Six months ago, we optimized an AdWords account for a great client. We worked with the client for a few months; she was very happy with the results but decided that things were in good shape and that she’d take it in-house.
A few weeks ago, she contacted us inquiring about another AdWords optimization program for the same account. She saw an increase in ad spend without an uptick in sales; her ROI had started to creep downward. She confessed that she hadn’t touched a thing in six months. She was again interested in just an optimization program and not on-going services.
Although, I was happy to hear from her, I was reluctant to go down the same road. I wasn’t really interested in putting a band-aid on things. I thought about what sort of shape the account would be in after six months without having any attention. Some of the things we like to do on a monthly basis are very basic but very necessary such as bid management,negative keyword management and in this case, we had set up several landing page tests in which the results were never checked on. In a way, it’s actually nice that we have six months worth of data for the landing page test, but we have not dug in yet to see if we would have applied obvious findings after a month or two hence possibly losing out on some good opportunities.
We created a list of things our client missed out on during the past six months to give us a sense of the scope of the project. After reviewing, she decided to work with us on an on-going basis because she realizes band-aids just don’t work sometimes.
Haven’t Touched Your AdWords account in six months? Here’s what you missed?
• New Ad delivery option: We are still using the Rotate option for our clients because we like to test things out ourselves and not leave it in Google’s hands. Interestingly, after this option was available we noticed that some of our accounts had this option ticked off even though we didn’t do it. Mysterious. Sure enough, a few campaigns in our client’s account had this option selected.
• AdWords Privacy Policy Update: This is one of those thing that you just have to do. Self-explanatory.
• Call Metrics: Our good friend, Barb Young has a great blog post about the updates to call metrics. Nothing major, just that each call costs $1 while it was previously free. Sigh.
• Remarketing: This option has been available since early 2010 and although, we have offered this option to many of our clients in the past it seems to be getting more main stream as I am getting more inquiries about remarketing since people are actually experiencing remarketing ads themselves and seeing their competitors advertise in this way.
• iPad Targeting: With the addition of iPad targeting, mobile traffic is really taking off for some websites. We’ve been isolating and creating mobile specific campaigns for many of our clients as it’s only going to keep growing. With this strategy, we have better control on bidding, reporting and acting on our findings.
Bottom line: Don’t go the band-aid route. It’s inevitable you’ll miss out on opportunities and eventually waste money. Actively manage your PPC campaigns or hire someone that will.
