If you’re an SEO company which dabbles in Pay Per Click, then this post is for you.  Read it to learn how Denver PPC has grown to become one of the Top PPC Companies in the United States.

Reason 1:  Trained Professionals

We have 8 active Adwords exam passes.  Compare this to many SEO Consulting firms, where the receptionist manages client Adwords accounts.  Trying to hire PPC professionals?  They are tough to find.  That’s why we don’t even search for them.   Instead, we hire smart college grads with good writing and anlytical skills, and then train them into pros.  You have want ads.  We have our own internal school!

If you are an SEO firm which does not have a team dedicated  to manage pay per click, then it would seem obvious that outsourcing to specialists would improve your level of client service.

Reason 2:  Management Systems

We apply rigorous systems for managing client PPC accounts.  Read our blog to learn more about those.  If your systems don’t stack up, then you have to ask yourself how you are going to offer your clients continuously improving results.

Reason 3:  Custom Reports

Last week, one of our SEO clients stated that she doesn’t believe most clients understand our custom reports.  They are rather technical, and include a lot of details.  I’m not sure all clients appreciate them, but that’s not really the point.  Creating monthly custom reports for each client provides accountability and control at the account manager level.  It’s through reporting that we hold our own professionals accountable for improving performance of ppc accounts, and force them to rack their brains to think of improvements each month.

If you don’t create custom monthly reports for your clients, then it’s unlikely that you are managing them in a proactive manner.  If you want an example, outsource just one account to us and let us show you how it is done.

Reason 4:  Competitive Pricing

Our prices are wholesale, not retail.  It’s our goal to ensure that our SEO clients make money on every job we perform on their behalf.  Ask us for a quote on a single account.  Included in our quote will be the ten things we would do differently, if the account were assigned to us.

Reason 5:  Dependability

If you’re having trouble delivering, then assign a couple accounts to us to relieve the work load.  Scared of outsourcing because you believe we will let you down?  Ask us for references.  Phone our customers.  If you do, they’ll tell you the we meet our deadlines, and provide quality service.

Reason 6:  Control

Our clients retain control of client relationships and MCC accounts.  Our contracts with SEO companies are month to month, meaning we can be fired from any client, or all clients, at any time.

Reason 7:  Management

Outsource your Pay Per Click to Denver PPC because we have talented management.  If you can’t afford to hire managers in-house to manage and control your pay per click activities, then choose Denver PPC to do that on your behalf.  For more about our management, please see:  Denver PPC Management.

We’ve made several suggestions in the past for improving Adwords’ online interface and desktop editor, and Google has actually made several of the revisions. The most recent one was adding “dismiss” to alerts. I imagine that once a dozen or so similar suggestions pile up, a manager in Adwords’ development department schedules the revision for programming.  So I’m adding this post as a sort of Adwords wish list, and beginning it with two suggestions I made yesterday via an online chat with a Google chat representative.  Please feel free to add to the list whenever you have ideas for improving either the online Adwords interface or the Adwords desktop editor.

Chat Transcript 23 July

info: Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. Please hold a moment while we route your chat to a specialist who will help you with your question: “I have two inquiries: 1) account access for linked MCC’s via the desktop editor. 2) will we be assigned an account representative?”.

info: Google Rep has received your message and will be right with you.

Google Rep: Hello, Chris. Thanks for contacting Google AdWords. I’m happy to help you.

Google Rep: I see that you have two questions. I will address them both.

Google Rep: First I am going to pull up your account and take a look.

chris: thank you

chris: the first point is just a suggestion

chris: these linked MCC’s are so convenient

chris: we have a team managing these accounts, and by giving them access to the parent mcc, they can also access our partners’ mcc accounts

chris: this works beautifully for the online interface

chris: however, it’s not working perfectly, because each of our SEM professionals still requires a separate login for each MCC

chris: because the desktop editor doesn’t allow access to linked MCC accounts with a single login

chris: we use the desktop editor extensively

chris: so this forces me to create extra Google accounts

chris: one for each SEM professional x number of linked accounts (which today = 9 professionals x 3 MCC accounts = 27 potential logins)

chris: I suggest that Google modify the desktop editor to allow access to linked mcc accounts

