Campaign Launch
After a search campaign launch, most campaigns require a day or two to develop serving momentum. Average-size campaigns usually require a few days to develop consistent serving patterns.
Once a campaign is launched and serving consistently, it continuously generates valuable signals that allow us to optimize performance. Over one to five weeks, we maneuver the campaign into position for a transition to automated bidding.
Search Campaign Post-Launch Optimization
After a search campaign launch, we monitor the campaign and make a series of corrective adjustments across our post-launch checklists. This helps dial the campaign into the type of serving pattern, or “orbit,” we are looking for.
Monitoring Early Spend Patterns
Immediately after launch, we look for major ad spend waste issues, such as a single keyword or ad group consuming an excessive proportion of the ad spend.
Reviewing Search Queries and Keyword Match Types
We also focus early and intensively on monitoring the search queries that pull the campaign into auctions, when they are made available by the platform provider. We use that information to expand both the negative and positive keyword bases while refining match types for keywords.
Early in a campaign’s life cycle, we may discover valuable negative keywords that conserve a good portion of the ad spend. This negative keyword base development process continues for some time. Exactly how long it continues varies depending on the keyword base and vertical market.
Using CTR Before Conversion Data Builds Up
Before conversions have occurred in sufficient quantities to use for optimization, ad click-through rates, or CTRs, can serve as coarse proxies for conversions. We discuss this in other articles.
Checking Conversion Tracking, Geo-Targeting, and Campaign Signals
Post-launch, each conversion type is double-checked for functionality and accuracy. Geo-targeting is monitored for anomalies, CPCs and Quality Scores are checked for out-of-line behavior, and the entire campaign is scanned for error or warning indicators.
Moving Toward Automated Bidding
This post-launch optimization phase usually lasts two to six weeks for an average-scale search ad campaign. Coming out of this phase, the campaign has moved onto some form of automated bidding and is reaching its highest levels of performance since launch.
Once it is on automated bidding, the campaign is essentially in “unmanned orbit,” requiring less manual monitoring and adjustment. It is a little more complicated than that may sound; we discuss the tradeoffs in other articles about PPC campaign management and PPC performance.
A quick overview of the topics covered in this article.
