New year, new you. It’s a new decade and I think it’s safe to say a lot has changed in the search landscape in the last decade. With the change in decade, change in year, change in landscape, I am encouraging all you PPCers to consider doing a PPC reset: reset your outlook on your accounts and look to refresh what you’re doing.
There are endless optimizations we think to do in our accounts, so many things we could test or reorganize or restructure. I encourage you, as this new year starts, to actually move forward with those endless optimizations. At Hanapin, we have implemented a standard where we do frequent mini and complete account audits based on a client’s seasonality and account complexity. We write our quarterly goals and write down at least one testing opportunity for each of our clients. It may sound like extra work, but it isn’t. It is a guide for account managers to follow as we navigate our strategy.
As you start your 2020, I recommend a few things for you to do.
Do an account audit
This will be time-consuming and frankly, a little frustrating. Most likely. But it will be so worth it. I did a full account audit for a client of mine as we headed into their high season. I found one of our product bids in one shopping campaign that I was getting ready to turn on that had been increased to $50. $50! It should have been $0.50.
To expand on this, put together a schedule of different items you’re going to check throughout the month, quarter, or year. Not only is this a PPC strategy, but it is a time management strategy. You will feel so relieved each month that you accomplished something to move the account forward. And, you’ll already have something to put in your monthly reports which will make summary writing much quicker.
Put together FY20 Digital Strategy & Budget Projections
Like an account audit, this will also be time-consuming, but rewarding because of the potential. Even if you think a client isn’t open to testing, or you claim to have tried to pitch for a new opportunity or more budget, try again. Put together a complete strategy with testing budgets and present it. Take the time and put in the thought.
This works. Real-life example: I did this for a client towards the end of November 2019. It was a relatively small account that only spent about $13,000 a month. We were meeting goals and metrics were steady. I pitched for a campaign expansion opportunity as well as the volume of conversions we could get with different levels of increased spend. With a little elbow grease, we received an additional $6,000 a month in spend for 2020. This increased our FY20 budget by $72,000. It could have failed, it could have been wasted effort (I did experience that – I did the same for a different client and it did fail, it fell on deaf ears) but it showed my client that I was invested in their business. If your client takes your recommendations, awesome. If not, you showed up, you put in the work, and you showed your care for your client and their business.
Refresh Your Outlook
This is a very cool industry. It is constantly changing and we are continuously improving how we advertise to our customers. I encourage you to get excited again about your job. This can be a fast-paced, intense industry, but look at that as the upside. You may have heard this before but don’t think about your tasks and optimizations as something you have to do – think of them as something you get to do. You get to work in a fast-paced, intense industry; you get to work with big, complex clients; you get to hit big goals.
New year, new YOU: set the goals for your accounts, refresh your outlook on your work and this industry, and reset your account performance. To get some ideas about what new things to do in your account that rolled out in 2019, check out Hanapin’s Best PPC Resources of 2019.