Google Rep: Do you mean that when you try to use AdWords Editor you have to have separate logins for each MCC account?

chris: precisely

Google Rep: So you can get to the child accounts under one direct MCC but you cannot access “sub-MCC” accounts through the main MCC login that you use for your AdWords dashboard. Is that correct?

chris: true

Google Rep: I would be happy to look into this to see if there is any other work around.

chris: we are working around it just fine; it’s just an inconvenience, and I thought I would mention it as a recommendation

chris: because in the past, Google seems to have valued our recommendations

Google Rep: I would be happy to pass it along. It is a good point.

chris: thank you

Chris: regarding the second point . . .

chris: our access to Google Analytics is based on a hodge podge of logins through a number of accounts

chris: and when we have to access Google Analytics with logins other than those used to access Adwords, we lose our Adwords sessions.

chris: this forces us to re-login back and forth during our analysis, and reporting process

chris: why can’t Google allow us to access Google Analytics for any account from within that account’s Adwords interface?

chris: this becomes a larger issue for those accounts accessed via linked MCC logins

Google Rep: AdWords will only allow Analytics access to accounts that are directly linked to a specific AdWords account. But I do understand your concern and it does make sense.

Google Rep: I believe the reasoning behind the current situation is for privacy reasons.

chris: of course I’m referring only to linked Analytics / Adwords accounts.

chris: I can imagine the reasons behind it, and to some extent it may be an Urchin legacy issue

chris: aside from that, it’s not logical that a customer would give an SEM manager the keys to their Adwords account, but not allow them to turn on the headlights to drive it. So I’m not really buying your privacy argument. Managing Adwords without analytics is unprofessional.

chris: anyway, I would be pleased if you passed along the suggestion for consideration

Google Rep: I certainly will.

chris: thank you for your time today.

Google Rep: You’re welcome.

chris: bye for now

Google Rep: Is there anything else that I can help you with?

chris: No thank you. Have a good day.

Google Rep: It was a pleasure chatting with you. If you have any more questions, please feel free to visit our Help Center. You can also print this chat transcript for your records. Have a great day.

We find the business of Pay Per Click Marketing interesting from an economic standpoint, only to the extent it can be scaled. The demand for our pay per click management services is strong, but doing a proper job of managing Adwords (and particularly Yahoo and MSN) accounts is incredibly labor intensive and requires a large team of PPC Experts.

Return on our clients’ Ad Spending depends on a lot of technical, detailed, day to day decisions made within a framework for monitoring and continuously improving the performance of advertising accounts. So the key to building a successful Pay Per Click Marketing mammoth is to design the organization, at all levels, to provide exceptional client service.

The following blue print for success is written for the benefit of our PPC Experts.

Don’t Graze on Our Race Course

PPC Experts:  Don’t miss deadlines. Prove yourself to be dependable. Don’t distinguish yourself adversely in terms of attendance and work ethics. Have a positive impact on those around you. Be generous with those having less experience. Make yourself inexpendable to the team. Be constructive. Be polite and considerate. Most of all, don’t lose a client! These are basic employee attributes; mess these up and you’re French Toast, in any position, on any continent, on any planet in the galaxy.

Reach Forward! If you’re not improving yourself, not striving daily to achieve the next level of expertise and productivity, then you’re taking up space which would be better utilized by someone more determined. This is an exciting moment, in an exciting industry. You are in the middle of a paradigm change which will transform advertising into an entirely new discipline. Get excited, or get off our race course.

All for One & One for All

There are no sub-teams within the overall team of PPC Experts. Every PPC Analyst must work with every PPC Associate and PPC Manager. Every PPC Associate must work with every PPC Analyst and PPC Manager. PPC Managers factor the Compass so as to ensure the optimal crossover among all levels of PPC staff. Compensation is linked to promotions. Promotions are linked to performance, not time. A PPC Associate has the power to significantly influence the career (or non-career) of a PPC Analyst (that means she can fire you); a PPC Manager has the power to significantly influence the career (or non-career) of a PPC Associate, or PPC Analyst (that means she recommends promotions . . . or can fire you).

