In this article, we’ll cover the key SEM campaign metrics you should be monitoring, how to analyze that data to identify areas for improvement, and steps you can take to optimize your campaigns based on those insights. Let’s dive in!
Analyzing SEM Campaign Metrics:
Search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns are a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to your website and generate leads or sales. However, simply running SEM ads is not enough – you need to continually measure and analyze the performance of your campaigns in order to optimize them for maximum return on investment (ROI). By tracking the right metrics and interpreting the data correctly, you can make informed decisions about where to allocate your ad spend, which keywords and ad copy resonate best with your audience, and how to refine your campaigns for better results over time.
Critical SEM Metrics to Track
There are dozens of potential metrics you could track for your SEM campaigns, but focusing on too many can lead to analysis paralysis. Instead, hone in on these critical few that will provide you with a well-rounded picture of your campaign performance:
Click-Through Rate (CTR) Your click-through rate measures how often users who see your ad end up clicking on it to visit your website. It is calculated as:
CTR = Number of ad clicks / Number of ad impressions x 100
CTR is a great indicator of how relevant and compelling your ads and keywords are to your target audience. The higher the CTR, the better your ads are resonating. At the same time, you don’t want to obsess over a high CTR at the expense of driving unqualified clicks that don’t convert. Find a balance between a decent CTR and an audience likely to take your desired action.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
While CTR looks at the efficacy of your ads themselves, cost per click reveals how much you’re paying for those clicks. It is calculated as:
CPC = Total cost of clicks / Total number of clicks
In general, a lower CPC is preferable as it means you’re paying less per visitor to your site. However, the “right” CPC can vary significantly based on your industry, competition, audience, and profit margins. The key is monitoring your CPC relative to your conversion rates and customer lifetime value to ensure your SEM campaigns are ultimately profitable.
Conversion Rate
Your conversion rate shows what percentage of ad clicks result in a conversion, which is your desired action like an online purchase, lead form submission, etc. It is calculated as:
Conversion Rate = Number of conversions / Number of ad clicks x 100
Your conversion rate indicates how well your website and landing pages are converting ad traffic into customers or leads. If you have a high CTR but a low conversion rate, that means your ads are drawing people in but your website experience is failing to seal the deal. Conversely, a high conversion rate from SEM can indicate that your ads are attracting well-qualified traffic worth the investment.
Cost Per Conversion
While conversion rate looks at the percentage converting, cost per conversion shows you how much those conversions are costing you from your SEM campaigns. It is calculated as:
Cost Per Conversion = Total cost of ad clicks / Number of conversions
This metric rolls up your ad spend and conversion data into one number that you can use to evaluate the overall ROI of your SEM efforts. The lower your cost per conversion, the more budget-efficient your campaigns. However, you need to factor in your average sale prices and customer lifetime values – a higher cost per conversion can make sense if you’re selling a premium product or service with major upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
Ultimately, you want your SEM campaigns to generate more revenue than they cost to run. That’s where return on ad spend comes in, calculated as:
ROAS = Total revenue generated / Total ad spend x 100
For example, if you generate $10,000 in revenue and spent $2,000 on your SEM campaigns, your ROAS would be 500% ($10,000 / $2,000 x 100). Most businesses want an ROAS of at least 400% to make their SEM advertising worthwhile and profitable.
Those are the fundamental metrics to watch, but there are plenty of additional data points you can track depending on your specific objectives:
- Impression share
- Average position
- Time on site
- Pages per session
- New vs. returning visitors
- Revenue per conversion
- Mobile vs. desktop performance
- Assisted conversions
- And more
Customize your SEM reporting to showcase the metrics most critical to your unique business goals.
