The power of storytelling is unrivaled in business marketing.

YouTube ad sequencing empowers marketers to deliver brand stories to consumers with ease. No longer do you need to dump all of your content into one video. Instead, you can highlight key selling points in bite-sized content that's easy to digest.

But, what is YouTube ad sequencing and how does it work?

We're going to show you how to create a successful video ad sequence that drives conversions below.

What Is a YouTube Ad Sequence?

A YouTube ad sequence is a marketing tool that allows you to play advertisement videos in a bespoke order.

With traditional video ads, you upload your content to YouTube. After you select your targeting, YouTube will play this ad to key demographics before, during, or after their regularly scheduled content. It will generally select one of the videos in your ad group at random to play.

When you create an ad sequence, you get to determine the exact order. This way, you can ensure that every new viewer sees ad A, followed by ad B, and finishes with ad C. Google will automatically display your ad sequence to one user, one time, every 7 days.

YouTube Ad Sequencing vs Standalone Videos

The power of video can't be questioned.

Even a standalone video ad will drive significantly more conversions than images. A survey of Facebook marketers by Databox found that video accounted for 60% more ad clicks compared to pictures.

Google also declares that more than 33% of shoppers purchased a product thanks to a YouTube ad.

On the other hand, YouTube ad sequencing accounts for a staggering 74% ad recall lift when compared to the standalone video.

The reason for this is that ad sequencing works much like the traditional sales funnel. Rather than expecting a viewer to act on the first discovery, you get to reinforce your message with multiple interactions.

Furthermore, multiple videos provide more breathing room for your content. Rather than trying to sandwich all of the bullet points into one short video, you get to take your prospect on a journey. The gaps in between each video in the sequence then allow the viewer to reflect upon what you've previously shared. Instead of seeing your brand once and forgetting about it, they might see your second and third video and decide to convert at that time.

The trick to creating a great sequence is to ensure that your ads tell an excellent story. Google/YouTube knows this and offers all marketers pre-built storytelling templates to guide you to creating the perfect video ads.

What are these templates? How do you make sure your videos fit into the sequence? We're going to guide you through that setup process next.

How to Set up a YouTube Ad Sequence?

To get started with YouTube ad sequencing, you'll need to create a brand-new campaign within your Google Ads account.

If you've yet to get started with Google Ads, you can create an account for your business here.

Step 1 - Select an Objective

First, you'll need to select a campaign objective. Google uses this to provide campaign options that work best for that goal.

YouTube ad sequencing is limited to the following objectives: Product and brand consideration or Brand awareness and reach. Select the former to promote a specific offering and the latter to boost your audience discovery efforts.

Step 2 – Campaign Creation & Bidding Options

Next, select Ad sequence as the subtype to get started. You’ll need to name your campaign and select your ideal bidding strategy. You can choose between the following options (per Google support):

• Target CPM (recommended) – Google Ads optimizes bids to show your entire sequence campaign to your audience, which can help you get a higher sequence completion rate.
• Maximum CPV – Set the most you’re willing to pay each time your video ad is viewed.

Google recommends the first option as it provides more flexibility to show the full ad sequence. That means that you can leverage all three video types to maximize viewing time while keeping your costs low.

You may be able to brute force your way to securing spots with max CPV, but you are strictly limited to skippable video ads.

To help you select the ideal bidding option, here’s an overview of YouTube’s available video ad types:

• Skippable in-stream ads – Your ad will interrupt the user’s current YouTube video. Users can skip the video after 5 seconds elapse.
• Non-skippable in-stream ads – Your ad will interrupt the user’s current YouTube video. The video may be no longer than 15 seconds and the user may not skip it.
• Bumper ads – Your ad will play at the beginning or the end of the current YouTube video. These are meant to be short and no longer than 6 seconds.

We concur with Google's recommendation as being able to utilize each ad type or a combination allows greater creative freedom.

Step 3 - Deciding Who to Target

YouTube ad sequencing presents a caveat when it comes to a typical campaign targeting setup.

As per Google: You can't target keywords, topics, or placements but you can exclude keywords, topics, or placements at the campaign level.

Unlike your typical ads, you may not target users based on keywords or phrases they utilize to discover new videos. Instead, you're going to primarily focus on the most important audience demographics and the devices they utilize.

Google Ads will allow you to check off any number of demos you wish to target including age ranges, employment status, or household income levels. You can also choose which devices you want Google to prioritize for this campaign. Having pre-existing audience data on your Google Ads account will prove helpful for getting the most out of this ad sequence.

After you select your ideal audience, you'll need to select your content exclusions.

Whenever a YouTube account uploads a video, they’re required to identify the video as having any of the following attributes:

• Profanity
• Sexual content
• Nudity
• Violence & injury
• Drug use
• Crime

As an advertiser, you can exclude any content that contains these characteristics. Users often make a direct association with a brand and the content they view. If your brand is family-friendly, you'll want to exclude any strong examples of the above when possible.

You can choose three inventory types that dictate how often Google excludes content for ad placement:

• Expanded Inventory – This gives you the greatest selection of videos to use for your ad campaign. However, content may include sensitive materials that feature all of the above attributes. It will exclude excessive profanity, graphic sexual content, and graphic violence.
• Standard Inventory – This is the level deemed appropriate for most everyday brands. Google Ads makes the effort to exclude repeated profanity, strong sexual content, and violence either real or dramatized.
• Limited Inventory – This is for advertisers that must go the extra mile to ensure everything stays brand-safe. Google will exclude even moderate profanity and sexual content. However, this greatly limits your available real estate.

Choose the appropriate option that makes the most sense for your brand. As Google states, the standard option should work for most companies. Not only will choosing the right content better speak to your company values, but you're also more likely to connect with the correct audience demographics.

Step 4 - Choosing a Template & Adding Your Videos

Google Ads will prompt you to upload your videos at this time. You must upload a minimum of two unique videos.

However, we're going to help you out by skipping ahead to the next step - choosing a sequence template. Having an idea of how you're going to sequence your storytelling will help you in selecting the most effective videos for this campaign.

A. Choosing a Sequence Template

The four base options Google includes are as follows:

• Introduce & reinforce – This is a simple two-video sequence that features a long video to introduce your brand. You then follow up your initial content with a short video to reinforce the message.
• Prompt & inspire – This is an inverse of the first option. Instead of asking for more viewing time up front, you make the viewer aware of your brand or offer a quick video. After they’re aware of you, you then inspire them to act with a longer video.
• Attract & direct – This is the first three-video sequence template. It’s essentially a continuation of Prompt & inspires, but with a short video that features a direct CTA.
• Engage & differentiate – This is a four-video sequence template. The idea is to continuously reinforce one message through different angles and approaches to the same idea.

Note that you are not restricted to any of these templates. You can elect to make a Custom sequence and formulate any story you desire.

Google explores these sequence ideas more here with additional templates. They support the different use cases for these YouTube ad sequences with demonstrable increases in brand awareness, ad recall, and purchase intent.

1. Tease, Amplify, Echo – Develop curiosity with an initial short video. Follow up with a longer video that provides the opportunity to deepen engagement. Finish with a short video that compels them to action.

This is most comparable to Attract & direct. Tests of this sequence showed a 115% average increase in brand awareness, an 86% increase in ad recall, and a 134% increase in purchase intent.

2. The Mini-Series – This format leverages the 3-act story. Three videos share the rising action, the climax, and the resolution.

This sequence obtained high marks across the board with over a 100% increase in all three areas. It speaks directly to how impactful a genuine story is for marketers.

3. The Direct Shot – We can compare this to the Engage & differentiate template. Rather than focusing on different ideas, you want to revisit one idea multiple times for alternative perspectives. The message never changes significantly, but deviations from the first video cause the user to recognize each subsequent video as unique content.

This format, once again, scores high across all metrics. However, the focus on one idea shows a significant boost to purchase intent.

