SeoAlchemist

Pay per click is an advertising laboratory.

Every new account, every adgroup, every keyword, every ad is a test. There are no guarantees when you start - which keywords will work, which ads, which search networks, and so on. Everything’s a test in the beginning. And no matter how long your account has been running, the way to improvement is always to keep testing- keep what works, throw out what doesn’t, and try to learn from that in the process.

Some of the big mistakes people make in PPC in regards to testing are:

1. Not testing at all
2. Not having conversion tracking in place so you can measure test results by the right metric
3. Running too many tests for your budget
4. Running too many tests and lowering account performance
5. Not padding tests to reduce the risk of performance decreases

Before I amplify those, let me define a few acronyms that trip some people up:

• CPL is cost per lead, which is the same as cost per conversion in lead generation accounts.
• ROAS is return on ad spend, an ROI metric. ROAS = revenue / ad spend.
• ROI is return on investment. I use it generally. Technically it’s calculated differently from ROAS but I only use it to mean “your return”.
• CTR is click through rate. Percentage of ad viewers who click on your ad.
• CR is conversion rate. Percentage of ad clickers who become a lead or sale.

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