The Definitive AdWords Audit Guide

Ever get the sensation that your AdWords account must be performing higher, however you don’t understand how? You’re not alone: quite a lot of advertisers spend a lot time tweaking the knobs and dials that they neglect to step again and have a look at the account as an entire. Their tunnel-vision prevents them from seeing errors in addition to money-making alternatives.

I’m right here to be sure that doesn’t occur to you. So pull up your calendar proper now and schedule time each few months to do a PPC audit in your account. Make it straightforward: schedule it for if you get your automobile’s oil modified or if you change the air filters in your vents. Similar to these are preventative measures to make sure higher efficiency of your automobile or heating/cooling system, common AdWords audits will guarantee higher account efficiency earlier than it will get into hassle.

There are six primary parts to an AdWords audit; and as a substitute of itemizing them, we’ve determined to make you a helpful guidelines to make you suppose massive image PPC.

Observe 1: If the guidelines merchandise doesn’t apply to you, test the field anyway.

Observe 2: If the counter isn’t going up if you test all these containers, give the web page a refresh. It’s finicky.

1. Do You Audit Your Marketing campaign Settings?

1. Do your campaigns have a logical, descriptive naming conference primarily based on frequent themes?
2. Do you may have a marketing campaign devoted to branded phrases?
3. Do you may have a marketing campaign devoted to remarketing?
4. Did you be certain all lists are gathering guests?
5. Did you ensure you have a novel listing devoted to every main abandonment exercise?

**Be sure you don’t have campaigns set to each search and show as a result of the 2 networks require completely different bid costs and the consumer intent is completely different: guests coming from the search community are actively searching for what you provide, whereas guests within the show community are doing one thing else after they see your advert. Inside the show community, test on the next:

6. Do you may have any computerized placements that should be modified to managed?
7. Do you see any poorly-performing placements that must be excluded?
8. Have you ever included varied banner sizes and are you utilizing each picture in addition to textual content adverts?
9. Are your location targets right, with no unusual or contradictory overlaps?
10. Did you double test that your each day finances is acceptable given your CPA?
11. Have you ever arrange ad extensions?
12. Did you set your advert rotation to rotate indefinitely? When you set it to optimize, Google mechanically exhibits the advert that will get extra clicks–though which may not be the advert that will get essentially the most conversions or income. Extra clicks will get Google extra income so naturally that’s what they wish to optimize for. However you wish to check to see which advert makes YOU more cash, not which one makes Google more cash.

Rating: 0/12

2. Do You Audit Your Advert Teams?

1. In case your campaigns are named appropriately primarily based on frequent themes, are your advert teams named to replicate extra focused themes or subcategories?
2. Do you restrict the key phrases in every advert group to not more than 20 so you possibly can hold them focused to tightly-knit themes with matching advert copy?
3. Do you utilize unfavourable key phrases on the advert group degree to keep away from overlap and maintain consistency from keyword to ad to landing page? For instance, if in case you have one advert group about gloves and one other about scarves, make “gloves” a unfavourable within the scarves advert group and vice versa

Rating: 0/3

3. Do You Audit Your Advertisements?

1. You must at all times be operating two completely different adverts in every advert group and doing A/B testing to see which one performs higher
2. Be certain your adverts observe all the promoting pointers
3. Verify for proper spelling and grammar
4. Search for any adverts which have been disapproved and get them permitted
5. Be certain your adverts have a compelling message and a robust name to motion
6. Verify that adverts are going to one of the best touchdown web page and that the vacation spot url is right

Rating: 0/6

4. Do You Audit Your Key phrases?

1. Do you may have the suitable match sorts configured? In case you have too many broad-match key phrases, it can save you cash and get extra focused visitors by together with extra modified broad, phrase, and actual match key phrases
2. Type by impressions and type by spend to see if in case you have any key phrases which might be costing you more cash than they’re making
3. Do you see any key phrases that should be paused or bid down?
4. Do you have a look at the search phrases report for any key phrases that must be added as positives or negatives?
5. Has the high quality rating dropped on any key phrases?

Rating: 0/5

5. Do You Audit Your Touchdown Pages?

1. Be certain your touchdown pages match the key phrase and advert
2. Do your touchdown pages look skilled and observe best practices?
3. Do you may have a scientific course of for identifying and prioritizing conversion obstacles, then operating A/B assessments to repair them?
4. Have you ever created distinctive touchdown pages for completely different gadgets?

Rating: 0/4

6. Do You Analyze Your Metrics?

The 5 steps above are all to arrange you for the ultimate and most necessary step: analyzing the metrics so you can also make data-driven choices. Right here are some things to search for:

1. Initially, is your AdWords account is linked with Analytics, and do you may have objectives configured?
2. Search for tendencies. It’s a pink flag to see the CPA creeping up or high quality scores sliding down over time
3. Do you set your date vary to match apples to apples? Do that, particularly if seasonality impacts your online business. For instance, if Christmas is your massive promoting season, evaluate the info from the earlier 12 months’s Christmas season. Don’t evaluate Christmas to summer time.
4. Do you search for gems and lemons?
5. Do you alter your finances accordingly primarily based on under-performing and highly-performing segments of geography, time of day, day of week, and machine?

Rating: 0/5

Your grand whole rating: 0/35

Make the time to test these six areas of your account just a few instances a 12 months, and hold it operating like a well-oiled machine. In spite of everything, you try this to your automobile, and it doesn’t have the revenue-generating potential that your AdWords account does.

— Theresa Baiocco