The ultimate PPC management checklist

So many PPC campaigns, so little time.

That’s how it feels when any PPC manager opens their laptop on a Monday morning. There’s just so much involved. And if one PPC campaign isn’t enough, you’re juggling multiple online advertising efforts and priorities.

There are budgets, bidding strategies, keyword research… the list goes on. Even if you’ve crafted the perfect PPC strategy, it can all go downhill with the slightest change (like a new competitor or algorithm update). The difference between profit for the client and lost revenue often comes down to how effective that strategy is.

So, what’s an agency to do? The answer is having the right PPC management strategy in your back pocket.

Whether you’re an experienced PPC agency or still perfecting your services, this checklist shows exactly what to monitor and when. Work through it daily, weekly, and monthly, and you’ll have a tried-and-true approach to PPC management that delivers results clients can see.

Key takeaways

• Monitor different elements on different clocks: budget pacing, visibility, and system notifications daily; competitors, conversions, and Quality Score weekly; keywords, spend, revenue, and ROAS monthly.

• A daily budget check catches overspending, underspending, and shared-budget waste before a client starts questioning your agency’s credibility.

• Weekly Quality Score checks protect two things at once, since a higher Quality Score generally leads to a lower Cost per Click and Cost per Conversion.

• Monthly reporting on total spend, revenue, and ROAS shows where the next dollar should go, such as a campaign returning $6 per $1 spent versus one returning $2.

• A repeatable process, from onboarding through to constant monitoring, is what lets agencies scale it, with Digilatics reporting client results from 10X up to 25X ROI.

9 PPC metrics to keep on your agency’s radar

Effective PPC campaign management and paid search analytics is an ongoing process. To better understand what to monitor, here’s a short overview of top PPC metrics.

In the following sections, we’ll explain how to use these insights for your strategically timed PPC checks.

How often should you monitor PPC campaign performance?

While many PPC management platforms include automation, they still require a human eye for ongoing campaign optimization.

That said, you don’t want to go to extremes when monitoring PPC performance.

Keeping too close of an eye on daily performance isn’t ideal, especially for new ads that require time to exit the learning phase. Alternatively, “setting and forgetting” ads may lead to performance mishaps or budget overruns.

The pressing question remains: how often should your agency monitor PPC performance?

To stay one step ahead, monitor different PPC elements at different time intervals. To break this down further, let’s explore what to track daily, weekly, and monthly.

Daily PPC management checks

A daily PPC management check is ideal for quickly recognizing campaign hiccups and monitoring real-time performance.

Daily ebbs and flows aren’t necessarily reasons to make dramatic campaign changes, though. Instead, it’s about keeping a watchful eye and addressing any glaring issues. It’s this day-to-day approach that will set the stage for long-term success.

Here’s what to monitor daily to add structure to your PPC management strategy.

Budget distribution

To avoid overspending or underutilizing your client’s ad spend, keep a daily eye on how their budget is pacing.

Take a PPC management platform like Google Ads. You’ll have the option to set a daily budget, which may fluctuate slightly to remain competitive and maximize visibility. However, there may be instances where the daily budget is simply too low and can’t compete with other advertiser bids.

Sooner or later, your client may end up with lackluster PPC performance and even doubts about your agency’s credibility. That’s why a daily budget check is necessary for any PPC campaign.

Monitor PPC spend across ad groups and campaigns in a few clicks. Adopt a strategic approach to PPC management–save time with AgencyAnalytics; it’s free for 14 days.

Additionally, monitoring daily ad spend is handy for the following scenarios:

• Your client uses a shared budget strategy. This means their daily budget is automatically distributed across multiple ads in a given set (and not always equally). If an ad is consistently underperforming, it’s an opportunity to rework or remove it so it doesn’t waste money.

• Your client has a time-sensitive campaign requiring a consistent daily spend for maximum traction (e.g., a new restaurant launch with limited online reservations).

• Your client wants to maintain a specific daily Cost per Click (CPC) to keep within a tight budget.

• Your client has campaigns across multiple PPC management platforms and wants to maximize their budget (e.g., investing in better-performing Facebook Ads vs. Google Ads).

