How do you improve PPC performance over time?

Short answer

PPC improves over time through steady cycles. Fix tracking first, then cut wasted searches, test ads and landing pages and move budget toward campaigns with the lowest cost per booked job. Feed the account which leads became customers. Small weekly gains compound, so most accounts get better month after month.

In this answer

01The improvement loop
02Teach the account what a good lead is
03Where gains usually come from
04Test properly

The improvement loop

Repeat every month

MeasureCount leads and booked jobs by campaign.
CutRemove searches and areas that waste money.
TestTry one new ad or page against the old one.
ShiftMove budget to the best cost per job.

Teach the account what a good lead is

Google's Smart Bidding sets bids using your conversion data. If every form counts the same, it chases cheap forms. Import which leads became customers from your CRM, or mark qualified calls, and bidding starts finding more of them.

Where gains usually come from

Tighter keywords and more negatives
Ads that match each service and city
Landing pages built for one service each
Faster replies to calls and forms
Budget moved from weak to strong campaigns

Test properly

Google's experiments split traffic between your current campaign and a changed version, so you can compare them fairly. Change one thing per test and let it run until both sides have enough conversions to judge.

Good example. A law firm imports signed cases from its CRM each month. Bidding shifts toward the searches that bring cases, and cost per case falls.

Bad example. A law firm counts every contact form as equal. Bidding finds cheap spam forms, and the reports look better while cases drop.

Read what to test first in PPC. Our PPC management runs this loop every month.

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