PPC Checklist: Launch, Optimize, And Govern Paid Search That Converts

Our PPC checklist usually starts the same way: we open an ad account, see spend climbing, and feel that tiny stomach-drop when tracking looks “kind of” set up. PPC can print money, or it can burn it fast.

Quick answer: a winning PPC checklist is less about clever ads and more about clean goals, verified tracking, message-matched landing pages, tight keyword control, and a weekly routine that keeps waste from sneaking back in.

Before You Spend A Dollar: Goals, Offer, And Tracking Baselines

If you skip this section, you can still get clicks. You just cannot trust the results.

Paid search works like a pipe: your goal and offer set the direction, tracking measures the flow, and your landing page decides if anything useful comes out the other end. Here is what that means in practice: we set one primary goal per campaign, we write down a baseline, and we refuse to launch until attribution looks sane.

Define The Conversion And The One Metric That Matters

Pick the conversion that maps to revenue.

• eCommerce: purchase, subscription, booked consult, or qualified add-to-cart if your cycle is long.
• Lead gen: form submit that hits a thank-you page, phone call over a real threshold (like 60 seconds), or a scheduled appointment.

Then pick one metric that matters for that campaign:

• ROAS for high-volume ecommerce where revenue tracking is clean.
• CPA for lead gen, local services, and longer sales cycles.

Write down your baseline before you touch budgets:

• Average order value, gross margin, refund rate
• Close rate for leads and average deal value
• Break-even CPA or break-even ROAS

Cause and effect stays simple: margin affects allowable CPA, and allowable CPA affects your bid ceilings.

Confirm Analytics, Pixels, And CRM Attribution (No Blind Spots)

We want two things: accurate counts and clean sources.

Checklist we run every time:

• GA4 events: purchase, generate_lead, begin_checkout, phone clicks. No duplicate firing.
• Google Ads conversion actions: use one “Primary” conversion per campaign goal, keep the rest “Secondary.”
• UTMs: consistent naming across campaigns so your CRM does not turn into a junk drawer.
• Cross-domain tracking: required if checkout or booking happens on a different domain.
• Mobile and desktop tests: different browsers, different devices, real orders when possible.

If you sell services, connect the CRM.

• CRM attribution affects lead quality scoring.
• Lead quality scoring affects which keywords you keep.

Google’s own setup docs stay current and clear. We keep them bookmarked during audits: Set up conversion tracking in Google Ads and GA4 event setup.

If you run a WordPress site, we also check plugin choices. Some “easy mode” tracking plugins fire events twice. That one mistake can make a campaign look profitable when it is not.

Landing Page Readiness: Message Match, Speed, And Trust Signals

Your landing page is your closer. Your ad is just the handshake.

We see the same pattern across WordPress and WooCommerce builds: campaigns fail less from “bad traffic” and more from slow pages, vague offers, and missing trust.

Tighten The Offer-To-Page Map (One Ad Group, One Promise)

One ad group should make one promise. One page should fulfill it.

A clean map looks like this:

• “Women’s waterproof hiking boots“ ad group -> page filtered to waterproof hiking boots
• “Emergency plumber near me“ ad group -> emergency service page with hours, service area, call button

Message match affects Quality Score, and Quality Score affects CPC. You do not need magic. You need consistency.

On WordPress, we often do this with:

• dedicated landing pages (not your generic homepage)
• WooCommerce category pages with pre-applied filters
• ACF fields to keep offers and disclaimers consistent across templates

If you want the WordPress side of this nailed down, our readers usually pair this checklist with a landing page build guide and a speed pass. Start here: WordPress SEO services and website maintenance services.

Fix Conversion Killers: Mobile UX, Forms, And Checkout Friction

A few small issues can cut conversion rates in half.

We look for these “silent killers” first:

• Mobile CTA placement: thumb-friendly, visible without hunting
• Forms: fewer fields, clear error messages, no tiny dropdowns
• Checkout: guest checkout, fewer steps, express pay options, transparent shipping and returns
• Trust: reviews, guarantees, security badges, real contact info

Speed matters too. Google’s guidance for Core Web Vitals gives you the targets and the why.

Cause and effect stays blunt: page speed affects bounce rate, and bounce rate affects CPA.

If you can only fix one thing this week, fix the page that gets the most paid traffic. Not the page you wish people used.

Campaign Architecture: Keywords, Intent Layers, And Negatives

Structure is your safety system. It stops “one weird search“ from eating your budget.

We split campaigns by intent and by brand terms because they behave differently. Brand search converts differently than non-brand. High-intent terms behave differently than research terms.