PPC Experts: Positions & Roles

This posting empowers our PPC Professionals because it defines in detail the standard requirements which can lead to a promotion. Of course, PPC Experts can’t get raises unless they are promoted. So for some employees, it’s an important topic.

In our company, simply staying alive isn’t enough to earn a promotion (or raise). To get promoted, you’ll have to do an exceptional job. Read on to learn what that entails.

PPC Analysts

PPC Analysts are experts responsible for the thoughtful day to day maintenance of pay per click campaigns. They implement recommendations included in client reports, perform account analyses which provide the basis for future recommendations, and create the monthly custom ppc reports.

A successful PPC Analyst knows his or her accounts inside and out, thoroughly understands the technical aspects of how to manage Pay Per Click Advertising, and writes meticulously accurate and inspired PPC Reports with thoughtful analysis and ingenious recommendations. These are the basic duties, but do not fully describe a PPC Analyst’s responsibilities.

In addition to the above, a successful PPC Analyst must be able to facilitate the work of those around him or her. Don’t forget that you are at the bottom of the totem pole. Any work delegated by PPC Associates or PPC Managers becomes your responsibility. A successful PPC Analyst is twice as productive as a PPC Associate.

A successful PPC Analyst is a technically proficient expert, and proves this by passing the Adwords exam.

A successful PPC Analyst asks intelligent, well thought out questions, and suggests a well-researched solution for each inquiry. A successful PPC Analyst studies the PPC Blog, and reads every client report issued by the company, as a means of developing ideas for improving the performance of clients’ PPC efforts.

A successful PPC Analyst lives, breathes, eats and sits Google Adwords. When you leave the office, you can’t wait to get home to your studying. When you awake, the only dreams you remember relate to account refactorings. For you, life is work, and work is life. Our success depends on you getting smarter. We’re all waiting on you. Go, go, go!!

If you’re a successful PPC Analyst, then you become a candidate for promotion to a PPC Associate. Promotions are based on evaluations. Raises are coincident with promotion. Evaluations for PPC Analysts are written by PPC Associates and PPC Managers.

PPC Associates

A PPC Associate is: an expert; a technical wizard; has passed the Google Adwords exam; and thoroughly understands the company’s policies and techniques, in detail, for managing PPC campaigns. A successful PPC Associate knows his or her accounts inside and out. A successful PPC Associate thoroughly understands the technical aspects of how to manage Pay Per Click Advertising, including Adwords, Yahoo and MSN accounts. A successful PPC Associate writes meticulously accurate and inspired reports with thoughtful analysis and ingenious recommendations.

The day to day duties of a PPC Associate are similar to the basic day to day duties of a PPC Analyst, however, PPC Associates have added responsibilities.

A successful PPC Associate teaches, instructs, manages, and objectively evaluates the performance of PPC Analysts. PPC Associates are the primary source of energy and brain power for the entire team. Nobody works harder than a successful PPC Associate.

A successful PPC Associate can create a technically sound, thoroughly and expertly researched, perfectly executed PPC account from scratch. PPC Associates review the work of PPC Analysts, and take the heat for any mistakes which may slip by such review.

If you’re a successful PPC Associate, then you become a candidate for promotion to a PPC Manager. Promotions are based on evaluations. Raises are coincident with promotion. Evaluations for PPC Associates are written by PPC Managers.

PPC Managers

A PPC Manager is: an expert; a technical wizard; and a proficient supervisor. A successful PPC Manager orchestrates the PPC team’s activities to ensure compliance with deadlines. A successful PPC Manager writes meticulously accurate and inspired reports with thoughtful, expert analysis and ingenious recommendations. A successful PPC Manager flawlessly delivers a final product, suitable for issuance directly to the client.

A successful PPC Manager instills clarity of thinking in those around her. A successful PPC Manager is patient beyond belief with those who are genuinely trying.

A successful PPC Manager takes a top-down approach to reviewing her client accounts, and protects each account against any wasteful spending.

PPC Managers represent the expert creative genius of the team.

PPC Managers lead by example–they work harder than every other member of the PPC Team.

PPC Managers fairly allocate work among the team, review the performance of PPC Analysts and PPC Associates, and make careful and professionally responsible recommendations for promotions, on the basis provided herein.

A successful PPC Manager flawlessly delivers final expertly-prepared work on time.

A successful PPC Manager inspires those around her to reach higher, work harder, and improve themselves professionally.

Of course, a successful PPC Manager would not tolerate anyone grazing on our race course.  Is the PPC expert next to you searching job boards or playing computer games during working hours?  If you’re a PPC Manager, then it’s your responsibility to ensure that he doesn’t slow our pace.

If you’re a successful PPC Manager, then you become a candidate for promotion to a PPC Senior Manager. Promotions are based on evaluations. Raises are coincident with promotion. Evaluations for PPC Managers are written by Executive Management.

PPC Senior Managers

PPC Senior Managers manage client accounts and participate in profit sharing. PPC Senior Managers act like owners. PPC Senior Managers are accountable. They work harder than any other people on the planet. They remain just barely expendable . . . we all are, you know . . . but for senior management, painfully so. PPC Senior Managers have a multiplicative effect on the Company’s ability to scale. If you’re not sure what that means, then maybe it’s time you paid another visit to the pyramids at Giza.

If you delete keywords and add them back, you may be destroying value. Aside from this, you’re most certainly destroying history. It’s not that you should never delete keywords, but if you’re going to delete them, make sure you have a valid reason for doing so.

. . . and don’t forget to look both ways before you cross the street

If you’re Mr Big Change History Man, then this post is for you! Here I am again, explaining what I would otherwise like to think would be common sense. There are three reasons you should not delete keywords:

1) Quality Score Equity is associated with keywords. Deleting the keywords can destroy the equity. Moving the keywords to new ad groups or new campaigns will restore their neutral values. Sometimes doing so is unavoidable, but just be sure you take into account any Quality Score Equity before moving valuable keywords.

2) When you delete a keyword, you lose it’s performance history. This is inconvenient at best.

3) When you delete a keyword, you set the account up for some other wise guy (probably yourself) adding the keyword back to the account in the future. By leaving it in the account paused, it’s clear to everybody how it has performed, and you might even receive a warning when you try to upload it again later (as a duplicate).

A Match Type Change is a Delete!!

Changing match type is easy as pie with the desktop editor. But if you’re a novice, you might not understand when you change the match type of 200 keywords from phrase to broad, that what you have really done is to delete 200 keywords and create 200 new keywords. Don’t believe it? Check out the change history. So you see, the Desktop Editor can facilitate stupidity on a grand scale!

How to Change Keyword Match Types

First of all, changing keyword match types is the sort of revision which requires a report recommendation and approval. Once you’ve gone through that process, to change 200 keywords from phrase to broad, you would open the desktop editor, copy the 200 keywords into excel (and at the same time pause the 200 phrase match keywords), then change match type for all 200 from “Phrase” to “Broad,” before uploading them again to the Desktop Editor and posting them to the account.

Exceptions to the Rule

There are times when we may delete a keyword: 1) the keyword was clearly a mistake and never should have been bid upon; 2) the keyword is a duplicate within or across ad groups (delete the one with capitals unless it has many all time clicks!); and 3) we’ve reached the keyword limits for an account.

Questions About Deleting Keywords

If you have questions about deleting keywords, then you should contact Hanna. If you’re Mr Big Change History Man, then you should also read Don’t Delete Ads!

If you understand how Google calculates Quality Score, then you may know that an account can build Quality Score Equity over time. Much of this Quality Score Equity is stored in your ads. If you delete your ads, then you will destroy some of your Quality Score Equity. Not sure what that means? Just walk over to the toilet, drop in a couple of bucks, and flush. That’s what destroying Quality Score Equity means for an advertiser.

