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As paid search managers, we all know that no matter how well set up an account is, things can, and will, go wrong. Our ‘6 critical areas to monitor for PPC’ checklist is a no-brainer way to stay on top of any possible issues so that you catch and deal with them quickly.
If there’s an unexpected problem in the account and you haven’t been checking it daily, you may not know about it for a few days or until you get THAT call from your client.
What to look for:
On a daily basis, check the account impressions to ensure that they haven’t unexpectedly dropped either by a large percentage (i.e. 80%) or to zero.
Things to check if you do find this issue:
Sometimes new campaigns have hidden settings or issues that might stop them from getting started, such as a budget accidentally left at $0.01 or ads not enabled.
What to look for:
Look for new campaigns that are not generating impressions despite being enabled.
Pro Tip: Add a label to new campaigns when you set them up so that it’s easy to filter for them when you go in to check.
Things to check if you do find this issue:
Being able to understand what is converting in an account is vital to optimization and success.
Not only does it give you an understanding of how to optimize, but conversions also form an essential building block for any smart bidding or smart campaign strategy.
What to look for:
On a daily basis, check that your account is continuing to report conversions and that there hasn’t been a large and unexpected drop off.
Things to check if you do find this issue:
Ad or keyword disapprovals mean that you are violating a policy of some kind. It can mean that you’re not showing in the search results for a key term or not displaying the best messaging possible. Multiple disapprovals in an account can result in account suspension, depending on the extent and severity of the disapprovals.
What to look for:
On a daily basis, filter the status column for ads and keywords in Google Ads to find any that are disapproved.
Things to check if you do find this issue:
If you have an account that must stick to its budget, it’s critical to keep a close eye on the spend for the account, especially as you reach the middle and end of the budget period.
What to look for:
Check your overall spend for the period to ensure it’s still in line with your budget. Make sure to include all campaigns and any that were potentially paused earlier in the budget period. Then check your average daily spend – are you spending more each day than the budget allows? This can result in an overspent budget if campaign budgets aren’t modified.
Things to check if you do find this issue:
How Adpulse can help:
Often it’s not obvious when a feed stops working, so it’s important to watch for product disapprovals or large impression-level drops in your shopping campaigns.
What to look for:
Check Google Ads shopping campaign impressions for any unexpected and significant decreases. Then check the product status in the Shopping campaign and filter for disapproved.
Things to check if you do find this issue:
Check Google Merchant Center diagnostics to find out more information about the product disapprovals and how you can resolve them.
We’ve hit the high points above of areas that we see go wrong most frequently for the agencies and managers we work with here at PPC Samurai.
And if you’re not currently an adpulse.io user, you can jump right into a free 7-day trial to automate budget management and find optimization opportunities in your accounts.
