PPC management: a weekly and monthly routine
A PPC management routine in two layers: weekly checks that protect spend, and a monthly review that decides structure, budgets and tests across platforms.
By Roozbeh Nazari · CEO
Good PPC management is less about clever tactics and more about rhythm. Accounts that are touched every day tend to be over-managed, with learning periods constantly reset. Accounts that are opened once a month tend to leak money for weeks before anyone notices. The answer is a routine in two layers: a short weekly pass that protects spend and data quality, and a deeper monthly review that makes the structural decisions. We already published a detailed weekly optimisation routine for Google Ads; this article sits above it. It covers how to split work between the weekly and the monthly layer, how to run the same rhythm across several ad platforms, and how to document it so that anyone can see what was done and why.
Why PPC management needs two rhythms
Different decisions need different amounts of data. A broken conversion tag or an ad disapproval needs attention within days. A bid strategy change, a new campaign structure or a budget shift between channels needs weeks of data before you can judge it. When both kinds of decision are made at the same speed, one of two things happens: urgent problems wait for the monthly meeting, or strategic changes are made on a few days of noise.
Separating the two also makes the work easier to delegate. The weekly layer can be a checklist that a junior team member runs with confidence. The monthly layer needs someone who understands the business goals and can say no to changes that do not serve them. A useful rule is to ask, before any change, whether its effect could be judged within a week. If not, it belongs in the monthly layer.
The weekly layer: protect spend and data
The weekly pass should take a fixed, short amount of time and follow the same order every time. Its job is to catch problems, not to redesign the account.
- Tracking health: are conversions still recording on every platform, and do the counts roughly match what your CRM or sales system shows?
- Spend pacing: is each campaign spending in line with its planned budget for the month, and has anything spiked or stopped?
- Disapprovals and policy notices: have any ads, assets or extensions been limited or rejected?
- Search terms: which new queries triggered your ads this week, and which need to be excluded as negatives? Google's search terms report shows the actual searches, the keyword that matched and how they performed.
- Automated changes: which recommendations were applied automatically, and do you agree with them? If auto-apply is switched on, review the queue on the recommendations page and dismiss what does not fit your goals.
- Notes: record anything unusual in a shared change log, even if you decide not to act on it.
Resist the urge to change bids, targets or budgets in the weekly pass unless something is clearly broken. Most smart bidding strategies need stable conditions to learn.
If the weekly pass regularly takes much longer than planned, treat that as a signal in itself: either the account has structural problems that belong on the monthly agenda, or the checklist has grown beyond its purpose.
The monthly layer: structure, budget and tests
The monthly review is where you step back and ask whether the account is set up to reach the business goal. Block a longer session for it and include someone who can speak for the business, not only the platform.
- Performance against goals: compare cost per qualified lead or return on ad spend with the targets agreed at the start, per platform and per campaign type.
- Budget allocation: move money towards campaigns and platforms that are limited by budget and meet their targets, and away from those that do not.
- Structure: merge campaigns that are too thin to learn, split those that mix very different intents, and check that brand and non-brand traffic are reported separately.
- Tests: review the tests that finished, decide what to roll out, and choose the next one or two tests. Keep the number of open tests small enough that you can tell which change caused which effect.
- Landing pages: review conversion rates by landing page and send the worst performers to whoever owns the site.
- Change history review: read through the account's change history for the month. Google Ads keeps a record of who changed what and when, and reading it monthly is the quickest way to spot drift or changes nobody remembers approving.
Once a quarter, widen the monthly review: revisit the conversion definitions themselves, check who has access to each account and remove users who no longer need it, and compare paid search terms with your organic search data to find overlaps and gaps.
Running the routine across platforms
Many accounts now run on more than one platform, typically Google Ads alongside Microsoft Advertising or Meta. PPC management across platforms works best when the routine is the same and only the checks inside it differ.
- Use one change log for all platforms, with the platform named on every entry.
- Use one set of business targets, so that platforms are compared on the same definition of a qualified conversion.
- Review each platform's automated suggestions with the same scepticism, because each platform's recommendations are written from that platform's point of view.
- Report platform results side by side each month, and deduplicate conversions in your own analytics or CRM before comparing them.
Documentation and ownership
A routine only works if it survives a change of people. Write the weekly checklist and the monthly agenda down, keep the change log in a place the business owns, and make sure the business owns the ad accounts themselves. For every entry in the change log, record the date, the platform, the campaign, what changed, why, and when the result will be judged. Entries without a review date tend to be forgotten, and the monthly review is the natural moment to close them. If an agency runs the routine, Google's policy for third-party partners requires that it reports costs, clicks and impressions at the account level and shares your customer ID on request. Those are the minimum; a good partner will also share the change log and the monthly decisions.
What good PPC management does not promise
No routine guarantees a fixed cost per lead or a fixed return, because auctions, competitors and demand change every week. What a disciplined routine does is reduce avoidable waste, surface problems early and make every change traceable. If you would like us to set up or audit this rhythm for your accounts, our paid media services start with exactly that review.