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If you’re a beginner in the paid search world, there’s a high tendency that you’ve heard about the term “KPIs,” but aren’t really sure of what they are.
Most people heavily prioritize tactics when creating strategies, and only briefly discuss KPIs. The thing is that the reverse should be the case.
KPIs are meant to be driving tactics, so it shouldn’t be the other way around.
Choosing the correct KPIs in any market can help in driving strategy and assuring your boss or client that you are moving in the right direction. This post will contain the definition and importance of KPIs alongside four tips for selecting the most effective KPIs.
PPC KPIs: What are They?
In the world of PPC, key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics you have identified as the most necessary because you use them to measure your campaigns’ success. You should tie them to your campaign goals to help you understand the actions you should take to achieve your goals.
For instance, if my campaign’s goal is to generate high-quality webinar sign-ups through a web form, the webinar sign-up conversion should be my KPI.
What Are the Importance of PPC KPIs?
Since your PPC campaign goals closely align with your KPIs, they are necessary because they help in keeping your goal in mind whenever you’re making decisions. That’s why you need to know the objectives and goals of your campaign before you pick your KPIs. If you don’t have defined goals, you’ll not be able to take the required steps to measure success and offer value to your boss or client.
NOTE: Secondary KPIs are also important; you shouldn’t rely solely on tangible metrics such as ROI and conversions.
Three Tips for Choosing KPIs
Here are three steps I use when picking KPIs. You can apply them across most campaign objectives and industries.
1. Ensure you understand the campaign goals: Even though your main aim can be to reduce CPA and increase conversions, these are not the only goals you should focus on. For instance, you need to ensure you’re capturing the available search request so that you can increase conversions. You can translate this into monitoring impression share and the click-through rate of your ads.
For every goal you have, ensure you pick one or two KPIs that you can use in measuring your goal’s success. That’s where you need to set your SMART goals since you have already undergone the process of choosing ways of measuring your progress.
2. Define the meaning of success: You can define the meaning of this to your business or clients and you can also use previous industry level or performance benchmarks to measure your success.
3. Monitor your KPIs closely: Make sure you do this while reevaluating if the KPI you created matches your goals or new changes in your market.
Wrapping up, your selected KPIs fit your campaigns will be used to evaluate the success of your campaign, so you should choose them carefully.