The ability to see which marketing channels are performing well or verify analytics from PPC campaigns is important. It gives customers the information they need when allocating their marketing budget.

Ryon Gross, CEO, Local Leap Marketing

When the budget is tight

Budget constraints are one of the most significant challenges you’ll face. The stakes are high and the budget is low, a scenario that comes up often during PPC pricing conversations. It’s tough, but a few smart moves will help you handle it.

Analyze the past campaign data and use those insights to restructure the budget allocation. Strategically reduce bids on underperforming paid search ads while allocating a higher budget to those that produce better results. This approach does require a keen eye, but with a data-driven approach you will hit your client’s goal and optimize every dollar spent.

Digilatics recently helped a client navigate budget constraints by optimizing their Google CPC ads, transitioning from responsive search ads to a Maximize Clicks campaign to be more efficient with the budget. The shift improved cost efficiency and lifted overall campaign performance, resulting in a higher click-through rate and better ROI for the client.

Visibility and engagement

Your clients run PPC ads for different reasons. Some might focus on enhancing brand awareness, while others aim to increase website traffic or generate leads. Regardless of the case, their ads must have sufficient visibility to reach target audiences.

That’s why it’s essential to monitor some metrics daily, such as:

• Impressions. Use this metric to decide whether there are enough eyes on a client’s ads. Demographics also matter here, so check whether they’re being displayed to the intended audience.

• Impression Share. Because this metric assesses how many Impressions your client’s ads get compared to competitors, it gives you a better idea of their position in the market. A low Impression Share means further adjustments are needed to stand out (e.g., targeting a different audience).

• Click-through Rates (CTRs). Visibility is one thing, but users must be enticed to engage with your client’s ads. For example, a high number of Impressions and a low number of CTRs should prompt a review of ad copy and messaging.

System notifications

As part of your daily PPC sweep, check for any in-platform notifications. This ensures you don’t miss any important issues affecting your client’s ad delivery.

Examples of in-platform system notifications include:

• Ad disapprovals (e.g., Facebook Ads may flag a post that promotes a questionable supplement).

• Billing issues, such as an expired credit card.

• User-specific recommendations to improve performance. For instance, Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) may suggest negative keywords or alternative ad copy for more refined targeting.

Weekly PPC management checks

A weekly PPC check-in gives some campaign elements enough time to optimize and produce more reliable results.

It’s also a chance to identify potential trends that could affect long-term PPC performance. Here’s what to watch.

Competitive analysis

Things change pretty quickly on the PPC side of town. Competitors may revamp their bidding strategies, introduce offers, or focus on new target keywords.

Regardless of the case, your agency must be on the lookout for significant changes. It’s the only way to ensure your clients’ ads remain relevant and click-worthy.

Staying ahead of the curve is all about research. Look at what the competition is doing, then evaluate where your own campaigns can be further optimized using insights from PPC analysis tools. A thorough competitive analysis examines campaign structure, target keywords, ad copy, and even landing pages to find anything you might have missed.

The ad auction is ever-changing, with costs and performance driven by competitor bidding behavior. That’s why it’s important to do a competitor analysis regularly–even if it’s just once a week. This way, you can anticipate any drops in performance and react before they have a negative impact. For instance, if you see sudden increases in average CPC or Impression Share drops, put some strategies to combat these before they take hold!

Claire Aldridge, Digital Marketing Specialist, Victory Digital

To help your clients stay one step ahead, here are some competitor insights to check weekly.

Bid optimization

Bid optimization is what efficiently drives your PPC campaigns while keeping the budget in sight.

In extremely competitive markets, dynamic bidding strategies do the heavy lifting. That means using performance data, including which areas perform the best and which keywords bring in the best leads, to set the bids and the budget. Those insights make for targeted, efficient bidding, so clients achieve maximum ROI without overspending.

Digilatics saw this play out with a client who had an essentially unlimited budget, which allowed the team to experiment with various dynamic bid strategies to find the most effective approach. Aggressive bidding means setting bids higher than competitors to secure top ad placements, especially in highly competitive markets. Testing different bid levels and target audiences gave the team flexibility to refine the approach and produce a substantial increase in conversions and a higher return on the company’s PPC ad spend.