4. The Follow-Up – This sequence banks a lot into a long-form opening act. You can then follow up a longer video with as many shorter videos as necessary to drive it home.

This format boasts high marks, particularly in brand awareness and purchase intent. However, it appears to be less effective than the previously mentioned formats.

5. The Lead-In – This is the direct reverse of the follow-up. You utilize a short video to peak interest before establishing your message in a longer format.

This YouTube ad sequence showed the weakest performance out of all tested formats.

Using these metrics as a guideline, it’s hard to go wrong with any of the first three sequences. For example, Tease, Amplify, and Echo may be best for purchase intent, but the Mini-Series and Direct Shot are going to leave you with comparable results.

As you become more familiar with ad sequencing, you can set up custom sequences to experiment with other options.

B. Adding Your Videos

With the template you want to use in mind, you can proceed with adding videos to your campaign.

The highest-performing sequences share a commonality in establishing the message quickly. It’s estimated that 9 in 10 users will skip your ad when given the option. This is true even if your targeting is generally on-point.

Remember that users have the option to skip longer ads after five seconds. For skippable in-stream ads, you have exactly that long to make an impact.

You may be thinking: “But, non-skippable ads give me fifteen seconds to work with.” The problem is that the human attention span is on average nine seconds. Even if we run a longer ad, we get distracted by other browser tabs, our phones, our smartwatches, and so on. Just because the video is running doesn’t mean that people will watch.

Consider that the number one reason people visit YouTube is for entertainment. People already don’t enjoy ads, and delaying their chosen content to promote yourself already puts you at a disadvantage. You owe it to yourself and the viewer to make every second count. That means that your emphasis must be on quality versus quantity.

While longer ads are accepted, shorter is almost always better. You may want to think of the shorter videos in a sequence of 5-10 seconds, while your longer videos should be no longer than 15-30 seconds. There are exceptional cases where you may want to go longer, but this will highly depend upon your offer and the audience’s historical reaction.

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Give the most pertinent details upfront. Additionally, look to take full advantage of the disruption by acting outside of the norm. For an everyday watcher, ads are an expected part of life and they're going to tune out without even realizing it. By doing something unexpected, or maybe even shocking, you have a far better chance of demanding attention in the first few seconds.

Finally, avoid any lingering one-shots. Many content creators utilize snappy editing styles, using video editor for YouTube, even when the subject of the video remains the same. Cutting to different angles can trick the brain into feeling like the video is more dynamic than it is. You can also use this to maximize every second and eliminate unnecessary dead air and fluff from the ad.

Step 5 - Assigning Your Sequence Steps

After selecting your template and adding the videos, it's time to assemble all the moving parts.

Google will lay out your selected template as a reminder of which videos you'll want to place in each step. You'll just need to add the YouTube URL.

You can and should select one of the optional call-to-actions to add to each video. There are several options, so you should have no trouble finding the one that best speaks to your campaign objective.

You can change up your CTAs in each step. If you want to treat it like a sales funnel, you might use your first step to “Learn More.” At the last step, you could set your video to display “Buy now” to drive purchase intent.

Be aware that you can also customize your bidding options for each step if you desire. This allows for greater flexibility regarding which videos are most vital for promotion. If you need a reminder, head back up to our coverage on bidding options.

You'll also need to select the ad format for each video. Remember, your options are skippable, non-skippable, or bumper. If your video length extends beyond the allowed limits, that format will not be selectable.

Finally, you need to select the conditions that will trigger the next step in the sequence. For example, you may only want to show the next video to users that click on the first ad. Alternatively, you can pursue users that don't click by setting the trigger to impression. This means that anyone who sees the first video will be eligible for the next step in the sequence.

After you complete this process for every step, click Create Campaign to finalize the process. You can preview each as it will display on YouTube to make your last-minute checks.

Step 6 - Test & Observe Your YouTube Ad Sequence

From here on out, the process will be markedly similar to a traditional Google Ads campaign.

You'll be able to monitor results from your dashboard 24/7. You can obtain more in-depth metrics from each step by establishing custom UTM parameters at the time of campaign creation.

We strongly recommend doing this as it will provide greater insight as to which types of video work best with your audience on YouTube.

For your campaign at large, you're going to be looking for trends in not only ad views, but also minutes watched. The former tells you that you're winning the bid for the display time, while the latter indicates whether users are watching or skipping.

Other indicators of campaign success can be seen in the form of likes, channel subscriptions, and video shares. After taking a few weeks to gather actionable data, you can begin making improvements that will further drive conversions.

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This may involve swapping out videos at a step. It may also see you testing different sequence templates to better present your best content to your audience. Just like with a standard Google Ad campaign, allow the results to guide your performance.

How to Set up a YouTube Ad Sequence - Conclusion

Building a YouTube ad sequence allows you to capitalize on a marketer's greatest tool - storytelling.

By following proven narrative formulas, you get to control how your message gets delivered to your audience. Based on their impressions and engagement, you can filter out unqualified leads and further refine your content for better performance.

Finally, YouTube ad sequencing will help you stand out as a cut above compared to the competitor. Rather than randomly serving ads to target demos, you show the user that you're mindful of what they're experiencing. Leveraging the buyer journey and reinforcing your message will help build awareness and drive purchase intent like never before.

The client onboarding questionnaire is key to starting a business relationship off right.

While you may feel like celebrating and kicking back after crushing that sales pitch, the pressure is on more than ever. The client signed the contract, laid down their first payment, and now they want results.

However, in marketing, few things are instant. That's why you need to prove you're on top of your game by getting the ball rolling.

Let's dive into the process of creating an onboarding questionnaire. Then, we'll list out the best client onboarding questions you can have on your form.

What is a Client Onboarding Questionnaire?

A client onboarding questionnaire is a physical or digital form designed to collect information that's crucial to the success of a project.

When done right, your onboarding form should benefit both parties.

First, a questionnaire with well-articulated questions should give your client pause for consideration. The last things we want are overly-general answers. We want the brand owner to honestly reflect on their company's strengths and weaknesses.

No one is going to understand a company better than someone who works on the inside. They have a deeply vested interest in its success whether it be for personal or monetary gain. Coming to your agency should be a sincere request for professional assistance in achieving that goal.

With that in mind, you want your onboarding questionnaire to focus on key details such as:

• The company and its offerings
• The company’s mission, values, and approach to customers
• The primary business objective of a marketing service
• Competitor offerings & behaviors
• The ideal audience demographics

With these factors in mind, you have the bedrock for an excellent onboarding form. However, you can and should modify your form as necessary to consider the specific digital marketing services that the client is requesting from your agency. For instance, if you're designing client-focused onboarding questions for digital marketing services that highlight SEO strategies, incorporating an "SEO-focused intake form" can be invaluable. This ensures you gather all the essential insights needed to optimize search performance from the get-go.

Your onboarding form will help save time, guide the client on what they need to provide, and establish a permanent record. That way, you'll be able to fall back on their responses when it comes time to discuss progress and results.

Without further ado, let's dive into 20 of the best questions you can use to guide your initial client onboarding questionnaire.

The Best Client Onboarding Questions

1. Who is the primary point of contact at your company regarding your digital marketing services?

This will lay out a clear line of communication. You want the client to provide a name and their preferred method of contact. This helps you ensure that you can obtain a quick response at any time throughout your business relationship. It also helps you avoid bothering the wrong individuals during their regular responsibilities.

2. Does your company have existing marketing assets? (Logo, preferred fonts, color hex codes, images, etc.) If so, please upload them here.

A company that's prepared with its branding material is a godsend. It's a great indicator that your client has a clear image of their company and how they want you to present it. Getting your hands on these assets from the start will ensure that your creative team can get to work as soon as possible.

3. What is your primary business objective with our services? (brand awareness, lead generation, sales, remarketing, etc.) Select multiple if necessary.

You likely have a solid idea of this from the initial meetings with your client. Nevertheless, allow the client to reflect on what they truly hope to gain out of this business exchange. You'll have a record of the primary objective as well as any other tertiary goals that your team can strive to work toward.

