You are missing out if you are not using Google Analytics data to improve your AdWords campaign results!
There are dozens of reports that you can data mine – a la the NSA – in order to quickly optimize your PPC Campaigns with a few PPC management tweaks.
We are – of course – assuming that you have properly synced your AdWords and Google Analytics Accounts, and that you have set up Goal and Ecommerce Conversion Tracking.
To get started –
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1. Log into your Google Analytics Account
2. Click on Traffic Sources
3. Click on Advertising
4. Click on AdWords
5. Click on Campaigns
The Default results will provide you with the following metrics:
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1. Visits
2. Page Views
3. Visit Duration
4. New Visits
5. Bounce Rate
6. Goal Completions
7. Revenue
Here are five things you can look at in five minutes, starting with the Default results:
Visits
While Total Visits are listed, we prefer to note the percent of Visitors that PPC campaigns drives to the site. In this example, PPC accounts for just 1.81% of all Visits due to a modest budget. The Visit Percent becomes a benchmark for gauging overall Adword campaign performance.
Visit Duration
Our Average Duration is 2:46 vs. 3:18 for the site. While it is not unusual for Paid Traffic to have lower Average Visit Durations – especially when using dedicated Landing Pages – we normally want to see a minimum of three minutes/visit. Improving Visit Duration becomes a Goal.
Bounce Rate
Dedicated PPC Landing Pages often have high Bounce Rates because they are single pages. For this reason, we don’t panic until we see Bounce Rates climb above 80%.
In this case, we see campaign Bounce Rates ranging from 28% to 68%; we’re in good shape here, although we will check the Device Tabs at upper left (All, Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet) to determine if we need to work on results by device type. Again, our results appear quite good regardless of device.
Next, we examine by Ad Group, and again find no red flags.
Goal Completions
While our campaigns account for 1.81% of Visits they only generate 1.72% of Total Goal Completions (Leads + Transactions). We would want this ratio to at least approximate Percent of Visits, which we can accomplish with a 10.2% improvement in Goal Completions. Improving the ratio of Goal Completions to Visits becomes another Goal.
Revenue
Good news, everyone! 1.81% of Visits generate 6.87% of Revenue. Clearly, PPC is performing extremely well here.
Perhaps it’s time for a Budget increase?
Not so fast. First we’ll want to evaluate performance in by ROI and Margin. Determining if a Budget increase is desirable becomes another goal.
Alas, that’s another post.
The Takeaway
In just five minutes, we have identified three Goals that we should execute on:
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1. Increase Visit Duration
2. Improve the Ratio of Goal Completions to Visits (because Ecommerce metrics appear to be strong, results indicate that Conversion Optimization for our Lead Gen program is where we should start)
3. Analyze ROI and Margin metrics to determine if a Budget increase is desirable
Keep in mind that your business/web presence is unique, and your results will vary.
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