What the Pros Know

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Introductions

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Level-Set

• Do you currently manage campaigns on AdWords?

• Are they profitable?

• Can you prove it?

• Any particular issues or challenges you’d like to learn more about today?

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Agenda

• Your objectives & Google’s objectives

• Search vs Display

• Fundamentals of Search PPC

– Keyword selection & targeting

– Matching options

– Ad creation, options and best practices

• Cost per click

– Quality Score

– Ad Rank

• Examples, tips and take-aways

Important Tip

Common Mistake

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• Get more prospects to your website as inexpensively as possible

• Convert a higher percentage of website visitors into leads

• Convert a higher percentage of leads into sales

Your Online Marketing Objectives

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7

6,33210,625

14,413 15,72319,443

26,14531,221

37,453

4,160

5,788

6,7147,167

8,793

10,386

12,465

13,125

$0

$10,000

$20,000

$30,000

$40,000

$50,000

$60,000

$70,000

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Other / Motorola Display Network Google.com

Yearly Revenue

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• More advertisers

• More money from each advertiser

• More people clicking on ads

• Charge more for each click

Google’s Business Objectives

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Basic Concepts

• AdWords is an Ad-Serving Engine used by advertisers to bring traffic to their websites.

• AdSense is an Ad-Serving Engine used by website publishers to monetize visitor traffic

• AdWords allows advertisers to “fish in 3 ponds”

– Google Search

– Search Partners

– Display Network (AdSense participants)

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Search vs Display Network

• Search ads appear on Google search results and search network partners (AOL, Google Maps, etc.)

• Search ads are formatted as text

• Display ads appear on >1 million different sites that allow Google to show ads

• Display ads can be text or image ads. Image ads can appear in 8 different configurations

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Display Network Ads

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Search vs Display Network

• PPC ads in BOTH Search & Display Network by default

• Motivations of clickers are different

– Intent, motivation (Search)

– Discovery, awareness (Display Network)

• Display Network clicks are generally cheaper, BUT:

– Non-contextual match

– Greater incentive to cheat

– Always run Search and Display in separate Campaigns

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Display Network Ads

• Text

• Image

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Image Ads

• Appear on Display Network sites

• Can be animated

• Acceptable file formats: .GIF, .JPG, .JPEG, .PNG, .SWF

• File size limits: 150 KB or less for all files

– 250 x 250 square

– 200 x 200 small square

– 468 x 60 banner

– 728 x 90 leaderboard

– 300 x 250 inline rectangle

– 336 x 280 large rectangle

– 120 x 600 skyscraper

– 160 x 600 wide skyscraper

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Image Ads – Things to Consider

• Include a text ad in your Display Network campaign

– Some sites don’t support Image ads

• Image ads include a “cancel” feature

– When someone clicks it, your ads will be “muted” for that user -- they generally won’t see your ad again

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Display Network Targeting

• Keywords

• Interests and Remarketing

• Advanced targeting

– Age, gender, affinity audiences

• Placements

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Fundamentals

• Basic AdWords Structure

Item What it is

Account Billing and account access

Campaign Network, budget, geo-target, day-parting

Ad group Ads, keywords, bids, landing page URLs

Account

Campaign1 Campaign2 Campaign3

Ad Group1 Ad Group2 Ad Group3

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Finding & Selecting Keywords

• Google Keyword Planner

• Google auto-complete

• SpyFu / SEMrush

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Grouping Keywords

• What is the

….motivation

….mindset

….perspective

….of the person typing in the search keyword?

• Learn Chinese vs. Chinese Language Lessons vs. Mandarin Instructor

• BMW Tuning vs. BMW Tuner

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Keyword Matching Options

• broad match

• [exact match]

• “phrase match”

• +modified broad match

• -negative match

– Note that even with Exact Match, close variants are no longer optional. Your ad may show for singular/plural or misspellings, for example.

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Broad Match

• No delimiter

Broad Match Keyword Ads may show on searches for

low-carb diet plan carb-free foodslow-carb dietslow calorie recipesMediterranean diet planslow-carbohydrate dietary program

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Phrase Match

• “Double Quote” delimiter

Phrase Match Keyword Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for

“tennis shoes” red leather tennis shoes buy tennis shoes on sale red tenis shoes

shoes for tennis tennis sneakers laces

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Exact Match

• [Bracket] delimiter

Phrase Match Keyword Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for

[tennis shoes] tennis shoes tenis shoes

red tennis shoes buy tennis shoes

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Modified Broad Match

• +keyword

Modified Broad Match Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for

+tennis +shoes tennis shoes tenis shoesshoes for playing tennisred tennis shoes

red tennis sneakersbuy tennis footwearcourt shoes

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Negative Match

• Keyword = tennis shoes

Negative Match Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for

-walking tennis shoes tenis shoesshoes for playing tennisred tennis shoes

tennis walking shoestennis shoes for walking

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Negative Match

• Keyword = women’s hats

Negative Match Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for

-women girls’ hatssun hats

hats for womenwomen’s hats

-”women’s hats” girls’ hatswomen’s baseball hats

women’s hatsWomen's hatswomen's hats for salewant to buy women's hats

-[women’s hats] buy women’s hatswomen’s hats on sale

women’s hatsWomen's hats

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Negative Match Usage

• When:

