Inheriting PPC Accounts: How to Efficiently Transition Ownership and Successfully Optimize a Large PPC Account

Until now, there was no roadmap to help individuals and search engine marketing (SEM) firms successfully inherit and optimize a large-scale pay-per-click (PPC) account. Numerous publications have surfaced about creating PPC campaigns from scratch, but inheriting and enhancing a pre-existing account requires an entirely different skill set.

Optimizing a pre-existing PPC campaign requires a different mode of thought as well. PPC accounts are actually quite fragile, and if you come in and try to fix everything at once, you will be the proverbial raging bull in a china shop, regardless of your best intentions. You need to gain your footing within the account quickly and make methodical changes that will help you make the biggest progress at the fastest pace-while not disrupting, or even hindering, the campaign’s performance.

As a search marketing expert, you need to be able to take a pre-existing PPC account, “stop the bleeding,” and “heal” the account quickly and efficiently-and then take the account to the next level. This document lays out a plan to help you do just that.

Before You Inherit the Account

• A Strong Client Relationship is Built by Setting Proper Expectations

Inheriting the Account

• Best Practices for Transferring PPC Accounts between Managers
• How to Gain Access to a Pre-existing PPC Campaign
• Grasp the History of an Account by Reviewing a Few Key Metrics
• Use Google Trends to Gain Additional Insight into Your Client’s Search Traffic
• How to Set Up Proper PPC and Analytics Tracking
• Make Quick Progress by Reviewing Your Account Settings
• A Few Easy Steps to Optimize Your Account Quickly
• Prioritize Your Plan of Action and Make the Biggest Progress at the Fastest Pace
• Get to Know Your Client’s Website and Landing Pages Quickly

Ongoing Management and Optimization

• Create a Long-term Plan for Optimization and Expansion of the Account
• How to Streamline and Optimize Your Account Structure
• What You Need to Know About the Google AdWords Quality Score
• How to Make Large Changes without Negatively Affecting Your AdWords Quality Score
• Expand Your Keyword List Smartly and Efficiently
• Four Quick Ways to Expand Your Negative Keyword List
• What You Need to Know About PPC Keyword Match Types
• Separating Your Search and Content Network Distribution within AdWords
• Save Time and Effort with AdWords Editor and adCenter Desktop
• Upload Your Account Structure to adCenter Quickly and Easily
• The Five Elements of a Successful Landing Page
• How to Manage and Optimize Second-tier PPC Search Engines

After Your Transition and Optimization

• How to Provide Ongoing Reporting to Your Client
• Learn What to Do When Your Account Optimization Doesn’t Work as Planned
• With Transparency and Clarity, Explain Why Goals Have Not Yet Been Met