Ongoing Optimization
Live Google Ads campaigns are to different degrees, all ripe with opportunities for ongoing performance improvements as they run and accumulate more data.
Before decisions can be made, enough data must accumulate for their to be “statisical power” or validity, to the information. For example, when looking at a keyword we may think it is not productive at 60 clicks, but at 500 clicks it may turn out to be a superstar.
Depending upon the conversion rate, before judging the ultimate performance of a PPC campaign, we must have enough conversions that there is statistical validity. And many campaigns go through month-to-month, or seasonal variations in demand for the underlying product or service.
There are also latencies in PPC campaigns which are integral to how they work. For example, keyword quality scores can take a month or two, sometimes longer to develop. Automated bidding algorithms incorporate 30 days of “lookback data”, so quick decisions are likely to be poor ones.
For these reasons and others, it pays off to monitor PPC campaigns on an ongoing basis as they run. Changes that will positively impact performance can be more readily, and reliably identified.