My 3 time management tips for Paid Search campaigns

Effective time management for paid search campaigns is vital for maximising productivity and ensuring clear, measured changes and reflections. Especially as PPC is only one of around 8 or 9 marketing channels depending on your business*.

This blog, and this entire website to an extent, is beginner friendly, and provides a bit of a step back for experienced users, and could also be useful for hands-on business owners who may be handling their own marketing.

Here are three key steps to help you manage your time efficiently:

Last updated 25/10/24

Book time out for paid search and log the time taken

You've just got to do it. As opposed to some digital marketing channels that you can dip in and out of (monitoring and posting on social media?) or other more reactive activities, such as an urgent prospecting campaign, you need quality time.

Frequency: Look at structuring your weekly, fortnightly or perhaps monthly schedule. Allocate dedicated time slots for different tasks such as keyword research, advert copy writing and tweaking. You could monitor performance perhaps every morning, as a means of becoming fluent in the typical nature of changes. and a bit of RND around optimisation. This helps you focus without distractions. Logging the specific day of the week and how much you got done.

Understand the PPC 'pyramid': It could be wrong, but I call it the pyramid. Potentially, if you sell products as well as several services, there's going to be several PPC campaigns, and therefore you could be overseeing several ad groups with their respective sets of keywords. You may also wish to decide and test the ROI of Google Ads or Bing (now Microsoft Advertising, which is better imo). That's two pyramids! You'll want to start small, however.

Priotise: If you're starting out, you may not have an instinct for identiying urgent and high-impact tasks within the technology, such as regular management of negative keywords. If you company provides seasonal or cyclical services, you may need to prioritise based on fixed deadlines.

Consider using Automation Tools

Google especially, would love for you to use automation, but go careful and make conscious, measured, recorded changes. Do your research, but you can definitely make use of:

Automation Features: Combine good understanding and manual practices with automated bidding to save time on repetitive tasks. You can also look at ad scheduling.

Set Up Alerts and Reports: Configure automated alerts for significant changes in campaign performance and regular reports to minimize manual monitoring.

I listen to Chris Schaeffer, of the very, very good Paid Search Podcast. He's from a place called America, but you should still listen to it 😜. He recommends that marketers test automated bidding alongside manual strategies to determine what works best for their unique circumstances. Schaeffer also highlights the need for regular monitoring and adjustments, as automated systems can sometimes miss nuances that human oversight can catch.

Review and Adjust Regularly

In tandem with point 1, but this is perhaps more of a team effort with your colleagues.

Conduct Weekly Reviews: Set aside time weekly to review campaign performance, analyze data, and make necessary adjustments. This prevents last-minute scrambles and keeps your campaigns on track.

Reflect on Processes: After each session, assess what worked well and where time was wasted. Use these insights to refine your approach and streamline your processes for future campaigns.

By implementing these strategies, you can effectively manage your time while maximizing the performance of your PPC campaigns.

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Bonus section: Google Marketing Tools in brief

*Interestingly, Google Ads - the app in our browser tab - is only one of 4 or 5 Google branded tools in your marketing technology stack that you may need to learn or use in conjunction with the PPC function. So it's worth spending some time to at least understand its relationship between Google Analytics (now GA4), Google Search Console and Google Tag Manager. There's also Google Business Profile, which is used to 'claim' your business and maximise maps and local SEO. Even if you don't proactively use them, gaining a basic understanding of their role can help to narrow down typical optimisation issues when they arise.