. . . and look both ways before you cross the street

You may find it hard to believe that some so called PPC Experts (advertisers) wouldn’t already know this, but evidently it’s not common sense to everybody. I have recently encountered two separate accounts where all the ads have been destroyed and reloaded several times in a month. Doing this for a mature account is painfully stupid.

The effect of such a mistake is likely that the new ads will serve at a lower position than the original ads, at least for awhile; the worse positions will likely result in a lower click through rate. If the lower positions are remedied with higher bids, then the mistake will result in a higher cost per click.

Changing Ads is Deleting Ads!!

Part of the confusion relates to how Google manages ads. Google simply doesn’t allow revisions to ads. It may seem that they do, but in fact they do not. Everytime you revise any ad in even the smallest way in either the desktop editor, or the online interface, Google treats this as an ad deletion, and the creation of a new ad. Don’t believe it? Look in the change history. You will not only lose any Quality Score Equity associated with the ad, but you will also compromise the historical statistics associated with the ad.

How to Revise Ads

If you wish to revise an existing ad, unless the account is brand new and still in the creation process, then just open the desktop editor, copy the original ad into excel (at the same time pause the original ad), make your revisions in excel, paste it back into the desktop editor, refine it, then upload. The result will be to pause the original version, and create a new ad, and you can confirm this by looking in the change history.

Still, pausing the ad (not deleting it) can destroy Quality Score Equity. How much equity is destroyed? Who knows! Google doesn’t provide quality score ratings for ads as they do for keywords; however, you can imagine relative quality score by looking at the relative click through rates of your ads. If you are stopping an ad with a below average click through rate, maybe no harm is being done. Conversely, if you are pausing (or deleting) your best performing ad, then the flush the toilet analogy applies to you (and “here’s your sign!”).

The point is, before you go revising an ad, make sure you have a darn good reason for doing so (wishing to delete tracking URL’s is probably not a good enough reason). Generally, if an ad is doing well, don’t touch it. If you think you can improve it, then prove it: Just create another competing ad and let them run against each other for awhile until the truth becomes known.

If you’re Mr Big Change History Man, then you should also read Don’t Delete Keywords!

Don’t ignore inactive keywords. When I find a new account full of inactive keywords, it’s my first clue that the account has been poorly maintained. Google marks keywords inactive when your cpc bid falls below the minimum CPC for the keyword. Read on to find out about the causes of inactive keywords, and to learn how to solve inactive keywords.

Why Do Keywords Become Inactive?

Some keywords are more competitive than others and on that basis may naturally have higher minimum bids than other keywords. However, if a keyword was active at your starting bid, when you first added it to the account, and has since become inactive, it’s a sure indication that the quality score for the keyword has eroded, which causes the minimum bid amount to increase. If the minimum bid is raised to an amount higher than your cpc bid, then the keyword becomes inactive.

Evaluate the Keyword

If a keyword has become inactive, it most often means that Google has determined that you have no business bidding on the keyword. Ask yourself, “Is the keyword too general? Is the keyword essential?” If your answer to both questions is yes, then take steps to salvage the keyword. If you answered no to either question, then consider pausing the keyword. For more information, see Evaluating Keywords.

Quick Fix for Inactive Keywords

If you have established bid limits for a relevant keyword, and you have plenty of buffer between the bid limit and the minimum bid, then the easy fix for reactivating the keyword is simply to increase the bid to some about, say 11 cents, higher than the minimum bid (don’t bid the minimum exactly, because that increases the chances of a tie bid). Of course, simply increasing the bid ignores the underlying problem . . . a disintegrating Quality Score.

Salvaging Quality Scores for Inactive Keywords

If you wish to keep an inactive keyword, then you should consider taking steps to improve quality score for the keyword. There are three primary means of doing so:

Revise Keyword Groupings

This is often the easiest fix. If you have a handful of similar keywords in an ad group which have poor quality scores or have become inactive, then break them out into a separate ad group. More is written about this in Improving Quality Scores.

Improve Your Ads

This can be done by analyzing competitor ads and performing ad split testing.

Improve your Landing Page & Website

If your keyword phrase is not on your landing page, then that will compromise your quality score.