Analyzing SEM Data to Find Optimization Opportunities
Tracking these core metrics is a good start, but the real magic happens when you analyze the data to pinpoint areas for improvement. Here are some ways to review and interpret your SEM performance:
Segment by Campaign
Rather than looking at your overall account performance, break things down by individual campaign. This allows you to quickly identify your top-performing and underperforming campaigns to prioritize where to invest more or less budget. Look at metrics like:
- CTR by campaign
- CPC by campaign
- Conversion rate by campaign
- Cost per conversion by campaign
- ROAS by campaign
Dig into the details of your best and worst campaigns to understand what’s working (or not working) in terms of targeting, messaging, offers, etc. Replicate the success factors across other campaigns and pause or adjust those falling flat.
Segment by Device
With so much web traffic coming from mobile these days, it’s critical to analyze your SEM performance split out by device type. Compare metrics for mobile vs. desktop vs. tablet traffic to see if there are major discrepancies worth addressing. For example:
- Are your mobile CTRs much lower than desktop? This could signal a need for better mobile ad copy or more mobile-optimized landing pages.
- Are you getting tons of mobile impressions but few clicks? You may need to adjust your mobile bid strategy up or down.
- Are mobile conversion rates tanking compared to desktop? Streamline your mobile site experience and checkout process.
Adjust your mobile bid modifiers and create mobile-specific campaigns as needed to account for the unique behavior patterns of mobile SEM traffic.
Segment by Time Look at the timeframes when your SEM campaigns are generating the best (and worst) results. For example:
- Which days of the week drive the highest CTRs and conversion rates? Adjust day-parting bid strategies to prioritize those prime windows.
- Are there certain times of day when you burn through budget with little to show for it? Apply ad scheduling to reduce wasted spend.
- Are you seeing major spikes or dips in performance around holidays or peak seasons? Plan campaigns accordingly around those time periods.
Understanding the time patterns can help you optimize ad scheduling, day-parting, messaging and offers to capitalize on prime windows.
Segment by Location
If you have a local or regional business, pay close attention to your SEM performance segmented by geographic locations. Look at CTRs, conversion rates, average CPC, and other metrics broken down at least by major cities or states (if not zip codes). For areas with very low engagement or high costs, you may want to exclude those locations entirely from your campaigns. For high-performing areas, increase your geographic bid modifiers and budget allocation to double down.
Segment by Audience
For remarketing or customer match campaigns, analyze performance by audience segment. Which custom audiences are cheapest to reach and most likely to convert? Which are just burning budget? Enrich and refine your most valuable audiences while trimming spend on the less profitable ones.
Segment by Keyword It’s also critical to analyze your SEM performance at the keyword level, looking at:
- Which keywords have the highest CTRs? Those are drawing great engagement.
- Which keywords have the highest CPCs? Decide if those high costs are justified by the conversion rates.
- Which keywords have low-quality scores? Try expanding and optimizing those low-performers.
- Which keywords contribute the most conversions and revenue? Those are your MVPs worth expanding budgets around.
Regularly add negative keywords for terms that are generating wasted spend, pause underperforming keywords, and test new keywords constantly to improve relevance.
Segment by Ad Copy
Finally, don’t forget to segment your performance data by individual ad copy. Compare CTRs between different ad variations to see which messaging is most engaging. Do certain offers or calls to action boost click rates? Does including prices or product details entice more clicks? Promote the top-performing ad copy as your “winner” while continuing to test new variations against it.
By slicing and dicing your data in these ways, you can identify very granular positive trends to amplify and negative patterns to correct or eliminate entirely.
Steps to Continuously Optimize SEM Based on Data Insights
Once you’ve analyzed the data and found areas for improvement, it’s time to actually optimize your SEM campaigns accordingly. Here are some of the key actions you can take based on your performance insights:
Account Structure Changes
- Create tightly-themed ad groups and campaigns around your top-performing keywords rather than lumping everything together.
- Break out mobile campaigns and build out a mobile-optimized experience.
- Restructure your account by campaign type (search, display, video, etc.) to optimize bids and creative accordingly.
- Organize your campaigns geographically for local businesses to control location targeting and ad copy relevance.
