CRO Audit in Your PPC Strategy: Why You Should Pay Attention
February 2, 2024
There’s a lot to bear in mind when planning and implementing a successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. You need to research the most efficient keywords, use the right combination of assets, and craft the perfect copy.
Another thing you need to take into account? Conversion Rate Optimization, or CRO.
If you’ve never run a CRO audit for your PPC platforms, now is an excellent time to start! Let’s look at how CRO can affect your paid advertising and how to get started on an audit.
What is CRO Audit?
CRO is all about making changes to your marketing assets in an attempt to increase the number of conversions you receive.
So, let’s imagine you have a landing page and want to increase the number of signups you receive. With CRO, you’ll look at your existing data to identify potential changes you can make to your site.
For example, you could use heatmap technology to identify what sections of your landing page customers are looking at and which sections they are ignoring.
Next, you make changes to your landing page based on the data you gather. A/B testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing) is a great way to do this.
Let’s say you’ve identified that customers don’t like your call-to-action. You create two landing pages, each identical apart from a different call-to-action. You then see which page (and which call-to-action) gets the most signups.
Once you know what’s working, you can apply it to your landing page and repeat the process!
The key benefit of CRO is that it’s entirely data-driven. Rather than relying on hunches and gut instinct, you’re capitalizing on the information you already have. This means you’re more likely to make changes that lead to success.
Why is CRO Audit important in PPC Bid Management?
The great thing about CRO is that you can use it across all your marketing channels, including your PPC bid management tools.
CRO doesn’t just lead to more leads and sales, but it can also reduce the cost of your ads too.
For example, making your adverts more relevant on Google Ads can increase your Quality Score. Increasing your Quality Score from five to ten means you pay 50% less per click!
Here are some ways to use conversion rate optimization to your advantage in your PPC campaigns:
1. On the landing pages your ads point to
It’s important to consider the entire user journey with PPC advertising. By optimizing your landing pages, you can be sure that people who click on your ads will be more likely to convert on your website.
2. On your ad copy
You can use CRO to test different ad copy variations to see which messaging prospective customers are likelier to click on. For example, here we’ve created two different headlines in Google Ads to see which gets the higher conversion rate.
You can also add different assets (formerly known as ad extensions) to your Google Ads. For example, does adding reviews to your adverts result in more leads?
3. On your targeting
All PPC platforms allow you to specify the demographics and interests of the customers you want your ad to be served to. This can have a significant impact on your conversion rates.
For example, do you get more conversions targeting people on mobile or more conversions targeting people on desktop? CRO can help you find out the answer.
4. On your imagery
If you’re creating a Google Display Ad or an image-led ad on social media, it’s essential to see which images and videos lead to the best results.
For example, these two Facebook ads use the same ad copy but a different photo. As the text is exactly the same, any changes in conversion rate can be attributed to the type of image used.
5. On your ad placements
Most PPC ad platforms provide a wide range of ad placements. For example on Instagram, you can run your ads in people’s newsfeeds, in Stories, and in Reels.
CRO lets you see which ad placements lead to the highest conversion rates.
6. On your scheduling
What day and time should you schedule an ad to get the most conversions? There are lots of factors to take into consideration, from the products and services you sell to when your competitors display their advertisements.
Carrying out CRO testing can help you identify the optimal day and time to schedule your ads.
How Can I Keep an Eye on My CRO Analytics?
The first step when monitoring CRO analytics is to implement conversion tracking on your website. This means you can see which PPC ads result in conversions. This typically involves adding a piece of code to the header section of your site.
Many PPC platforms have their own A/B testing systems you can use to run experiments. This makes it easy to make changes, monitor statistics, and identify the winning advertisements.
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Get StartedHow a CRO Audit Can Keep Your PPC Strategy on Track
The majority of digital marketers say the biggest challenge they experience when it comes to CRO are the processes – what to test and in which order to test things. In this situation, a CRO audit can be a big help.
A CRO audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website and the PPC platforms you use. This gives you the clear steer you need to make changes that drive results.
Here’s how to do a straightforward CRO audit across your marketing channels:
1. Start by identifying your goals
The first step is to identify what you want your CRO audit to achieve. For example, do you want to increase sales, grow your mailing list, or boost free trials of your product or service?
It’s also a good idea to identify your current PPC conversion rate. That way, you know whether the changes you make lead to a positive outcome.
2. Gather your data
Next, get as much data as possible – the more information you have, the easier it is to make improvements. Use Google Analytics to identify data from your landing pages and your PPC management tools of choice to get information about your ad campaigns.
Remember that all the data you collect should be primary (data you’ve gathered yourself) rather than secondary (data you’ve gathered from other sources). This is because this information reflects your own unique circumstances, meaning you get higher-quality insights.
3. Develop your hypotheses
Using your data, look at what changes you can make to your landing pages and ads to get the best results.
For example, if you’re getting lots of clicks on your ads but no conversions on your web pages, making changes to your landing pages could generate the most effective results. If further investigation shows that people aren’t engaging with the imagery on your landing pages, replacing the imagery should be your top priority.
Rank your hypotheses in order of priority. This means the changes leading to the biggest upswing in conversion rate should be at the top of your list.
4. Run your testing
Once you know what you want to change, run your A/B tests. We recommend running one test at a time to prevent the results of one test from interfering with another.
After the test period, analyze your results and implement the winning change into your campaigns.
5. Repeat!
CRO testing isn’t a ‘one and done’ thing – we recommend running regular testing to identify new things to optimize. Our top tip is to set up a spreadsheet with details about all the changes made so everyone in your organization is always in the loop.
Conversion rate optimization auditing is all about lots of small changes. The more agile and flexible you can be with your PPC marketing, the bigger the advantage you’ll get over your competitors.
Takeaways
Aimers: Your CRO Audit Specialists
As you can see, CRO audits are a fantastic way to see what tweaks you can make to your paid ads to boost conversion rates. The key is to collect as much data as possible to drive your findings.
Not sure where to start or haven’t got the time to dig into your PPC data? We can help.
We specialize in CRO audits at Aimers. Our skilled team will analyze your PPC accounts and website landing pages, carrying out comprehensive testing to identify which changes will deliver optimal results to your marketing campaigns.
We’ll do all the hard work and help you reap the benefits conversion rate optimization can bring!
With certifications from a range of PPC platforms including Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta, LinkedIn, and Reddit, we’re the digital marketing agency companies trust.
Ready to drive conversions to your website? Get in touch with us today, and let’s get started!
Denis shares strategic expertise and forward-thinking approaches on driving brand growth and optimizing marketing efforts, leveraging his extensive experience.