There are also some indirect things about your website which can cause a poor quality score, such as:

• a high bounce rate — if your clicks are bouncing at a high rate, Google will penalize your quality score.
• a slow loading speed — Google has recently announced that if your page loads slowly, then it will denigrate your quality score.
• violating Google’s published standards for Webmasters — if your site lacks about us information and contact information or includes content which is not unique, then Google may penalize your quality scores.

Conclusion–Inactive Keywords

The important thing about Inactive Keywords is to take action. Don’t let them sit in the account inactive. Secondly, don’t automatically accept Google’s suggested minimum bid. Consider using the crisis as an opportunity for reevaluating your keywords for relevancy, based on our 2×2 matrix for selecting keywords.

If you wish to keep a keyword, then you’ll have to increase the bid (caution, don’t ignore bid limits!), but aside from that, you should also consider taking steps to improve the keyword’s quality score. If you don’t, then don’t become bitter when the keyword’s minimum bid is increased again after just a day or two, making the keyword inactive again.

This is the second in a series of specific things you can do to improve the performance of your PPC account. As mentioned in the previous post, if you wish to improve the performance of your account, improve your ad text!  Studying your ad space is a great way to see how your ads stack up against the competition, but you should also study your own ad statistics to see which ads are performing best, and which ones require improvement. This is loosely referred to as ad split testing, and there are a number of ways to perform it. The most important thing is simply that you do it continuously.

Choosing a Time Period for Ad Analysis

Generally when we perform ad split testing, we run an all time ad performance report.  A longer time period results in more data.  However, if we have refactored an account several months ago or revised ads based on a prior analysis, for example, we might find cause in some cases to choose a shorter period.  Unless you have a good reason for choosing a shorter time period, choose all time.

Ad Split Testing

There are a number of ways to perform ad split testing, and this is explained separately.  The bottom line is, don’t be too mechanical in your analysis.  Your analysis should take into consideration the account structure (because slight variants of ads may exist across many campaigns and ad groups).  It should also consider things like advertised specials, and other widely used ad attributes.  If you can statistically prove that some ad attribute contributes to higher returns, then that is indeed very valuable information, not just with respect to writing better ads, but also for other marketing purposes.  Any such findings should be particularly highlighted in our monthly Client Reports.

Don’t Revise Ads

Once you’ve done the analysis, and made a plan to revise ads, don’t!!  Generally, we don’t revise ads, we pause them and create new ones.  This is because Google doesn’t actually accept ad revisions; a revision is processed by Google as a deletion of the prior ad and the creation of a new ad.  This is evidently so as to avoid trashing quality score calculations.  Unless your account is bumping up against the limits on number of ads, In order to avoid losing valuable data just pause the prior ad and write a new one.

Conclusion – Ad Analysis

Document your work and findings in the Ad MD&A.  Recommend improvements as applicable.

Regardless of how ingenious your recommendations may be, clients cannot be impressed with a Pay Per Click Report that looks like it has been thrown together by a 12 year old, while he had a burrito in the microwave.

PPC Report Checklist

Following are some Report Formatting Guidelines to follow for every PPC Report you submit:

1. Combine tables when possible. If an advertiser uses Yahoo and Adwords, then summarize results in two tables, otherwise use one.
2. Don’t allow tables to violate margins.
3. Round all percentages to one decimal.
4. Show dollars and cents for per click statistics; round all other dollar amounts to nearest dollar.
5. Never submit any type of table which has no totals.
6. Foot the totals 2x. Check the averages for reasonableness.
7. When Google Analytics and Adwords data are different, generally use Adwords; however, mention the difference in the MDA.
8. Follow above rounding conventions in the MDA. Don’t cite figures in the MDA which contradict summary table.
9. Begin each recommendation by mentioning to whom the recommendation relates (Ad Manager, Webmaster or Advertiser).
10. Include our default note on the bottom of each report.

For an example report, see Sample PPC Report. Also see How to Write Better PPC Reports for some general comments on how to write Better PPC Reports.