4. What is your brand's unique value proposition for the consumer?

This question is critical for successful marketing. However, you'd be surprised how many companies fail to have a solid response to this question. No amount of marketing can help a brand avoid this question for good. After all, if someone at the company can't identify a reason to shop there, how can the consumer?

5. What are your core company values and your mission statement?

Asking this allows your team to gain a solid understanding of what the company represents to the public. Every brand should have an available statement as to what its company aims to provide to the consumer and the community. The values represent how the team might go about achieving that mission.

6. What everyday problems do your offerings help the consumer solve?

Many brands go about reciting a list of benefits that their products or services provided. While that's helpful, it's not the most direct way to win over a customer. Instead, ask the client to think about the everyday problems their average customer faces. Then, explain why the offerings address that problem directly.

7. What is your preferred manner of speaking with the consumer? (professional, humorous, laid-back, etc.)

Your client should help establish the tone of the marketing materials you create on their behalf. Help your team avoid any tonal confusion by establishing how your client wants to be viewed by the consumer in everyday interactions.

8. Describe your ideal buyer persona.

While the prior question describes how you should talk, this one explains who you should be talking to. The ideal buyer persona describes the individual that is most likely to benefit from and purchase the brand's offerings. Try to retrieve as much qualifying data such as demographics, habits, or related interests.

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9. What is your primary weakness as a business?

Time for some brutal, honest reflection. Every person and every company has a weakness. It's being honest about those failings that allow us to eventually overcome them. When your client describes company weaknesses, you can devise ways to address them and alleviate customer concerns through your marketing efforts.

10. What are the most common reasons you hear from customers that lead to lost sales?

The response will likely be a continuation of the last question. While the former asked the client what they thought, this question asks them to reflect on how well they are listening to the customer. Crafting a way to address customer complaints and concerns head-on is the best way to condition potential customers to convert.

11. What is the main reason that customers cite as motivation for being loyal?

After some tough self-assessment, your client gets to reflect on their quality aspects. Returning customers almost always have a consistent reason for sticking with a brand. This could be pricing, customer service, or product quality. You'll want this information so that you can highlight it as a strength.

12. What other demographics do you believe could benefit from your offerings?

The client may or may not have an idea of this. Of course, they're going to want to appeal to as many groups as possible. However, try to obtain some insight as to where you might be able to direct marketing efforts to expand the company's reach and grow.

13. Is your company active on social media? If so, please list your profile handles. If not, would you like us to create these for you?

Social media is vital for marketing in 2022. Whether you're leveraging sites like Facebook for paid ads or using Twitter to share content, there's a place for it in every brand's strategy.

Use your questionnaire to identify the correct social accounts for the brand. If they exist, you can review their social activity to gain a better understanding of their messaging. You can also identify strengths and weaknesses early for future improvements.

14. Do you have a website? If so, please list the URL. If not, would you like us to create one for you?

A quality business website is even more important than the former. Have your client list the URL for you, so that you might avoid locating the incorrect domain. On the other hand, it's important to identify the absence of a website early, so that you can sell the benefits of one to the customer for future project success.

15. Who are your primary competitors?

Now that we have a solid understanding of the client, it's time to attack the competition. Your agency needs to understand exactly who you're competing with so that you can plan your strategy. Understanding competitor strategies is going to be key to succeeding in a variety of digital marketing channels.

16. What do your competitors do better? What strengths do you hold over the competitor?

This may or may not tie back to the client's responses about their company's strengths and weaknesses. However, it's important to ask this in light of the direct competitor. It's vital to address the pros and cons head-on because the customer is going to research it themselves regardless.

17. What makes your product or service a superior choice over the competitor?

This helps your agency examine the key offering comparisons as opposed to a direct competitor comparison. We want to understand both the company as a whole and the actual offering being delivered to the consumer's hands.

18. Do you plan to utilize paid ad campaigns? If so, what is your expected monthly ad budget?

You may or may not have an idea if the client wants this based on your initial meetings. If paid ads are off the table, eliminate this from your onboarding. Otherwise, it's important to establish guidelines early on regarding anticipated ad spending. If there are any anticipated issues, you can hash them out before the paid ad work begins.

19. Can you reference other ads, websites, or marketing materials that you like? What features do they have that can benefit your brand?

We like this question as it can provide a better indication of the client's tastes. The better you can satisfy the client with your early drafts, the more likely you are to establish a trusting relationship moving forward.

20. Are you currently performing any marketing efforts in-house? (SEO, paid ads, blogs, etc.) If so, please describe them.

There's little sense in ignoring the client's hard work to date. This can tell you if the client has anything from a website blog, a Google Ads account, a Facebook Ads account, or anything else related to their online presence.

Creating an Onboarding Questionnaire

You can utilize any form-building software in existence such as Google Forms to craft your questionnaire. However, there are two unique methods of delivering onboarding to clients through the DashClicks platform.

Method 1 - Utilizing the Forms App

DashClicks features a proprietary forms builder software that allows you to build and publish customized forms.

You're able to create your queries, customize columns and rows, and modify a variety of style options. You can also send and manage form invitations from within the same platform. Finally, share the onboarding form directly with an embed, iFrame, or direct share link.

A free account grants you the ability to create one form with the drag-and-drop builder. There's no cap on the number of form submissions you can track, while many other providers set limits based on your existing plan.

You may also resend lost invitations and cancel pending invites at any time.

Method 2 - Automated Onboarding with White-Label Fulfillment

This method is not for everyone as it focuses on agencies looking to benefit from our white label fulfillment services.

Account owners get access to our fulfillment store. This allows you to purchase essential digital marketing services such as Facebook Ads or Social Posting for your client.

When purchasing a service, our system automatically sends the appropriate onboarding forms to the requested party. We can send the white-labeled form to your client or send it to your email directly. Clients and agencies alike enjoy this as it means even less for the client to do, leading to a better first impression.

You can then track and revisit onboarding forms at any time directly through your account's project management software.

If you want to expand your agency's offerings, and want to avoid the hassle of going back and forth with onboarding, this method is for you.

Build Your Ideal Client Onboarding Questionnaire

The client onboarding questionnaire is a necessary form to get your business relationships off on the right foot. You eliminate the guesswork and let the client know exactly what your agency needs to get the job done right.

If you're looking for an easy-to-use form builder, sign up to DashClicks now and take advantage of the free Forms app. If you don't like it, you're free to log out and take advantage of the numerous form builders around the web.

As a final note, don't be afraid to play around with the suggested question format. If your agency is selling a particular marketing service or package to the client, shift the questions to capture the necessary key details. These 20 questions are meant to serve as a guideline that helps identify essential facts that are meaningful for every business-marketer relationship.

Google Ads is a primary weapon in every marketer's arsenal.

However, your search campaign will do little more than burn your budget if you don't know how to optimize Google Ads.

Google knows this, and that's why they provide the tools you need to test, observe, and adjust on the fly. You just need to understand better the options and metrics provided.

Below, we're going to dive straight into our foolproof optimization process.

Google Ads Optimization Checklist:

1. Keyword Planning
2. Using Keyword Planner
3. Keyword Search Intent
4. Spying on the Competitor
5. Knowing Your Ad Options
6. SKAGs vs STAGs
7. Uploaded Image Ads
8. Responsive Display Ads
9. Ad Extensions
10. Testing & Observation
11. A/B Test
12. Demographics
13. Geographics
14. Time of Day
15. Negative Keywords
16. Lost Impressions
17. Remarketing & Adjustments
18. RLSAs
19. Adjusting Keywords
20. Manual Bid Adjustments

What is Google Ads Optimization?

Google Ads optimization is the process of monitoring and adjusting campaign performance to maximize your ROI.

Optimizing an ad or ad set can be as simple as testing and adjusting ad copy, images, or headlines. But, it may also require more careful metric observation to aid you in changing your targeting, bidding, and ad type.

