The 10 Minute Analysis of Your PPC Account

As a PPC professional, I'm frequently approached to review PPC accounts current and prospective customers. Frequently this is a bottomless and intensive examination of each part of the account,  keyword list, ad copy, landing pages, and so on. Next times, we're simply searching for a fast evaluation of the strength of an account. Are there opportunities for improvement here?  Do you see any real flags that must be instantly addressed?

So what does one search for in a fast review of an account? Here are the 10 steps to a 10 Minute Analysis of Your PPC Account.

Step 1: Judge a book by its cover

It’s more of a way of life, really.

This is likely your first view to this account so don't want to ditch too deep for details. You won't know the details of each KPI, competitive differentiators, and periodic patterns so don't hope to know why each choice has been made. At this moment you get to kick back and judge based on very limited information. Appreciate Embrace it.

Step 2: Settings

This is the best place to initiate, as you can know a lot about the complexity of an account without expecting to know much about the particular sponsor. A couple of key things to think about: 

• Mobile bid modifiers –  There are always exceptions to the rule, however as a rule when you see all -100% mobile offer changes, it likely means a mobile system truly hasn't been recognized.

• Advertisement plan – Showing ads all days and hours? Zero offer adjustments? 

• Delivery strategy – Rarely do you see Accelerated Delivery, but if you do, check over every campaign for it. There are few occurrences where this makes well, so unless its main set for a couple of key campaigns, you may have an issue. 

• Bidding Methodology – No right or wrong here, yet you can take in a spot about how the account is managed.If all bids are being set manually, you might as well hope to see consistent bid changes by your executive. Assuming that each campaign is set to CPA bids, your manager might be more hands-off.

Step 3: Modify History

See how frequently changes are being made to the account using the Change History tool. There's not suitable answer here, yet you're searching for signs that there is continuous testing and adjustments being made. That may happen a few times each week or a few times each month, however in the event that you've got enlarged times of vacancy, you may need to observe.

Step 4: Automated Rules

Restricted change history is excusable when you've got automated system set up to perform a number of the consistent tasks for you. Some Common ways to use automated rules may incorporate bid modification, planning ads, or controlling budgets and cost.

Step 5: Trending Performance

How has the performance been trending? Are conversions normally increasing and value for every conversion commonly falling? You may need to know a little more about regular patterns, however take a look at the previous 6-12 months, or do a year-over-year comparison to guarantee the account is improving with time.

The Nitty Gritty

Step 6: Campaign Structure

Each person running a PPC account is set to have an different point of view on the best way to organize campaigns, naming conventions, and so on. I make an effort not to judge (too much) dependent upon these factors, yet there are a few general rules I attempt to stick to:

• Networks – Please let me know you're not focusing on Search and Display Network in the same campaign. I. Just. Can't. 
• What number of Ad Groups for every Campaign? What number of Keywords for every Ad Group? – I generally try to stick to 10-20 of every, yet there are many approaches to effectively arrange your campaign structure. Some love the thought of a single keyword per ad group. For the most part I'm searching for real outliers here. Many campaigns with a single ad group and 100+ keywords? That’s a major problem.

Step 7: Ad Copy Testing

Now is not the time to review ad copy and analysis click-through rates and calls to action. In 10 minutes, I’m looking for two things.

• Is ad copy particularly customized to every individual ad group? (Tips: if your ad group has 100+ keywords in it how might it be able to potentially?) 
• Has there been ad copy testing finished with any consistency? Are there paused ads, varieties of features or CTAs, testing of destination URLs? I couldn't care less at this moment in the event that they are great tests or not, I only need to see that somebody has been attempting.

Step 8: Keyword Match Types

Download all active keywords and sort by match type. Check. I'm searching for a healthy balance of keyword match types, ideally with a much heavier accentuation on Exact match than on Broad match.

Step 9: Negative Keywords

Do you have any? A lot or a little? This is another example where you aren't searching for particular inquiries, duplication across campaigns, or concerns with match types. You're simply attempting to measure if negative keywords has been a continuous attention, which might infer that over time a list would accumulate. When I see a couple of dozen negative keywords in the first ad group I've opened, you passed.

Step 10: Ad Extensions

Have you seen an Adwords cad recently that didn't have any ad extensions? Looks so pitiful and un-clickable. With such a variety of choices accessible to upgrade your ads, there's no excuse for why a campaign shouldn't have no less than one or two extensions applied. Truth be told, Adwords is presently incorporating ad extensions as a major aspect of their ad rank calculation, so it’s practically a must.

At last, I've experienced steps 1-9 with more than a moment to extra, I may utilize that additional time to check the quality of ad extensions. Are sitelinks utilizing the extra description lines, are extensions being utilized at the account, campaign, or ad group level, or are any beta extensions in place?

Conclusion:

Time yourself and perceive what number of you can overcome. Recall, there's a period and a spot for deeper examination, yet in the event that you need a snappy look to check whether your record has been getting the critic's choice medicine, this is a great spot to begin.