Common paid ads FAQs answered by experts

What should you test first in a PPC campaign?

In a PPC campaign, test your conversion tracking and lead-quality definition first, because every other change is guesswork if the data is wrong.

Start by deciding what a “good lead” really means for your business, then set that up as your primary conversion. For local Orlando businesses, that usually means phone calls, form submissions, online bookings, or “request quote” actions. If calls matter, track calls from ads and from your website, and route them to a number you control so you can listen for lead quality and spot spam. If you sell high-ticket services like dental, legal, HVAC, or pest control, add a simple way to mark leads as qualified inside your CRM and feed that back into Google Ads later so you’re not optimizing for junk.

Once tracking is solid, the next thing to test is the landing page and offer. PPC traffic is expensive in competitive Central Florida categories, so a weak page burns budget fast. Match the page to the searcher’s intent, keep one clear action (call, book, or form), and put trust items above the fold (reviews, credentials, service area, and what happens next). If you want help building pages that convert clicks into calls, our web design service focuses on clean layouts and conversion flow, not just looks.

Test orderWhat you changeWhy this comes firstWhat “better” looks like
1Conversion tracking and lead qualityFixes reporting and bidding decisionsFewer “mystery” leads, clean conversion counts, call recordings match intent
2Landing page message and offerBiggest impact on cost per leadHigher conversion rate, fewer bounces, more booked calls
3Keywords and match types plus negativesControls relevance and wasted spendSearch terms look like real buyers, fewer irrelevant clicks
4Ad copy (headlines, descriptions, CTA)Improves click quality and intentCTR rises while lead quality stays strong
5Location and schedule settingsLocal businesses win by tight targetingMore leads inside your service area and during answerable hours

After those basics, test campaign structure (separate “emergency” vs “routine” services), bidding approach, and audiences like remarketing. Keep your tests clean: change one thing at a time, let it run long enough to collect meaningful conversions, and keep a simple change log so you know what actually moved results. If you’re not sure what to measure, our FAQ on PPC KPIs to track lays out the numbers that matter for lead-gen businesses.

If you want us to sanity-check your first test plan, our PPC service typically starts by auditing tracking, search terms, and landing page fit so the early tests produce learnings you can actually use.

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