As we enter the most manic time of year for eCommerce businesses, it&#;s hugely important for you to know whether your existing PPC agency is helping you generate the biggest bang for your buck.
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One of the major anxieties with outsourcing your PPC is that it involves a lot of trust. Nobody knows your business like you do. And you may think that nobody knows PPC marketing like your trusted marketing agency. But that&#;s not always the case.
Here&#;s a list of 10 questions to ask your existing PPC and eCommerce agency to guarantee they&#;re working for you and not against you.
Q1: Which Keywords Have Generated the Most Enquiries / Sales Over the Last 30 Days?
Keyword research is the bedrock of any successful marketing campaign, be it Black Friday, Christmas or Spring. Keywords are vital because they help you understand what users are looking for and the content you need to produce to reach them.
Why ask this question?:
Because understanding which exact keywords are driving sales and conversions is integral when operating in competitive marketplaces, and vital for deciding your keyword strategy.
Q2 to your PPC and eCommerce Agency: What is the Ratio of Form Fills to Calls?
The gateway between your customer and a closed sale is a quality lead generation form. A study conducted by SalesForce found that businesses that &#;excel&#; at lead generation generate &#;50% more sales-ready leads&#; via lead gen forms at &#;33% lower cost.&#;
Why ask this question?:
To know if your form is performing to the best of its capability. You might need to reposition the form so it&#;s above the fold. Or tweak the CTA. You just need to know what questions to ask.
Q3: &#;&#;What is Our Average Search Position? How Does this Impact Our CPA?
Moving up one place in the search results can boost your CPA significantly. Obviously everyone wants to rank top on Google. However, a positive average position is anywhere between 25-1. Moreover, the average CPA in Google Ads is £40.20.
Why ask this question?:
Impressions show how many times your ad was shown in the search results. CPA measures how much it costs to acquire a paying customer. Ranking fluctuations can help you understand and evaluate customer acquisition strategy.
Q4 to your PPC and eCommerce Agency: Which Keywords Require More Budget and Which Ones Are We Maximised in?
Knowing which keywords need more spend is an integral part of your PPC strategy. You can then focus on what is important: matching search intent. You also need to know which keywords you are maximising to track their performance and understand whether you&#;re wasting vital budget.
Why ask this question?:
The cornerstone of SEO and Google Ads is keyword research. If you want to monetise your ads, you need to know which of your keywords are most profitable. And least, to avoid wasted spend. Your existing Google Ads agency should be communicating this to you. But if they&#;re not, then ask.
Q5: How Are You Accounting for the Difference in CPL and the Demand for Different Locations Within the UK?
Cost per lead is calculated by dividing your marketing output by the total number of new leads acquired. If you&#;re acquiring new leads then great, but if you&#;re acquiring them in a range of locations, then you need to account for the peaks and troughs in these areas.
Why ask this question?:
You should never be appeased by your existing eCommerce agency by them disregarding specific locations as exemplar of low CPL. You need to be asking how they&#;re accounting for this difference in their strategy. And, you need to know how they&#;re planning to migrate into these locations.
Q6 to your PPC and eCommerce Agency: Why is the Conversion Tracking Showing an Inactive Tag
A reason why your conversion tracking may be showing an inactive tag could be something as simple as that Google has not &#;seen&#; it, nor has it recorded any conversations in the last week.
Why ask this question?:
While the above might not necessarily mean anything is wrong or broken, it&#;s important to ask your existing PPC agency why an inactive tag is showing.
Q7: Can You List The Meaningful Goals On Our Site That We Should be Tracking for Conversions and Whether they are Tracked
Google defines a goal as, &#;a completed activity, called a conversion, that contributes to the success of your business.&#; It&#;s important to know what these goals are because they play a massive part in the success of your business.
Why ask this question?:
Firstly, you need to know whether or not your meaningful goals are tracked or not. If they&#;re not, then how can your existing Google Ads company know what they&#;re meant to be working towards? If they can&#;t list your meaningful goals then you need to inform your agency of them immediately. Without doing so, they could be tracking and working towards completely different goals.
Q8 to your PPC and eCommerce Agency: How Much is Our Google Ad Spend Contributing to our Overall Funnel Effectiveness
If your Google Ad spend isn&#;t contributing to your overall sales funnel, then you need to seriously reconsider your advertising strategy. Defined as &#;the visual representation of the customer journey, depicting the sales process from awareness to action,&#; your sales funnel needs to be constantly topped up with potential leads. This means that your ad spend needs to be generating a plethora of leads on a regular basis.
