PPC Checklist - Complete

PPC Checklist - The most complete guide I have ever seen

I have used PPC - Pay Per Click in the past. (Not currently) - and it's VERY easy to get in over your head and lose money FAST.

Kyle has a great introduction to PPC here:

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/make-mone...

This is one of the best PPC Checklists I have ever come across and therefore I felt the need to share with you guys.... SOURCE: http://midasmedia.stfi.re/ppc-checklist/?sf=lrdeyb

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When you hear people talk about Pay per Click (PPC) Management they typically mean Google AdWords.

That said, PPC now spans a whole spectrum of platforms from social media, content, display and of course ‘the daddy’ Google search itself.

This actionable ppc optimisation checklist is directly attributed to managing an AdWords ppc campaign, but it’s fair to say it can be applied to other paid search marketing too. It can also be used as the basis for a campaign review and audit check list.

THE PURPOSE OF A PPC CHECKLIST?

You need a plan and structure (you need a checklist!), because your pay per click accounts won’t run themselves.

Simply put, keeping on top of your paid search campaign means:

• You control and reduce any wasted budget
• You improve your conversion rate over time
• You maximise the return on investment from PPC

WHERE TO START WITH OPTIMISATION?

Optimise for spend or conversions? A simple rule of thumb:

1. If conversions are high (and accurate), optimise your conversion metrics first
2. If your account is a low conversion account, look at your costs first
3. If you’ve high spend with high conversions, such as Ecommerce, focus on best sellers

SETTING EXPECTATIONS

In order to understand performance you must always outline your targets and KPIs. Key elements of your projections such be:

• Budget
• Conversions
• Conversion type (i.e. first-touch, lead, sale, return sale)
• Cost per Click (CPC)
• Click-through Rate (CTR)
• Cost per Acquisition (CPA)
• Historical performance

Frequency of measurement would be typically 30-days, month to month.

Bigger spending, faster moving AdWords accounts could be measured bi-weekly or even weekly.

Pay per click is forever changing

The below PPC checklist is a tried and tested formula – how do we know, because it’s based on our highly successful internal process:

PLANNING

• Housekeeping – ensure Analytics is linked and accurately reporting
• Conversions – tracking is configured and accurately reporting
• Metrics – understand and outline your KPIs
• Budget – set budget expectations
• Project performance – what do we expect to happen when we make the changes
• Reporting – define your frequency of measurement

DAILY TASKS

BUDGET

• Monitor and tend to spend vs conversions, split out campaigns that need more spend
• Measure against historical averages and your campaign targets

FAST MOVERS

• Look for daily issues in your Click-through Rates (CTR) and spend

ADJUST BIDS

• Manual adjustment of top-performers, bid up high converters with lower CPA
• Bid down low or none converting keywords, remember to consider assisted conversions
• Consider enhanced or automated bidding if >30 conversions per month
• Look for imperfections and issues with automated bidding performance

KEYWORDS

• Monitor poor performers, pause manually or create rules to pause based on spend/conversions
• Look for duplicate and cross contamination keyword issues
• Pause under-performing keywords based on spend and/or CPA

WEEKLY TASKS

POSITION

• How are top versus side positions affecting cost and conversions

REBALANCE

• Refine any performance anomalies such as a drop in CTR

KEYWORDS

• Use search term reports to find new keyword opportunities
• Extract and add negative keywords
• Split out and experiment with keyword match types
• Look for duplicates and cross contamination issues

MOBILE

• How is mobile performing versus desktop, adjust bids to suit
• Optimise click to call vs website conversions

BI-WEEKLY TASKS

IMPRESSIONS

• Run impression share reports and look for gaps to fill
• Are high converting Ad Groups and Keywords hitting >95% impression share

AD GROUPS

• Split larger groups >10 keywords into more targeted, smaller groups
• Create highly targeted ads to suit keyword(s)
• Ensure consistent structure of match type groupings

AD REVIEW

• Make sure there are 2 adverts running per Ad Group
• Analyse Ad performance – test headlines, CTAs and value propositions
• Ensure Ad to landing page continuity
• Ensure sufficient click/conversion data before declaring winners

DISPLAY NETWORK

• Review placement performance, exclude where appropriate

MONTHLY TASKS

QUALITY SCORE

• Impression weighted quality score assessment
• Identify low-quality keywords and work to improve them

SITELINKS

• Check performance of ad extensions, such as sitelinks - which impact Ad Rank
• Remove poor performers and replace with new links

DISPLAY ADS

• Review spend weighted against Search CPA/ROI
• Review bids and conversions, identify targets and demographics that get results
• Ensure display ads are being split tested

ANALYTICS

• Look for best and worst performing landing pages and work to improve
• Optimise based on visitor metrics vs conversions

AUTOMATION RULES

• Can you improve efficiency by using rules for certain processes

HEALTH CHECK

• Look for and investigate anomalies in spend, CTR, Impressions and Conversions
• Do all broad and phrase match groups have negative keyword lists
• Do all campaigns have sitelinks and relevant ad extensions

QUARTERLY

LANDING PAGES

• Review effectiveness of landing pages
• Where appropriate A/B test content changes
• Use identical ads to test new landing pages, old vs new
• Consider improved, more targeted landing pages for continuity

GEOTARGETING

• Make sure to Identify regions that don’t convert, consider splitting out best performers

DAY PARTING

• Identify times of day and day of week that require bid adjustments up/down
• Avoid over optimisation on thin data sets

TRACKING

• Conversion tracking still relevant and tracking correctly
• If values are set, are they still true – for example, sales/lead LTV
• Look for new macro and micro conversion opportunities

HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

• How has the account performed this month, quarter and year
• Compare and contrast, address any top-level performance issues

Lastly, I highly urge you to test your first few campaigns on Bing or even 7Search.com before attempting PPC on Google - unless you have a large advertsing budget. Don't make the mistakes I did learning how to use this powerful, but dangerous advertising and web traffic tool!

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Pj