Search engine marketing depends on good reporting and analytics of the data. Without this you are dead in the water. This will lead to a bad client experience and lost revenue for you. Many paid search firms tend to use the standard reporting for each search network and pretty it up some. That is fine but what you do with the data, how you develop your strategy around this data and analytics is what it really is all about. Here are some best practices that I like to use on my clients in terms of SEM reporting:
Developing a Paid Search Reporting Strategy
Having a plan on reporting is everything. You need to set this strategy based on your client’s needs while having good communication with your staff and holding this staff accountable. As part of this process, timetables need to be established and the tasks associated with it. The key is to really think out your reporting strategy prior to implementation. Nothing is worse than rushing through this just to spend more time on adding things to your search reporting a few months down the road.
Staffing (If Your Have a Staff) Correctly
Most small paid search shops might not have staff or are using support staff to help them in they day to day management. Nothing wrong with this but honest assessments of skill sets will give you clearly on planning, management, reporting, etc. Making sure you have the right roles for each individual in place is key to optimization. Motivation of the staff is very critical. Get them to be creative and think of the big picture and not just their segment they are working on. The client needs you to be looking at this big picture for them even though they will not come out and ask you too. But do they really need to?
Data Review
I have seen many paid search marketers use a data dump into excell as their primary way of analysis. You can not perform quality reporting and optimization of accounts with out it. Finding challenges and opportunities is dependent on your data review. Some reports have shown that SEm professionals should spend around 20% of their time in reporting and reviewing data, but I would up this to at least 33%. You need to put the time into this area in order to get the right insights to act on.
Get Granular
Establish KPIs for each search network, look at the budget distrubution, and segment between content and search networks. Look at the historical data for those longer term campaigns and develope a baseline of KPIs such as:
- Top Search Ad Groups
- Top Paid Search Keywords
- Conversions
- Cost Per Clicks
- Search Campaign Age
- Average Positioning
Increase Reporting Intervals
Intervals can be feast or famine. With daily reporting you tend to get overwhelmed or “data blind” and not much will come out of it in terms of actionable items. Monthly reporting is just not enough. I have always liked to have my reporting interval set at every two weeks unless there are special circumstances. This interval gives me the ability to look at day of the week and time of day periods clearly and not make any “knee jerk” reactions. It also gives you the ability to optimize the account to help save the month or quarter if need be. I think every two week reporting is the sweet spot.
Customization
Nothing says I do not care about you like a canned report. What metrics work for one client do not have to work for another. Let take a look at a perfect example.
Company A has hired you for their paid search marketing. There goals are in the following order:
- Branding
- Newsletter Sign Ups
- Product Inquires
Company B has hired you for their paid search marketing. There goals are in the following order:
- Product Inquires
- Product Sales
- White Paper Downloads
As you can see from the different companies goals your paid search marketing metrics are going to be different. Company A will be more click focused while Company B wants more CPL or CPA focused.
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