Fast ways to give your AdWords accounts a Health Check

1. The PPC health check
Auditing PPC Campaigns
How to perform a quick check-up of your pay-per-click campaigns to help diagnose
performance issues and potential problems.
LEIGH HANNEY
Yennah Consulting
@leighhanney

2. What is a ‘Paid Search Health Check’?
• It’s a high level assessment of an Account OR an individual
Campaign against a predefined set of KPI’s.
• It IS NOT a full account audit. It’s purpose it to uncover potential
inefficiencies and areas for improvement.
• Depending on the size of your account a Health Check could be
completed in ~ 30 minutes.
• A full PPC Audit could take days if it’s a large complex account and a
competitive vertical.
A Health Check highlights potential problem areas and helps prioritise
A Health Check highlights potential problem areas and helps prioritise
optimisation tasks.
optimisation tasks.
@leighhanney

3. Why do one?
Because…
•We (humans) make mistakes.
•Google (Yahoo, Bing) are not your friend. They really don’t care if they
spend your budget wisely, they’ll simply spend within the boundaries we
set for them.
You run a regular Health Check because it’s your responsibility to ensure that
You run a regular Health Check because it’s your responsibility to ensure that
campaign budgets are being spent wisely, not Google’s.
campaign budgets are being spent wisely, not Google’s.
@leighhanney

4. Who should do it?
• Someone else
• Internal (co-worker, team leader,
mentor)
• External (agency, consultant)
Don’t check accounts you already work on personally. Get someone else to do it.
Don’t check accounts you already work on personally. Get someone else to do it.
@leighhanney

5. When should you do it?
• An existing account is handed to you (agency).
• You start a new SEM Job (in-house).
• Not happy with current performance (agency or in-house).
But…
• Don’t wait until the sh*t hits the fan.
• An account Health Check is there to help pinpoint areas that should be
given more attention.
• It should actually make your job easier!
• Use a health check as a tool to inform the work schedule for the
account or accounts you manage.
Get in the habit of running ‘Health Checks’ every 3 months (quarterly review)
Get in the habit of running ‘Health Checks’ every 3 months (quarterly review)
@leighhanney

6. What should you look for?
• It’s easy to find ‘things’ that can be done better.
• It’s much harder to find ‘the things’ that, when fixed, will lead to
improved performance.
• When running a Health Check always assess priorities and potential
issues within the context of account goals and KPI’s.
Always audit with campaign Goals and KPI’s in mind.
Always audit with campaign Goals and KPI’s in mind.
@leighhanney

7. The Health Check

8. The Health Check
The Heath Check Goals
1.In a short amount of time gain insight into the specific areas of an
account that require further attention.
2.Build out a list of tactical next steps that will take the account to the next
level.
The Account Goals
1.Understand the goals of the business being promoted and any
operational constraints.
Tools you’ll need
1.AdWords Editor (+ filters)
2.Excel / Google Docs
@leighhanney

9. Campaign and Ad Group Settings
• Campaign level settings are easy to get wrong or forget about…
• Always run through and sense check the individual settings for each
campaign.
Review individual campaign setting against overall account goals and ensure the
Review individual campaign setting against overall account goals and ensure the
two are aligned.
two are aligned.
@leighhanney

10. Quality Score Distribution
• How many impressions are being served with QS above 7*
• QS Impression Distribution can tell us how much opportunity there is to
improve an account.
* In some verticals a QS of 5 or 6 may be ‘as good as it gets!’
@leighhanney

11. Match Type Distribution
Poor use of match types generally = ‘lazy’ account management + missed
Poor use of match types generally = ‘lazy’ account management + missed
opportunities.
opportunities.
@leighhanney

12. KPI Analysis
If the majority of keywords are not achieving CPA goals, massive opportunity for
If the majority of keywords are not achieving CPA goals, massive opportunity for
overall improvement.
overall improvement.
@leighhanney

13. Ad Group Analysis: # Keywords
Number of Active Keywords
Number of Active Ad Groups
= Average Keywords per Ad Group
Too many Keywords per Ad Group suggests that relevancy may be an issue.
Too many Keywords per Ad Group suggests that relevancy may be an issue.
@leighhanney

14. Ad Group Analysis: # Text Ads
Calculate the average number of ‘active’ ads per ad group.
•2.5 – 3 Ads per group is a good start for higher volume Ad Groups
•Less that two ads per ad group could signify a lack of creative testing.
•Too many ads could signify not enough focus.
Think of the average number of active ads per group as a quality indicator.
Think of the average number of active ads per group as a quality indicator.
@leighhanney

15. Check-list: Pulling it all together
@leighhanney

16. AdWords Settings that Could Cost You Money!
@leighhanney

17. Check Your Web Analytics Data
Why: Indicates the quality of the search traffic & can help highlight
potential issues.
Check:
-Bounce rates
-Landing Pages
-Pages per Visit
-Visit Duration
-% New Visits
Check web analytics metrics to quickly determine how PPC traffic compares to
Check web analytics metrics to quickly determine how PPC traffic compares to
other channels from a quality and engagement perspective.
other channels from a quality and engagement perspective.
@leighhanney

18. Thank you!
LEIGH HANNEY
Yennah Consulting
leigh@yennah.com
@leighhanney
@leighhanney