How to analyze your Google Ads account
Tags: Google Ads Tips, Search Engine Marketing, Google Search, Google Ads, PPC Marketing

A graph on a sheet

The first step to analyze or request an analysis of a Google Ads account is usually the most difficult. With the PPC (for Pay per Click) analysis this is nothing else. A request for an account analysis brings us almost regularly in the state of analysis paralysis (also shock state).

The need for a deeper dive into your PPC account can be worthwhile for a variety of reasons. However, before you go through the analysis paralysis, you should first read through these simple account analysis steps to get the analysis roll out.

Analyze Google Ads account

The first step in account analysis is to understand the account structure. As soon as this is the case, you can start with extensions, testing, and further analysis. A good account structure means a lot of things, so here is our personal Quick-List to get you started:

How many campaigns are in the account? How many ad groups per campaign? And how many keywords per ad group?

Are the ad groups segmented by match types? (Click on the previous link and also on the subpages — only there Google will tell you how not to waste money.

Which bidding methods are used?

Check the campaign settings:

Are campaigns limited by the budget?

Is there an overall naming convention?

If you use a consistent naming convention in your account, it will help you organize your account and will also help with filtering!

Device Analysis

Make sure you know about the performance of different devices (mobile, PC/desktop/notebook, or tablet). Mobile performs differently than desktop and desktop performs differently than tablets. In a tourism account we recently analyzed, we found out that almost 60% of all clicks were generated by mobile, but these clicks only contributed 29.7% to the total conversions.

If you want to find out to what extent devices perform differently, this can lead to a more advanced account analysis. In some cases, it may be useful to adjust the bids by the device (device bid adjustments). However, if you take the effort and dive deeper into the mobile user experience, this will help you to better understand your data in the long run. This is especially important in connection with the fact that the mobile index has now become the primary index on Google.

Demographic Analyses

While demographic analyses will certainly not bring big a-ha moments, they will generally improve the understanding of your audience. By knowing, for example, which age group is more likely to generate conversions, this can help you create ads that are more likely to appeal to that audience (personas are referred to here). Demographic data can be found in Google Analytics and Google Ads. Personally, we find demographic data very helpful when it comes to optimizing our display campaigns. Analyzing which age or gender performs less well can lead to quick and cost-effective bidding changes.

Analysis of search queries

It is a good habit to train yourself to a certain regularity with which you analyze your search queries. We’ve had campaigns with a well-built keyword segmentation and a usable list of negative terms, and we ran an ad group just to find out that one of the keywords started to trigger random queries. For example, we have a client whose business operates in the “education” sector and is subject to very seasonal trends. August and September are such months, which run extremely well. There must be some random queries that are triggered by the right keywords.

Once you have the analysis of your search queries in front of you, it is useful to look at which queries have the highest CPA. While some terms do generate conversions, they may not be profitable because of their CPA.

If you would like to take a closer look at your account, analyzing your search queries can also serve as a guide for a better account organization. Using the list of negative terms in the shared library will save you a lot of work in the future. Instead of searching through lists of negative terms, you can fix errors in a list that has multiple contact points in the account.

To help you figure out where to start with this list, we have an example for you here. One of my customers sells high-priced products in his industry. Since we know that we cannot and do not want to compete with the low prices, we have created a list of negative terms: “discount”, “cheap” or “inexpensive” are among them here.

Advanced Text Display Review

Even though the transition to Expanded Text Ads has been going on for some time now, there are still accounts where ad groups without Expanded Text Ads or only one with one or two Expanded Text Ads are placed. First, make sure that all ad groups contain expanded text ads. Today, Google recommends using at least three text ads in an ad group.

Another thing to check is the ad rotation settings. Which ad rotation was selected? Is it optimized for conversions? Is it optimized for clicks or was the indefinite ad rotation selected? Every setting has its right to exist. You just have to know at which point in time which rotation can best develop its potential! Whichever ad rotation you choose, make sure you create a test plan with copies of your ads. Testing ad copies is still possible thanks to the rotation optimization settings. All you need to do is Google Tests and Google Drafts.

Show extensions

Ad extensions are a quick and easy way to improve your CTR and get your ads displayed optimally in the SERPS. Once you have made sure that all possible extensions are present in your account, you can check the performance. Are there extensions that perform poorly? Keep in mind that promotion extensions are possible.

Concluding remarks

Here you have it, the quick and easy start to get started with your account analysis. The idea behind it is that any form of analysis will help you to better understand your account and to pursue a mature account strategy. One thing you should always keep in mind is that a professional account analysis is much more complex than we have shown in this article. For example, we have a client who advertises in three different countries using display, shopping, and search campaigns. Here it would not be enough to make a comprehensive analysis and make adjustments. After all, the regions and campaign types do not perform in the same way. In this case, for example, it would make sense to first perform high-level analysis and then segment by region, shopping, search, and display.