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What are PPC Audits?

Pay-per-click is a complex form of marketing that can deliver some amazing results if it is used correctly. However, because of its complexity, it’s important to understand what settings mean, how they are changing, and whether or not they are working together.

Furthermore, as the industry changes each day, so do the features, policies and the ways that consumers are engaging with online ads.

Keeping up with ads across platforms can get overwhelming to track and optimize, but an effective PPC audit can make this big job easier.

An audit is a detailed report that focuses on the performance of your PPC campaigns. When they are used effectively, they can highlight areas that need improvement and even suggest potential new opportunities.

Why are They Important?

Audits are an important part of any online marketing strategy because they provide the data that strategists can use to take action on opportunities.

These new actions could include shutting down campaigns or features that are costing a lot without delivering the necessary returns, increasing budgets on campaigns doing well, or even branching out into whole new markets.

At its core, an effective audit can help you figure out where to make more money and when to spend less.

Common scenarios that PPC audits address for clients and partners are:

• Performance Issues: Have your best performing campaigns lost their edge? What has changed, or, more importantly, what needs to change?
• Average Results: Your campaigns are doing well, but you know that the market has the potential for even better results.
• Blah: Plain and simple, you aren’t seeing the results after months of investing.

Auditing your PPC campaigns can help address all the above issues because they cover some very important metrics.

• Date Range: 30 days of data isn’t enough. The best conclusions can be derived from reports that date back more than just a few weeks. This increases the accuracy of the findings. Odds are that data from such a short period isn’t statistically relevant enough. Our recommendation is to use at least 3 months’ worth of conversion data for most decisions and approximately a year of data for bigger issues.
• KPIs: A performance indicator, KPIs evaluate the success of PPC campaigns. It’s important to know what metrics mean most to your client so that you can highlight those numbers in each audit report.
• Settings: At White Shark Media, we’re big on reminding our clients and partners that a “set and forget” mentality doesn’t work for PPC. That’s why it’s important to include settings in audits reports to check out how well they are doing. Don’t assume that everything is running as it should. Monitor campaign settings (device bid modifiers, ad delivery method, ad rotation, location/language targeting, and ad scheduling) before moving on.

Generate Automated PPC Audits

Not all sales teams are fully trained in PPC platforms and ads, so they may not be ready to do these assessments. These reports are tedious and delicate, but it is possible to set up an engine to automate a handful of valuable tasks, depending on a prospect’s PPC accounts.

We know, we know… automated PPC audits aren’t new, but this upgraded version is. After years of using all the tools available in the PPC industry, we created a set of our own tools.

That’s when our Learning & Development team crafted AdInsights, our internal audit engine. This development came about because every tool we used was either too broad, not actionable, was filled with rigid assumptions and a lot of fluff. Our tool addresses each of these issues.

PPC tools, such as our audit generator, empower sales teams with valuable insights across all of your Google and Microsoft accounts, providing up to 30 performance-based recommendations and step-by-step instructions on how to implement them.

Looking for PPC Sales Enablement Tools? Book a meeting with one of our Strategic Account Managers for a free demo!

Conclusion

In our experience, the best results only come after extensive and regular PPC performance audits.

An organized and purposeful review of the campaign’s performance and any potential red flags is a fantastic way to establish expertise and credibility.

Are you interested in adding PPC to your portfolio? If you are, do it seamlessly with the right tools. Reach out to one of our Strategists today to learn how our services can save you time and upgrade your services.