How to Do PPC Audit - Checklist for PPC Audits
The best way to overcome this gap is to do an extensive PPC audit anytime you take on an existing AdWords account.
Here’s a checklist of the first things I look at in my search campaigns when I dive into a newly acquired account.
PPC AUDIT STEP #1: BE SURE CONVERSIONS ARE BEING TRACKED
Neglecting to track conversions is one of the biggest mistakes a PPC manager can make. Without this data, it’s impossible to understand whether all of your hard work is paying off!
PPC AUDIT STEP #2: REVIEW TARGETING SETTINGS
Setting your campaign targeting settings is a simple activity that takes five minutes, tops, but one small misstep in this section can have a profound impact on your account performance. Dive into each of your newly-acquired campaigns to review the previous owner’s targeting settings and ensure they make sense for the business.
Key items to check in on are:
- Network Settings:
- Mobile Bid Adjustments
- Target Locations
PPC AUDIT STEP #3: AD GROUP RELEVANCY
The general rule of thumb is that an ad group should never contain more than 15-20 keywords and, for auditing purposes, I think this is a good jumping off point. Scan your newly inherited account to find ad groups that hold more than 20 keywords. These are likely the groups that will require the most clean-up.
Realistically, your ad groups’ keyword count won’t impact performance. However, keep in mind that you’re serving the same set of ads for every keyword in a given ad group. If your keyword list is huge, it is likely includes various themes, meaning you’re forced to write generic ad copy.
Instead, your goal should be to populate each ad group with a list of super-granular keywords that all share the same semantic theme. You can then create hyper-specific ads for each ad group that are truly reflective of what the searcher is looking for.
PPC AUDIT STEP #4: CHECK NUMBER OF ADS ENABLED PER AD GROUP
If the account you inherit only has one active ad in each ad group, it’s an indication that the previous manager was not testing ad variations, which severely limits account optimization. On the flipside, having multiple active ads per ad group can also be detrimental. Likely, the previous owner was a testing zealot who dreamt up plenty of ad creative and tried to test it all at once (fail) or he just never bothered to end any of his tests (double fail).
The sweet spot you should be shooting for is two to three ad variations per ad group. This is a manageable number of ads to run tests with. Once you’d identified your winner, pause the losing ad and try testing a new variation.
PPC AUDIT STEP #5: DIVE INTO AD EXTENSIONS
If your new account doesn’t have any ad extensions set up, hop to it! In this day and age, extensions are not a nice to have, they’re a must for creating competitive ad copy.
PPC AUDIT STEP #6: REVIEW KEYWORD MATCH TYPE SETTINGS
A well-run AdWords account typically includes keywords set to a variety of match types. Each serves a unique purpose, for example broad match is great for keyword research, while exact helps to ensure you’re only connecting with the most highly-qualified searchers.
PPC AUDIT STEP #7: QA YOUR NEGATIVE KEYWORD LISTS
Negative keywords are your best defense against impressions and clicks from unqualified searchers. If the previous account manager was not utilizing negatives, your work is cut out for you. You can proactively set negatives by doing some guesswork, but with an active account, I like to take more of a reactive approach. Try heading to your query reports to understand exactly what terms have been triggering your ads. Be on the lookout for terms that you do not want to continue showing for and set them as negatives.
Source: https://vimalkrsingh.blogspot.in/2016/07/how-to-do-ppc-audit-checklist-for-ppc.html