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WHY YOU NEED A PPC AUDITCASE STUDY: 100 COMPANIES AUDIT THEIR ADWORDS ACCOUNTSOne of the biggest challenges facing many paid search marketers is finding the time(and money) to review their campaigns from a PPC audit perspective. A PPC audit,whether accomplished with the help of a consultant or a software tool, is a deep-diveinto your account with the goal of discovering where you can improve. But for most smalladvertisers, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to effectively manage their paidsearch efforts — half of advertisers only do ad optimization once per quarter! — nevermind trawling through oceans of data to find areas where their PPC advertising is lettingthem down.But we believe a PPC audit is one of the most valuable ways you can use yourlimited time as a marketer, because it shows you exactly:nnnWhat you’re doing rightWhat you’re doing wrong (i.e., where you have opportunities to reduce costsor improve results)Which areas of your account need the most help, fastestIn other words, it provides you with a plan of action, so you know where to spend yourtime moving forward to get the most benefit.For these reasons, we recently ran a contest (or, if you prefer, an experiment) to provejust how beneficial an audit can be: We invited AdWords advertisers to review their paidsearch campaigns using WordStream’s AdWords Performance Grader Plus — a fast,free PPC audit tool — to show them how their accounts were working. At the beginningof the experiment, entrants used the AdWords Graderto get a free, instant report on the performance oftheir AdWords account. After 30 days, they“I was thrilled with theamount of detailperformed another assessment.provided in this report. It even drilled downinto how much effort we’ve put into thecampaign over the pastmonth. Overall,the report showed mewhere we’ve beensuccessful and where we’ve missed theboat completely. I love the idea ofoptimizing the time we spend on thecampaign for maximum ROI. It’s so easyto get lost in PPC — WordStream is a greatproduct.”— Lisa, GreenStay CaliforniaThe results were remarkable. Read on to see howthe participating advertisers were able to improvetheir accounts in just one month.IMPACT ON ADWORDS METRICSFor many of the contest entrants, getting a free PPCaudit was an eye-opening experience. It showedthem where they were going wrong, and providedimmediate insight into actionable areas in whichchanges could be made. Let’s take a look. 2014, WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents.
Quality ScoreMore than 53% of people who ran the AdWords Performance Grader noted animprovement in their overall Quality Scores after 30 days, and the average gain in QualityScore was 5.4%. The largest gains were made by accounts that had low Quality Scoresat the beginning of the test. Overall, our data also indicated that the lower the originalQuality Score, the greater the increase tended to be.Quality Score is one of the most, if not the most, important AdWords metrics. YourQuality Score is calculated based on a variety of factors, including your click-through rate(more on that in a minute), the relevance of keywords to their corresponding Ad Groups,the quality of your landing pages and your ad copy. High Quality Scores result in higherad rankings and lower costs — so you can beat your competitors while also paying lessper click. For these reasons, improving your Quality Score should be at the top of yourto-do list.about the amount“I was really surprisedby adding moreof money we could savenegative keywords.”Events— Cristina, KapowConversion VolumeOf course, for many businesses, a high conversionvolume is the Holy Grail of their PPC campaigns.Conversion volumes can be affected by numerousfactors, including higher CTRs and Quality Scores.As you can see in the figure below, conversionvolume was the runaway winner for many of thebusinesses that ran the AdWords PerformanceGrader. 2014, WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents.
More than half of advertisers who performed a PPC audit saw an increase in conversionvolumes. The most impressive part? The average gain in conversion volumeswas 75%! For some businesses, this was double, triple or even greater than theiroriginal conversion volume prior to running the second audit.This dramatic improvement demonstrates that by taking stock of your campaigns’performance with an audit, you can make small changes that add up to a huge difference.Click-Through RateOur data shows that, in the 30 days since using the AdWords Grader for the first time,46% of accounts saw an increase in their click-through rate, with average growth ofalmost 17%. 2014, WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents.
What exactly constitutes a good CTR varies by industry. Advertisers operating incompetitive sectors should aim for a CTR of between 2% and 5%, and businesses inless competitive fields should shoot for a CTR upward of 5%. (If you’re ambitious, learnhow you can achieve 3x the average CTR with more advanced techniques.) Your QualityScore is directly affected by your CTR, and for the 46% of AdWords advertisers whosaw an increase, this was another excellent reason to conduct a PPC audit.Grader ScoreOur AdWords Performance Grader evaluates the effectiveness of your PPC campaignsaccording to 10 criteria. Your overall Grader Score is determined by weighting thesefactors. For many advertisers, their PPC audit increased their Grader Score considerably.“I’m so thrilled to seemy new score. I ranWordStream’s graderjust a few weeks ago,put in hours of hardwork, and my score isnow much higher.”Media— Jillyn, SearchItAbout half of advertisers saw improvements to theirGrader Score after 30 days. Overall, the average gainin Grader Score was 30%, indicating that manyAdWords accounts had improved across a rangeof metrics, including Quality Score, CTR, impressionshare and ad text optimization.PPC BEST PRACTICESThe data showed us that advertisers weren’t content with merely improving several keyAdWords metrics — they took action to improve their adherence to PPC best practices. 2014, WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents.
In the 30 days after running their first PPC audit, advertisers added:nnnnn25% more campaigns29% more text ads109% more ad groups663% more keywords103,410 more negative keywordsOver the course of the test, we observed account performance gains in several areas:nnnnnnnMultiple text ads per ad groupUse of Ad ExtensionsNetwork segmentationUse of negative keywordsUse of Broad Match ModifiersConversion trackingLanguage TargetingIS IT WORTH RUNNING A PPC AUDIT?Sure, I could tell you that yes, it’s definitely worth using a PPC audit tool to examine theeffectiveness of your AdWords account, especially if you suspect your paid search effortsaren’t paying off. However, by looking at this data, you can see exactly how taking a goodhard look at your campaigns can benefit your business. Once you begin to delve deeperinto the numbers, the question changes from “Is it worth running a PPC audit?” to “CanI afford not to do a PPC audit?”Every business wants to understand how their PPC advertising budget is working forthem. Unfortunately, many smaller operations are struggling with paid search and failingto nail down the basics that could yield real results – forget about leveraging innovationsbeing developed by Google to make AdWords an even more effective platform.Ready to take your paid search campaigns to the next level? Then use our free AdWordsPerformance Grader Plus to take control of your PPC and make the changes that couldmake a big difference to your campaigns. 2014, WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents.
ABOUT WORDSTREAMWordStream Inc. provides search marketing software and services to small andmedium-sized businesses that want better results from paid search. WordStream’seasy-to-use PPC Advisor software facilitates more effective PPC campaigns byproviding a customized workflow, the 20-Minute PPC Work Week, to help advertisersincrease relevance across Google, Bing, and Yahoo and get expert-level results in afraction of the time. Whether you’re new to search marketing or are an experiencedPPC manager, WordStream’s PPC management software and services can providethe boost you need to grow your business and drive better results. 2014, WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents.
WHY YOU NEED A PPC AUDIT CASE STUDY: 100 COMPANIES AUDIT THEIR ADWORDS ACCOUNTS One of the biggest challenges facing many paid search marketers is finding the time (and money) to review their campaigns from a PPC audit perspective. A PPC audit, whether accomplished with the help of a consultant or a software tool, is a deep-dive