Furthermore, ad optimization is dynamic. For the best results, you will constantly be testing, observing, and adjusting to get the best results. Additionally, the tune-ups you implement for one campaign will not necessarily be a successful recipe for another campaign with different objectives.

When Should I Start Optimizing My Google Ads?

We get it. You're hungry and want to see results as soon as possible.

This is especially crucial when you have an aggressive client that expects new leads quickly in exchange for their monetary investment.

It will be your job to set expectations appropriately.

Brand-new Google Ads campaigns typically begin with a learning phase. This is assuming that:

• The Google Ads account is new
• The campaign is brand-new and is not using existing or lookalike audiences

During this process, Google Ads will actively collect data from every user that sees or interacts with your campaign. You want to allow your campaign to retrieve a healthy sample size as these details will be what guides your optimization process.

This process length is wildly variable and will largely depend upon your campaign's foundation. Factors such as campaign objective, keyword selection, and initial audience selection will all play a role.

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If you're particularly fortunate, you can start acting on the learning process in 1-2 weeks. In other cases, you may need to observe for up to a month.

It's important to allow this process to play out uninterrupted. Making premature changes will effectively reset the learning process and send you back to square one.

If your client is confused or frustrated by this initial period, be sure to lay out the benefits. The more effectively you understand your ideal audience early on, the more efficiently you will be able to spend their ad budget when it's time to move.

After the discovery period is over, optimization should become routine. At the bare minimum, you'll want to revisit your settings once per month.

However, doing so more frequently allows you to keep a closer eye on positive or negative trends. The sooner you lay eyes on actionable data, the better you're able to pivot your bids to the right areas and maximize your investment.

But, how exactly do you do that?

Let's dive into the best Google Ads optimization strategies that set you up for success.

The Google Ads Optimization Checklist

1. Keyword Planning

How do users discover anything online? Keywords.

We utilize keyword planning in almost everything marketing from SEO to paid ads. These help us connect our ads with the users most likely to engage and convert.

If you select the right keywords, you're going to boost your returns. Selecting the wrong keywords and finding the wrong audience is going to result in wasted ad spending.

The reason for this is that Google Ads prompts you to set budgets and bid on your targeted keywords. This is unlike your typical SEO content, which allows you to boost your ranking through content quality alone. Meanwhile, focusing copy on the wrong keywords in your ads not only is a wasted effort but burns up funds you can't get back.

Google provides us with a tool to assist in this process.

A. Using Google Keyword Planner

You can gain access to the Keyword Planner if you have a Google Ads account here.

If you have yet to begin your campaign, it will walk you through the initial process of setting it up. It will prompt you to answer questions about your business and your goals for that particular set of ads.

You'll then be greeted with two options:

• Discover New Keywords
• Get Search Volume & Forecasts

The first will walk you through the process of keyword discovery step-by-step. It's going to ask you for more details about your business such as the products and services you sell.

You can also plan by entering your keywords or by entering your domain. Note that the latter is only available if you currently utilize AdWords for that website.

Regardless of the option you choose, the Keyword Planner will generate a list of viable keywords relevant to your brand. It will also reveal important details such as expected bid costs.

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Our most important tip - be very precise with the keywords you enter into the planner. While Google can generate many different options, not all will be relevant to your campaign goals. The more precise you are when it comes to your objectives, the better you'll be able to research alternatives that can help your campaign.

The second forecast option allows you to enter a list of keywords you already have on hand. It will then pull up a forecast of metrics such as:

• Estimated clicks
• Estimated impressions
• Estimated cost
• Estimated clickthrough rate
• Estimated average cost-per-click

You can dive even deeper and check out historical data such as average monthly searches and competition difficulty. All of these factors play a pivotal role in helping you select the most optimal keywords, not unlike what you would do for SEO.

Also, know that you need not be limited by Keyword Planner. If your company already utilizes tools like SEMRush or Moz, feel free to research and cross-reference results as needed. This phase serves as the bedrock of your campaign, so more preparation is always welcome.

B. Match Your Keywords to Search Intent

A major, and often overlooked, factor in keyword planning is analyzing search intent.

Any time an internet user enters a keyword into a search bar, they reveal the type of content they wish to see. More importantly, they tell us what they intend to do with the content they find.

To better explain this, let's look at the four types of keywords.

a. Informational

The user is looking for information about a subject or an answer to a question. Their goal is to find a reputable source to educate them. Buying a product or service may be the furthest thing from their mind.

Examples of informational searches could be the following:

“Is beer bad for you?”

“Number of calories in bread”

b. Commercial

Commercial keywords express an interest in particular products or services, most frequently regarding specific brands. While they are not yet at the cusp of making a purchase, they've moved from general inquiries to performing targeted research.

Examples of commercial keyword searches might look like this:

“Netflix vs Amazon Prime”

“Netflix customer reviews”

c. Transactional

We are now at the bottom of the funnel and left with users that are ready to buy. Transactional keywords help users find the best product for their needs. They can then readily buy it at will from the provider.

They will often contain modifiers such as “best”, “cheapest”, or “affordable.” It might even be more direct and feature terms like “buy.”

Examples of transactional keywords are as follows:

“Buy Google Ads services”

“Best marketing company zipcode”

d. Navigational

Navigational keywords simply guide users directly to a brand. The user knows where they want to go and are looking for the shortest route.

In other words, a navigational keyword might look like this:

“DashClicks”

“Nike”

Keyword intention matters as it helps you choose the most effective keywords for your campaign objectives.

If your express goal is to sell a particular product that's on sale, you're going to opt for more transactional terms. This helps you discover leads with high purchase intent instead of wasting your budget on uninterested persons.

On the other hand, informational or commercial terms may help campaigns that are built for audience discovery and lead generation. You would then use the data from that campaign to build a more effective sales funnel down the line.

B. Spying on the Competitor

The final step in keyword planning is researching competitor activities.

Your direct competitors are brands that are actively bidding on similar keywords as yours for their Google Ads campaigns.

By using the Google Keyword Planner described above, you can readily spy on your competitor's historical keyword data. You can insightful metrics such as:

• The keywords they use
• The domains they are being used on
• The average monthly budget
• Coverage percentage

This means that not only can you track competition difficulty, but you can see exactly how competitors use these keywords in their ads. By observing their strategies, you can plan your campaigns to incorporate elements that work and modify those which you can do better.

It may also present new keyword opportunities that were overlooked in your initial planning. Likewise, be sure to avoid attractive terms that will end up costing you more than what you can afford.

2. Knowing Your Ad Options

Now that you have the correct keywords to guide your creatives, it's time to explore how you can present them.

Google provides several different ad campaign options to provide you with flexibility. However, each ad type has its positives and negatives that can hurt or harm depending on how effectively you utilize them.

Let's dive into what those types are and their ideal use cases.

A. SKAGs vs STAGs

When it comes to your campaign ad groups, there are two popular options:

SKAG - Single Keyword Ad Group

STAG - Single Theme Ad Group

SKAGs allows you to create an ad group that focuses entirely on one keyword. You can then create different ad groups for each keyword you want to target.

The major benefit of this is that a SKAG has a singular focus. This allows for precise targeting and easier measuring since you are only focusing on one keyword.

If you were to utilize Google's suggested keywords, you may end up with 5, 10, or even 20 related keywords. This can help with discovery, but it can often lead to lower-quality leads. However, this can be mitigated by proactively managing your negative keywords.

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The potential downside of using SKAGs lies in choosing the wrong keywords. Because you only have one avenue to target audiences, you rely entirely on that keyword. Additionally, limiting your targeting option to one can increase the length of your discovery period when your audience size is too small.

STAGs, meanwhile, focus on a target keyword and related terms to expand your reach. Google will intelligently select terms that fall within the theme of your ad group to reach different types of prospects.

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Both have their merits and you can find a plethora of resources arguing for one versus the other. The reality is that both are viable and can lead to amazing results when monitored effectively.

