l’s guide to PPC budget management

Nearly all of the 2023 industry outlook articles that I have read (as well my own), shared a common theme over the past month.

Digital marketers will be under pressure to demonstrate the effects of their investments due to recessionary trends in the macroeconomy.

One of my core beliefs (and my fiancee will probably laugh at this), is “Focus On What You Can Control.” This concept applies to PPC marketing. It is more important than ever that you have the tools and processes in place to ensure budget control.

We can control how much money is allocated to each channel, even though business objectives could change.

In a earlier article I discussed PPC account structure strategies you should consider when trying to increase your cost-effectiveness. Today I will be focusing on budget management.

Let me start by sharing my thoughts about budget management and then move on to the tactical tips that will help you increase your understanding of spend pacing.

Here’s a 4-point guide to managing your PPC budget

These four core principles of budget management have been a great help throughout my career. There are exceptions to the rule, but these principles generally apply.

PPC campaigns can only be viewed for a limited number of impressions

All PPC channels require budget management to be successful. It is more important in search campaigns because we don’t have frequency settings.

PPC campaigns can only deliver a limited number of impressions based on keywords and targeting settings.

Spending over a longer period of time will yield better cost efficiency than spending in a concentrated area.

You probably know what I mean if you have ever received an incremental lump sum at the end a reporting period.

If budgets are not severely restricted, which means that there is a lot of opportunity for your campaigns, you will likely need to allow less effective tactics. This will reduce your overall performance.

Also, consider how automation features that are conversion-focused work.

They will try to prioritise your ads towards users most likely convert while also hitting your spend targets.

Spreading spend over a longer time period allows the algorithms to be “pickier” about when ads should be shown, increasing efficiency.

Before you launch the campaigns, plan your investment strategy

Although it might seem obvious, this is a crucial step that is often overlooked.

Straight-line budgeting is the simplest, but it is often not the best. Your leaders should work together to align your spending habits with the larger business.

You might want to increase your spending levels if you have a promotion during the flight.

Plan ahead to determine how much you should spend in the beginning of the campaign. This will also ensure that you don’t run short of funds at the end of the campaign.

Even if you only have a minute, check your pacing tracker every day.

Pam Beasley said it best: “Pobody’s stupid.” Search accounts can be a mess.

The easiest way to spot those errors is with your pacing document. Your pacing guide is one of the easiest ways to catch those mistakes.

Spend fluctuations that are not in line with expectations can indicate that there has been an unexpected change and have a significant impact on performance. You can take control of them immediately by reviewing your daily pace.

If you are unsure if the time spent updating a pace document each day could be better spent elsewhere, I encourage to continue reading.

You can easily create a tracker in seconds using the tips and tricks below.

Excel tips and tricks to help you keep track of your PPC pacing

Search marketing is a wonderful field because there is never a single solution that fits all.

Like PPC account structures and PPC accounts, your spend tracker design should be customized to your business. These ideas are your starting point. Take the best ones and run with them.

Each PPC budget tracking tracker I create in Excel has four components. Each of these can be thought of as separate tabs within the workbook. These are:

Each tab has a different intended audience. We’ll start with most detailed views and move up to more high-level views.

I would recommend that you only tackle one step at the time. Based on your Excel experience, I will provide an estimate of the time each step might take.

Part 1: Raw platform data (30-60 minutes)

The spend data that you import from the platform is a key component of any pacing documents. For data imports, I recommend keeping it simple but granular.

I usually design a simple data set with three columns: date, campaign, spend.

Labels are also a powerful tool to associate campaigns with budgets depending on your account’s complexity.

However, it isn’t about what you are importing but how your data is getting there.

There are many ways to approach data imports. Here are some examples of how to approach data imports. I encourage you to contact your analytics team if you have any questions.

It doesn’t matter how you get your data to the pacing documents, as long as it is complete and accurate.

It is very easy to save time by using the automated data connections mentioned above, instead of copying/pasting report text. The most important difference is that there is no chance of human error.