Build A Clean Keyword Set With Intent Buckets

We bucket keywords by what the searcher wants right now:

• Decision intent: “buy,“ “pricing,“ “book,“ “near me,“ “same day,“ product SKU
• Comparison intent: “best,“ “vs,“ “reviews,“ “top,“ “alternatives”
• Research intent: “how to,“ “ideas,“ “what is” (often better for content, email capture, or remarketing)

Then we match your offer to the bucket.

• Decision intent affects conversion rate.
• Conversion rate affects how aggressive you can bid.

Match types still matter.

• Start with exact and phrase for control.
• Use broad only when you have clean conversions, solid negatives, and a plan to review search terms on schedule.

Add Negative Keywords And Exclusions Up Front

Negatives do not feel exciting. They save you money on day one.

We add a starter negative list before launch:

• job, careers, salary, internship
• free, cheap (unless that is your offer), template (if you sell services)
• DIY terms if you only want buyers

Then we add exclusions:

• locations you cannot serve
• times you cannot answer calls
• placements or audiences that create junk leads

Search terms affect budget waste. Budget waste affects data quality. Data quality affects every future decision. This is why we treat negatives like hygiene, not a one-time task.

Ads And Assets: Copy, Extensions, And Compliance Guardrails

Ads do two jobs: they earn the click, and they filter out the wrong click.

A “high CTR at any cost“ ad can wreck your account if it pulls curiosity traffic that never buys.

Write Ads That Match Intent And Pre-Qualify Clicks

We write ad copy that mirrors the query and sets expectations.

Checklist:

• Put the main intent word in the headline (Buy, Book, Get a quote)
• Call out the offer terms (pricing range, minimum order, service area)
• Use a clear next step (Shop, Schedule, Call)
• Mention one proof point (reviews count, years in business, warranty)

Pre-qualification affects lead quality. Lead quality affects your real CPA.

For regulated industries like legal, finance, and medical, keep human review in the loop. Ads can create liability if they promise outcomes you cannot guarantee.

If you work with creators or influencers, this matters too. The FTC’s endorsement guides shape how you disclose relationships. Disclosure affects trust, and trust affects conversion.

Use Extensions To Raise CTR Without Inflating Risk

Extensions give you more screen space and more ways to qualify clicks.

We start with:

• sitelinks (pricing, reviews, shipping, contact)
• callouts (free shipping threshold, returns window, certified techs)
• structured snippets (brands, services, types)

Rules we follow:

• Keep extensions tied to the landing page promise.
• Avoid duplicate sitelinks across campaigns if intent differs.
• Treat extensions like copy assets. Review them each season.

If you do this right, CTR rises because relevance rises, not because you “tricked” someone into clicking.

Bidding And Budget Controls: Spend Caps, Pacing, And Experiment Rules

Bidding is where good strategy meets bad math. We keep it boring on purpose.

Set Budgets By Margin And Break-Even CPA/ROAS

Budgets should follow unit economics.

We work backward:

1. Gross margin per order (or per lead)
2. Expected conversion rate
3. Break-even CPA or break-even ROAS
4. Daily budget that gives enough data without risking your rent money

Margin affects allowable CAC. Allowable CAC affects scale.

If you sell on WooCommerce, include shipping costs, refunds, and payment fees. Those “small” numbers turn profitable ads into break-even ads fast.

Choose A Bidding Strategy And Define When You Will Change It

Start with control. Earn your way into automation.

• If you have limited conversion data, start with manual CPC or Max Clicks with tight caps.
• When you have stable conversion tracking and enough volume, test tCPA or tROAS.

Set the rule before you launch:

• “We will not change bidding for 7 days unless tracking breaks or spend spikes.”
• “We will only switch to tROAS after X conversions in 30 days.”

Too many bid changes affect learning. Learning affects cost. Cost affects patience.

And yes, we log changes. A simple Google Sheet beats guesswork every time.

Launch Day And First Week: Quality Checks, Logs, And Fast Fixes

Launch day should feel calm. If it feels chaotic, you missed a checklist item.

Run A Pre-Launch QA: URLs, Tracking, Locations, And Schedules

We run a short QA pass right before enabling campaigns:

• All final URLs load, no redirects, no 404s
• UTMs present and consistent
• Conversions fire once per action
• Location targeting matches service area
• Ad schedule matches staffing (calls when someone answers)
• Device adjustments make sense for mobile-heavy offers

URLs affect landing page match. Landing page match affects conversion rate.

