Pay per click (PPC) search marketers are faced with an increasingly challenging task: analyzing the multitude of performance reports available to help optimize campaigns.
Web analytics tools and PPC reporting features are becoming more sophisticated, offering savvy marketers vital insights into what's working, what's not, and what needs more effort to work efficiently. However, there is so much data available that it can become difficult to determine which data points to look at and which to ignore.
TMI (too much information) can lead to either focusing on the wrong data or not focusing on the data at all because it's overwhelming. Search is a highly measurable channel, more so than most other forms of advertising. That's both a blessing and a curse.
Some of those metrics do not affect your bottom line and would be a waste of time to measure. Some aspects that are important to measure, like lead quality and web site conversion rates, are not as obvious as number of clicks.
Even if you are analyzing the right data, if you don't know how to take action, tweak, and improve where needed, you will miss out on valuable opportunities to maximize search engine marketing (SEM) and overall business goals.
To avoid data overload and streamline SEM efforts, you should be virtually always monitoring (with only a few exceptions), the following 10 things:
1. Do your bid levels match your target ROI?
What we're talking about here is standard bid management. The performance report that you review can be as simple as a keyword list in Excel showing clicks, cost, and conversion data for the last 30 days.
Many of the PPC search management systems on the market will make this reporting review process easier by identifying keyword phrases that are far outside your target ROI goals.
Regardless of what tools you're using to analyze your keyword performance data, you will want to review these reports frequently to ensure that bids are set appropriately to achieve your ROI goals and maximize your budget.
2. Text-ad click-through and conversion rates
With text ads, you have the option of using general keywords and ad copy to encourage the highest click-through rate, or you can use more specific, targeted copy to improve conversion rates by lowering your click-through rate.
For example, if you run a bike store, you might run either of these examples:
Ad copy #1:
Save Big on Bikes
At Joe's Bike Warehouse
Save 20% or more off retail
Ad copy #2:
Custom Mountain Bikes
Designed for the Serious
Mountain Bike Enthusiast
Ad copy #1 is designed to increase click-through rates. Ad copy #2 is designed to pre-qualify consumers and will likely lower click-through rates but improve conversion rates on general keywords.
It is important to note that Google will reward high click-through rates by improving your ranks. So Joe's Bike Warehouse will want to work to get the highest click-through rate possible to reap the ranking benefits. But the custom bike manufacturer will want to avoid paying for clicks from budget-conscious consumers that are unlikely to purchase from them.
3. Is your budget in line with your bids?
Are you hitting your budget caps before noon? Is Google recommending that you increase your budget? These are both signs of inefficient spending. If you are spending your entire daily budget early in the day, you are likely spending more per click than you have to.
Drop your cost per click and you can get better representation throughout the day, more overall clicks and conversions, and still track to your target budget.
4. Search queries and potential negative keywords
You are bidding on the keyword "bikes" set to broad match on Google, and you are getting a lot of clicks. But what are the actual search queries that consumers are using? If your ad is appearing for "schwinn bikes" that's probably a good thing. If your ad is appearing for "motor bikes," and you don't sell them, that's a bad thing.
Your PPC reports will tell you what people search under to find your brand. If you discover that your ads are coming up under unrelated search queries, you can block those search queries by using the negative keyword tools provided by the search engines.
5. Site placement and potential site exclusion
The same goes for content matching on Web sites. Google now provides a site placement report, which will show you exactly what sites your ads are appearing on and how they are performing.
Keep an eye on conversion rates and cost-per-action on sites where your ads are appearing. Low-performing sites can be blocked using the site-exclusion tool.
We're a big fan of appropriately using the site placement part of Google, as it's one of the few places in online advertising where good bargains can still be had.
6. Conversion rate variances by time of day, day of week
Monitoring conversion rate variances will allow you to better understand your various audiences and when they are more likely to convert. With proper analysis, you will be able to lower or raise bids at different points during the day or week to more effectively reach budget and ROI goals.
7. Conversion rates by position
When search marketing first came to the scene, companies engaged in bidding battles for the top three positions. Most of us don't do this anymore and instead optimize to ROI metrics. However, if you do find that the top positions provide better conversions, you might be willing to spend the extra money.
f you are using Google Analytics, you will want to take a look at the AdWords Keyword Positions report for the skinny on how your offer is converting at different positions.
8. Monthly summaries
This one is more obvious. Comparing month-to-month performance can show seasonality and may be useful for allocating PPC budgets. This can be extremely important for many e-commerce advertisers that must account for market changes around big gift-buying holidays or other seasonal events.
9. Lead quality
For this one, you'll have to go beyond your PPC report and look at additional offline conversion events.
You might be effectively driving leads for your business-to-business Web site at your target cost per lead. But what if all the leads coming from one particular ad group always end up in the garbage bin once they reach your sales team? Do you really want to pay the same amount for these leads that consistently fail to convert into closed business?
Factoring in offline conversion rates is one of the best ways to improve lead quality and make better use of your budget.
10. Landing page conversion rates—the new key search metric
SEM helps consumers find your site, but your work is not done once they get there. Turn visitors into customers by optimizing your site's usability and appeal. A/B splits and multivariate testing of landing pages is increasingly becoming a standard part of search campaign management.
* * *
The time is now to update your search engine marketing campaigns and resolve to make the most of PPC budgets by carefully analyzing and taking action on marketing data.
