Top 5 Most Asked PPC Questions – Answered

Without sounding like a broken record, PPC complications can almost always be explained once the problem has been analysed. The trouble is there can be a number of issues that could cause the same problem, so when we get asked specific questions with regard to a PPC account we don’t have access to – the short answer really is “it depends”.

Why can’t I see my PPC ads?

This is the most common question we get asked and it’s typically the question with the most variables:

• Budget – If you’re losing some impression share (IS) to budget, then you’re not capturing all the search volume for your targeted keywords. If your ads are not showing up, the chances are you’ve already spent your budget allocation for that day. You can find out how much impression share is lost to budget by adding the “Search Lost IS (budget)” in the campaign interface.
• Ad Rank – If the ad rank for your keywords is low, then you won’t show up for all of the search volume related to your keywords. This is known as the impression share (IS) to rank. You can find out how much impression share is lost to rank by adding the “Search Lost IS (rank)” in the campaign interface.
• Keywords – It may seem obvious, but check your keywords are eligible. Sometimes keywords don’t generate enough traffic to “serve” the ad group/campaign. Checking you have active keywords that are relevant to you only takes seconds and can make a big difference.
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Why are my ads not at the top of the search page?

Generally speaking, this will be affected by your ad rank. If the ad rank is too low, then your ad might not be as relevant as some of your competitors, and in Google’s eyes, it would be more beneficial to show stronger quality ads, higher up the page. You can improve this by increasing your Max CPC (cost-per-click) and quality score.

Why is my cost-per-click increasing?

Cost-per-click can increase for a number of reasons; bidding strategy changes, bid limit changes, new keywords added, and so on. More often than not we find the following reasons come up more frequently:

• Competition – Unfortunately, we don’t live in the perfect world where only you are advertising using PPC. When your competitors come to the market, they may start optimising the same (or similar) keywords to you. This means we may have more people to compete with, and hence the cost-per-click could increase.
• Quality Score – this really depends on your account, but a sudden or gradual decrease in quality score could lead to an increase in the cost of each click. Your click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience all contribute to this, so maybe it’s time to have another look at the bigger picture.
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How long does it take to run efficiently?

We have a 3-month contract as that’s usually the time frame we’re looking at to have these campaigns running efficiently. It’s fairly common for accounts to perform well from the get-go, but they always have room to grow into, and around the 3-month mark is when the process tends to become much more beneficial for the account holder.

PPC ads use algorithms and unlike most social media ads where results can be almost instant, PPC campaigns can, in some cases, take time to run efficiently. Using past data allows the campaigns to perform better (so if you’re new to the PPC game there will be a learning curve for your account), it is this data that can allow the account to bid efficiently on users who are more likely to become a paying customer.

Can I change my budget regularly?

No! Okay, technically you can change your budget as often as you like, however, this may not be a sensible thing to do. Changing your budget will affect the algorithms that your account has spent time learning. For the best and most consistent results, we’d recommend trying to stick to a budget and only increasing or decreasing it after the account has had a chance to work with the existing budget.

If you’ve found this blog useful, or want help with your PPC account, reach out to us today. We do account setups and account reviews for free!