– Pay attention to these warning signs before it’s too late When you first set-up your Google Adwords account, you diligently chose your search terms, wrote ad copy, determined maximum bids, and picked landing pages. You then “turned-on” your account, eagerly refreshed your Adwords campaign management tool and watched your clicks climb along with your marketing spend. Those initial days proved to be the most exciting since your new marketing strategy ultimately provided additional sales for your company. However, as time goes by, your competition will steadily erode your valuable stream of sales if you do not plan and execute a proper Paid Search strategy. Here are the warning signs that your competitors are stealing your Paid Search ROI: 1. Decreasing Click-Thru-Rate, Average Position, and Impressions

Allowing for seasonal and economic forces, if either year-over-year or two consecutive month-over-month sets of PPC metrics are slipping, you’re facing increased competition. The most likely scenario here is that your competitors have increased their maximum bids and/or keyword quality scores, causing your ads to show up in lower positions. Lower positions = fewer impressions and lower CTR.

2. Decreasing Paid Search conversion rate

If your competitors are more sophisticated, they may have modified their Adwords strategy in order to decrease the overall quality of your clicks while only slightly affecting your PPC metrics. This type of competition usually goes unnoticed if you’re only focused on the metrics from warning sign #1 above.

3. Decreasing quality of sales leads

While there are many factors that can affect the quality of sales leads, steady erosion of lead quality over time can be traced back to Paid Search competition. Usually coupled with dropping Paid Search conversion rate, lead quality erosion is caused by falling average position. Prospects that are serious about purchasing a product or service usually click on the top couple of paid search results. On the flip side, people who are not yet at a purchase decision point will often click on many more paid search ads to comparison shop.

So what can you do if your company is showing these warning signs?

Contact Venable.