PPC: From Rags To Riches

Ding Ding! The all too familiar sound of the office bell signals a new client win. The Brief? PPC Management; “earn more, spend less”. As the thrill of the client chase drains, the reality of inheriting an existing PPC account sets in. Exactly what will you uncover as you lift the hood on the pre-owned (maybe not pre-loved!) PPC account? At Reckless we have seen it all when it comes to PPC; the good, the bad and the ugly. Thankfully we have developed a tried and tested method when it comes to forging a new relationship with client’s PPC accounts.

The average Brit spends just short of 3 hours per day online... 90 hours per month… 45 days a year.  If like me you feel well above average you are probably currently cringing about the number of wasted hours (if not days!) you have spent scrolling through those anonymous Facebook profiles. And while you were smugly browsing from the comfort of your couch, you would have been blissfully unaware of those thousands of Facebook Ads, Google Ads and remarketing ads you would have been subject to. In the first half of 2015, UK business spent ￡3.975bn on digital ad spend. In short, paid ads are big business.

If you have inherited a PPC account, the chances are that your client or company has been unhappy with its performance. But where do you start? With the pressure to perform weighing heavy on your shoulders, the temptation to make brash changes can be overwhelming, but we recommend you sit back, relax and take a minute to read our tips below…

Why?
At Reckless we will always, to the point of becoming Detectives ourselves, ask ‘why?’ “Why are you doing PPC? What goals do you want to achieve… What does success look like?” Understanding the ‘why’ allows you to implement a tailored solution that will achieve your PPC goals. Understanding your client's aspirations allows for clear expectation of results and performance…. Reducing those awkward conversations when you have to explain why the PPC campaign hasn’t hit 10,000 conversions! It is key to remember that even good accounts can perform badly if your goals are not aligned to expectation.

Often accounts have been passed from pillar to post, both internally and externally, meaning sight of the goals may have been lost. Alternatively, accounts may simply have been set up and left running with no specific aims or tracking of success. Both of these situations can be equally detrimental.

It is important to remember that PPC is an element of an overall digital marketing strategy. PPC is not a standalone strategy!

Audit
Historical auditing is key to providing insight into the rationale behind previous PPC campaigns. Running an audit even just on the fundamentals such as CTR, ad content, positions and negative keywords can provide you with a wealth of valuable insight. Doing your homework could prevent you falling into the traps of the previous account owner.

Quality Score
Quality Score is Google’s rating (1-10) of the relevance and quality of your ads and keywords. Multiplying Quality Score by your maximum bid determines your ad rank in the ad auction process. A poorly performing account can result in low Quality Scores and, therefore, high click costs.

When inheriting a PPC account it is crucial to identify low Quality Scores and put a strategy in place to fix them (and quickly!). Your Quality Score is dependent on a number of factors, including:

• Keyword relevance.
• Landing page quality/relevance.
• Ad test relevance.
• Historical account performance.

Little and Often
The temptation to jump in and make all your fabulous changes can be hard to resist, but believe us; take your time… PPC is a marathon, not a sprint. The dilemma between starting new campaigns or modifying old ones can be a difficult choice to make. As someone once said to me, the primary objective is to “stop the bleeding” and starting a healing process. Karma will only come back to bite you if you set out with aggressive change.

Track
With an abundance of reporting tools at your fingertips there is no reason to not track your performance. The key is to actually read the results and analyse what this means in regard to achieving your goals. Pretty pie charts and tables are of no use if you don’t actually interpret the data!

Unfortunately, like most things in life, there is no set roadmap or manual when it comes to inheriting PPC accounts, however, with our hints and tips we hope you feel a bit more at ease when it comes to tackling this sometimes seemingly wild beast.

Still feeling overwhelmed? If you think you could do with a helping hand when it comes to PPC management then give us a call on 01244 567560. We have waved our wand over many accounts, turning them from rags to riches!