2020 has been a different and difficult year for all of us, including search marketing professionals. The pandemic presented just as many opportunities as challenges and made us try new strategies and techniques. For the fortunate few industries and digital businesses, their profits grew. But even these businesses had to learn to think differently and try new things.

Well, now is the perfect time to take a good look at your PPC campaigns and analyze them to plan your marketing strategy in 2021. Here are five things to consider.

1. Website Traffic

The first thing to do is head over to Google Analytics and compare your website traffic in 2019 and 2020. Take a note of the following:

- Did website traffic rise or fall during the last 6 months of the pandemic?

- Have any specific traffic sources dried up or skyrocketed?

- Can you notice any changes in user acquisition and behavior?

- Did any specific landing pages work better than others?

Once you have this data, analyze the reasons for the changes you've seen and use the insight for future planning.

2. Keywords

The next step is to check Google Analytics and Google Search Console for keywords.

First, check organic and paid search keywords trends over the period of 12, 6 and 3 months. Here's what to check:

- Did your targeted keywords perform as expected over the above-mentioned periods?

- Are there any other keywords that look promising for your 2021 paid search campaigns?

Make sure you review your campaigns for cost-per-click and cost-per-conversion. Doing that will provide some interesting data you can use.

3. Review Your Content

Use Google Analytics behavior section to see which content resonated with your audience and which caused people to leave your website. Also, take a look at the articles you used in your content marketing strategy and see:

- Which pieces got the most visits?

- Which pieces got the most conversions?

- Which posts got the most shares and likes on social media?

- Which content led to the most newsletter signups?

These touchpoints will help you to plan your content strategy next year and focus on the type of pieces that bring results.

Use all the insights you get from your audit to plan a smarter 2021 PPC strategy where you'll focus on the right type of keywords and content. This will help you to save your budget and get the maximum out of every dollar spent.