We would recommend beginning with SKAGs to simplify your efforts at the start. They will generally keep your costs low and keep the quality of those leads high. If you need to expand your reach and are willing to experiment, STAGs can create new avenues that lead to even more audience data for future campaigns.

B. Uploaded Image Ads

For the next two ad types, we are dealing with Google's Display Network.

Websites around the internet have the option of opting into the display network. When they do, Google is allowed to generate ads on the site based on visitor data. In exchange, the website owner generates ad revenue to fund the website.

Meanwhile, marketers can choose to opt-in to the Display Network to boost their campaign reach. You can then have your ads appear on websites and apps across any device. It still utilizes your optimized targeting data to maximize your returns.

One way to leverage the Display Network is to use uploaded image ads. This guarantees full creative control over which ads show up on the web. You choose the image, write the copy, and get the final say on the result.

The downside is that you will need to spend the overhead to publish these additional creatives. This leads us to your alternative option.

C. Responsive Display Ads

Responsive ads are becoming more prevalent than ever. However, results can still vary wildly depending on the client and the campaign goals.

Google allows you to upload your images, headlines, videos, or descriptions into your account. The AI assistant will then automatically generate new ads using those assets to display on websites, YouTube, and Gmail.

This allows you to present different types of ads within the same campaign without needing to create and upload them yourself. You can save time and potentially expand your reach as Google's AI learns and refines its ad generation.

Responsive ads can be an amazing tool for optimizing your Google Ads campaign when it works. However, be sure to consistently monitor performance and be ready to pivot if they aren't cutting it for your client.

D. Ad Extensions

Finally, Google provides ad extensions that can further boost campaign results depending on your objectives. There are a variety of extension types that can be installed manually or automatically.

Your Google Ads account should generate relevant extensions if the AI predicts that they can improve your performance. They can assist with the following types of objectives:

• Helping users find your physical location
• Encouraging users to call your business number or tracking number
• Getting users to click on specific domain pages
• Display predefined structured snippets
• Showcase products and pricing
• Getting users to download your app
• Getting users to fill out a form

Be sure to install any extensions that are relevant to your goals. They are free to use and you can find specific instructions for each here.

3. Testing & Observation

The next, and perhaps most critical, step in optimizing your Google Ads is through testing.

When we plan our keywords effectively, we enable our discovery stage to give us ideal results. With this newfound audience data, we can begin testing and exploring new creatives to engage with our most interested users.

From here on out, your Google Ads efforts for this brand will be a consistent pattern of testing and adjusting. The more audience data you accumulate over time, the more refined this process becomes.

Let's start with what may be the most important testing tool for your Google Ads optimization efforts.

A. A/B Testing for Google Ads

A/B testing is the process of creating two versions of the same creative which will display at random to your audience.

These two versions will focus on the same keywords and objectives, but feature key alterations in areas such as headlines, offer presentation, or some other page element.

By allowing Google to randomly select a version to display, we can generate a usable audience sample. This sample group then tells us which version of the creative is ideal for generating more conversions.

The benefits of A/B testing are compounding as they continuously guide you to smarter creative choices. As you allow users to tell you exactly what type of content they want to see, you can then use that data to effectively create the perfect ad for that audience.

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Furthermore, Google can automatically begin to redirect your target audience to the high-performing version once it completes the learning process. You can then eliminate the lower-performing creative from contention.

B. Demographics

Your ad testing will provide you with usable demographic data that reveals details about your average audience member.

To access this data, navigate to the Audiences tab within your Google Ads account. You can then view demographic data by level: Campaign, Ad Group, or Account.

You can then segment your audience by age, gender, income, and even parental status. When you select a certain demographic, you're able to track engagement and conversion rates for that group.

Essentially, you want to optimize your campaign efforts to focus on the highest-performing demographics. This involves going back to your ad creatives and developing new messaging that better speak to that group's needs and desires.

If you have multiple demographics worth pursuing, you can and should create unique ad groups for each. Your messaging to middle-class parents should be different than your sales pitch to a single adult or a teenager. Determining the best way to pitch your brand to the individual is the best way to maximize your conversions.

C. Geographics

Choosing who to advertise can help maximize your budget, but so can choosing where.

Similar to what you did with demographic segmentation, you can use your Google Ads menu to find Locations. Here, you can choose a range of geographic targeting options ranging from whole countries to specific cities.

For example, if you initially try to market to multiple southern states, but only gain traction in Florida and Georgia, you can restrict your targeting to those areas. This helps you to maximize your ROI in those areas while your team revisits how to market to underperforming ones.

D. Time of Day

The time in which you choose to display your ads can be another critical factor in amassing conversions.

If you find that your campaign is underperforming, it may not necessarily be that you're targeting the wrong audience. Rather, that audience may not be seeing your ads as they are displaying at inopportune times.

Your Google Ads account allows you to set up a custom ad schedule for this very reason. You can select specific days and times for your ads to run throughout the week.

If you find that an overwhelming percentage of your conversions happen on weekday evenings, consider scheduling your ads to fit those periods.

Another factor to consider is when your strong competitors run their advertisements. If you're confident that you can outpace a rival, you may choose to go head-to-head for the same display times to drown out their messaging while maximizing yours.

Conversely, if costs become unreasonable for certain periods, try to schedule your ads to avoid appearing during those days and times for a better ROI.

E. Negative Keywords

While primary keywords help you target the right customers, negative keywords help Google Ads understand what to avoid.

This is especially relevant when allowing your Google Ads account to dynamically utilize thematic keyword variants to reach new users. Some of these keywords may lead to low or unqualified users that are taking up unnecessary ad spending.

You can determine what terms you want to add to your negative keywords by keeping an eye on user behavior. Specifically, you can look at what keywords a user typed that led them to discover your ad. If you see a trend of unqualified impressions based on unrelated terms, you will then have a better idea of negative keywords to add.

As an example, let's say that a brand focuses on selling shirts. However, they do not carry t-shirts, specifically.

If a user looking for a t-shirt enters “shirt” into Google, there’s a good chance they will find that brand. This is because Google recognizes that t-shirt is a type of shirt and can often be used interchangeably.

For the brand, however, this leads to an unwanted click that burns ad spending. They want to avoid these types of broad associations so that they don't match up with users looking for something they do not sell.

You can use negative keywords to avoid these engagements. Specifically, you can use them to avoid broad category matches, related phrases, or exact matches.

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F. Lost Impressions

Finally, your Google Ads account allows you to review impression share data. This shows the percentage of time your ads appear in comparison to other ads vying for the same audience.

You can add impression share data to your campaign by going to Campaigns > Ad Groups > Keywords. Then, click on Modify Columns > Competitive Metrics > Impression Share.

You can then review the following lost impression data:

• Search Lost IS (budget) – when your ads do not show in search due to insufficient budget.
• Display Lost IS (budget) – when your ads do not show in the Display Network due to insufficient budget.
• Search Lost IS (rank) – when your ads do not show in search due to poor Ad rank.
• Display Lost IS (rank) – when your ads do not show in the Display Network due to poor Ad rank.

Lost impressions due to budget occur due to spending all of the budget before the scheduled ad period comes to an end. This is likely due to overspending on high-cost keywords, which results in losing out on potential ad time.

Lost impressions due to rank signify that your ad quality is lower than the average competitor. If you manage to improve your headlines, messaging, or other creative properties, you can salvage more impressions with the same daily budget.

Monitoring these metrics for Google ads campaign is important and your next actions depend entirely upon the campaign performance to date.

If the campaign is continuously netting you quality results, and you have an additional budget, consider raising the daily budget to capitalize on those lost impressions. On the flip side, an underperforming campaign may not be able to compete at the current cost. You’ll need to pivot your resources and direct your PPC efforts to other areas.

Lost impressions due to rank are unfortunate, but salvageable if you act quickly. As explained above, utilize testing methods to help improve overall ad quality. When your creatives are up to snuff, you’ll reclaim that valuable display time for your client.