Once the data is in the workbook, you can manipulate it by creating the join. This is simply the unique identifier that you will use to VLOOKUP data into the detailed tracker. (more in next section).

There are some basic considerations that you should keep in mind when creating a join.

Here is an example of how this concatenate might look.

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Terms.

Part 2: The detailed budget tracker (1-2hrs)

These tabs form the heart of the pacing documents, because they link your spending performance with the spending plan. Each budget should have a separate budget tracker.

This may sound redundant but it’s not! If you create the first one using formulas, references, it can be quickly duplicated for other line items.

Let me start by showing you a quick snapshot of the budget tracker. Then I will show you how to automate each component so it can be replicated easily.


1. Table summarising

This simple overview will show you how much we have spent so far and what our total budget is. Only one cell should be used for each budget.

Although I prefer to code the “Executive Summary” section (the last section in this article), you can also do it here. You should set up your budget spent and remaining budget as calculations to ensure that they are dynamically updated.


2. Spend plan details

This is a critical element that must be tailored based on your understanding of consumer behavior and the budget duration. As much as possible, I recommend that you use historical data.

One tip: Do you see the list of numbers next to the Day of Week Column? This is the VLOOKUP that we are about to create. This allows you to automate your VLOOKUP reference by using the WEEKDAY function.


3. Daily spending plan

Mapping out target daily spends sounds daunting, right?

This is great news! Good news!

It would be an equation if I wrote it.

Daily Spend = [Target Week Spend] * [Target Day %Spent by Week]

In Excel, I create a VLOOKUP of each component of the equation using the details from the spend plan.

(If you need a reminder about VLOOKUP best practice, please see my previous article How to improve your analytical skills using Excel.

The Total Target Spend column simply adds up the total target spends for a given time. This is done by adding [Today’s Target Spend] +[Yesterday’s Total Target Spend]. This column adds up at $10,000. It aligns with our summary table.


4. Actual spending

Is that the column to your left? That’s because it’s the join tab from “Raw data”.

Concatenating the Title row with the date is the trick I use. To duplicate the tab or create a budget tracker, you only need to change the table’s title.

This is the same as the previous step. It’s a VLOOKUP, pulling in the spend form our “Raw data”. The Total Actual Spend is then calculated using the exact same approach as in the previous step.


5. Calculations

These calculations are based on the Target Spends and Actual Spends that I calculated in the first two steps.

Make sure to use the Total columns when calculating the delta instead of the Daily Target/Actual spends.

Note that We are not using formulas in any of the steps above. This is why your budget tracker can be used for future budgets.

Although you may struggle with the formulas initially, once you have a solid template, budget management will be easier. The only details that you will need to update are your Budget Name and Budget Amount.

Part 3: The Delta graph (15-60 minutes).

This feature allows you to see how campaigns are progressing relative to the predetermined plan. The ideal scenario would be that all budgets could have a deviation of 0% from the plan. But this is not often the case in reality.

This is the most straightforward part of setting up because you have already done all the heavy lifting.

This is a reference to the “Detailed Budget Tracker” tab that you have already created, as you can see from the below visual. For each detail budget tracker that you have created in the previous step, create one column.

Here are a few tips to help you get started with this part of the pacing tracker.

Part 4: Executive/summary view (30 to 90 minutes)

This one is our last because it’s largely built on the work that you have already done.

This view serves to supplement the delta graph by providing context. Leaders will be interested in some basic data points.

Here are some thoughts on the executive summary.

Excel can help you improve your PPC budgeting performance while reducing the effort

It is worth investing time in improving your pacing tools and processes at the start of 2023.

It is crucial to maximize available budgets during turbulent times. This starts with creating a spending strategy and sticking to it.

The techniques in this article can be used to reduce time spent on pacing updates. They also provide views that allow for quick responses when things go wrong.

A template can also be automated and easily replicated. Only a few cell changes are required to update the month or quarter.

Search Engine Land first published the post A guide to managing your PPC budget in Excel.

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