Case Study #2: What You Can Learn From PPC Data

5 Key PPC Metrics and What They Can Teach You About Your Market and Marketing

Google and Bing PPC data are rich sources of insights as to your area, competition, and your marketing. Since each city and state have different levels of consumer demand and competition, PPC data can help you see what your area is like and how it stacks up against other areas in the U.S. In addition, PPC data can help you see how effective your marketing messages and website are in creating leads.

 

These 5 metrics each lead to unique insights that lead to actionable strategies to improve your advertising results.

Metric #1: Impression Volume – How high or low is consumer demand in your area?

Impressions are the amount of times that keywords that you are targeting were searched for by consumers. Essentially, impressions strongly correlate with demand. The more impressions you see, the higher the demand for bankruptcy in your area is, and vice versa. Tracking impressions from month to month can give you insights as to whether demand is falling or rising.

 

We have recorded impression data on various areas in the U.S. and have found that the higher the impressions, the higher the demand and the higher the volume of cases that are filed. Based on the keywords that we target, we have found that most areas have between 5,000-10,000 impressions per month. Areas with fewer than 5,000 monthly impressions represent low demand areas, while areas with higher than 10,000 impressions have large demand.

 

If you have low impression volume, your area may have low demand for bankruptcy, or you may not be targeting enough keywords and should target more keywords to increase impression volume.

Metric #2: Average Ad Position and Cost Per Click – How high are competitors bidding?

With PPC advertising, the higher you bid on keywords, the higher up your ad appears and the more you pay per click. Paying attention to your ad position (in positions 1-11) can help you see if you need to bid higher or lower on keywords. Paying attention to your cost per click can help you see how competitive your area is. We have found that the “sweet spot” for ad position is in spots 2, 3, and 4. Position #1 gets plenty of clicks, but at a higher cost, often making it less cost effective, while positions 5-11 get too few clicks to make a difference. As for cost per click, we have found that when it rises above $8 a click, it becomes difficult to make PPC advertising cost effective.

 

Make sure to monitor your ad position. If it gets too low, you are missing out on clicks and leads, but if it is too high you may be paying too much per click. Adjust your bids to make sure that your cost per click is reasonable and that your ad position is acceptable as well.

Metric #3: Click Through Rate (CTR) – How good are your ads?

The Click Through Rate is the percent of individuals that searched for a keyword you targeted, saw your ad, and clicked on it. The more people click on your ads, the more site traffic you will get and the more leads you will generate. Since your ad appears among 10 other ads, your CTR is a good indication of how unique and appealing your ads are. Ads that appear in higher positions or have more powerful, engaging ad copy generally have higher CTRs.

 

We have found that a CTR below 1% is a sign of concern that the ad text may not be appealing or catchy enough, or the ad may be appearing too low. On the other hand, when a CTR rises too high (above 5%) and isn’t leading to conversions, we have found that the ad may be appearing too high or the ad text may not be setting expectations of the searcher well enough.

 

Monitor your CTRs and adjust your bids to raise/lower your ad position as necessary. Also, test new ads to see if you can raise your CTR while maintaining solid conversion rates.

Metric #4: Conversion Rate – How well does your website convert traffic into leads?

Your conversion rate is the percent of people that clicked on ads, came to your site, and then became a lead by either filling out a Free Evaluation form or by calling you. High conversion rates are signs that your ads and website are efficiently convincing individuals to contact you, while low conversion rates are signs that your website may have low quality or that your ads may not be preparing visitors to act.

 

We have found that most of our sites convert between 10-15% of visitors into leads, though occasionally sites convert less than 10% or more than 15%. The industry average is around 7-8%.

 

Closely monitor your conversion rates. If they are low, consider writing better ad text that incentivizes the individual to act, sending the visitor to a different “landing page” (the first page they come to once they click on your ad), or improve your website as a whole.

Metric #5: Cost Per Conversion – Does your advertising produce good ROI?

The cost per conversion is the cost that you spent on PPC ads divided by the number of leads (forms and calls) that you received. This is a strong indicator of how cost effective your advertising is.  If your cost per conversion is too high, it is a sign that your return on investment in PPC advertising is low, or even negative.

 

We have found that attorneys that charge higher prices or that close a good percentage of leads (20% or more) are able to have a higher cost per conversion and remain profitable. We strive to keep the cost per conversion around $50, but it often lower or higher depending on how competitive the area is.

 

Closely monitor your cost per lead. By lowering your cost per click, increasing your conversion rates, or both, you can lower your cost per lead and make your advertising more cost effective. In addition, by increasing your close rate on leads, you can increase your return on investment.