Don’t think of PPC Reports as just some monthly documents you send around to clients each month. Think of them as the catalyst for improving Return on Ad Spending! Custom PPC reports are all about the process of summarizing results and brainstorming each month to find ideas for the coming month to improve results. Get it right, and your PPC Reports will become the driving force for KAIZEN PPC. Go, go, go!!

You can’t create a good Pay Per Click report without developing great recommendations. Clients want to know what exactly their professional ad manager intends to do in the coming month to improve pay per click results. If you’re having difficulties thinking up the next great recommendation, it may be because you’re not digging deep enough into the account.

For accounts which we created (that means they have a logical structure, comprehensive list of keywords and great ads), and which we have managed for several months, it’s not so likely that you are going to find meaningful recommendations at the ad group level. If you want to discover really meanignful recommendations, then dig down into the keywords and ads. It’s there that you’ll find the really valuable nuggets.

Types of PPC Recommendations

There are two types of recommendations which we include in every report, to demonstrate to clients that they can’t live without us: 1) recommendations proving that we are PPC geniuses; and 2) recommendations proving that we are PPC grinders. The first type says to the client, “Hey, you could never have come up with this idea, because we’re PPC Experts; we know more about PPC than you could ever learn.” The second type of recommendation says to the client, “Hey you would never grind out these statistics like we grind them out. You don’t have the time or energy to do so.” Both types of recommendations prove that the client can’t live without us. Kaizen PPC–both types of recommendations demonstrate our commitment to continuously improving PPC results . . . forever. Get it right, and we win a client for life.

For a mature account which we have created ourselves, finding great recommendations can be tough. Doing so requires creativity and enthusiasm. If you love your pay per click account, then you’ll enjoy discovering the next great potential improvement. You’ll love testing the next idea, and every morning you’ll be excited to see the effects of the previous day’s account revisions. [If you haven't a clue what I'm talking about, then it's time for you to find a new job!! Go now!! Run, don't walk, to the nearest exit!! We'll mail you your final paycheck.]

Better Reports for Better Accountability

Our obsession with reporting is based on the premise that reporting can drive accountability, and that better accountability and the reporting process can drive performance. Make promises every month in your reports to clients, then execute the improvements you have promised to undertake, then report on the results, use your new findings to perform new analysis, make new promises, and so on.

Here are some general guidelines to consider when creating reports:

1. Clearly state date ranges for all statistics.
2. Clearly state basis of selection for MDA and recommendations regarding keywords and ads.
3. Don’t cite statistics involving less than 10 instances; they just aren’t interesting.
4. Don’t make any recommendations to do maintenance; of course we’re going to do maintenance–no need to recommend it.
5. Don’t make any recommendations to do some analysis. Just do the analysis and make recommendations based on the results.
6. Don’t submit a report which does not analyze ads and ad space. Improving ad performance is fundamental in improving account performance.
7. If you’re thinking about axing some element of a PPC account (keyword, ad group, ad), make sure you are proposing to do so on the longest representative reporting period (since the last account refactoring, for example). Don’t axe an account element based on just one month’s performance.
8. Save all your supporting Excel sheets for whatever analysis you perform.
9. Follow PPC Report Formatting Guidelines.
10. The Ad Manager Road Map is your friend. Take care of it, and it will take care of you!

Go, go, go!!

Breaking keywords into elements can help us understand which roots and qualifiers are performing best in a relative sense. It can also help us manage and maintain keyword building blocks, especially for those accounts which use thousands of keywords across a large number of ad groups and campaigns.

We normally break keywords into the following elements: Root + Qualifier [+ Place] with Place being optional, and for many accounts this methodology is apparent in the names we choose for ad groups and campaigns.

Especially for local accounts which include Place qualified keywords, we create Root ad groups which are “clean” of place qualifiers. These Root ad groups include comprehensive lists of keywords which can be replicated and modified with place names to expand the account as may be required. [Excel Hint: =concatenate(c4, " denver")]

Keeping root keyword lists up to date for the most recent keyword additions makes it much easier to maintain a PPC acccount. It also makes it easier to replicate campaigns for other uses.

To learn how to select keywords for ppc, check out the Denver PPC Blog.