{"id":194,"date":"2022-08-09T16:18:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T16:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runstella.com\/blog\/?p=194"},"modified":"2022-08-11T15:46:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T15:46:41","slug":"confessions-of-a-ppc-manager-youre-looking-at-the-wrong-metrics-to-measure-google-ads-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runstella.com\/blog\/confessions-of-a-ppc-manager-youre-looking-at-the-wrong-metrics-to-measure-google-ads-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a PPC Manager: You\u2019re Looking at The Wrong Metrics to Measure Google Ads Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger: Jordan Tag, Breezy PPC\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Confessions of a PPC Manager: You\u2019re Looking at The Wrong Metrics to Measure Google Ads Success<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quality Score, Cost Per Click & similar metrics are distracting you (or the agency you\u2019re paying) from what matters most \u2013 revenue<\/em>. Focus on profitability and success will follow.<\/p>\n

By Jordan Tag, Update 02.2021<\/p>\n

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\u201cJordan, I just can\u2019t understand why you\u2019d want to cancel an account that\u2019s running this well\u201d said Matt Targett, a strategic partner manager at Google. The account Matt was referring to is a Google Ads account for a client we just started working with. The account was managed by a large advertising agency that also happened to be a Google Partner. Backed by Google\u2019s internal AdWords team (now Google Ads), said agency was doing everything they could to keep the account.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had my team here at Google audit the campaigns and we can\u2019t find anything wrong with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surface level Google was right. Click Through Rate (CTR) held strong between 6-7%, Avg. Position was in the low 1\u2019s, and leads averaged $27 each. With a $6,500 monthly budget, that\u2019s a lot of leads. Revenue should be through the roof.<\/p>\n

Except it wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 Months with high Ad spend produced low profits, and months with little to moderate Ad spend met their monthly sales targets. There was no rhyme or reason for the success and failure of each month.<\/p>\n

Why? Because the agency didn\u2019t take the time to understand the client\u2019s business<\/em><\/strong>. This is death for any marketing company and to this day it surprises me how often I see it happen.<\/p>\n

Instead, said agency focused on:<\/p>\n

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  1. Vanity metrics like CTR, Avg. Position and CPC to measure success, while completely ignoring\u2026<\/li>\n
  2. The value of each lead type, &<\/li>\n
  3. Sloppy conversion tracking and setup.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The client had problems in other areas too, but the problems listed here were created by the agency (not<\/em> Google). Let\u2019s dive right into it.<\/p>\n

    #1.\u00a0 Buzzwords like \u201cClick Through Rate\u201d, \u201cAverage Position\u201d and \u201cQuality Score\u201d are not measurements of success.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    If this statement pisses off the marketing company you\u2019re paying, you might want to consider finding a new agency. In the wrong hands these metrics can be used to intimidate and scare clients into thinking Google Ads is too complex for anyone to understand. We call it \u201cinking\u201d, similar to a squid shooting a cloud of ink to distract from the real prize.<\/p>\n

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    Revenue doesn\u2019t care about Click Through Rate. It also doesn\u2019t care about your average ad position, quality score, or any other metric reported in Google Ads. Speaking strictly within marketing boundaries, revenue only cares about two things \u2013 cost per acquisition <\/em>& lifetime value <\/em>(more on this below).<\/em><\/p>\n

    Everyone wants their Google Ads account to fire on all cylinders. The better your account runs, the more money you\u2019re saving, right?<\/p>\n

    Not quite. Quality Score, CTR and the others are all circumstantial. Just because one business is seeing Click Through Rates around 10% doesn\u2019t mean that your Click Through of 3% is a failure.<\/p>\n

    The closer your cost per acquisition is to your lifetime value, the more money you\u2019re leaving on the table.\u00a0 So instead of focusing on ways to improve your Click Through Rate or Quality Score, focus on the quality of leads your campaign is producing. If your account is producing the wrong type of leads<\/strong>, you could have a CTR of 100% and it would all be for nothing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    #2.\u00a0 Operational hurdles can be just as damaging as a poorly executed marketing campaign. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In the client\u2019s case, the lifetime value of each customer varied from $500 – $15,000 (or more). The leads broke down exactly as follows:<\/p>\n