that have a high search volume. If you're using broad match, then you'll want to add negative keywords to your campaign. For example, if you're advertising for a surfing workshop on the beach, then you'll want to add negative keywords for other kinds of workshops. These are the kinds of things that make AdWords easy to use and pay off.

Conclusion

Properly auditing your PPC campaign requires a clear grasp of what analytics matter and what can just fall to the wayside. It's important to do it right and identify proper metrics. Start with checking the location settings and target settings, do a keyword assessment and compare your ad to your landing page for a proper evaluation.

Trying to find a social media marketing agency that can help audit your PPC campaign? Drop Market Grab a line today! We’re a team of dedicated professionals that provide digital marketing strategies and search engine marketing solutions.