Measuring and modifying your PPC to maximize your results

With the amount spent on online advertising predicted to overtake print media, it’s a good idea to make sure you know what you hope to achieve with your online marketing, how you’ll define and measure success and a plan on how to modify your campaign to maximize your results.It sounds obvious, but it’s surprising how often very smart marketers will undertake a campaign without really knowing what they hope to accomplish. To make sure you aren’t one of them, consider the following:

If you are successful with the campaign you are planning to launch, what will be different about my company (or business)? Will you have generated more online inquiries, phone traffic, more sales? Or something else? Please note, some of these things are lagging indicators, meaning there are several steps that need to happen BEFORE these things can. If that’s the case, can you define what the steps leading up to this may be (leading indicators)? If you can, perhaps your measurement should focus on these leading indicators. After all, these are the things you can most directly impact.

Can you automate the measurement of these leading indicators? If you use Google Analytics, the answer to that question is very likely yes. It’s pretty easy to set up a goal and a funnel so you don’t have to go digging to uncover the information you need to make intelligent decisions. Besides, it can be very dangerous to just start poking around all the data available in GA without knowing what you are looking for first. It’s too easy to get sucked down a rabbit hole because there is just so much available.

Make certain that the data you are evaluating will help you refine your efforts so you can maximize your results. This means, ask questions that will actually influence your behavior. We find running tests throughout the campaign is a very effective way to get actionable insights because it allows you to draw comparisons. Remember though, if you change up too much at once, you won’t know what is driving the difference in results. Be methodical in your approach. Research up front can help formulate a hypothesis and then testing will help you validate and refine.

Remember, more than with any other medium, digital is about content. Deliver what you customer expects and needs, not what you want them to have, and you are bound to get better results. If you need a hand with any of this, we’d be happy to help you get focused. Just send us an email or give us a call.