Using paid ads, companies have the potential of massive growth opportunities, but how do you know if your campaigns are working their best? Just like many other platforms in the online space, paid ads come with a dashboard of numbers and statistics that result from your efforts, and if you’ve ever felt yourself getting lost in pages and pages of data, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Impressions, CPC, cost/conv – even if you’re used to looking at Google Analytics for your website’s data, Google Ads and Bing Ads come with their own series of terms and metrics you’ll have to become familiar with.
It’s an overwhelming amount of data, and we’ve only just scratched the surface. But this begs the question – how can you get the most out of your PPC campaigns?
Get To Grips With Your Data
To understand how things might look when things are going wrong, make sure you understand what your data looks like when things are going right.
Take note of all your metrics as time goes on. Metrics we recommend you monitor include:
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
- Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
- Purchases
- Purchase rate
- Search Impression Share
Make sure you collect this data for both your account as a whole, and each campaign / ad group you create. Try this monthly at first.
If you can collect at least one years’ worth of data, then you’ll have a personalised data benchmark, which will become more refined and accurate year after year. This will also help you understand how seasonal your business is, allowing you to be more prepared for both slow and busy months.
If you’ve already been doing PPC for some time, but haven’t collected the above data, it’s not too late to review and analyse data from previous months.
Noticing Problems
Once you have your data benchmarks, you may notice some problems. If last year you had a click-through-rate of 3%, and this year its closer to 2%, what is this telling you? If your cost-per-click was previously €1, and suddenly it’s €1.60 – why are your ads becoming more expensive?
Troubleshooting
So, once you have your data, and you’ve noticed some problems, you can begin to troubleshoot these issues to get the most out of your PPC.
There’s plenty of resources online if you happen to notice specific issues but below are just a few of the most common problems we analyse, and their solutions.
Common Issues and Their Solutions
Reduced Impressions: If your impressions are down, it is a sign that your ads aren’t reaching people anymore. Maybe there’s an error with one of your ads, or maybe you have a new competitor whose bidding on the same keywords, or perhaps something happened within your industry that has lowered the intent of Google’s users for your service. To find out if you have a new bidding competitor, check your ‘Search Impression Share’ in the ‘Auction Insights’ section of Google Ads to see who your competitors are.
Click-Through-Rate Decreasing: If your impressions are roughly the same, but your clicks and CTR (click-through-rate) are down, then that’s a sign that there’s something wrong with your ad itself. Did you make a new ad recently? It could be less effective than the ads you had previously, and so you might need to swap back or make another ad again.
Cost-Per-Click Increasing: If your Cost-Per-Click is increasing, it could be a sign that a keyword has become more expensive than you’re used to. Did you add a new keyword to your campaign recently? Or maybe a previously depended on keyword has become more expensive. Either way, compare the cost of each keyword in your campaign to the average CPC cost your campaign should be at and you’ll find where your budget is going. If there is a very expensive keyword in your campaign, consider pausing it if it is not essential and your ads should become more cost-effective.
Reduced Sales: If your clicks and impressions are good, but your purchases are going down, this is a sign that something could be wrong with your website or purchasing journey itself. Have any changes been made to your website recently? If so, you might want to review these edits to help increase purchases. If not, go through the process of starting from your ad landing page all the way to purchase and see what can be improved.
Insider Tip: Consider using A/B testing to solve ongoing issues to see what performs best for you. Follow our guide to A/B testing from our recent blog.
Always Document
Over time, while managing a digital presence online, you will make a number of small changes. Whether it is a change to your ads, or to your website, make sure you document all the little changes that happen.
If one of the metrics on either your ads or website drops very suddenly, it is a sign that something has changed recently. Something as simple as a small change on an ad, or to your website, could be the cause. As issues arise, they will be easier to fix if you are aware of ongoing changes to either your ads, website, industry or target audience.
