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PPC Research

PPC research is important for new campaigns being built from scratch, as well as for campaigns being taken over by a new PPC management company. In high-level terms, PPC research has three parts: a campaign audit, keyword research, and competitor research.

PPC Campaign Audit

The campaign audit is an A-to-Z review of a current Google AdWords or Bing Ads account and any active campaigns. The audit reviews:

  • Google and Bing account settings
  • The structure of campaigns
  • The structure of ad groups
  • Keyword selection and strategy
  • Ad text
  • Destination pages
  • Tracking methodology

PPC Keyword Research

Keywords make or break a PPC campaign. If the wrong keywords are chosen, or if they are grouped in the wrong way, clickthroughs and conversions are unlikely to reach a critical mass and make PPC advertising pay off. For this reason, PPC keyword research is extremely important, and covers:

  • Target audience variables
  • Relevance
  • Geographic keyword selection
  • User intent
  • Negative keyword selection
  • Cost per click (CPC) analysis of individual keywords
  • Search volume for individual keywords

Even with handy online tools, keyword research is laborious and requires a great deal of skill and experience to execute properly. Keyword research does, however, enable new PPC campaigns to hit the ground running, and has the potential to transform mediocre campaigns into winners.

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PPC Competitor Research

PPC strategy cannot be created in a vacuum. What competitors are doing in the PPC arena, along with their strengths and weaknesses, provides many insights that enable a company to compensate for its own weaknesses and capitalize on its strengths. Competitor research uses a variety of online tools to examine:

  • Keywords competitors are targeting
  • Ad text competitors are using and testing
  • Destination page design strengths, weaknesses and testing variables

The winning PPC strategy could be to go head-to-head against competitors on the top keywords, or to start with an oblique attack by targeting lesser keywords with great conversion potential. The only way to know which approach is better is to conduct thorough competitor research.

Starting a PPC campaign without research is like jumping into the deep end of a pool without taking swimming lessons. Preparation is key to success in PPC, and plenty of data is available to ensure that PPC campaigns launch on a solid strategic foundation.

Let Straight North help with your PPC research needs, give us a call today at 855-779-7675 or request a quote now.