The PPC Audit in 5 Easy Steps
We have auditing a new PPC account down to a science. Our “standard” review can take over an hour and end in a 4 page written report, but this is a good start for those jumping into PPC or wanting to understand what PPC consultants are looking at when they are reviewing an existing campaign.
I had the interesting opportunity this week to review an account with a client live on join.me. Usually I will review an account prior to the “interview”, but time did not allow for that this time. The client got to literally watch me walk through my review process to find the “yays!” and “challenges” of the campaign.
Below is our “PPC Checklist” that we loosely use for an audit. We have simplified it to 5 easy steps, but a million and one “sub-steps” 😉
1. I start on the campaign tab:
*Are you tracking conversions? If not, why not?
*Are you meeting your CPA goal? How far off are you?
*How is your CTR? Is it over 1%? (if not remember to check kw performance and ad copy).
*How is your overall ad position? Should you be bidding more/less?
2. Structure: I pull the campaign into editor to take a look at the account structure.
*How many ad groups are there?
*Are the kws jumbled or neatly and tightly themed into ad groups?
*How many variations of ad copy are there (Hopefully 2-3)?
*Are there Mobile variations of ad copy?
*Are ads rotating indefinitely?
*Are you using negative kws effectively?
3. Now back to the API to look at ad extensions.
*Are you using all of the extensions you can use?
-Sitelinks Extensions
-Location Extensions
-Call Extensions
4. Keyword Performance – Over to the KW tab:
*Do you have any big spenders that aren’t converting?
*Bad KWs that are pulling down your CTR and not converting?
*Do you have great converters? What are their positions?
*Are you managing your converters with specialized bids?
5. Search Query Reporting – Over to the dimensions tab for search queries.
*Are there new potential kws to add?
*Are there kws that should be tested in other match types?
*Are there new ideas for additional ad groups?
*New negative kws to add?
*Are your keywords triggering the proper ad group/campaign
#ppcconsulting #ppcaudit #ppc101
