How do You Measure PPC Campaign Success?

When faced with this question, some online marketers might tout their AdWords figures such as impressions, clicks, click-thru-rate or cost-per-click. Others might build on that answer by offering that visits from paid search to leads and to conversions. Those online marketers with e-commerce operations would of course point to SALES.

Now obviously, none of these answers is incorrect. However, these are merely responses to the question asked. While I dread the “it depends” response to a rather benign question, the answer has as much to do with the objectives of the campaign as to the financial metrics we might use to gauge the results.

Now, consider the business objectives that you aim to achieve. Those true business objectives don’t include CTR or CPC as key performance indicators KPI’s. Click-rate and costs are factors we can manage to increase our marketing effectiveness.

Leads (conversions) and sales are indeed key performance indicators. However, I’d like to point out there are other measures that may be important to helping you achieve your objectives.

Recall business goals and strategies. Your organization may strive to

·         Create awareness for a new product or service

·         Differentiate your products by communicating features/advantages/benefits

·         Encourage trial of your products or test them out (test drive or purchase samples, for instance)

·         Drive  sales

So, if your business objectives include awareness, interest and preference, desire, trial and sales, then why are we measuring PPC search (marketing) campaign success by click-through rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), leads, and sales?

In our experience, CTR and CPC metrics are just the surface of the true value of a well-managed search marketing program. We’ve been able to demonstrate that search marketing can be and should be measured by any and all of the following.

·         Un-branded vs branded impressions

·         Unique visits

·         Time on site / depth of visit

·         Downloads

·         Task completion

·         Opt-in

·         Contacts (phone/web form)

·         Quote request

·         Purchases/Sales

If marketing objectives include expanded reach or deeper visitor engagement, then the addition of the above metrics will help you better understand the total impact your paid search campaigns are having on your business.

To test this out, go into your web analytics application, Google Analytics or Omniture’s SiteCatalyst or other, and set up two reporting segments to compare the above metrics for (1) visits from paid search and (2) all other visits. What sort of trends and patterns do you notice? How do these segments compare?

If someone questions the value of the paid search marketing program in your company, then the additional metrics above should help build that value story for you.

So, how WILL you measure your pay-per-click search campaigns from now on?