The most common type of account we as an agency work on, are accounts that were previously handled by other agencies.  Second to this would be accounts that were managed internally by a marketing person or web person.

And it’s pretty common to see many of the same issues in some combination.  Before we engage with a new client, we will provide a full comprehensive PPC account audit, for free, to uncover and show what the opportunity areas are, and then provide an overview of what our strategy will look like going forward.

So here are some of the most common pitfalls we find in the accounts we audit especially from other agencies:

• Weak negative keyword strategy – You would think Google’s systems have improved over the years, where negative keywords would become LESS needed, as their AI becomes more and more sophisticated!  But unfortunately, the opposite is true.  We’ve found that the more time progresses, the more negative keywords are needed.  So often we find with accounts we audit that the negative keywords strategy is lacking.  Just not enough attention to detail when it comes to excluding irrelevant terms
• Broad Match Only strategy – So many agencies these days are following the recommendations from Google that tell you to use only broad match keywords.
• Smart Bidding Only – Most agencies only use smart bidding.  Just because something is “new” doesn’t mean it’s better.  And we find that at times manual CPC is still the superior bidding strategy.
• Pmax Only – Some agencies have really drunk the Koolaide when it comes to performance max campaigns.
• No A/B Testing – Many agencies are not A/B testing ad copy.
• Poor Segmentation – Surprisingly many agencies do not understand how to structure campaigns according to PPC best practices, and do not segment campaigns out by avatars, service/product categories/etc.
• Poor Data – 99% of agencies only use the basic conversion tracking mechanisms the platform provides.
• No Regular Optimization – Most of the agencies out there are setting and forgetting.
• No Landing Page Optimization – We find that most agencies do not spend any time on landing page creation, testing, or optimization.
• Going after the most obvious keywords only – Bidding on all the same keywords that everyone else is, is a recipe for over paying.
• Poor Campaign Settings – Many agencies do not understand the basics of campaign settings.

And the list goes on….

Not to “poo poo” all the agencies out there, because there ARE many good ones.  But agencies that will sell you on big promises and then drop the ball are a dime a dozen.  This is why at Hop2TheTop we have a proactive, ongoing, PPC management process that includes adjusting bids, budgeting, a/b testing, reviewing and optimizing coherts/demos, reviewing and optimizing devices, geos, adding negative keywords, and more.  We leave NO STONE UNTURNED when it comes to managing your Google Ads, META Ads, BING Ads, and other accounts.