When managing PPC campaigns, it can be easy to get bogged down in the day to day management of the accounts and overlook critical areas that impact the overall performance. Too often, we see complacency settle in as PPC accounts seem to run along smoothly – meeting the goals that were originally set at the beginning of the project. But, if you were to step back and take a subjective look at the data – you will most likely discover certain issues that are being masked by the so-called success of the account as a whole.

This is why it is important to conduct an audit of PPC accounts quarterly or bi-annually. While these can be time consuming, the insights learned from a correctly run audit will have an impact on the performance of the account that will ulitmately, surpass the resources that are put into it.

An audit needs to first take a step back and review the initial goals and success metrics that were established. Have these changed since the PPC account was created? Are there additional goals or metrics that have been created that need to be taken into account?

Confirming or reestablishing the goals and success metrics will provide the basis for the completion of the audit and to answer these questions.

Now, if you have determined that there are additional goals or success metrics that need to be factored in, it is time to evaluate how the PPC account has been performing. This is a four-step process that analyzes the keywords, ad copy, landing pages, and account structure.

Keywords: In evaluating the keyword performance, you should ideally base your analysis on the previous 3-4 months worth of data – taking into account any seasonality that typically occurs. The report you pull should include impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, average position, and bid amount. 

Calculations for click-through rate, cost-per-click, conversion rate, and cost-per-conversion must also be considered. When appropriate, it should include the conversion value and return on advertising spend.

You can then evaluate each keyword based on the goals and success metrics that have been established. (Hint: It will make your life much easier, if you’ve created a pivot table based on the raw data … before you begin your analysis).  This will tell you which keywords are working well and which are not, but that is just the beginning. Just because a keyword isn’t performing well, does not mean that it’s a bad keyword.

To fully understand, you need to look at the big picture and take into account all the factors at play. Some areas to look at include:

• the average position
• the ad copy
• the landing page that each keyword is using
• your Web analytics data to evaluate the behavior of visitors that are coming in on those keywords

Ad Copy: The ad copy is the next step in the audit. In order to do this, you’ll need a report that details the impressions, clicks, conversions, CTR, and conversion rate for each ad. Based on your analysis, you should be able to determine what ads are underperforming and determine if they are not working because of poor copy.  Poor ad group structure that combine keywords which need to be separated out into their own ad groups can also deter your performance.

Landing Pages: The next step is to analyze the landing pages that are being utilized. In order to do this properly, you’ll need to pull reports for each landing page that is being used from your Web analytics package.

Doing so, will allow you to understand what visitors are interested in when they get to the landing page or if uninterested are bouncing immediately after getting to the page. Understanding the links they click on and the content they are consuming, will allow you to rework the landing pages and begin testing variations.

When analyzing landing pages, it’s important to take into account the keywords that are driving visitors to the page and the ad copy that is being used. These all play into how a landing page will perform in case your ad copy may not be promising something that may be delivered on the landing page.  Or, there may be keywords that drive traffic but are not relevant enough for the current landing page copy.

By doing this analysis, you may find that your ad copy needs to be reworked, that you need to rework your landing pages, or that you need additional landing pages that speak more directly to certain keyword groups.

Account Structure: Once you’ve completed the previous three tasks, you’re now ready to evaluate the overall account structure. Using your findings, you’ll be able to determine if new campaigns need to be created.  If additional ad groups need to be created within existing campaigns … what are the areas to expand your keyword list and what are the areas to enhance ad copy changes that need to be made?

Implementing these changes will improve the performance of the account by creating more targeted campaigns and ad groups that speak directly to the needs of the searchers who will be exposed to your ads and your site.

Conducting a full PPC audit every quarter or biannually will eliminate the tendency to become complacent.  You’ll find the hidden problems that – when corrected – will allow the PPC account to not just meet your goals but to exceed the goals that have been created.

One of our ‘bread and butter’ tasks here at Serengeti Communications is that of the Search Audit. We will either perform these in conjunction with an Analytics Audit, or stand alone. That said, what is in a search audit? What do you find out? How does it help you?

Let’s start at the beginning and walk through it step by step.