Ad relevance

Regardless of how competitive the market is, one challenge every agency will face is keeping ads relevant.

Digilatics once had a client who decided to try their luck with another agency, then returned shortly after and asked the team to resume services. A deep dive into performance during that period showed the number of qualified leads was very low, and the core issue was ad relevance. Ads were not reaching the right audience, and where they were, the ad copy was not speaking to them.

The fix was to create relevant ads, make the messaging consistent with the custom landing page, and refine the targeting. That gave the client more than 10X ROI in the first few months after their return.

AgencyAnalytics played a critical role in that story, providing a clear and easy-to-read view of paid search analytics data for the agency and the client. Tracking performance metrics in one place makes trends quicker to spot, which means campaign decisions get made on data rather than guesswork. For clients, it means they easily understand the value of your work and see how their investment is performing.

Ad fatigue

You’re putting in the effort, but the results are dwindling. The ads you’re running for your clients run successfully for months, then gradually conversions and engagement start to drop. What can you do about it?

Craft a series of fresh, engaging ad creatives and introduce them in phases. Closely monitor the performance and identify the optimal rotation frequency to keep the target audience engaged. This strategy revitalizes a client’s campaign, boosting engagement rates and maintaining a steady flow of leads.

Algorithm changes

Every digital marketing manager knows that algorithm updates can turn a well-oiled PPC campaign on its head. A sudden change in a platform’s ad algorithm will greatly impact performance. Tackling it means leaning on real-time data and insights from a variety of tools, monitoring metrics constantly, and revising strategies promptly when anomalies arise.

If any of your clients are struggling to monitor and stay up to date with algorithm changes, test the AgencyAnalytics free 14-day trial to thoroughly strategize their PPC ads. Revisit the keyword strategies, adjust bids, and optimize PPC ad placements. Within weeks, the campaign won’t only recover but may very well surpass the previous performance benchmarks.

Conversions

Weekly checks are ideal for clients with conversion-oriented goals such as new leads, form signups, or online sales.

Think about it: potential new customers may click on a pay-per-click ad but won’t necessarily follow through on an immediate action. Plus, conversions may only happen after repeated ad exposure.

For long-term PPC campaigns, daily conversion monitoring often leads to premature, knee-jerk reactions, all because of normal fluctuations. Alternatively, monthly conversion monitoring delays the identification of significant trends (e.g., high CTRs with low conversion rates, which suggests a landing page issue).

Therefore, weekly checks strike a balance between being adaptable and maintaining PPC campaign stability. To streamline weekly conversion tracking, use a real-time PPC dashboard and look out for any anomalies.

Take a proactive approach to PPC management. Identify potential issues before they affect long-term performance. Invest in PPC management software today–try AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

If you notice a concerning conversion rate trend:

• Improve landing page performance. This includes:

• Optimizing page load time.

• Adding more strategically placed CTAs.

• Cutting down on length (e.g., removing irrelevant copy).

• Try an alternative bidding strategy (e.g., maximizing your client’s ad budget for Conversions instead of Impressions).

• Run A/B testing for ad copy variations. Remember to use targeted, action-oriented messaging and remove irrelevant keywords. For example, use a CTA like “Purchase XYZ Designer Shoes Now–Limited Time Offer” instead of “We’ve got everything you need and so much more!”

Quality Score

To ensure your client’s ads remain relevant to user search queries, assess Quality Score every week. This metric is particularly important since a high Quality Score leads to better ad positions on search engines.

Ranking aside, Quality Score directly affects how your client’s budget is spent. A higher Quality Score generally leads to a lower Cost per Click (CPC) and Cost per Conversion. In other words, this means more Clicks and Conversions for your client’s budget.

If you notice a low or decreasing Quality Score on any given week:

• Revisit your client’s keyword strategy. It may mean infusing more user-relevant terms that encourage clicks.

• Improve your client’s ad copy and landing page (using the steps outlined above).

Monthly PPC management checks

After a month, you’ll have more information to create solid conclusions and present PPC marketing recommendations.

Here’s precisely what you should assess each month for optimal results.

