PPC Management is one of the most common things that brands outsource to agencies. But to be totally honest, a lot of agencies don’t have a freaking clue what they’re doing when it comes to PPC.

Not-so-fun story: We recently found out that a client’s previous agency was completely fudging their PPC results (we’re really hoping that is an extremely uncommon practice).

That’s exactly why Klientboost wrote today’s featured Read. If your agency is making one of these mistakes, there’s a good chance they don’t know what they’re doing. Might be time for you to find someone new.

Mistake #1: Not tracking legitimate KPIs.

If your agency is just tracking clicks, and only focusing on driving traffic to your website, this could be the sign of a problem. It could mean that they’re targeting keywords that are way too broad.

Instead, they should be focusing on specific KPIs (defined by you) like cost-per-acquisition, conversion rate, transactions, etc.

Mistake #2: Segmenting Your Account Wrong.

Klientboost (and Carney) and huge proponents of single-keyword ad groups (SKAGs). Why? Because targeting single keywords with one ad group will cause your ad’s relevancy to skyrocket. That’ll improve your Quality Score, which increases your CTR, and then decreases your CPC.

Basically, there’s no reason not to use SKAGs.

Mistake #3: Not Bidding On Your Brand Name.

We know, it seems like low hanging fruit to bid on your own name. But if you don’t do it, you can just about guarantee that your competitors are. Even the search gurus at WordStream bid on their own name.

Mistake #4: Failure To Worship The Search Terms Report.

We’ll also add, “not using negative keywords” to this. The search terms report shows you exactly what searchers are searching for that caused your ads to trigger. This can help you uncover other keywords you should be targeting, and what keywords you should be excluding.

Yikes, we’re outta room and we’ve only covered 4. Get the other 18 from Klientboost…

Admittedly, we get so caught up with the new, shiny, and a little too complex. Next thing we know, the end of the week comes and our brains are complete mush.

So with that in mind, Search Engine Journal is taking us back to the basics with link building. Their team broke down ten ways and benefits to investing your resources in buildin’ those links!

1. Why links matter

• Organic search rankings
• Brand mentions
• Site visibility on search engines

2. Terms To Know

• Backlinks: Links that originate on a referring domain and point to one of your web pages. Carney is the referring domain and SEJ is the referent.
• Internal Links: Linking pointing from one webpage of your site to another page of your site.

3. Link Earning

This method is acquired naturally, plus drives traffic and exposure! Pretty much, if this happens then definitely have that glass of wine. Here’s how you can earn links:

• Create link-worthy content… obvi!
• Guest blogging
• Outreach
• Data-driven content

5. Valuable Inbound Links

You want links on high traffic-generating sites. Think user-generated content! Quora and Reddit are awesome platforms because of the significant user engagement.

6. Quantity vs. Quality

Which is better? A ton of easy-to-get links from no-so-important sites or a handful from credible sites. Hmm decisions, decisions.

Many lean toward quality. But! It actually really depends on your industry and competition. SEJ recommends a balance from smaller sites to highly popular ones and we agree.

8. Don’t Forget!

So there’s this tiny nugget of a thing called relevancy that determines whether you have gold or pyrite.

Keep in mind Google understands the content we create and classifies it. We literally can’t say this enough, always create relevant content!

10. Your Backlink Profile

Use Google Search Console to learn about sites that are referring to you. Though there are holes with this tool so here are other tools to keep in mind. Majestic, Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz allow you to:

• See what kind of pages are linking to your site
• Links that no longer exist
• Info about anchor texts

Well, that wasn’t too bad, right? But, there are 5 more to go.

Our sanity thanks you SEJ…

This is an automated response. Apologies, but I am out of the office this week. If you need immediate assistance, please contact another member of the team. Otherwise, I will reply on my return.

How perfect does that sound? The best feeling is putting up an out of office message, putting down the cell phone, and really allowing yourself to get away.

A vacation should be a hiatus from all projects, meetings, and emails.

Heathrow Airport’s newest ad campaign is all about getting people out of the office and closer to the ones they love. It is without a doubt going to make you want to buy a flight. Heck, where do we sign up?!

These ads are filled with quirky away messages like, ‘Thank you for your email. We’re currently abroad meeting our daughter’s new boyfriend, Leon. Not to be confused with Lukas. Lukas was the one with the beard.’

Whatever your reason is to get away… do it, and do it right.