4. Remarketing & Adjustments

Our final Google Ads optimization checklist tips focus on making the most out of your existing audiences.

While many of us still refer to the traditional sales funnel as a guidepost, the buyer’s journey is seldom so straightforward. Users that see or click on your ad are constantly bombarded with other information that can distract or redirect.

That doesn’t mean that the lead is uninterested or unwilling to sign up for your offer. Some highly-qualified users require that extra push.

A. RLSAs

RLSA stands for Remarketing Lists for Search Ads.

Remarketing refers to serving ads or other marketing material to users with previous behaviors that expressed interest in your brand.

Creating a sizeable remarketing list gives you a large enough audience segment worthy of creating unique ads and landing pages. Just as you would with demographic segmentation, remarketing to existing customers should feature a unique approach that acknowledges their previous engagement.

Furthermore, users on your remarketing list are already qualified versus the unknowns you’re aiming to attract at the onset. You’ve essentially hit the target, and now it’s a matter of putting together the right sales pitch to get the conversion.

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You can automatically create an RLSA by adding a remarketing tag to your landing page. This way, every user that clicks on your ad will automatically be added to the list. Be aware that Google requires you to have at least 1,000 unique users on the list before you can utilize it in ad creation.

B. Adjusting Keywords

When nothing in your Google Ads campaign seems to be getting results, it might be time to get back to basics.

No matter how well you plan out your keywords and offer, your potential audience will always have the final sale. That’s why it’s vital to never get too personally attached to your creatives as your PPC journey is one of constant adjustment.

The difference is that you now have a wealth of audience metrics available in your Google Ads account to work with. Use your audience data when researching alternative keyword options to see which best describes your average user’s needs and problems.

Also, be sure to revisit how competitors have changed their keyword selection and campaigns over time.

When all else fails, fall back to the rules described at the very beginning of this checklist. Use a keyword planner to research the most cost-effective keywords, be sure to match your offer to search intent, and find weak points in your competitor’s strategy to capitalize on.

C. Manual Bid Adjustments

Finally, bid adjustments allow you to explore the grey areas as opposed to ruling out segments as a win or loss.

At any point, you can manually override your Google Ads bidding based on keywords, demographics, display times, geographic region, and more. Just be wary of where you place these adjustments as even a few small overlapping changes can result in unwanted expenses that eat away at your budget.

When used effectively, manual bid adjustments can help you with your unique goals. You can direct traffic to specific devices or specific demographics for maximum results.

Keep This Google Ads Optimization Checklist Handy

Google Ads is one of the most powerful tools available whether you rely on search or the Display Network.

However, it can simultaneously eat away at your advertising budget in no time if you mistarget or misspend your funds.

Give yourself a foundation for success by taking advantage of the countless tools available for free within your Google Ads account. Take all the time that is necessary to research keywords, learn from your competitor’s best strategies, and craft the perfect offer.

Then, experiment with the different ad options that are natively available. Make sure to take advantage of any recommended extensions to help you with your ad campaign’s specific conversion goals. You can stack as many of these as necessary for optimal results.

Then, it’s time to test, test, test. A marketer’s work is never done, and consistently getting the best results requires monitoring and optimization. Rule nothing out and always be willing to change copy, headlines, images, or targeting parameters. You can utilize the audience data gathered by Google’s AI for better content creation.

Finally, never forget to take advantage of your existing audience. Getting to know a previous visitor and curating a landing page that speaks to their pain points can be the tipping point for many consumers. Once you convert a customer, it’s exponentially more cost-effective to resell to them than to acquire a new one.

If you’re looking to consolidate all of your agency analytics into one convenient place, consider trying the DashClicks 2.0 platform. Our marketing analytics software allows for seamless third-party integration and 24/7 performance tracking for both you and your clients.

Measuring lead quality is a major challenge for many agency owners. Most salespeople waste a lot of time on weak leads. If your conversion rate is low, it reflects that you are not effectively converting leads into paying customers. Maybe they are still not ready to purchase from you or are low-quality leads.

Weak leads will not help you achieve your business objectives. The advantage of high-quality leads is that they close faster and have a larger average deal size compared to poor-quality leads.

It might frustrate salespeople. Without a lead qualification plan, you will probably lose a lot of sales.

Impact of Qualified Leads on Sales

According to a Somametrics study, qualified leads substantially impacted sales.

A mere 10% improvement in lead quality led to a 33% growth in sales and a 5% increase in net profits. It also led to an 1839% ROI on marketing spend. When the lead quality was further improved by 20%, the increase in ROI on marketing spend and growth in sales saw an increase of 4,044% and 73%, respectively.

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The data speaks for itself! The quality of leads is crucial to your overall success in a business venture.

A drop in lead quality may lead to a sharp decline in sales and net profits.

What's Lead Qualification?

Qualified leads indicate the readiness of a person to buy your product.

The sales-readiness of a customer decides what strategy salespeople should use to convert the prospect into a paying customer.

Likelihood of Conversion

Your sales team's further activities and strategy depend on the results of this process.

They can further categorize these leads into hot, warm, and cold (low-quality ones).

The Benefits of Lead Qualification

The prime benefit of the lead qualification process is to build more effective communication with the prospects. This communication can take place through different channels, such as telephone, email, blog, or social media. The process tremendously contributes to the sales cycle.

It leads to better personalization, which results in a greater likelihood of conversion. It is also helpful in building relationships. Through lead qualification, sales reps can differentiate between hot, warm, and cold leads and prioritize them in their pipeline to build relationships.

To increase the conversion rate, you must clearly understand leads, including their priorities and concerns. Once you develop such an understanding, you may craft messages that appeal to them. It will help you close deals faster, saving you a lot of time, money, and hassle.

According to a study, 50% of prospects will never be qualified to buy your products or services, so wasting your time on them is useless. Instead, you can spend this time on the warm and hot leads who will convert in a fraction of the effort.

Lead Qualification vs. Lead Scoring

Marketers developed Lead Scoring as a process of lead qualification. You can measure and rank a lead's interest level and sales readiness through Lead Scoring. It's usually based on a documented and agreed-upon methodology by marketing and sales teams.

Lead scoring can be done in many ways. You can either assign points or rank them as A, B, C, or D. You can also group them as "hot," "warm," or "cold."

Lead scoring will decide whether a lead should be added to your sales funnel or not. It helps remove the ones with very little likelihood of buying from you. You can prioritize hot leads based on their value to your company. Warm leads need a bit more nurturing, so you can make a strategy to craft messages to increase their interest level and convince them.

Besides that, lead scoring can also be based on many other attributes, such as demographics, psychographics, work information, and their role in decision-making.

These are the vital inputs you need to prioritize your leads.

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3 Ways to Improve the Quality of Your Sales Leads

Here are the three ways to improve your lead quality and overall sales process.

1. Refine Your Lead Scoring System

It would help if you practiced dynamic instead of static scoring to prioritize your leads. The reason behind it is that factors like demographics and psychographics of your prospects keep changing, and for accurate lead scoring, it's crucial to adapt to the changing environment.

2. Commit to Lead Nurturing

According to a 2010 Forrester Research study, companies that performed better at lead nurturing could generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost per lead than other companies.

However, less than 50% of leads are actually qualified in the B2B business environment, and you shouldn't waste your time on sales calls to the rest of them.

Marketers think everyone who has attended a webinar or downloaded a whitepaper is a prospect and should be handed over to the salespeople. You need more information about your prospects before declaring them qualified leads.

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3. Practice Consistent Lead Measurement

According to a HubSpot survey, 56% of B2B companies don't measure lead generation's contribution to revenue. However, it's interesting to know that you can get great insights into the intent of your online leads, thanks to the various measurable elements.

You can use DashCicks' automated sales CRM software to get an overview of your prospects' online behavior in the sales funnel. Consistent lead measurement will accelerate lead generation.

