The average small business wastes 25% of their PPC budget. View our 7 point checklist to ensure you're not wasting any of your spend.

1. Are You Wasting PPC
Budget?
THOMAS HAYNES. APR 2015.

2. The Problem
“ The average small business wastes 25% of their
AdWords PPC budget”
WordStream research 2013

3. How does this happen?
Many businesses don’t spend the necessary time optimising their accounts or don’t keep up-to-
date with the latest developments.
If any of the below apply to your business then you’re probably wasting at least some of your
AdWords spend:
1. You haven’t logged in to your account for over a month.
2. You’ve never heard of “Ad Extensions”.
3. The person in charge of your PPC account hasn’t had the necessary training.

4. The Checklist:

5. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

6. 1. Negative Keywords
Using broad match or phrase match Keywords increases the risk that your Ad will show up for
unrelated search terms. To prevent this use tighter Keyword targeting such as Exact Match or
add negative keywords.
If you tick the box next to a keyword and click on ‘Search Terms’ then ‘Selected’ under ‘Details’
you’ll be able to see which search terms actually triggered your Ad.

7. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

8. 2. Mobile
Google AdWords Campaigns are now shown on all devices by default. If you’re sending mobile
users to a non mobile friendly page chances are they’ll leave your site pretty quickly.
You can bid down on Mobile devices by up to 100%. If you do have a mobile friendly site look at
your stats and see if mobile users convert or not.

9. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

10. 3. Ad Extensions
Ad Extensions make your Ads more eye catching and result in a higher Ad Rank in AdWords. This
helps you to rank higher for a lower Cost Per Click.
Add as many Ad Extensions as you can. Sitelinks and Call Extensions are particularly useful.

11. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

12. 4. Geographic targeting
With AdWords you can easily geographically target areas as large as the UK or as small as a 1
mile radius. If your business operates in a small area then there is probably no reason for you to
show Ads outside of that area.
Exclude areas in your Campaign settings or if you’re feeling particularly advanced bid up or down
on geographic areas.

13. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

14. 5. Ad Schedule
With AdWords’ Ad Schedule settings you can set when you want your Ads to be shown either by
day or by hour. For example, if you operate in a B2B industry you may decide that you’re best of
only showing your Ads during the working day.

15. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

16. 6. Landing Pages
It’s important that you send users to a relevant Landing Page with a clear call-to-action or next
step. If you’re not doing this you’re paying to send people to your site and they might just leave
straight away.
A good first step is to review the Bounce Rate of PPC visitors by Landing Page – this shows you
what percentage of users land on a page and then leave again without continuing to browse the
site.

17. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

18. 7. Account Structure
The best AdWords accounts use a careful structure with clearly defined Campaigns and Ad
Groups arranged around defined topics. If you throw all of your Ads and Keywords into one Ad
Group you won’t be able to properly optimise or achieve a high Quality Score.
Avoid wasted spend by splitting out your account structure with as much granularity as you can
and using separate budgets for different Campaigns.

19. 1. Negative Keywords
2. Mobile
3. Ad Extensions
4. Geographic Targeting
5. Ad Schedule
6. Landing Pages
7. Account Structure
8. Conversion Optimiser

20. 8. Conversion Optimiser
Conversion Optimiser is a Google setting which will optimise your Cost Per Click in order to try
and hit a target Cost Per Acquisition.
For example you may decide that you’re willing to pay £5 per Conversion. AdWords will use
historical data to adjust your CPC based on Keyword, device, time of day and location.

21. Links
This Slide Show in Blog format (with links to AdWords help documents)
http://www.optixsolutions.co.uk/blog/are-you-wasting-ppc-budget/
Follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/thomashaynes_
Add me on LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/haynesthomas
Email me Thomas@optixsolutions.co.uk

22. Thanks for reading
PLEASE SHARE THIS PRESENTATION IF YOU FOUND IT HELPFUL.