PPC Marketing Checklist

If you’re managing a PPC campaign, like a Google AdWords campaign, then there are a certain number of tasks that you’re going to want to check on quite regularly. By following this checklist, you’ll be able to make sure that your campaign is performing at its best and you can tweak it immediately if there are potential issues being seen.

1. Monitor your check spend.

Are you running into any budget limits with your campaign? Is your monthly spending on track with your expectations? Answering these questions is the best way to make sure your bids are as effective as possible.

2. Adjust your bidding.

You should be checking the top keywords you have every day to make sure your bid levels are where they need to be. Your top keywords should be about half of your PPC budget, so if they are coming in low, you can adjust keywords, bid amounts, or other factors. Look at your conversion rates, what your bounce rates are, and your average positioning in particular.

3. Pause ads that are not performing.

If you have keywords that have high bounce rates, then you’re just wasting your money. Maximize your PPC marketing by immediately pausing keywords that have visitors bailing out. Focus the cash you’d spend on these ineffective keywords on your more effective campaigns or look at other niche keyword options that could provide you with some extra benefits.

4. Work your creatives.

If you’re finding that the ad content is just not attracting people, then don’t be afraid to adjust the creatives on your PPC marketing. Even something as small as a different headline can be enough to attract more attention to an advertisement. Small changes to the body of a text can result in large increases of traffic. Having your targeted keywords included in a meaningful way may even increase your quality scores.

5. Don’t ignore the negative keywords.

Many people are actually searching negative keywords today in order to find positive information. This is a place where you can really gain an edge on your competition. Look for niche keywords that have high amounts of traffic that aren’t necessarily associated with your business, yet still could generate results for you. These keywords can be quite unique, so a best practice is to just copy/paste the words that you’ve found directly into the appropriate PPC campaign section.

6. Gauge your overall performance at least once per week.

A week’s worth of data is enough to get information about impressions and clicks. If you go into the keywords of your campaign and are finding that you’ve got ads that have high numbers of impressions, but low numbers of clicks, then you’re not getting a good ROI on those specific ads. Pause them because if people aren’t clicking on your ads when they see them, your PPC campaign will quickly drop in quality value.

7. Know your market.

Your advertising is never going to be effective if you don’t know who your market happens to be. You’ve got to know who your prospects are going to be and you need to know who your competitors are. This will allow you to have creatives that are more reflective of the message that you’re attempting to convey.

8. Make sure that you are testing your landing pages.

If you are getting a lot of clicks, but not a lot of conversions, then there’s a good chance that there’s a problem with your landing page. You can avoid this issue by having your landing pages tested before going live with a PPC campaign. Focus on the user experience, continue increasing the perceived value of what you’re offering, and you’ll be able to create a meaningful experience for your prospects.

9. Go mobile.

About half of all purchases these days are happening on mobile devices. If your landing pages are responsive, then your prospects aren’t going to be responsive either. Make sure that you are adhering to the best practices of mobile design so that interacting with your site on a smartphone or tablet is simple. Why? Difficult mobile experiences will cause people to bounce and that affects your revenues, your quality scores, and the value of your account in the eyes of your provider.

10. Get your themes put together.

You’re going to want to have all of your keywords grouped together in such a way that they are tightly themed. The tighter your themes are, the better your quality scores and overall results tend to be.

11. Consider adding remarketing to your campaign.

A click to your landing page that doesn’t result in a conversion doesn’t have to be the end of the story. With remarketing, your branding can follow a prospect along their journey of the internet so that you’re always on the top of their mind. You don’t want to be on every single web page they see after clicking on your ad, but do consider including some light follow along here and there that isn’t intrusive.

12. Take it offline.

It’s easy enough to edit ads while they are still online, but this isn’t always a good idea. What happens if you accidentally update an incomplete edit? Your display ad will suddenly look incomplete to a visitor and this makes you look unprofessional. Not only will someone not likely click on an incomplete ad, but they’ll likely mention this negative experience to others and the poor experience will spread like a wildfire. Use an offline editing tool to make adjustments so that you can upload a revision at one time so that the changes go live all at once.

13. Make your URL relate.

Nothing kills a PPC campaign faster than a URL that doesn’t relate to the content or keywords being advertised. This is a reflection of the Rule of Confusion. Simply put, a confused prospect is one that won’t use your business to meet their needs. Make sure the link that someone is clicking takes them to where they expect to be and have consistent branding across the experience so that expectations are effectively met.

This PPC marketing checklist will help you make sure your account is performing as well as it possibly can. Use this information today and you may just see improvements in a number of sectors as a result.