This is also where WordPress ops saves you. A broken plugin update can break checkout. That is why we push launches after backups and we test on staging when we can.

Monitor Search Terms, Spend Spikes, And Lead Quality Daily

The first week is not “set and forget.“ It is “watch and steer.“

Daily checks:

• Search terms for junk intent
• Sudden CPC spikes or runaway spend
• Lead quality in the CRM (not just form counts)
• Top landing pages by bounce and time on page

If lead quality drops, we tighten keywords and add negatives first. If conversion rate drops, we inspect the landing page and checkout second. If tracking breaks, we pause and fix tracking. No heroics.

Keep humans in the loop. Never paste sensitive client data into ad platforms or AI tools. If you work in healthcare, legal, or finance, treat disclosures and privacy like a hard requirement, not a suggestion.

Ongoing Optimization: A Simple Weekly And Monthly Routine

PPC does not reward random tinkering. PPC rewards a routine.

Weekly: Queries, Ads, Landing Pages, And Budget Reallocation

Weekly, we do four passes:

1. Queries: add negatives, spot new intent pockets, separate winners into their own ad groups
2. Ads: pause weak variants, refresh headlines that do not match intent
3. Landing pages: check speed, check mobile UX, check message match against top queries
4. Budget: shift spend toward the campaigns that hit your one metric

Queries affect relevance. Relevance affects CPC. CPC affects scale.

If you need the website side to keep up, this is where a maintenance plan pays off. Broken forms and slow pages do not announce themselves. They just drain ad spend. Related: professional WordPress website development.

Monthly: Structure Cleanup, Experiments, And Reporting That Tells The Truth

Monthly work should feel like housekeeping and controlled tests.

• Clean up campaign structure (merge duplicates, split mixed intent)
• Review location and device performance
• Audit conversion actions and attribution windows
• Run one experiment at a time (new landing page, new offer angle, new bidding model)

Reporting should answer real questions:

• What did we spend?
• What did we get?
• What did it cost?
• What changed, and why?

Honest reporting affects decisions. Decisions affect profit.

If a report hides bad lead quality, it trains the team to chase the wrong number. We would rather show an ugly truth than a pretty dashboard.

Conclusion

A PPC checklist is not a “launch document.“ It is a guardrail system.

If you want the safest path, start small: one offer, one landing page, one conversion, one metric. Run it for a week with daily checks. Then widen the scope.

When you pair that discipline with a fast WordPress site, clean tracking, and a simple logging habit, paid search stops feeling like gambling. It starts feeling like operations. And that is the point.

PPC Checklist FAQs

What is a PPC checklist, and why do I need one before launching ads?

A PPC checklist is a repeatable set of pre-launch and ongoing steps that prevent wasted spend. It prioritizes clean goals, verified conversion tracking, message-matched landing pages, and keyword control. Without a PPC checklist, you can still get clicks, but you can’t trust performance or scale safely.

What should I set up first on a PPC checklist: goals, offer, or tracking?

Start your PPC checklist with goals and a clear offer, then lock in tracking baselines before spending. Choose one primary conversion per campaign (mapped to revenue) and one metric that matters, like CPA or ROAS. Launch only after GA4/Google Ads conversions and attribution look sane.

How do I verify conversion tracking in my PPC checklist (GA4, Google Ads, UTMs, CRM)?

A solid PPC checklist verifies accurate counts and clean sources: confirm GA4 events don’t double-fire, set one Primary conversion action in Google Ads, and standardize UTMs so your CRM attribution stays usable. Test cross-domain tracking if checkout is elsewhere, and run real device/browser tests.

How do landing pages affect PPC performance and Quality Score?

Landing pages affect PPC because message match and speed influence Quality Score, CPC, and conversion rate. Map one ad group to one promise and one page that fulfills it, then remove “silent killers” like clunky mobile CTAs, long forms, checkout friction, and missing trust signals like reviews and guarantees.

What negative keywords should I add in a PPC checklist to prevent wasted spend?

Add negatives before launch to block low-intent traffic that burns budget. Common starters include “job,” “careers,” “salary,” “internship,” plus “free,” “cheap,” or “template” if they don’t match your offer. Also exclude unserved locations, bad placements, and times you can’t answer calls.

How often should I optimize PPC campaigns after launch, and what should I check weekly?

Check daily in week one for junk search terms, spend spikes, and lead quality—not just form counts. Then run a weekly routine: add negatives, refresh ads that don’t match intent, review landing page speed/mobile UX, and reallocate budget toward campaigns hitting your CPA or ROAS goal consistently.