The 7 Deadly Sins of PPC: Gluttony

Margot da Cunha

So you cheated on a test in 5^th grade? Skipped English class in high school? Perhaps you paid your rent late or consumed too many cocktails on a work night? As marketers, we sin all the time, but in another fashion that could waste loads of money and potential ROI…

Come again? I’m referring to the deadly PPC sins you may be committing within your very own PPC account. Last month, my colleague Erin Sagin and I explored the seven most devious PPC sins that one can commit, and how to turn your crimes into good money-making deeds.

So, you think you’re an angel? Think again! All this month, we’ll be blogging about the Seven Deadly Sins of PPC. Follow along to see if you’re committing a crime that needs to be addressed before your start paying (literally) for your sins.

Let’s get this guilt fest started with PPC sin #1: GLUTTONY.

PPC Sin #1: Gluttony

Gluttony, otherwise known as overconsumption, is often thought of as inhaling too many nachos and Ben and Jerry pints, or consuming several bottles of wine in a single evening.

In the PPC world, gluttony is when your PPC is account is a disorganized and overstuffed mess. How do you know if this is the case? There are several warning signs to consider.

Perhaps your ad groups are jam-packed with keywords or your account has so many campaigns and ad groups that your head begins to spin as you attempt to optimize (like the account below):

This a problem for several reasons. For one, the majority of your overpopulated keyword farm isn’t even receiving impressions, but rather cluttering up your account and making it more difficult to optimize. More importantly, when your account is packed with campaigns and ad groups, your budget ends up being stretched too thin, eliminating the chance to focus on the keywords, ad groups, and campaigns that are actually bringing in a profit.

The Solution: Give Your PPC Account a Makeover

Clearly, if you’re committing this overconsumption sin, you need to get into gear and makeover your PPC account before you end up in PPC hell. Consider these three solutions to fix the mess you’ve made.

#1: Restructure Your Account

If you’re unsure why your account is structured the way it is or if you’re taking over the account from an unsuccessful past employee or third party, restructuring is most likely in order. Even if you set the account up yourself originally, it may make sense to structure your account in a more profitable manner. Check out our Ask the Experts video below to get some inspiration of ways to structure your AdWords account to yield more profitable results with your PPC efforts.

#2: Delete the Junk

In a WordStream analysis of an account with 269,765 keywords, we found that only 1.2% of the keywords in that account are getting any impressions at all! That means that 98% of their account is packed with unproductive junk!

If your account looks similar you need to delete the clutter. Sort by impressions and determine which keywords are simply rotting in your account. Your focus should be on optimizing the keywords that are actually doing well and slowly testing out new keyword opportunities, ensuring that if the tests are unsuccessful the keywords are eliminated.

#3: Utilize Perry Marshall’s “Peel and Stick” Strategy

If you haven’t heard of Perry Marshall you’ve probably been living under a rock somewhere. Perry is to PPC as Ina Garten is to the Food Network i.e. legendary. Anyhow, Perry coined the term “Peel and Stick” years back as a strategy when one pulls out the lowest performing keywords, typically in terms of lower CTR’s and Quality Scores, and moves them into a separate ad group. Then you would focus on the highest performers to allocate more budget to as well as create move relevant ads and landing pages.

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