Do you know if you’re getting the most out of your Adwords account with your current agency ?
I am going to show you 4 ways to audit your Google Ads account, so you know if it’s getting the attention it deserves.
I am using as an example a fake company called “PuppyDelight”, that sells organic food for puppies. Hence the slightly misleading and click-baiting featured image 😉
1. Keyword selection
A first sign of missed opportunities is when the only keywords your agency is bidding on are “branded” keywords.
Branded keywords are either your brand name (PuppyDelight), or a combination of your brand name with another word, for example “PuppyDelight dry food”.
Branded keywords usually have a low CPC (cost per click) and a high conversions rate, it’s an easy way to make your account look good.
But you’re not acquiring any new customer when you bid on your own brand. People already know you as they are typing your name in. They are just avoiding to type your full domain in the address bar to buy your product.
And not acquiring new customer through Google Ads is a real shame. Search is a great way to increase your market share : you are catching people while they are looking for your products.
If your competitor shows an ad for that generic keyword, they’ll get the customer, not you.
How to check your keywords in your account :
Click on “search campaigns”> keywords. You’ll find the keywords in the first column. If all you see is your brand name, your are missing opportunities
If you’re not seeing the same screen, click on “ switch view”
2. Keywords quality score
Quality score is a key indicator of your Google Ads account’s health.
If your account is well managed, you should have most of your generic keywords with quality scores above 5. It’s very easy to have a 10 for brand terms, but much more difficult to get a 7 for a generic term, and only generic terms will bring you new customers.
If all your quality scores are below 5, that’s a sign that something is wrong : you are buying non relevant keywords, your ads and landing pages have issues. Google is making your CPC higher for that reason. You are missing opportunities and wasting most of your Google Ads budget
Example of relevancy for keywords :
A relevant generic keyword for the PuppyDelight brand would be “organic puppy food”. A less relevant keyword would be “dog”.
While you might get traffic from a generic keyword like “dog”, (people interested in dogs), that keyword is too broad to easily convert in to sales.
And with a broad match type, it gets even worst . Your ad is going to show for keywords like “dog toys”, “dog collars”, “dog beds”, or even “golden retriever”. None of these keywords are relevant to the product you’re selling, your quality score will be very low, and your budget wasted.
How to see your quality scores in your account?
In your Google ads account, click on Search Campaigns > Keywords> Quality Score column
If there is no column called “ Quality Score”, you’ll need to modify your columns. Click on column, on the right hand-side of your screen ( in between segment and report) : columns > modify columns>quality score> select quality score and apply
3. Account search terms
Looking at search terms is a good way to spot out those non relevant keywords. Google lets you bid on keywords in many different ways, but if you’re not careful and your account structure is a mess, you have no idea what keywords are triggering your ads.
How to access your search terms in your Google Ads account?
To access the search terms: Search campaigns>Keywords>Search terms
If you see in your search terms that your PuppyDelight ad is showing for the search term “dog collars”, it means your budget is being wasted and you are missing opportunities. You can sort by “cost” to see the most damaging ones !
Your agency should be excluding those keywords so you dont waste anymore clicks (add them as negative keywords).
4. Change history
Another easy way to see if your agency is actually working on your account, is to look at change history. It records any changes made to the account. If your change history is empty, it means your account is not being optimised.
How to access the account change history:
In order to access your account change history : click on Search campaigns > Suggested > +more > change history
Make sure you select the right date – only changes during selected dates will be shown.
One last thing : Own your Google Ads account
If you dont have access to your account, you can’t check on the above points. You can see some data in Google Analytics, if the accounts are linked, but that’s not enough to see the whole picture.
If an agency owns your account, that means you can’t change supplier unless you’re willing to lose your account history (existing keywords and ads, quality score). And you can’t check on the agency’s work…
If you have any doubts about your Google Ads account, I’ll be happy to have a look !