Why ask this question?:
If your Google Ad spend isn&#;t contributing to the effectiveness of your overall sales funnel, then what&#;s the point in running Google ads? The role of Google Ads is not to increase brand awareness, but to generate sales and potential leads.
Q9: How Much of Our Potential Market Share for What We Are Targeting and We Hitting? If We&#;re Not Operating at 100% Then What is Holding Us Back?
There are many moving parts when it comes to defining your market share. However, it&#;s always good to aim to be operating at 100%. While this may seem unrealistic, it&#;s not &#; especially if you&#;re the main supplier or dominant player in the sector. So, this begs the question, why aren&#;t you operating at 100%?
Why ask this question?:
Measured in relation to a company&#;s total revenue, you need to be targeting the maximum share of the market available to you. If you&#;re not doing so, then you need to analyse where your shortcomings are. This can be anything from targeting the wrong demographic to poor keyword research. But whatever it may be, you need to be asking your existing PPC agency why you&#;re not operating at 100% and how they plan on fixing it.
Q10 to your PPC and eCommerce Agency: Is Anything We Are Targeting Ineffective in Terms of the Conversions We Are Getting?
The world of eCommerce marketing moves quickly. What might have been a genuine target last month, may not be this month. And it&#;s important to acknowledge that and make changes accordingly, especially when you&#;re chasing conversions.
Why ask this question?:
If you don&#;t ask your existing PPC agency about your ads&#; ineffectiveness, then how can you go about fixing it? If your goal is to increase conversions, then you need to stay flexible. So, if your targets have grown ineffective, then you need to work together with your agency to draw up a list of new, more effective targets.
PPC Geeks &#; eCommerce Marketing Authorities
We pride ourselves on what we achieve for our clients on a daily basis. Great results, and maximising their eCommerce strategies. Contact PPC Geeks to see how we can help boost your conversions when advertising on Google.
And don&#;t forget, PPC Geeks is also the best PPC management agency in the UK, and one of the top three PPC agencies in the world, meaning you can always guarantee a level of transparency that is unmatched. Nor will you ever need to come to us with questions we should have already fixed before you&#;ve even had time to think about them.
We always have your best interests in mind. If you require any help or want to improve your PPC or Google Ads, then invest in one of our 100% FREE PPC audits or Google Ads audits?
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- 7 Essential Interview Questions for Your Next PPC Expert
A Power Plant Controller (PPC) is used to regulate and control the networked inverters, devices and equipment at a solar PV plant in order to meet specified setpoints and change grid parameters at the Point of Interconnect (POI). Site operators can communicate these setpoints and parameters to the PPC either directly, or more commonly through a SCADA system.
In essence, a PPC is a means to control plant behavior in terms of production levels, revenue, compliance and grid stability.
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Though the specific requirements vary by system, most PPCs can regulate these parameters:
- Voltage
- Frequency
- Reactive power
- Active power
- Power factor
- Ramp control
There are maintenance applications as well. Using the PPC, operators can perform remote starts/stops or other troubleshooting actions on inverters, trackers, breakers and other equipment to assist the field technicians.
When is a PPC required for a solar PV plant?
The larger the plant, the higher the likelihood of a PPC requirement.
Utility scale plants have Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and Interconnect Agreements (IAs) that explicitly require the ability to curtail or to control to a certain power factor. These functions require a PPC. Lower megawatt sites that aren&#;t subject to these agreements generally just turn on the inverters and plant equipment and let them self-regulate their outputs.
While there&#;s no standardized capacity threshold, most sites above 10 megawatts require a plant controller. However, there are also some sites that are slightly above 5 megawatts which do. Once a site hits 15 or 20 megawatts, the requirement for a plant controller becomes common.
What is the difference between a PLC based controller and a PC based controller?
A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is a hardware that controls devices or processes based on pre-programmed, closed-loop logic. A PC-based controller is a software that is installed on a server or PC that is able to run on Windows, Linux or other Operating System (OS).
At Nor-Cal Controls, we predominantly offer GE PLC hardware-based controllers for our systems. Our reasoning is that if a server or PC is compromised and goes down, a PC-based controller will no longer be intact, functional or operational. That can cause non-compliance issues with the PPA or IA. A conventional PLC can keep operating even if a server goes down due to its pre-programmed automatic function.
However, physical PLCs do come at a higher initial cost than PC-based controllers.
Does a PPC only require necessary hardware, or is software needed as well?
A PPC typically requires both hardware and software.
For the Nor-Cal Controls PPC, most of the time we include a specific controller software on the servers. That&#;s the main option we supply to our clients&#;hard software keys, or software tokens, for our GE systems.
