Growth Playbook: Optimizing Your Search Campaigns

This month I helped a client who was spending over $50,000 a month drop their cost per lead on google from $303 to $49 while increasing the quality. Want to know how?

It was boring.
It was basic.
It was making sure they were doing the fundamentals right.

Too many marketers go in search of the next big tactic or growth hack to short cut their way to growth.I love a good growth hack more than anyone but you need to be doing the fundamentals right first.

That's the easiest way to growth - Be phenomenal at the fundamentals.

So with that, here is my boring playbook on how to audit your adwords account and make it efficient in 9 simple steps:

1. Performance Overview: Start by reviewing your overall performance to identify potential red flags. Examine the performance metrics including clicks, impressions, click-through-rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), conversions, cost per conversion, and return on ad spend (ROAS). This will give you an idea of how your ads have been performing and which metrics have worsened over time.

2. Campaign Structure: Inspect your campaign structure. Good account structure can improve the relevancy of your ads and boost Quality Score, which can subsequently reduce your CPC. Your campaigns should be tightly themed with relevant ad groups, and ad groups should contain closely related keywords.

3. Keyword Analysis: Evaluate your keyword list. Are there any keywords that are underperforming or costing too much? Long-tail keywords can be less competitive and therefore cheaper. Additionally, check for negative keywords. Adding irrelevant search terms to your negative keyword list can prevent wasting money on clicks that are unlikely to convert.

4. Ad Performance: Evaluate your ad copy. Ads with higher CTRs can signal to Google that the ad is relevant and helpful to users, potentially reducing your costs. What are the characteristics of those high performing ads and how can you replicate them across your other variations?

5. Quality Score: Check the Quality Scores of your keywords. This is a crucial factor in determining your CPC and ad rank. If you have low Quality Scores, you may need to improve your ad relevancy or landing page experience.

6. Landing Page Review: Are your landing pages optimized for conversion? Even if users click your ads, if they don't convert once they're on your website, you'll be wasting money. Your landing pages should match your ad copy and offer a smooth experience built around conversion.

7. Bidding Strategy: Examine your bidding strategy. Automated strategies can sometimes lead to higher costs, particularly if the strategy is not set up correctly. Don’t just blindly trust the google bots. You may want to even consider switching to manual bidding to gain more control over your costs if things are way out of whack.

8. Geographical Performance: Check performance by geographical area. If certain areas are not performing well or are more expensive, consider excluding them from your campaigns.

9. Competitor Analysis: Finally, do some competitive analysis. Has there been a new entrant in the market that could be driving up costs? Tools like SEMRush or SpyFu can help you understand what your competitors are doing.

Running through these 9 things will help you identify areas of opportunity to optimize, eliminate wasted spend, and give your account the best chance of being successful.

It will help you nail the fundamentals. Be phenomenal at the fundamentals.

Thanks for reading!

Adam