1. The search audit basically starts off by taking a look at your current site. This indepth analysis looks at the structure of the pages on your site and the underlying architecture – to ascertain whether your current structure supports your intended goals.
2. Next, we take a look to see what your site is currently ranking for. In most cases, that’s not what you think you should be ranking for.
3. Then, we take a look at your identified vertical competitors to see what & how they’re performing.
4. Following that, we perform indepth keyword analysis to see what you should be attempting to rank for.  For this, we use several research tools, as well as information garnered from your competitors’ sites. Note: the highest traffic keywords may not be those that are the best for your site – those that bring the highest level of qualified traffic are.
5. Should you be performing PPC or wanting to perform PPC, we create an optional report showing the anticipated costs for the recommended keywords, as well as expected traffic for each across the various PPC providers.
6. The final section of the document details the recommendations for the site, and outlines an action plan along with any anticipated costs, should you decide to implement the recommendations internally. We’ll also include a proposal if you’d like us to implement the recommendations.
7. We come in and present the key points & recommendations of the document, and answer any questions that you may have.

Essentially, you come out of the process with a audit document that you can use to evaluate the current status of your site, and a path forward to the next level for your site.

Social Media is everywhere (it is, quite literally, what people do on the Internet today) and there is no shortage of tactical advice and examples of “Social Media campaigns” online. But beware: Jumping into Social Media without a well thought out strategy and a real understanding of the space increases your chances of a serious misstep. It can even leave your brand worse off than it was before.

A Social Media Audit can help you create a solid strategy and understand potential risks, opportunities and rewards before you jump in.

What does a Social Media Audit tell you? A good Social Media Audit covers everything from nuts and bolts strategic decisions (goals, target audiences, success metrics, etc.) to the finer points of program execution (legal/policy constraints and internal requirements) — and everything in between. Buzz Monitoring is an important part of the Social Media Audit because it helps provide a deeper understanding of the group(s) you want to engage with and any opportunities or challenges that may lay in wait.

Some of the critical elements addressed in a Social Media Audit are:

Brand/product credibility and position: How credible is your brand/product online? Are people saying nasty things about you that could blow up in your face if you enter the space unaware? In one of our recent Audits, we found that there was a serious misperception (and consequently, some negative buzz) about the features of a particular product. If the client had jumped into Social Media without knowing that this was a problem, the response could have been disastrous.

“Audience” Research: How are your customers or constituents currently engaging in Social Media on the Web? Are they Social Media savvy? Will they be receptive to this type of engagement? Is there a need you could help fill in order to create good will among an existing community? Successful initiatives build on the audience’s interests. What your customers/constituents want and the activities that they are already engaging in (without being prompted) should drive key decisions about where, when and how you engage.

Organizational readiness: How “Social Media ready” is your organization? Are there legal constraints (regulated industries for example) or internal policy issues that impact what you can and cannot do with Social Media? Is the organization willing to cede some control over defining the brand? What is the organization prepared to do in regards to ethics and transparency?

Requirements: What are the likely time requirements and investments? Social Media engagement requires a time committment (not just from the marketing staff), good content and often the creation of new tools and Web properties. Your staff will also need some training (engagement ethics, organizational policy around Social Media, etc.).

Competition: Are your competitors engaged? If so, are there lessons to be learned — successes, failures, something unique you might be able to provide?

True, Social Media requires ceding control, but trust me, taking a willy nilly approach to the space is not where you want (or need) to let go. While you cannot and should not attempt to control the voices of your customers, you can certainly control your own behavior — your approach, the discussions you raise, your response, etc. A Social Media Audit can go a long way towards smoothing your foray into the space.

The choice to become a data driven organization is a very important one (we’ve written about this topic often on Endless Plain) because it is the first step toward making big ROI gains. Once data becomes the focus for marketing decision making, it is important to ensure that you understand what to measure, what not to measure, and what to expect.  Most importantly,  you must have confidence in the data and findings you share among internal stakeholders.

But how do you know if your data is accurate? If it isn’t, the actionable recommendations you make based on the data generated by your Web Analytics program may not help you much.  This is why data accuracy is one of the key issues that a good Analytics Audit (one of our most popular service offerings) should address.

The first steps in our Audit process are to review all appropriate information and data sources, establish a good baseline and identify any anomalies or illogical patterns in the data. This generally takes a bit of time and a lot of skill.

We almost always conduct data comparisons (comparing numbers from one Web Analytics program to another) as a means of ensuring accuracy. This can be a confusing and frustrating endeavor if you are not aware of all of the factors that can impact how numbers are reported by each vendor.   However, the comparison process is essential to ensuring that your data is clean and accurate. 

The Analytics Audit can be an eye-opening experience.  Some of the common data accuracy problems we often discover in the course of an Audit include the following:

• Analytics are under-reporting because java script is not on all the pages or incorrect on some pages;
• Analytics are under-reporting because a Web site is load balanced and not all of the logs are being analyzed;
• Analytics are over-reporting visitor traffic because robots and spiders are being counted as visitors;
• Analytics are grossly over-reporting conversions because the conversion code is on the wrong page, so campaigns that looked successful were actually losing money.