Targeting Refinement
- Adjust location and audience targeting based on performance by location and audience segment.
- Implement bid modifiers and scheduling to prioritize your best-performing windows.
Keyword Management
- Use keyword data to add negative keywords, pause underperformers, and reallocate budget to top converters.
- Constantly expand keyword lists with new related terms and match-types.
- Focus on long-tail keywords with higher commercial intent as they often have higher CTRs and conversion rates.
Creative Optimizations
- Update ad copy with the highest-performing headings, descriptions, calls-to-action, offers, etc.
- Test new ad creative, being sure to isolate your tests to understand what factor drives performance differences.
- Refine your landing pages and conversion pathways to boost post-click conversion rates.
Bid Strategy Adjustments
- Adjust your keyword, ad group, and campaign bids based on your target CPC, CPA, or ROAS goals.
- Leverage automated bidding strategies like Target CPA or Target ROAS to automatically optimize bids based on real-time performance data.
- Set mobile and location-based bid modifiers based on performance by device and geography.
Budget Allocations
- Shift more budget into your top-performing campaigns to maximize return.
- Reduce or pause spend on underperforming campaigns, freeing up that budget to reinvest elsewhere.
- Test expanding budgets for your best-performing ad groups to increase volume.
The key is to consistently analyze the performance data flowing in across all these segments, identify positives to amplify and negatives to correct, and then take calculated optimization actions in response. It’s a never-ending cycle of measuring, analyzing, and refining to continually wring more return out of your SEM investments.
Leveraging Tools to Streamline SEM Optimization
The optimization process we’ve covered here may sound intensive – and it absolutely requires ongoing hands-on management and analysis. However, there are marketing analytics tools and SEM platforms that can simplify and streamline your monitoring and optimization efforts:
Google Analytics
As the go-to source for website traffic data, Google Analytics provides a wealth of SEM campaign reporting data under the “Acquisition” section. You can analyze PPC performance, conversion metrics, audience behavior, and more. Link your Analytics with your ad campaigns to gain deeper visibility into the full customer journey.
Google Ads
The Google Ads interface contains detailed reporting and optimization tools for managing your Search, Display, Video, and other Google ad campaigns. Leverage automation features like smart bidding, recommendations, and automated rules to scale optimizations. Also get specialized reports for things like auction insights, paid & organic, and keyword performance.
Microsoft Advertising Similar to Google Ads, the Microsoft Advertising platform contains exhaustive reporting and tools for managing your Microsoft Search and Audience Network ads. Automate syncing between Google imports, shared budgets, and custom rules across your Microsoft Advertising campaigns.
Third-Party SEM Tools Beyond the native platform tools, consider third-party SEM campaign management solutions like:
- Optymzyr – For PPC campaign automation, analytics, and optimization tools
- SpyFu – Track competitor PPC campaigns, keywords, and search traffic
- CallTrackingMetrics – Track phone call conversions and attribution
- Kenshoo – An enterprise-grade SEM management and bid optimization platform
Marketing analytics tools like these can help scale and expedite your SEM reporting, analysis, testing, and optimization efforts across campaigns and platforms.
Conclusion
Successful SEM campaigns require much more than simply allocating budget and clicking “launch.” By methodically measuring and analyzing SEM performance data – including metrics like CTR, CPC, conversion rates, CPA, and ROAS – you can uncover opportunities to optimize and refine your campaigns for maximum ROI. Break down the data by dimensions like campaigns, devices, locations, and more to pinpoint positive trends to scale and negative patterns to improve. Then take calculated actions to adjust targeting, budgets, bids, creative, and more based on those data-driven insights.
It’s an iterative cycle of collecting data, extracting insights, implementing optimizations, measuring again, and repeating continuously. Leverage modern analytics and SEM tools to help streamline reporting, testing, automation, and the overall optimization process. With diligent measurement and data-informed refinements over time, you can progressively improve the efficiency and profitability of your SEM program.