Keyword analysis

To ensure your client’s PPC strategy stays relevant, run a keyword analysis. This monthly exercise will uncover:

• Which keywords and terms are performing well. Use this information to reallocate or redistribute your client’s PPC budget if needed.

• Any new keywords or phrases to capitalize on. Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner for more insights.

• Whether there are overlooked negative keywords to exclude from your client’s online advertising efforts.

• Trends in Impressions, CTRs, and CPCs for specific keywords.

Seamlessly integrate keyword research into your agency’s PPC management process. Identify keywords that move the needle and optimize existing ads–it’s all possible with AgencyAnalytics, free for 14 days.

Think of it as stepping into a cluttered room where your job is to find the most valuable items. A complete keyword analysis identifies not just the obvious terms but also the ones the competition overlooks, pinpointing high-intent keywords that align with your client’s services and the search intent of their audience, so every click is a potential lead.

The other half of the job is the list of negative keywords you build up over time. Digilatics credits negative keyword research for one client success story: meticulously identifying and excluding irrelevant search terms saved money, reduced the cost-per-click, and filtered out unqualified leads, which produced a substantial increase in conversion rates and a noticeable boost in ROI.

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Total budget spent

A monthly budget review ensures that your client’s PPC spend aligns with overall goals. It provides a clear record of how funds were used, which is essential for earning trust.

If your clients don’t achieve their desired results because of a low monthly ad spend, it’s an opportunity to justify budget increase recommendations.

Our clients care about their budget and how many leads they can get. If the client has a low close rate, the number of phone calls needed to turn a lead into a client is higher. To accommodate this goal, an increase in budget is required. We look for trends within 30, 60, and 90 days to determine the right budget for the client for steady leads and revenue.

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Rebecca Pena, Marketing Director, [_Investigator Marketing](https://investigatormarketing.com/)

Additionally, present actionable ways for your clients to save money (e.g., scrapping marginally performing ad groups).

Effective PPC management means looking at dollars and cents. Monitor the cost of PPC efforts on a macro and ad group level–sign up for a free 14-day trial of AgencyAnalytics today.

Revenue generated

If your client has a PPC goal directly tied to the bottom line (e.g., qualified lead generation, online sales), then revenue will be a top priority each month.

Showing the relationship between PPC campaigns and revenue helps clients to make data-driven decisions. If their paid advertising yields great results, it encourages them to keep investing in your agency’s services.

Remember that the right infrastructure must be set up beforehand (e.g., site tags for conversion tracking). Once it’s in place, send a monthly PPC report to:

• Show the revenue generated across multiple paid advertising platforms.

• Present easy-to-understand data visualizations for conversion tracking and money made.

• Make informed recommendations about the top revenue-generating campaigns.

Campaign targeting

Effective targeting is crucial. It often means the difference between a campaign that simply spends money and one that actually drives conversions.

Most of Digilatics’ clients offer home services, so the team makes sure ads reach the right neighborhoods where people are actually looking for those services, using detailed demographic data to fine-tune audience targeting so ads reach the right people at the right time. Review targeting monthly, when you have enough data to see which segments are worth keeping.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

To prove the effectiveness of your client’s PPC campaigns, report on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) per month.

A strong ROAS is a clear indication that the budget was used effectively. It helps clients feel more confident in their investment and your agency’s capabilities.

We leverage campaign data to identify opportunities and monitor return on investment. Once we have collected enough data, we set a target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and adjust this accordingly. With this approach, there is no limit to a PPC budget as long as the target ROAS can be maintained.

Tim Husband, Co-founder, Blue Flamingo Solutions

To put this into context, imagine you’re running a PPC management company. At the end of the month, a client’s Google Ads campaign generated $6 in revenue for every $1 spent, which indicates a strong customer response.

Alternatively, their Facebook Ads campaign brought in just $2 for every $1 spent. Based on this, you advise them to focus on Google Ads for better returns and maintain an organic presence on Facebook.

Build the process behind the checklist

Your clients expect quick and visible results. That’s difficult, but it becomes easier when the PPC strategy is on point and clearly planned out so a PPC specialist can execute it flawlessly.