How to Make Sure That a Lead Is Qualified?

There is no way you can judge whether a lead is qualified or not at first glance. For that, you need to get some information about the prospect. Usually, salespeople can directly ask a few questions to the prospect to assess whether it's a qualified lead or not.

How to Get Qualified Leads?

You need qualified leads to boost sales. To prevent your time from being wasted on low-priority jobs, assess your leads at the organization, opportunity, and stakeholder level by asking relevant questions.

Here is a list of 21 questions you can ask to differentiate between qualified and weak leads.

1. How long have they been operating?
2. What is their employee count and turnover?
3. What industry are they in?
4. What’s their location?
5. What customer pain points do you want to address?
6. Have you availed of similar solutions previously?
7. How are you dealing with your existing issues?
8. Is there anything that doesn’t allow you to resolve your issue till now?
9. Are you considering any other solutions to resolve your issue?
10. What are your chief concerns?
11. Do you have any timeframe in mind to implement the solution?
12. When should I get back to you next time?
13. Are you involved in the decision-making process?
14. Is there anyone else who makes such decisions to avail such solutions?
15. Do you keep other stakeholders in the loop?
16. Would they like and approve the purchase?
17.  What is the standard approval process in your organization?
18.  What is the next step once a decision-maker approves a product for purchase?
19.  Would you like to know more about our product? Can we give a demo to show you how our product can help you?
20.  What are your priorities?
21.  Can you update me on your purchase process timeline?

Pro Tip: To ensure you're sending a qualified lead to your sales team, ask as many questions as possible.

A lead can be disqualified for numerous reasons, including if someone is not a part of the decision-making process. However, you can ask other questions and ensure that the organization you're targeting needs your solution and can afford it. If you find an opportunity to sell, you can approach the decision-maker.

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Final Words

Lead qualification is an essential step, and you shouldn't skip it at any cost. It saves time and helps you improve lead quality and the sales process. You should avoid the practice of transferring weak leads even if the sales team is clamoring for it.

Try to gather reliable information on sales opportunities. Talk to your leads and ask probing questions. Documenting the entire process will immensely help you in lead qualification and making it effective.

Nurture the weak leads. Talk to the people who are not yet mentally ready to make a purchase, even though they need your solution and can afford it. Use CRM data excessively to know how to nurture the leads through the right messaging.

Many businesses fail because they have no idea about their overall health, strategic direction, or the ability to achieve their goals. Your success lies in your ability to measure your performance in different areas of your business.

KPI (key performance indicator) is a measurable expression companies use to achieve the desired results in different areas relevant to their daily business activities.

With the help of the correct KPIs, you can solidify your strategic plan and know exactly where to focus. Monitoring KPIs is akin to an annual full-body health checkup of your organization. It helps you identify the loopholes and plug them in.

Cost per acquisition, customer lifetime value, traffic, page likes, followers, bounce rate, search engine rankings, and profit margin are some KPIs businesses use to evaluate their performance in different areas.

Value Added by KPIs

KPIs deliver value by helping you achieve the following things:

• Clarity: It helps you paint a clear picture of your strategy. KPIs provide you with the stats in an easy-to-understand manner.
• Focus: They allow you to focus on essential areas that require immediate attention.
• Improvement: It helps to monitor your progress towards your coveted goals.

The insights you get through KPIs also help you tweak budgets, manage teams, and create new products.

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What Is KPI Monitoring?

To ensure your agency’s growth and success, you need to track your most crucial metrics by KPI monitoring. It tells you where you stand and what you should do to achieve your goals.

It helps you:

• Identify your realistic business goals and achieve them, whether it’s selling products, improving processes, or boosting monthly subscriptions.
• Identify the most feasible options and best practices for your business, such as the best marketing and social channels.
• Optimize the processes and maximize your marketing ROI to improve future campaigns and replicate the success of the most profitable campaigns.

The KPIs You Should Monitor

DashClicks’ dashboard displays almost everything you may need to measure your business’ performance using the most crucial data points. Use your discretion to choose the most suitable KPIs for your business.

Make a judgment call to see which KPI examples apply to your business and track them accordingly.

A. SEO KPIs

SEO is a skill to master, and it needs to be appropriately done over a few months consistently. Otherwise, it won’t yield any results.

It will help if you put in a lot of effort to attract quality leads through SEO. Create quality content that is unique and engaging to win over your competition.

Use DashClicks’ Analytics tool along with Google Analytics to achieve the best results for your SEO campaigns. Here are some of the SEO KPIs you can track:

• Organic traffic
• Time on page
• Landing page visits
• Number of quality backlinks
• Search engine rankings

Monitoring SEO Campaigns

This screenshot explains how you can track your SEO campaign in the DashClicks dashboard. All you need to do is click on the SEO tab from the Analytics app, which you can fetch from the app drawer.

It displays all the campaign data with prominent SEO metrics.

B. Sales KPIs

Low-quality leads are a familiar problem marketers face. You need to align your marketing and sales teams to achieve high-quality leads. It will work wonders if you can also align customer support and the product development teams.

Here are some sales and revenue-related KPIs you should monitor:

• Customer lifetime value (CLV)
• Sales revenue
• Profit margin
• Cost-per-transaction (The average cost of a single transaction)
• Cart abandonment rate (specifically for eCommerce websites)

C. Social Media KPIs

Social media KPIs are crucial for those brands that attract a sizeable clientele from social media. They also have lots of dedicated followers on social media. It’s assumed that social media has a minimal direct impact on sales, as it’s primarily meant for marketing. Google recognizes social media as a significant ranking factor, so along with SEO, it can do magic for your sales.

To achieve these, you need a better performance in social media metrics such as lots of impressions, likes, and comments. It would help if you also had numerous followers and a highly engaged audience. It increases your brand’s exposure and helps more people know about it.

You can pay attention to the following metrics:

• Followers and Page likes
• Engagement rate
• Reach and impressions

How to Monitor KPIs?

Consolidating data from different channels is tedious, but KPI monitoring tools help you do it faster.

Using the DashClicks platform with a single dashboard, you can quickly view all of your campaign data in one place here.

First, go to the DashClicks Dashboard and:

App Drawer in the DashClicks Dashboard

• Integrate with your chosen data sources
• Open the relevant app from the app drawer
• Select the most crucial metrics
• Drag and drop as you wish

Steps to Monitor KPIs for Your Agency

Here is a three-step procedure to use your chosen KPIs to achieve your business goals.

Step 1: Identify the Most Relevant KPIs

Requirements vary from business to business; hence, identifying the most crucial metrics becomes essential to measure your success. For different companies, there can be different relevant metrics such as traffic, cost per acquisition, outbound sales, and leads, etc.

However, CPC, ROI, and campaign performance are the three most relevant metrics for marketers.

The next step is to know just how well you should perform for each metric to meet your business goals. For example, you might need 40 new customers for your premium subscription plan to break even. It entirely depends on your business type and current situation.

Step 2: Identify the Best Marketing Tools

Thanks to white-label platforms like DashClicks, you can easily plug in KPIs and track them via dashboards. For example, with DashClicks' central dashboard, you can access many apps such as Deals, Analytics, Inbound, and Contacts to manage your sales pipeline.

You should consider the following factors before you choose a marketing tool:

1. Pricing: Buying numerous expensive marketing software can be disastrous for your marketing budget. If you sign up for the DashClicks platform, you can get all the necessary tools for a reasonable and affordable monthly subscription fee.
2. Features: Before buying a marketing tool, make sure it’s feature-rich and has the monitoring features you are looking for, such as a central dashboard and split testing, etc.
3. Integrations: Third-party integrations become crucial in certain situations. Also, ensure that the software you’re buying integrates with your existing tools.
4. Users: Check the number of users it allows and if you need to pay a monthly fee for extra users.

Use the trial period to see if the tool works fine for you, including the integrations and user additions.

Step 3: Optimize With Your Findings

Once you’ve set the KPIs, defined your goals, and bought a new tool, it’s time to see whether you can track your performance with the data provided by your software.

