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Audits are used in every industry to assess and evaluate performance. Specific to PPC management, they provide the information that digital marketers need to improve their Google Ads or Microsoft campaigns, and sales teams can use to pitch these services effectively.
A detailed pay per click audit will highlight what is working for your clients’ campaigns and what isn’t. If your PPC prospects or clients are testing a new feature, this kind of assessment will show them exactly how beneficial these are to their industry, brand, and audience.
You can get started by answering a few simple questions:
- Which keywords are performing better?
- Which search terms have a low CTR?
- Are your clients leveraging automated bidding?
- Which placements have a high CPA?
The answer to these questions paves the road with the data required to optimize groups, keywords, and settings to improve performance moving forward.
Follow us as we walk through the basics of auditing campaigns and the tools that will help along the way.
The Essential Elements of a Pay Per Click Audit
First, let’s explore the most important elements of an audit and what to look for in each.
KPIs
Key performance indicators measure how well an account is meeting its objectives. Clients must choose their KPIs before setting up a campaign, so it’s important to choose the right ones so they can track the numbers that really impact their returns.
This is a great place to start auditing your prospects’ PPC campaigns.
Date Range
The start of a PPC campaign is crucial, and it requires constant decision making to fully optimize ads, landing pages, and everything else. Adjustments in the first 30 days can improve management efficiency so it’s important to monitor the data.
However, you should always be cautious with PPC audits ranging from less than 30 days. The limited data is not relevant enough to be statistically accurate. You’ll want 90 days’ worth of campaign data.
Campaign Settings
At White Shark Media, we never ‘set and forget’ settings, and neither should you. It simply doesn’t work because campaigns, seasonal trends, modifiers, and features constantly evolve. If your prospects’ aren’t monitoring their settings and how they are impacting campaigns, they won’t know what’s weighing them down or pushing them forward.
Account Structure
Use our checklist below to guide you through the PPC account structure. The following questions will help strategists revise client campaigns:
- Can you follow the campaign naming structure with ease?
- Is it easy to follow which ad groups fall under each campaign?
- Are there indications in the naming structure of what networks and interests they go under?
Once those are in order, you will want to make sure that ad groups:
- Fall under a category that is relevant to the campaign
- Have a minimum of 20 keywords
Keywords
- In search terms reports, which keywords reveal influence over traffic and conversions?
- What terms (broad, phrase, and exact match) would work for expansion in match types?
- Are bids appropriately set to achieve objectives without drying up budgets?
Ads
Review ads from the audience’s perspective. For each ad, consider the following questions:
- Is the grammar and punctuation correct?
- Are these set up in a way that will entice the reader? Consider the words and the punctuation that could enhance a message.
- Is the information accurate?
- Is it aligned with the buying cycle segment?
- Proved to work? A/B test the text to make sure it helps the ads.
- Is the call to action (CTA) clear and obvious?
To learn more about copywriting, read our blog on Best Practices.
Quality Score
An account’s Quality Score will be influenced by the historical data on the following performance indicators:
Extensions
Ad extensions are beneficial to Google advertisers, but they work differently across verticals, so be wary of adding an extension before verifying its purpose.
If you do decide to use them, where are they leading the audience? If ads lead them to a store, check location extensions. If they urge them to call, are the office hours clear?
When they are clear, extensions help increase click-through-rates, so go through each for the best results.
Networks
Each campaign should fall under Search, Display/Audience, Partner networks. Evaluate the following settings:
- Are the placements reaching their goals?
- Are low performing placements being excluded?
Analytics
You need to verify that the website is connected to Google Analytics. If it isn’t, get that done now. If it is already connected, run through the following:
- Is it adequately assigned to the paid search account?
- Has a tracking code been placed on the website?
- Have conversions or goals been determined?
- How well are the metrics focused on performing? Bounce rate, duration of sessions, etc.
- When reviewing a site search report, explore new keyword opportunities to add to the Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising account.
Tools to Help You Audit PPC Campaigns
Next, let’s look at how the right tools can streamline your PPC management efforts. Depending on the size of the account, manual audits can take hours to develop, but the right PPC software can help you work much more efficiently.
Our pay per click audit tool, AdInsights, generates automated audit reports for our partners and agencies who have access to White Shark Media’s Compass. This white label PPC software can assess an unlimited number of accounts and download reports for Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising campaigns. This solution is designed to reduce the time that it takes to generate these reports and make it easier and faster to discover actionable data that you can use to sell PPC.
We’ve recently added a new feature for guests that will allow agencies’ prospects and website visitors to generate these pay per click audit reports and find areas of opportunities for their Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising accounts.
Anyone using AdInsights can enjoy the following benefits:
- Save time for agencies and shortens the sales cycle
- PPC expertise isn’t required to audit your prospects’ accounts
- Guest audit features help collect data of prospects for easy follow up
If you’re eager to get started, below is a quick run-through of how easy and useful this request is.
Eager to learn what other features this PPC software has available? Read our blog!
Conclusion
As we mentioned earlier, white label pay per click PPC audits assess campaign allows teams to flag performance in relation to a prospects’ industry, brand, and ideal audience. This means that pay per click audits are loaded with campaign performance information that can help sell your services.
Help equip your sales team with the tools and data that’ll help sell PPC to brands who are striving to grow and connect with their customers.
Would you like to see a demo? We’re happy to show you how simple and effective generating audits can be. Contact us today!