Digilatics has built its approach around that idea, particularly for clients in the home inspection industry. Here’s an overview of what that process looks like, which other digital marketing agencies can apply to their own workflows.

Start with onboarding, not optimization

The Digilatics approach is rather simple. Spending more doesn’t promise more conversions, so the focus is on a strategic approach to PPC management that maximizes a client’s ad spend to generate higher revenue.

The process begins with onboarding: a conversation covering the client’s service list, operational area, monthly budget cap, and desired outcomes. That sets the path for managing the campaign effectively.

Once that information is in, the work moves to internal strategy, reviewing the client’s previous PPC performance (if any), their target areas, best-performing keywords, and so on. Specializing in the home industry has let the team develop tailored strategies that reach the desired ROI much faster than starting from scratch. Those campaigns, combined with the agency’s Leads Insight tool, show exactly what the return on investment is and where the areas for improvement are. Clients have hit 10X ROI, others 15X and even 25X.

Monitor with real-time data

The Lead Insight tool Digilatics developed gives clients a comprehensive view of call performance by monitoring and analyzing incoming calls.

Every call is analyzed for insights into why some aren’t converting, highlighting gaps in the process that might otherwise go unnoticed. That detailed visibility helps businesses identify areas for improvement, so they can address issues and improve sales outcomes. Pairing those custom insights with AgencyAnalytics means metrics are monitored constantly, and strategies get revised as soon as anomalies appear.

Report on it without the manual work

Keeping clients informed of progress towards their goals, and demonstrating positive ROI, is what let Digilatics scale the business and build a reputation as a premier agency in the home services space. Here’s how the team uses AgencyAnalytics to enhance client retention and streamline internal processes.

Automated reporting. Forget the old days of tedious manual reports. Sleek, customizable dashboards and reports save time and keep clients looking sharp.

Comprehensive reporting plays a significant role in an agency’s ability to translate reports into demonstrated revenue. Some Digilatics clients have explored other agencies and consistently returned for the proven results.

All PPC marketing data in one place. AgencyAnalytics integrates with over 85 marketing platforms, making it easy to pull all of a client’s data together in one place. Whether it’s Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, Shopify, or HubSpot, everything is synced up, so you can keep track of every single client campaign and make informed decisions.

Custom dashboards and reports. Every client’s business is different, and so are their reporting needs. Build custom dashboards and PPC reports tailored to client requirements. The drag-and-drop builder and customizable widgets let you showcase the data that matters most to each client, and the white label feature adds client logos and colors to showcase their brand.

All of this looks precise and scientific, and it is. Digilatics has been a PPC management company for years and has optimized its approach to PPC management, especially for the home industry, with a certified and extensively trained team. Professional agencies can deliver similar results in any industry with patience and persistence. Digilatics didn’t reach here on day one; there were bumps on the road. But if you keep testing and refining your PPC strategies, you’ll also achieve remarkable results.

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Enhance your agency’s PPC management strategy

Successful PPC management involves a balanced, multi-faceted approach.

It’s not about obsessing over every detail or leaving campaigns to operate autonomously. The key is to maintain ongoing, attentive oversight while making necessary changes as they arise. This approach ensures that campaigns remain constantly optimized but stable enough to generate long-term traction.

After you’ve run PPC ads, it’s time to deliver results to your clients. Ultimately, they’ll have the final say about budget decisions or other changes.

It's always the client's decision to make. So many factors can influence budgets that are outside of our view, such as cash flow. We always present the case for increasing budgets to the client and why. Our clients trust us as the PPC expert, but we ultimately leave the decision to them.

Greg Miles, Founder, Bumbl

To show why your agency’s PPC services are worth investing in, use a tool like AgencyAnalytics to simplify complex insights. In a few clicks:

• Build a custom PPC dashboard or use a pre-built template.

• Automatically schedule and send a visually appealing, professional PPC report for greater time efficiency.

• Integrate insights from popular PPC platforms into dashboards and reports.

• Create an efficient process that helps your agency to scale and get more PPC clients.

Managing ads doesn’t have to be a headache for your PPC manager or in-house advertising team. Streamline your agency’s PPC management and deliver successful campaigns–explore AgencyAnalytics today, free for 14 days.