When I work with a new PPC client, I help them set goals that align with their business goals. Surprisingly, many don't have clearly defined campaign goals beyond driving traffic or conversions.
Let's explore a framework for defining effective metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your business goals at each stage of the funnel.
PPC KPIs and metrics. What is the difference between them?
Defining goals and KPIs is essential to measuring success.
- KPIs are your primary goal.
- Metrics, however, are data points that measure progress toward those goals.
For example, if your goal is to increase quality leads, metrics like conversion rate, new users directed to a specific URL, etc. includes
PPC campaigns can help achieve many goals, so understanding the difference between KPIs and metrics is key to success. You should select the KPIs that are relevant to your business and link them to the relevant measures.
No matter where you are in the marketing funnel, clients often apply the same goals to every campaign. However, to accurately measure performance, you need to create goals and metrics based on the stages of the funnel.
Why is it important to align PPC goals with your marketing funnel?
While paid search benefits lower funnel marketing, relying solely on it is a mistake.
PPC campaigns can help every part of the marketing funnel if you set them up accordingly and measure them against metrics and benchmarks that are meaningful to that stage.
Clients often make the mistake of setting the same goals for campaigns at different stages of the funnel. This eliminates the need to align campaigns with specific goals, which require clear KPIs and metrics for fair and accurate evaluation.
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PPC Upper Funnel campaigns
Upper funnel campaigns should be designed to create awareness where it doesn't exist. You want these campaigns to reach a wide audience of potential customers and prospects and (hopefully) generate some interest in your product or service.
Although they receive high priority, these efforts often use forms of promotion that provide high visibility at low cost.
Since PPC can be (falsely) synonymous with lower funnel marketing, it's important to separate your upper funnel campaigns from the rest of your PPC marketing.
The best campaigns use the Google Display Network, which often has different sizes, ad content, and preferences.
Make sure you measure your most popular campaigns using relevant metrics and KPIs.
KPI for Peak PPC Campaigns
- Increase brand awareness.
- Increase website traffic.
- Social networks improve communication.
- Increase brand engagement.
Metrics for Peak PPC campaigns
- the impression
- cost per million (CPM)
- Click Through Rate (CTR)
- Interaction (Google Ads)
dig deep PPC Upper Funnel Report Guide
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Middle Funnel PPC campaigns
Mid-funnel campaigns can be complex because they can have different campaign goals and strategies. They can be:
What sets these campaigns apart is that they are designed to satisfy users at the interest / discussion stage. This means that your KPIs and metrics should align with that end goal, finding users who are interested in your products or services and helping them decide if they need to take action.
KPIs for mid-funnel PPC campaigns
- Build a reputation in the industry.
- Increase engagement.
- Consider the engine.
- Maintenance is getting bigger and bigger.
Metrics for mid-funnel PPC campaigns
Lower funnel PPC campaigns
Finally, we'll get to what most people think of when they talk about PPC campaigns. Lower funnel efforts are highly effective in activities such as form filling, phone calls, shopping, and asking for quotes.
Among others:
- Search for campaigns with very specific keywords.
- Show targeted remarketing campaigns to users trying to enter the funnel.
KPIs for PPC Lower Funnel Campaigns
- Get new customers.
- Revenue growth.
- Generate leads.
- Increase purchases.
Bottom Funnel PPC campaign metrics
- Initial conversion (eg form submission or purchase)
- conversion rate
- Cost per acquisition/conversion (CPA)
- Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)
- Average Order Value (AOV)
- Cart abandonment rate
- amount of material
Paid search attribute in GA4
Marketing attribution can change the way you measure the performance of your PPC campaigns.
By default, your PPC campaigns in Google and Microsoft Ads use the last-click attribution model, unless you manually switch to data-based attribution.
In July 2023, Google announced that it would move away from first-click, linear, time-lapse, and location-based attribution models.
GA4, on the other hand, uses a data-driven multi-channel model as the default attribution model. It also offers organic paid last click and Google paid channel last click models where you can access the report at specific property level.
dig deep How to combine GA4 and Google Ads for powerful paid search results
Metrics and KPIs that intersect with business goals
Sometimes your broader business goals are tied to specific metrics and KPIs. In other cases, you need to get creative by aligning your PPC efforts with broader business goals.
The biggest mistake you can make is setting KPIs and metrics that don't contribute to business success. The second worst is to clearly and simply explain how KPIs and metrics contribute to the success of the business.
You're often trying to get information and quotes from key players who need you to help them connect the dots. Help them see the value by clearly stating how your KPIs support company goals and objectives.
Setting up KPIs and metrics for PPC
Ultimately, the KPIs you set for your PPC efforts should be directly related to your business goals, and the metrics you use to measure those KPIs will depend on the nature of your business and the structure of your campaign.
Do yourself a favor and don't make the mistake of setting common KPIs for all your efforts. You'll be better off (and your boss or client will be impressed) if you present your KPIs at the marketing funnel stage.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily those of Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
