When you’ve worked in paid search for as long as I have, you’ve undoubtedly received emails from your clients that all go a little something like the one given below.
Hi [insert your name here],
Revenue is looking a little lighter than usual this month versus last year. What can we do to close the gap? Please let me know by EOD today.
Thanks,
[insert client name here]
Short, sweet, and oh-so-stressful, or at least it used to be. But now? Well, this isn’t your first rodeo, my fellow PPC[1] partner, you’re prepared. Placed firmly in your holster is a solution that’s fully loaded. Ok, enough with the quick draw metaphors, let’s dig into how to respond, assuming the following criteria are being met:
- You can confirm the trends your client is seeing.
- Brand checks out (since it accounts for the majority of your revenue at any given moment):
- The right ads are active and all available real estate is being utilized.
Find yourself checking all the boxes? This is usually indicative of brand demand decline, a trend that is all too common among online retailers due primarily to the rise of Amazon. Yo, Bezos! What gives? As a secondary check, we use Google Trends to confirm brand demand decline. But if all the boxes above are