What Is a PPC Audit? Why Are PPC Audits Important? And How Do You Do a PPC Audit?

Online advertisers want to know how to get more out of their search marketing programs. PPC audits are just the thing to help them do that. Let’s look closer at the answers to questions like:

• What is a PPC audit?
• Why is it important?
• How do I get a PPC audit?
• Sample Google Ads PPC audit
• With PPC audits, you get what you pay for
• FAQ: How can I optimize my PPC campaign with a comprehensive audit?

What Is a PPC Audit?

A PPC audit is an analysis of a PPC program to determine how it could be optimized to get a better return on investment.

PPC is complex. Even if you’re managing your accounts according to best practices, odds are that you’ve missed something — especially if you’ve been working on the account for a while.

In addition, things change rapidly in paid search. What worked yesterday might not work today.

Google Ads posted 27 new features and announcements during the first six months of 2020. This included new features, new releases, new policies, updated interfaces, altered learning paths, discontinued features, and much more.

Layer on top of that the many small changes that don’t warrant a separate announcement, and that’s a lot of change. This is why keeping up with Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and other online ad networks is a big job.

Why Are PPC Audits Important?

PPC audits are important because they help advertisers resolve inefficiencies with their PPC programs — including problems they may not even be aware of that could be wasting ad spend.

Here are a few scenarios where a PPC audit can help:

• Your PPC program was doing great, but now you’re not getting the same results. What changed? What do you need to do differently?
• Your PPC program delivers great results, but you wonder if you could do even better. What opportunities are you missing?
• You’re just getting started with PPC and are struggling to get good results. What are you doing wrong?
• And the most common: You are still getting traffic, but your costs are spiraling out of control.

For all these scenarios (and others), a PPC audit is the best way to analyze your program and get recommendations to improve it.

By the way, PPC audits aren’t just for the benefit of advertisers. Poorly targeted advertising can be annoying for those doing the searches. And the opposite is true: When PPC advertising is done well, searchers appreciate it. In fact, 75% of people say paid search ads make it easier for them to find the information they’re searching for.]

How Do You Do a PPC Audit?

A PPC audit examines all your digital advertising networks and conducts analyses to determine how to optimize them.

Generally, it’s best to delay a PPC audit after making significant changes. You’re relying on data to tell the story of what’s happening in an account, so ideally, you want to accumulate a few months of data. Significant structural ad program changes can disturb the statistics and make data analysis more difficult.

PPC audits can vary greatly in depth and detail. I like to group them into two general categories:

1. Tool-based PPC audits
2. Comprehensive PPC audits

Let’s look at each of these categories in more detail.

Tool-Based PPC Audits

A tool-based PPC audit can be performed in-house or by an outside consultant or agency.

These audits use software-based auditing tools, often in combination with some almost trivial form of human analysis.

You’ll see this type of PPC audit performed most often by agencies or consultants to promote their PPC management services. They’ll audit your PPC program for free. Then, they’ll return recommendations that they’ll offer to implement for you at their regular fees.

There’s nothing wrong with this. However, these types of audits have limits and can vary greatly in how useful they are. It depends on how heavily the audit team relies on their tools and how much time they spend getting to truly understand your business and goals.

Things change rapidly in paid search. What worked yesterday might not work today.

Considering how many of these “free” audits need to happen to land a new client, most do not include the effort to understand your business. They are thus superficial, failing to take into account the many nuances of your clients, personas, products, seasonality, competition, and more.

Comprehensive PPC Audits

Typically, an experienced outside consultant or agency conducts the comprehensive PPC audit to bring a new perspective to your ad accounts. They start with interviews and evolve to dive deeply into what drives traffic.

Comprehensive audits should cover all the main advertising networks and platforms you’re in. This may include:

• Google Ads
• Microsoft Advertising
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Google Display & Video 360
• Retargeting

Typically, PPC audits put a strong focus on the Google Ads network because of its market domination. Google holds about 92% of the search engine market worldwide (as of July 2020). In comparison, Bing only has about 3% and Yahoo has about 2%.

Sample Google Ads Audit

When auditing these networks and platforms, PPC experts vary in what they analyze. If you had five PPC experts doing an audit, you would get eight different opinions. Fortunately, most would agree much of the time, with the subtlety being based upon expertise.

Let’s look at a sample for Google Ads. In Google Ads, a PPC audit may analyze the following types of information.

1. Account basics:

• How is the account organized?
• Is conversion tracking set up?
• Is the account linked to Google Analytics?

