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Long Term PPC Management – Learn How to Avoid Getting Stuck in a RutPosted by John on December 8, 2008 in Basic PPC Strategies |
Managing a pay-per-click account long term is an interesting task, to say the least. Looking at the same account structure day in, day out and pulling the same reports each week takes its toll on the unsuspecting PPC manager. Without a supportive team or careful planning, it is pretty easy to get stuck in a rut! Sometimes that means you adopt a “set it and forget it” attitude, other times you become blind to obvious errors or simple changes that could improve your account. Today I’d like to share some basic tips to enliven your long term PPC management and to help you avoid getting stuck in a rut.
Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan
If you don’t set goals and create a monthly (quarterly, etc.) plan already, you should. I can’t stress enough the importance of setting goals. Setting goals acts as a compass for your PPC account, giving it direction. Each month, pull comprehensive reports to take stock of your account’s performance in relation to your goals, and create a plan of action to reach those goals in the next month. This is a great way to consistently review performance and force yourself to think ahead to continue growing your PPC account.
Get Back to Basics
On occasion, it makes sense to double check your work and overall approach to managing PPC. Set aside some time when you are at your brightest (for me that’s 8 am with coffee in-hand), and force yourself to rake your PPC account across the coals. Any setting or misplaced ad group is fair game!
Are you maximizing your reach by advertising in Google, Yahoo!, MSN and any other relevant search engines? If not, maybe it’s time to test a new search engine to shake things up. Review your account settings, account structure, ad texts and keywords. See if you’re missing opportunities that could be remedied with a little optimization. It’s also important to note that Google changes its policies about every week, so make sure that you’re tactics are up to date (OK, so that’s exaggerated, but you get the point).
Review Your KPI’s
Think of this as “goals part duex.” Another way to get yourself out of a PPC rut is to review your KPIs (key performance indicators) and tweak as necessary. Are you still gunning for the same cost-per-lead you were a year ago? Have you generated the same number of clicks for the past 6 months? If so, why? I’ve never seen the perfect PPC account that couldn’t be improved in some form or fashion.
To force yourself to think outside the box, pull reports for 6 months, 1 year, 2 years (just get a few months of data) and plot out your trailing averages. Trailing averages are a great way to view trend-data. If your stats trend upward, that’s great! If they’re static or worse yet, trending downward, it’s time to shock yourself into submission and get to work. Guess it’s time to increase your PPC goals so that you have something to work towards.
If all else fails, call a friend. Get a fresh set of eyes to review your account (assuming you have friends who know PPC!). There’s nothing more valuable than to have someone else review your work and point out mistakes. It may sting your pride, but your PPC account will only benefit from the fresh perspective. No matter what you do, it’s never OK to rest on your laurels when it comes to managing PPC. And I encourage YOU to never be “OK” with your account as-is. Keep pushing forward, trying new ideas and making an effort to better your account. That perspective on PPC management will go the farthest in helping you to avoid getting stuck in a rut.
Have any great ideas on keeping your long term PPC accounts fresh and out of a rut? Leave me a comment!
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December 9th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Great Post!
1. Look at what your competitors are doing: Use one of the competitor tools out there to look for new keyword ideas
2. Test third party engines – you never know what you will find.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
@ Bonnie,
Thanks for the additional info. Popping in on your competition is always a good idea, and is definitely a positive when you are lacking inspiration. : ) And testing third tier search engines? Sounds vaguely familiar… http://bit.ly/3bfa0A
December 10th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Keyword Research, Keyword Research, Keyword Research!
Quite boring but needs to be done.
Look at log files, search query reports, analytics – find untapped gold!
Ah, shiver me timbers!
December 10th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
@ OnlineMediaLimited
The Search Query Report is an excellent tool. Especially since sometimes your ads show up for searches in Google that you wouldn’t quite expect. This can get costly and that report really can help pluck those bad boys.
December 11th, 2008 at 5:21 am
But as you know – that tool is not perfect.
There is a hack that most know about to overcome this problem (if GA is your analytics package of choice)
It would be worth your time posting about that guys – because you have a different type of reader base to other PPC blogs – some people here will find it really helpful.
I would write one on my blog – but I dont have as many readers as you guys!
December 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I love this post! It is so tough to get out that rut sometimes with an old account. Something I like to do, when I run out of ideas on an already seemingly optimized campaign, is to simply narrow in on the quality score for my best performing keywords. If I don’t already have a ‘Great’ score I’ll develop individual landing pages devoted to those keywords, incorporate new A/B ad tests, explore spelling variations of the terms etc. For me, rather than getting bogged down with the account as a whole, sometimes focusing in on the top 10-20% can yield the greatest gains.
December 19th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
@ Online,
In lieu of rewriting the details, you can get the basics of the Analytics hack here: http://bit.ly/30s7
@ Jon,
You touch on a good point – the 80/20 rule. 80% of your traffic/conversions come from 20% of your keywords. When you feel like there’s nowhere else to go – get granular!
June 5th, 2009 at 1:11 am
PPC Management: New Google Adwords Editor Released…
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