Again, there are two scenarios – underperformance and high performance.

1. Underperformance – If you fall behind your KPIs, you need to check what’s causing this to happen. Can an automation drive or additional sales training solve the problem? Or do you need to rework your sales and marketing strategy altogether?
2. High Performance – If you are performing fine, it isn’t the time for being complacent but to get to work! Determine the factors leading to your performance and optimize them to strive for even better performance.

Final Words

Identifying and tracking your most relevant KPIs gives you Nirvana if you want to ensure that your agency is on the growth path. Many businesses fail because they are unable to track whether or not they are on the right path.

Figure out what metrics are game-changers for your business. Is it CPC, ROI, search engine rankings, traffic, or campaign performance?

Then, search for the best tools and platforms online. If you run an agency, a white label platform that offers analytics, sales pipeline management, lead management, CRM, project management, and a single dashboard can be the best option for you.

Avail free trials to shortlist the best platform for your needs and get your team onboarded. Later on, you can also integrate other tools you use.

You can try DashClicks for free. It's specially designed for digital marketing agencies to scale faster and better.

In today's data-driven business environment, data is the new "oil," according to Clive Humby, a British mathematician and entrepreneur. Raw data is useless, so marketers need specific metrics to analyze their businesses and use them to enhance their processes. CRM analytics provides crucial insights directly into multiple areas linked to your business's survival and growth.

Importance of CRM Analytics

Using key CRM metrics, you can manage many areas of your business such as internal workflows, customer experience, ongoing sales, and customer acquisition. Measuring these metrics at the surface level will not yield any results, so you need to dive deep into the CRM data to find ways to boost your revenue.

CRM Analytics You Should Track

Here are 13 key CRM metrics to help you build successful customer relationships and confidently scale your business.

1. Sales Activity Reports

You should track sales activity reports to track whether the MQLs (marketing-qualified leads) shared by the marketing team are converting into sales or not. It will also assess the prospecting tactics used by your sales teams and their effectiveness.

For that, you should track the performance of your emails, etc., using vital email marketing metrics such as open rate and reply rate. If these metrics indicate a dismal performance, you should tweak your email copy.

You can also measure the call to appointments ratio to determine your outbound calls' effectiveness. How many calls turn into meetings indicates your fronters' performance. At the same time, it also tells you the capability of your sales team to convert those sales calls.

Consider implementing an auto attendant to efficiently route inbound calls, helping your sales team connect with the right prospects and improve call-to-appointment ratios.

Pro Tip: AI-powered CRM tools are extremely useful in measuring such KPIs as they help you analyze your prospects' engagement with your brand. They will also suggest what should be your next move.

Pro Tip: You can also use DashClick's Sales CRM software to shorten your sales cycle, automate tasks, and close deals faster with actionable insights.

2. Sales Cycle Duration

A sales cycle indicates the time taken to close one deal. So, it's a rough estimate of the number of days a sales team takes to convert a prospect into a paying customer. The sales cycle largely depends on the industry and product type. Other factors influencing it are product or service cost and stakeholders involved.

Again, identifying the right decision-makers and persistent follow-ups may help shorten your sales cycle. Similarly, contextual engagement and relationship building can also help you in a significant way.

Pro Tip: You can fix many issues related to Sales Cycle Duration using DashClicks CRM. The deals app on our platform will give you comprehensive information about your deals pipeline.

3. Close Rate or Sales Closing Ratio

You can get many sales opportunities through different tactics such as social media advertising, Google Ads, and even organic traffic, but what matters the most is the deals successfully closed by your sales team.

Close rate is a metric that helps you track your sales team's actual performance and the factors responsible for it to take corrective measures. So, this CRM metric is needed to evaluate your sales strategy and identify the factors that lead to lost opportunities.

4. Net New Revenue

Money comes first in a business. If there is no revenue, you can't do business. Net New Revenue is a metric that informs you how much revenue your startup earns. You can periodically track it to check your business's health and your sales team's performance. You can track it every month, once in a quarter, or once a year.

5. Marketing ROI

Marketing may attract an unlimited budget, yet you can be unsure of its impact on your overall sales and profits. Marketing ROI lets you track how your marketing expense contributes to revenue growth. You can easily track it by the number of leads generated against the number of conversions. It helps you decide your marketing spend for future campaigns.

Pro Tip: DashClicks' CRM software and apps will provide insights into your customer behavior. It will also help you refine your target audiences and messaging.

6. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a crucial metric that helps you project the average revenue you'll earn from a single customer when they stay with you.

You can use the 80:20 rule to target high customer lifetime value. To improve your CLV, you should also pay attention to the customer support and customer experience (CX) you offer. Without that, you will only increase your churn and the number of unhappy customers. It's also directly linked with your branding. If you have a higher CLV, your brand will grow and vice versa. You can increase it by boosting your cross and up-sell and regular subscriptions. If you offer value, your customer would love to buy from you.

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7. Outreach Activity

It's an important metric that helps you track every point of contact your salespeople have with prospective customers. It enables you to measure the effectiveness of your prospecting strategy and provides crucial information about the average sales cycle and average follow-ups required to close the sale.

You should pay more attention to quality here than quantity. So, making 15 well-researched and quality daily calls on your refined list is always better than making 40 random cold calls.

8. Leads by Source

This is the Internet age, and your best leads may not come from your sales department. Brands use multiple online channels and consistently receive genuine inquiries and leads. Tracking those sources will give you a good picture of how marketing channels are helping you in lead generation.

Some might be your website visitors, while others may come from social media and other marketing channels. Identifying the channels offering you the best return on your investment might be crucial to your success. Investment of time and effort also pays you back, just like monetary investments.

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9. Customer Retention Rate

According to a study, acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer. According to another analysis by Small Biz Trends, increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits from 25-to 95%.

The above stats prove that gaining a new customer is much more expensive than retaining your existing customer. That is the reason brands should focus on retention as much as possible. You should maintain excellent relationships, provide top-notch customer support, and offer an outstanding experience. It will always pay you back many times over.

The formula to calculate the custom retention rate is as follows:

Once you start tracking it, you can further improve it.

10. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The metric is used to measure customer satisfaction. Customers are asked to share their experiences and feelings about your brand on a scale from one to 10. The lowest score is 0-6, whereas 7-8 is considered good. The latter score suggests that the customers passively enjoy your products and services. But a 9-10 speaks volumes about your business and indicates that they can recommend your product to others. With that score, your customers become your brand ambassadors.

11. Rate of Renewal

This metric is highly beneficial for you if you have a subscription-based business model. It represents the number of customers renewing their subscriptions after their expiration date. It also indicates the value you offer your customers and how fast your business grows.

12. Customer Churn

Customer Churn is also a critical metric because it tells you why customers are leaving your brand. Customer churn or attrition represents why customers are unhappy with your products or services and what you can do to plug in these major loopholes. It is as important as new customer acquisition because if you do not arrest customer churn, it will backfire on you.

13. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

It is an important metric that tells you about the feasibility of your business model and whether your business is sustainable in the long run or not. It also tells you which processes you can automate and how to reduce costs in order to decrease the customer acquisition cost.

A high customer acquisition cost can be disastrous for your business. It would help if you revamped your strategy in that case. It also enables you to identify the red flags in your overall strategy to reconsider your costs and pricing, etc. Your expense may include staffing, marketing, software and tools, taxes, third-party partnerships, training, etc.

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Final Words

It would help if you started tracking these crucial CRM metrics to improve your business performance. According to a CRM tool survey, 70% of the businesses saw a noticeable improvement in customer satisfaction.

You can use CRM tools like DashClicks, to improve your company's performance and customer satisfaction. It is equipped with apps such as Deals, Analytics, and Inbound, which bring valuable insights into your business processes. You can access them through a single dashboard.

Sign up for the DashClicks white-label platform for free and improve your business performance.