Making Sense of PPC Metrics – A Guide for CMO’s (updated 2020)
I’ve been involved in PPC a pretty long time – since 2001 and the days of GoTo.com*. Originally I worked in-house and had to be able to explain PPC and campaign performance to the C-suite. After starting this agency in 2006, my audience became CMOs, presidents, and owners of prospective clients. Today, in addition to prospects, I explain to audiences of all sophistication levels at events around the world.
*Quick side note. GoTo.com had no element of Quality Score; that was one of the early key elements Google AdWords introduced (which is now Google Ads). And they let you see what everyone else was bidding on the same keywords. You would pay exactly one cent more than the advertiser directly underneath you. Some people decided they would bid $25 (a HUGE amount back then and still today depending on keyword and location for some industries) just to scare off everyone else who was bidding in the $0.20 – $0.50 range. One of my favorite past times was bidding $24.99 so they would have to pay the full $25 and quickly run out of their daily budgets. I got more than a few angry calls.
Here at DOM, we love data. Like drop-down-on-a-knee-with-a-ring love. But, man, can it be overwhelming, especially if you don’t deal with it every day. For example, like oh I don’t know – if you’re a CMO or VP of Marketing.
Because we love you, we’ve created the following cheat sheet for your reference. If you just want to do a quick health check on your account instead of flipping through an 80-page PowerPoint report, check out these 6 stats – and how they change over time. Also, be sure to check out our other resources that can help you out.
Without further ado:
