Forecasting PPC campaign performance has become a cornerstone in an increasingly volatile digital marketing landscape. This activity admittedly presents challenges, especially when you consider the dynamic and competitive nature of online marketing platforms. The good news is, though, that tools in accessible platforms like Google Sheets, combined with more advanced solutions like Vertex AI, make these tasks less daunting.
To better understand this, let’s delve into the world of Google Sheets and how we can use its FORECAST function as an advantageous tool for our PPC campaign.
Google Sheets FORECAST function employs linear regression to predict unknown values by leveraging known data points. It streamlines the process of predicting future campaign performance, allowing marketers to anticipate trends and align their strategies accordingly.
For example, assume we have a set of data points from past PPC campaigns that report monthly impressions and conversion figures. Using provided campaign costs, the FORECAST function can project future costs based on the relationships exhibited by the known data.
However, this approach isn’t without limitations. The predictability of linear regression highly depends on the reliability of the known data. In many instances, this data fails to account for external factors such as shifting consumer behavior or variations in advertising competition, which could significantly affect PPC campaign performance.
In our example, let’s take a series of 12 months worth of impressions, conversion figures, and PPC campaign costs data. After employing the FORECAST function, the results anticipate a rise in costs coinciding with an increasing impression, and conversion rate.
However, on comparing these projections to actual results, we find minor variances. While the projections made aren’t wildly off the mark and give a general sense of trajectory, the specifics can certainly fall short.
With limitations in mind, the data that feeds into our predictions can be enhanced to improve outcomes. We can incorporate trend data or other market predictions alongside the FORECAST function for a more precise analysis.
Trend data could be drawn from sources like Google Trends or Google Keyword Planner, and Google’s Dataset Search engine. However, it’s critical to ensure that this data is clean and appropriately structured to match the original sheet for consistency.
Having cleaned and incorporated supplementary trend data into our original data set, we can apply the ‘supercharged’ FORECAST function. This more holistic method paints a more comprehensive and precise prediction of future performance trends.
Upon comparing the data forecasted outputs to the actuals, we notice a much closer alignment between these two sets of figures. This considerable improvement in forecasting accuracy underscores the utility of blending simple and advanced forecasting techniques.
While doing away with all unpredictability may remain elusive, employing sophisticated tools like Google Sheets augmented by trend data brings us impressively close. The benefits offer businesses an edge in planning and strategizing for their future PPC campaigns. It shades light on valuable foresight, empowering brands to adhere to strategies confidently and reach their target audiences more effectively.
As a marketer, securing productive insights through these methods might be well worth your investment of time. So, why not empower your next PPC campaign with these enlightened prediction techniques? And remember, always think beyond past data when you predict.
So go ahead, get your hands on this exciting marriage of robust data and savvy prediction skills to steer your PPC campaign towards success. Surprise yourself with the potency of informed prediction in your marketing arsenal.
Up until working with Casey, we had only had poor to mediocre experiences outsourcing work to agencies. Casey & the team at CJ&CO are the exception to the rule.
Communication was beyond great, his understanding of our vision was phenomenal, and instead of needing babysitting like the other agencies we worked with, he was not only completely dependable but also gave us sound suggestions on how to get better results, at the risk of us not needing him for the initial job we requested (absolute gem).
This has truly been the first time we worked with someone outside of our business that quickly grasped our vision, and that I could completely forget about and would still deliver above expectations.
I honestly can’t wait to work in many more projects together!
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