Thursday’s PPC report shows nine conversions. The office has six emails, one missed call and a message from somebody asking about a job. Nobody can account for the rest. The account may simply be counting the wrong things.
Someone needs to match those numbers with actual enquiries before approving more spend. Learning how to monitor PPC campaigns also means checking the website. Web Work Done Now handles both website work and digital marketing. A faulty form can make decent advertising look like a waste.
Start With the Jobs the Business Wants
A repair company doesn’t need every person searching for a washing machine. Some want instruction manuals. Others want to know whether an old appliance is worth fixing. Only a portion are looking to book a technician.
Bookings, suitable quote requests and genuine phone enquiries belong in the campaign report. The office can add a note beside each one. “Booked Tuesday”, “outside service area” and “wanted spare parts” say more than another row of green numbers.
A $40 enquiry may be affordable for a large repair job but expensive for a service with a small margin. If nobody books, that $40 was still spent.
Make the Tracking Prove Itself
A test enquiry should reach the intended inbox. The recorded action in Google Ads should match what was tested. Call records deserve the same comparison. An overlooked spam folder is worth checking too. When somebody changes a form plugin or booking system, those checks need repeating.
Google Ads also separates primary conversions used for bidding from secondary actions kept mainly for observation. A purchase and a page view shouldn’t quietly carry the same weight.
Give Each Metric a Proper Job
Click-through rate (CTR) shows what share of impressions became clicks. Cost per click (CPC) shows what each click cost on average. Conversion rate tells how often those clicks became recorded actions. Cost per acquisition (CPA) puts a price against each conversion. None of them says much about the caller.
For an online shop, return on ad spend (ROAS) compares attributed sales revenue with ad spend. That isn’t the same as profit. Product costs, delivery and returns still exist.
One week brings twelve enquiries at a lower CPA. Eight turn out to be unsuitable. The previous week cost more and delivered five customers ready to book. The cheaper week may have been the worse one. The report won’t explain it.
See What Triggered the Advert
The keyword in an account isn’t always what a customer typed. A business advertising boiler repairs might also appear for boiler manuals, training courses or spare parts. Those searches look related until the invoice for the clicks arrives.
Google Ads has a Search terms report showing many of the actual queries, although less common searches may not be visible. Recurring irrelevant terms can be added as negative keywords. Each exclusion needs checking because a broad block may also remove useful traffic.
Check the Map and the Opening Hours
A company might serve Tampa and nearby neighbourhoods but receive paid calls from well beyond its driving range. Google Ads can reach people interested in an area, even if they are somewhere else. It’s worth checking the location settings.
Time matters as much as distance. An unanswered Saturday call could be a lost booking. Device results may tell a different story again. If mobile users click but rarely submit, the form may be harder to use on a phone than anyone realised.
The same questions come up in the wider reporting for Digital Marketing Services. Only the office can say which calls led anywhere.
Open the Landing Page Like a Customer
An advert promises same-day appliance repair. Its landing page opens with a company history, rotating images and no phone number in sight. The customer has a broken machine and limited patience.
The page should get to the service quickly. The booking button needs to work, the contact details need to be easy to find and the form should confirm that it was submitted. These things can break after an otherwise routine website update. One broken field can stop the enquiry before it reaches anyone.
The article on website speed and Google rankings looks at loading delays. With PPC, a slow page can waste a paid visit before the booking button appears. A phone test can catch what desktop testing misses.
Keep a Record Instead of Chasing Every Dip
Some checks are quick. A disapproved ad or sudden jump in spend can be spotted each morning. Search terms and call notes need a longer look each week. A month of bookings says more about the budget than Tuesday’s figures alone.
Changes need dates beside them. If enquiries fall just after a form update, the timing is a clue. If a bid target was changed yesterday, another change today may only muddy the evidence. Some conversions arrive in reports days after the original click. Automated bidding may also need time to adjust.
Conclusion
A PPC dashboard can’t explain why the receptionist marked a call “wrong service”. That information comes from the business. PPC Management Services can support account reviews, bid decisions and tracking checks. The booking diary still needs checking before next month’s budget is set.
