How to Audit Your PPC Account: A Complete Guide for Local Businesses in Milton Keynes

Introduction: The Importance of Regular PPC Audits

Investing in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising can significantly boost your local business’s visibility and sales. Regular audits ensure your campaigns remain effective and deliver a strong return on investment. At Milton Keynes Marketing, we specialise in helping local businesses optimise their PPC efforts through comprehensive audits.

Understanding the Purpose of a PPC Audit

A PPC audit examines your ad campaigns, keywords, landing pages, and settings to identify areas for improvement. It helps uncover budget wastage, low-performing keywords, and issues affecting your ad quality score. An effective audit can lead to better ad placements, lower costs, and increased conversions.

Steps to Conduct a Successful PPC Audit

1. Analyse Campaign Structure and Settings

Audit your campaign organisation, ensuring your campaigns and ad groups are logically structured. Review your targeting options such as geographic, demographic, device, and scheduling settings to confirm they align with your target audience.

Check Campaign Goals and Objectives

Ensure each campaign has clear, measurable goals, such as lead generation or online sales. Misaligned goals can lead to ineffective bidding and budget allocation.

2. Review Keyword Performance and Selection

Examine your keyword list to identify high-performing, low-performing, and irrelevant keywords. Use data to refine your keyword match types and negative keywords to minimise waste.

Identify and Remove Negative Keywords

Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches, saving budget and improving targeting.

3. Evaluate Ad Copy and Extensions

Assess your ad creatives for relevance, clarity, and compelling calls-to-action. Test different messaging styles to find what resonates best with your local audience.

Utilise Ad Extensions Effectively

Implement ad extensions such as call-outs, sitelinks, call, location, and structured snippets to provide additional information and improve ad visibility.

4. Examine Landing Pages

Your landing pages should match your ad messaging and be optimised for conversions. Check for load times, mobile responsiveness, and clear calls-to-action.

Analyse Conversion Tracking

Verify that conversion tracking is correctly set up to measure essential actions like form submissions, calls, or purchases.

5. Review Bidding and Budget Strategies

Ensure your bidding strategies align with your goals, whether it’s maximise clicks, conversions, or target ROAS. Adjust budgets to focus on high-performing campaigns.

Implement Automated Bidding if Appropriate

Automated bidding can optimise your bids based on your objectives and real-time data, saving time and improving results.

Using Analytics to Inform Your PPC Decisions

Leverage data from Google Analytics and Google Ads to understand user behaviour and campaign performance. Identify trends, areas of drop-off, and opportunities for optimisation.

Tools and Resources for PPC Auditing

Some essential tools include Google Ads Editor, SEMrush, SpyFu, and Unbounce. These can help you in data analysis, competitor research, and landing page optimisation.

Creating a PPC Audit Report

Document your findings clearly with actionable recommendations. Include campaign performance metrics, optimiser suggestions, and a roadmap for implementation.

Why Partner with Milton Keynes Marketing?

Our team of PPC experts offers specialised local knowledge and customised strategies to maximise your ad spend. We provide ongoing monitoring and optimisation, ensuring your campaigns continually perform at their best.

FAQs

1. How often should I audit my PPC account?

Ideally, conduct a thorough review monthly or after each campaign change to stay on top of performance trends.

2. What are the common signs of a poorly performing PPC account?

Low click-through rates, high cost per conversion, declining conversion numbers, and poorly targeted ads indicate issues.

3. Can I audit my PPC campaigns myself?

Yes, with some knowledge and tools, but a professional audit can uncover deeper issues and opportunities.

4. How much does a PPC audit typically cost?

The cost varies based on campaign size and complexity but is often a worthwhile investment for improved ROI.

5. What is the difference between manual and automated bidding?

Manual bidding requires manual adjustments, while automated bidding uses algorithms to optimise bids based on predefined goals.

6. How do I choose the right keywords for my campaigns?

Use keyword research tools, competitor analysis, and consider search intent relevant to your local audience.

7. What are negative keywords, and why are they important?

Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches, saving money and increasing relevance.

8. How can ad extensions improve my campaign performance?

They make your ads more informative, prominent, and engaging, increasing click-through rates.

9. What should I do if my PPC campaigns are not generating conversions?

Review your landing pages, ad copy, keywords, and targeting to identify and fix issues.

10. How do I measure the success of my PPC campaigns?

Use conversion tracking, ROAS metrics, and analytics data to assess whether your goals are being met.

Conclusion

Regularly auditing your PPC account is vital to maintaining and enhancing campaign performance. Adoption of best practices ensures your marketing budget works harder for your Milton Keynes business. Contact Milton Keynes Marketing today for expert assistance in optimising your PPC efforts and achieving your business objectives. For a free consultation please contact us through our Milton Keynes PPC agency