Running a successful PPC (pay-per-click) campaign is essential for boosting online sales, especially for businesses in the Philippines. However, even the best campaigns need regular audits to ensure they are performing at their best. A PPC audit helps identify areas where you can improve, reduce wasted spend, and increase your return on investment (ROI).
This guide will explain how to perform a PPC campaign audit step by step, helping you get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns and boost your e-commerce success.
What is a PPC Campaign Audit?
A PPC campaign audit is a thorough review of your current PPC efforts to evaluate their performance. The goal is to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. By auditing your campaign, you can optimize your ads, keywords, budget, and overall strategy to ensure you’re getting the best results possible.
Why a PPC Audit is Important for Businesses in the Philippines
For businesses in the Philippines, regularly auditing your PPC campaigns helps you stay competitive in the online marketplace. With an audit, you can:
- Identify wasted spend and reduce costs.
- Improve targeting to reach the right audience.
- Boost ROI by focusing on high-performing ads and keywords.
- Optimize your budget for better performance and increased sales.
Now, let’s dive into the steps to perform a successful PPC campaign audit.
Step 1: Analyze Campaign Structure
The first step in your PPC audit is to review your campaign structure. A well-structured campaign makes it easier to manage, optimize, and monitor performance.
- Check Campaign Grouping: Are your campaigns grouped by product categories, target audiences, or business goals? For example, if you run an e-commerce store selling electronics, you might want separate campaigns for “Smartphones,” “Laptops,” and “Accessories.” Each campaign should have a clear focus.
- Review Ad Groups: Inside each campaign, review your ad groups. Are the ad groups tightly focused on specific products or services? Each ad group should target a small set of related keywords to keep your ads relevant to the user’s search intent.
Step 2: Evaluate Keyword Performance
Keywords are at the heart of any PPC campaign, so it’s essential to analyze how they are performing.
- Check Keyword Relevance: Ensure that your keywords are highly relevant to your products and audience. Irrelevant keywords can lead to wasted clicks and higher costs. Focus on keywords that are directly related to what you’re selling.
- Look for High and Low Performers: Identify which keywords are generating the most clicks, conversions, and sales. Keep these high-performing keywords in your campaign and adjust bids if necessary to maximize their potential. At the same time, review underperforming keywords and consider pausing or removing them to save budget.
- Use Negative Keywords: Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant searches. Check your search terms report for any irrelevant queries and add them as negative keywords to avoid wasted spend. For example, if you sell luxury watches, you might add “cheap watches” as a negative keyword.
Step 3: Review Ad Copy and Creatives
Your ad copy and creatives (images or videos) play a crucial role in attracting clicks and conversions. During your audit, review all the ads in your campaigns to ensure they are performing well.
- Check Ad Relevance: Ensure that your ad copy closely matches the keywords in each ad group. This increases the relevance of your ad and can improve your Quality Score, which helps lower costs and improve ad placement.
- Test Different Versions: Are you testing multiple versions of your ads? A/B testing different headlines, descriptions, and CTAs (calls to action) can help you find the most effective messaging. Keep track of which versions perform best and continue testing new ideas to improve results.
- Ensure Clear CTAs: Your ad’s CTA should be clear and direct. Whether it’s “Shop Now,” “Buy Today,” or “Get Free Shipping,” make sure your CTA encourages users to take action.
Step 4: Examine Landing Page Performance
The landing page is where users go after clicking on your ad. A well-optimized landing page can make the difference between a click and a conversion.
- Check Landing Page Relevance: Make sure your landing page matches the ad and keywords. If a user clicks on an ad for a specific product, they should be taken directly to that product’s page, not the homepage or a generic page.
- Optimize for Mobile: Many users in the Philippines browse and shop on their mobile devices, so your landing page must be mobile-friendly. Ensure it loads quickly, is easy to navigate, and offers a seamless experience on smaller screens.
- Track Conversion Rate: Review how well your landing pages are converting traffic into sales or leads. If your conversion rate is low, consider testing different page layouts, offers, or CTAs to improve performance.
Step 5: Evaluate Budget and Bids
Your budget and bidding strategy are crucial to the success of your PPC campaign. During your audit, assess how well you’re managing your spending and whether adjustments are needed.
- Check Budget Allocation: Ensure that your budget is being allocated effectively. High-performing campaigns should receive a larger share of your budget, while underperforming campaigns may need to be restructured or paused.
- Adjust Bids for Best Keywords: Review your keyword bids to ensure you’re not overpaying for clicks. For your top-performing keywords, consider increasing bids to boost visibility and drive more traffic. For lower-performing keywords, lower bids or pause them to avoid wasting budget.
- Use Automated Bidding: If managing bids manually is too time-consuming, consider using Google Ads’ automated bidding strategies. Options like Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition) or Maximize Conversions can help optimize your bids based on your goals.
Step 6: Monitor Ad Extensions
Ad extensions allow you to include additional information in your ads, such as phone numbers, site links, or promotions. These extensions can improve your ad’s visibility and click-through rate (CTR).
- Check Extension Usage: Make sure you’re using all relevant ad extensions in your campaigns, such as sitelinks, callouts, and location extensions. Ad extensions provide extra value to users and help your ad stand out in search results.
- Review Extension Performance: Analyze the performance of your ad extensions to see which ones are driving more clicks or conversions. If certain extensions aren’t performing well, adjust or replace them with more relevant information.
Step 7: Analyze Overall Campaign Performance
Finally, take a step back and look at your overall campaign performance. This will help you determine whether your PPC efforts are paying off and where you can make improvements.
- Check ROI: Review your return on investment (ROI) by comparing your ad spend to the revenue generated from your PPC campaigns. Are you getting a positive return, or are there areas where you could cut costs while still driving results?
- Measure Key Metrics: Look at key performance metrics such as CTR, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and overall revenue. These metrics will give you a clear picture of how well your campaigns are performing and where adjustments are needed.
- Set New Goals: Based on your findings, set new goals for your PPC campaigns. Whether it’s increasing conversions, reducing costs, or improving CTR, having clear objectives will help guide your next steps.
Conclusion
Performing a PPC campaign audit is an essential part of managing a successful e-commerce business in the Philippines. By regularly auditing your campaigns, you can identify opportunities for improvement, reduce wasted spend, and increase your ROI.
Remember to focus on optimizing your campaign structure, keywords, ad copy, landing pages, budget, and ad extensions. With a well-executed PPC audit, you can ensure your campaigns are performing at their best and driving the results your business needs to succeed in the competitive online marketplace.