Most clients are surprised to find these errors, but there are often even bigger problems that are identified in the course of an Audit — problems that can significantly impact a client’s marketing program and/or Web site.  In one recent Audit, we discovered that fraudulent clicks and no-quality clicks were wasting almost an entire campaign budget.  In another, we discovered that a minor change made to one of the steps in the shopping cart had increased abandonment rate by 27%.

If you’ve made the decision to become a data driven organization, a Serengeti Audit can help you assess the accuracy of your data before you go too far down the road in presenting numbers to internal stakeholders — or worse, making bad marketing decisions based on faulty data.

It’s been a while since we did a simple round up post over here, and since I’ve just spent the better part of Sunday working on a presentation (which will be posted to the Serengeti Communications Resources section after I’ve presented it on Wednesday), I felt that now was the ideal time to step back and write about items of interest in and around the Serengeti Communications team, and the work that we do.

In case I’ve piqued your curiosity regarding my Sunday endeavors, the presentation is titled “Social Search: The Next Steps” and will be delivered at Search Engine Strategies in New York City at 5:30pm on Wednesday. This last session of the day suddenly looks like it’s going to be well attended, as it was announced on Friday that Erik Qualman, the Global VP of Online Marketing for EF Education, and an expert Search Engine Watch blogger, will now also be on the panel. If that suddenly makes you want to rush out there, make sure to say hello, and make sure to only ask me easy, simple questions.

Former Business.com, and Yahoodler, Jessica Bowman wrote a great post last week on what a company should expect to spend on an SEO audit, and what you should expect to get for your money. Don’t forget to check out our services section where we talk about our Audit services.

On March 29th, spare a thought for me and Nate, as we’ll both be running in the Suntrust National Half Marathon, which will wind its way through the streets of Washington, DC. Normally, I’d stand no chance against Nate, but given that he’s having rather painful IT band issues, and apart from the occasional calf pull, I’m in good health. There’s a chance that I can take the bragging rights for the office (at least until Nan and Stacy complete their next Iron Man Triathalons later in the year).

Finally, as you know (if you’ve been keeping an eye on the Serengeti Team page), we’re a growing company – having added 25% of our staff this year already. Over the rest of this year, we intend to continue that growth. So, if you’re interested, have a skillset, and a mindset that you think would fit in with our team; you can contact us at info@serengeticom.com.

Many companies offer “Audits,” so there is a wide range of definitions and hard deliverables associated with these types of services.

At Serengeti, we define an Audit as a data-based assessment of a client’s digital marketing/communications program, including:

1. Content assets used to attract and convert traffic;
2. Traffic driving tactics and engagement activity across all digital channels;
3. Conversion performance;
4. Analytics/data infrastructure.

In our view, an Audit should be based primarily on hard facts and concise data. Due to data and information gaps, Audits almost always include some “best practices” recommendations. However, we are uncomfortable with the word “Audit” if the assessment and/or recommendations are based primarily on a best practices review.

Since we are data junkies, there are few things more exciting to us than an Audit. Digging into the data, connecting the dots, experiencing the “aha!” moments…it’s, well, FUN. Even if we didn’t enjoy it so much, we would still encourage Audits. In fact, we like to start every client engagement with an Audit. Why?

You can’t be successful without a plan; you can’t create a successful plan without fully understanding where you are now (where you really are, not where you wish you were); and establishing where it is you need to go.

So, what should you look for in an Audit?

A good Audit should give you a firm grasp on the following:

1. Performance and ROI assessment of all current channels;
2. Where you are in comparison to your top competitors, not just in search rankings or pay per click but across all digital channels including social media visibility and engagement;
3. The reliability and implications of your existing data and specific instructions for fixing any problems;
4. Identification of data gaps and recommendations for improvements, including integration of data sources;
5. Revised goals and metrics for each channel in your marketing mix; Revised goals and metrics for your Web site(s) and recommended enhancements to the conversion funnels/persuasive architecture of the site(s);
6. A two to five year plan with specific, detailed recommendations on content assets, traffic driving tactics, communications tactics (social media, new media engagement, etc.) conversion enhancement, testing and data infrastructure.

If Social Media is part of your communications strategy, your Audit should also include Opinion Mining/Buzz Monitoring in order to determine what is being said online about your brand, your products, your customer service, your competitors, etc.

An Audit is a great place to start if your marketing program is under-delivering. Audit findings based on real data can also help make the budget case to upper management for enhancements you may want to make to your web site, and/or marketing tactics. And of course, there is nothing better than data (or the obvious lack of it) to make the case for investing in Analytics.