However, there are other options, such as integrating a USB hasp key onto the servers. This allows us to supply a temporary key to be able to update and manipulate the PPC software. This is helpful if, for example, a technician needs to be dispatched to the site.
What are the typical control requirements for solar PV sites?
The typical control requirements are anything involving production, in terms of megawatts and mega-VARs, (active and reactive power).
Optimally, a solar PV plant appears to the grid as a single, unified source of power. The goal is to maximize power output (and, therefore, revenue) while supporting a stable and reliable grid. Plants can accomplish this by regulating active and reactive power through the following controls.
Active Power Control (APC)
Let&#;s say you have a solar PV plant rated for 100 megawatts but need to temporarily scale down production to a new setpoint of 50 megawatts. The new setpoint is entered via the SCADA system, prompting the PPC to interact with the field inverters, devices and equipment to ramp down production and hit that new setpoint.
This is especially important for California plants participating in the real time energy market through the CAISO Automated Dispatch System (ADS). Plants must be able to respond to curtailment requests from the ISO and adhere to ramping requirements.
Frequency Control
This is directly related to the real power output of a solar farm. Frequency control adjusts the active power in response to high or low frequency events.
Automatic Voltage Regulation (AVR)
Nearly all utilities and ISOs require plants to stay within a certain voltage range in order to support grid stability. This is done by regulating reactive power through AVR control. The requirements vary slightly by location and jurisdiction.
Power Factor Control
Power factor control is an additional requirement in controlling reactive power, making sure that the plant can stick within a leading and lagging 0.95 power factor.
VAR Control
VAR control involves the regulation of direct reactive power from the solar plant and inverters, expressed in kilo-VARs (kVAR) and mega-VARs (MVAR).
At what point should you determine automated control versus manual control?
Most controls functions in a solar plant can be automated. However, there are certain functions that shouldn&#;t or can&#;t be automated.
For instance, when there&#;s a need to close the breaker at a substation, that task is something that should be done manually (in person or through a SCADA interface). The plant may need to be taken out of automated control for maintenance events. If field technicians need to troubleshoot specific inverters or trackers, do swap-outs on inverters or tracker systems, or change up components, the plant should be in manual mode.
Are there any control limitations based on the on-site devices selected for a project?
Most of the sites that utilize our PPC are able to operate the same way. There aren&#;t too many limitations.
It is necessary for the PPC to interface with different brands of inverters (SMA, TMEIC, Power Electronic, etc.).
Each of these have slightly different controls within their system. Some will have better functionality and be more reactive to our PPC commands. To that point, there are some limitations per device, but never anything that limits the base modes of control or the ability to meet necessary requirements.
At what point should tuning enhancements be considered for a project site? Are they needed?
Tuning enhancements may be needed if, after the site is online and producing power, something goes amiss&#;for instance, some inverters begin acting oddly or the plant starts to act a little bit differently than anticipated.
Maybe the plant is ramping up too slowly, or not fast enough. Perhaps the voltage isn&#;t quite getting there and needs a boost to meet the setpoint. These scenarios may require tuning enhancements.
Sometimes O&M providers will request updates to tune the controls to meet their requirements or expectations.
Tuning requirements can also change if the utility updates their requirements or makes a different request to the owners of the solar farm. For instance, a utility may become more stringent in their requirements. This requires the operators and owners to make their plants and plant controllers slightly differently tuned so they can adhere to these new requirements.
How can Nor-Cal help EPCs and owners in meeting any project specific PPC scope requirements?
Nor-Cal can provide all of the data acquisition and monitoring and controls for solar farms. Not only do we focus on the control systems, we can also supply the HMI and the operator interface. We encompass all that into a system to operate the entirety of the solar farm, and to make sure that they&#;re able to connect to the grid and meet those requirements.
EPCs and owners often have questions on whether we will be able to meet specific IA or PPA requirements. We use our expertise and due diligence to review the specifications, make sure our PPC can adhere to those rules, and then provide a Nor-Cal solution. This is helpful to EPCs and owners who are needing answers to these complicated questions. Some are in a bind and need a PPC implemented quickly.
What are some exciting developments on the horizon when it comes to PPCs?
One of the things that Nor-Cal is very excited about is the upcoming implementation of micro grids and battery storage systems into our control system. This will be extremely helpful for our EPCs and others to use.
Contact Nor-Cal Controls for a turnkey control system that&#;s customized to your needs.
Nor-Cal has many years of project experience (over 7GW worth of projects across the United States successfully commissioned to date), meaning we can help you determine the best system for your solar PV project. Our turnkey solutions are open source, readily scalable, flexible, and completely customized to handle your current and future needs.
Schedule a call with us today to learn more.
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