23-Point Google Ads CPA Optimization Checklist (Bookmark This!)

(Skip the line, take me straight to the checklist!)

Wow, what a year it’s been for Google Ads. The rollout of a brand-new Ads experience, a handful of awesome new ad types and features, and the evolution of Google Optimize making PPC landing pages more and more effective, all carefully crafted to make our jobs as marketers easy and headache-free…. Right?

…Guys?

In truth, many of these new product enhancements do indeed allow us to manage Ads accounts way more effectively, but the perfect tool is close to useless without a knack for strategy and a keen analytical eye.

The Problem with Set It and Forget It

Our PPC team works tirelessly to increase the efficiency of our clients’ paid search campaigns—what we call “CPA Optimization.” Quite often we inherit accounts that have either been entirely mismanaged or not tended to as carefully as perhaps we would prefer.

And in all fairness, ad campaign performance can be easy to overlook.

As PPC Specialists, quite often we’re provided budgets from clients who are all too comfortable spending that money without much real confidence in what exactly that spend is doing for them. Hey, it’s the cost of doing business, right?

We send them branded reports, sometimes automatically each month, and we hop on the phone every once in a while to check in and make sure the client isn’t unhappy or rethinking their budget.

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No, as marketing professionals we have an obligation to be active stewards of account performance, reviewing and regularly evaluating a channel as dynamic (and costly) as paid search in an effort to drive down and stabilize the amount of money we’re spending for every lead.

Optimizing CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) in Google Ads doesn’t have to be a guessing game.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with some of the more common account optimization tactics—reviewing Search Terms reports and adding/excluding keywords, reviewing our CPC bids and ad schedules—but sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start, or know exactly how much we can do to truly impact our clients’ accounts and reduce CPA. The following checklist is process we use when attempting to trim down or optimize Google Ads accounts in an effort to ensure campaigns are humming along at maximum efficiency before further evaluating or making larger strategic adjustments.

The Google Ads CPA Optimization Checklist

1. Review Conversion Settings

You’d be surprised at just how many holes can be poked here. Be sure conversions are configured correctly, and ensure “soft,” behavioral-based conversions (visits to a page, how much time they’re spending on site) aren’t tracking against your CPA. That’s not to say don’t include “micro-conversions,” do so, absolutely—they can help Google’s AI optimize ad placement and bidding amounts.

• Eliminate outdated Conversion clutter
• Test key Conversion actions to be sure they are tracking properly
• Do not count behavioral micro-activities toward Conversions
• Do include (but don’t count) behavioral “micro-conversions” to train Google’s AI

Bonus: Google Tag Manager as a Marketing Tool

2. Evaluate Your Ads

It seems like every few months Google unveils a new ad type, in (beta) or otherwise. Recently, Google began recommend the addition of Responsive Search Ads to your paid marketing mix. This, with some other important tips, will ensure you’re not losing any budget to inefficiencies or shortcomings with your ads.

• Create 3 Expanded Search Ads and at least 1 Responsive Ad per Ad Group
• Remove any and all Disapproved ads, it’s not enough to simply pause them
• Include at least 4 extension options for ads
• Experiment with shorter copy in lieu of completely filling out expanded text ads
• Use Title Case for headlines and descriptions as they generally perform better
• Ensure your target keywords appear in your ads (I know, basic, right?)

3. Tend to Your Keywords

This is where the magic happens—these little guys are the things either costing you money or driving account performance. But where to start? Well, here are a few things you can do right out of the gate:

• Pause keywords with a Quality Score < 3 and 0 Conversions
• Pause keywords with only 1 click or fewer over the last 90 days
• Sort Keywords by Cost/Conv. and consider pausing or editing most expensive
• Pause keywords with no Quality Score rating that have been active for 30+ days

Bonus: Tips for Creating a Winning Keyword Strategy

4. Optimize Bid Adjustments