Paid Media Audit: Paid Search Home Inspection
How our paid media audit for a B2C property developer client revealed clear opportunities and priorities.
CLIENT
Texas developer specializing in land for custom home building, plus a plot of pre-built homes
CHALLENGE
The results of managing their paid search activities in-house weren’t worth the time, money, or effort
SOLUTION
Evaluated their paid search account against our proven optimal account structure
(un)Common Outcomes
Our audit comprehensively examines a company’s paid media activities and the results they yield. When auditing, we look for:
- Clear strategy aligned with business goals
- Campaigns and ad groups split into logical, thematic groups
- Correct management of negative and long-tail keywords
- Average Quality Score of at least 7.0
- Regular bid optimization
- Strong, clear messaging and calls to action (CTAs) in ad copy
- Proper leveraging of additional channels (social, shopping, etc.)
- A cohesive mobile strategy
- Remarketing tailored to user actions or buying funnel
- Landing pages with clear paths and consistent messaging
- Analytics goals consistent with paid search conversions
However, when we examined the client’s account, we found:
- Paid media efforts were not aligned with business goals
- No clear paid search strategy
- Campaigns and ad groups weren’t properly segmented
- Average Quality Score of 5.5 meant higher bid prices
- Misuse of negative keywords
- Bids not optimized regularly
- Ad copy lacked clear CTAs
- No regular testing of new channels or tactics
- Company wasn’t using remarketing
- No clear strategy for mobile
- Landing pages lacked consistent messaging and compelling CTAs
- Missing historical performance data made long-term analysis impossible
- Incorrect analytics setup
A more superficial audit would have missed crucial elements like strategic alignment and end-to-end elements like landing pages and conversion tracking. But our audit yielded a clear plan of action to improve every aspect of the client’s paid media activities.