2. Campaigns:

• Are campaign settings set correctly?
• What bidding strategies are employed?

3. Targeting:

• What locations are targeted?
• Do you need location bid adjustments?
• What devices and audiences are targeted?

4. Ad groups and messaging:

• How are ad groups organized?
• Have any ads been disapproved? If so, why?
• Is ad messaging consistent and error-free?

5. Ad formats and campaign types:

• What types of campaigns and ad formats are being used?
• How are the following used: Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs), Ad extensions, Promotion extensions, Shopping campaigns, Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA), and Display remarketing campaigns?

6. Keywords:

• What keywords are being targeted? What is their Quality Score?
• What keyword match types are being used?
• How complete is the negative keyword list?

With PPC Audits, You Get What You Pay for

At Bruce Clay, we only conduct comprehensive PPC audits run by SEM experts with no less than 10 years of experience. Complementing their experience is a suite of powerful in-house PPC tools. This allows us to dive deep into optimizing existing PPC efforts to uncover missed opportunities.

Do we charge for this service? Yes. But this is a case where you get what you pay for. You can pay half as much for bad advice, but why would you?

Consider how much of your ad spend you might already be wasting if you’re not managing your PPC program well. (By some estimates, 61% of ad spend is wasted.)

So, when you consider what type of audit to get, consider it carefully. A “free” audit might sound like a good deal. But it will never be as detailed or insightful as the one with hands-on, expert analysis and interpretation.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you increase your targeted PPC traffic, conversions, and revenue, contact us for a no-obligation quote.

FAQ: How can I optimize my PPC campaign with a comprehensive audit?

Pay-per-click (PPC), or pay-per-click campaigns, are effective tools for driving targeted traffic to your website. Their success relies on careful planning and continual optimization. If you’ve been running a PPC campaign and want to ensure it’s delivering the best results possible, conducting a comprehensive audit is essential. The following 15 steps can help you run a comprehensive audit:

1. Evaluate Your Goals and KPIs:

Before diving into the audit, clarify your campaign objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). Understanding what success looks like is the foundation of effective optimization.

2. Analyze Keyword Performance:

Review the performance of your keywords. Identify top-performing keywords that drive conversions and remove underperforming ones to allocate your budget more efficiently.

3. Assess Ad Copy and Creatives:

Examine the ad copies and creatives used in your campaign. Ensure they align with your landing page and convey a compelling message. A/B testing can help identify the most effective ad variations.

4. Review Landing Pages:

Your landing pages play a critical role in converting PPC traffic into customers. Ensure they are optimized for user experience, load speed, and relevance to the ad.

5. Check Budget Allocation:

Allocate your budget strategically across campaigns and ad groups. Focus more on the areas that generate the highest ROI.

6. Monitor Negative Keywords:

Implement negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic. This helps improve the quality of clicks and reduces wasted ad spend.

7. Examine Ad Extensions:

Utilize ad extensions like site links, callouts, and structured snippets to enhance your ad’s visibility and provide additional information to users.

8. Track Conversions:

Set up conversion tracking to measure the outcomes of your PPC campaigns accurately. This data is crucial for making informed optimization decisions.

9. Assess Quality Score:

Monitor and improve your Quality Score, as it directly impacts ad position and cost-per-click. Higher Quality Scores can lead to lower costs and better ad placements.

10. Competitor Analysis:

Keep an eye on your competitors’ strategies and adjust your campaign accordingly. Identify gaps and opportunities in your approach.

11. Optimize Ad Scheduling:

Analyze the timing of your ads. Adjust ad schedules to coincide with peak user activity to increase visibility during high-converting periods.

12. Test Ad Campaign Settings:

Experiment with different campaign settings, such as bidding strategies and ad rotation. Continuously optimize these settings based on performance data.

13. Mobile Optimization:

Given the increasing use of mobile devices, ensure your campaign is optimized for mobile users. Responsive ads and mobile-specific bidding can improve results.

14. Implement Ad Extensions:

Leverage various ad extensions, like call and location extensions, to provide additional information and encourage users to take action.

15. Monitor and Adapt:

Regularly review and adjust your PPC campaign based on performance metrics. Optimization is an ongoing process.

By following these steps and continuously refining your PPC campaign through audits, you can optimize your ad spend, improve your campaign’s effectiveness, and drive better results. Remember, successful PPC management combines data-driven analysis and creative strategy. Stay proactive, and your PPC campaign will thrive.