– With Broad, Phrase and Modified Broad Match Keywords

• Why:

– Avoid non-relevant searches

– Improve Click Through Rate

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Creating Ads - Objectives

• Match Ad to Keyword “intent”

• Write 2 or more ads per ad group. Rotate ads and monitor CTR

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Creating Ads

• 25 character headline

• Display URL

• 35 character subject line x2

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Creating Ads

• Top-3 ads

– May expand headline

– Sitelinks

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Text Ad Tips

– Look at other ads, try to make yours stand out

– Headline – Include Keyword

– Subject Line 1 – Benefit

– Subject Line 2 – Feature or offer

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Ad Extensions & Sitelinks

Google Shopping Campaigns

Sitelink Extensions

Callout Extension

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Battle of the Giants

Hal VarianJerry Yang

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Quality Score

• Quality Score from 1 – 10 is assigned to each Keyword

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Quality Score affects your Cost Per Click

QS Affect on CPC (2013)

10 Discounted by 80%

9 Discounted by 64%

8 Discounted by 48%

7 Discounted by 32%

6 Discounted by 16%

5 No change

4 Increased by 16%

3 Increased by 32%

2 Increased by 48%

1 Increased by 64%

Source: WordStream

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A higher Quality Score gives you…

• Reduced Cost-Per-Click

• Higher ad position

• Quality Score is calculated based on:

– CTR (~60% weight)

– Ad Relevance (~25% weight)

– Landing Page quality (~15% weight)

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Improving Quality Score

• Expected CTR

– Not the same as “CTR”

– Bidding for a higher position won’t fix QS

• What to try

– Rewrite ad copy• Try different approaches – stand out from the crowd

– Use Ad Extensions – Sitelinks, callouts, etc.

– Change or pause keyword – e.g. different matching option

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Improving Quality Score

• Ad Relevance

• What to try

– Rewrite ad copy• Use keyword in headline or body of ad copy (bold)

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Improving Quality Score

• Landing Page Experience

• What to try

– Increase information on LP

– Improve layout

– Use keywords in headline and body copy

– Allow navigation on LP

– Move response form to a separate page

– Reduce page load time

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Bidding and Ad Position

• Bids are placed at the Keyword level

• Your bid is the maximum you are willing to pay

– But often you will pay less

• Ad Rank determines your Ad Position

– Top position ad does not always pay the most

– Ad Rank = Bid x Quality Score

– Ad Rank affects Impression Share• Just because your ad is in Position 1 doesn’t mean it’s shown all

the time

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How Google calculates the cost of your click

P1 =B2 Q2

Q1

P1 - Price paid by advertiser

B2 - Next-highest-placing ad’s bid

Q2 - Quality Score of next-highest-placing ad

Q1 - Advertiser’s Quality Score

48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjOHTFRaBWA

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More ad targeting options

• Available under Campaign > Settings

– Geographic

– Time of Day and Day of Week

– Average Household Income

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Geography

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Ad Delivery

• Standard Delivery

• Accelerated Delivery

• Ad Scheduling

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Setting Budgets

• True Story:

– Help us double our spend on Google!

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Budget Strategies

• Determine average value of a lead or sale and work your way back

• Generally, more spend = lower click quality

$$$

Click Quality

$$

$

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Budget Strategies

• Use conversion tracking to find cost-effective keywords

• Check spend against daily budget

– If you often hit daily budget limit, consider eliminating under-performing keywords and ads

– Google’s advice is to increase your budget

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Landing Page Optimization

Consumer Interest & Behavior Landing Page Users

Awareness Browsers

Interest Evaluators

Desire Transactors

Action Customers

• A good landing page answers the questions:

– Do you have what I want?

– Why should I buy it from you?

– What should I do next?

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Troubleshooting & Optimization

• Networks

• CTR

• Quality Score

• Conversion Rate

• Search Terms Report

• Getting advice from Google

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• AdWords, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn

• Challenges:

– Complex management platforms

– Pay for each click

– Lead attribution

• Most common failures:

– Low-quality clicks

– Few or no conversions rates

Pay-Per-Click advertising

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• Regional pest exterminator

• Spending $8,000 / mo. for clicks

• AdWords account managed by the business owner with help from Google

Case Study

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Before and After

Before: 1 mo. Later:

% spent on bad keywords 24.7% 4.1%

About $2,000 per month wasted on totally

bogus keywords

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Bogus keywords?

• ants in my pants game

• how do ants move on those tiny legs

• alvin and the chipmunks

• swot analysis (about $8 per click!)

• squirrel meat

• 1997 maxima power ant

• bed bath and beyond

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…pests you didn’t know existed

• mortar and pestle

• powerpoint terminates suddenly

• where can I buy german roach

• how to get taller

• homeless man ant got no rent

• i ant got no iphon

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…and for the intellectually curious

• do squirrels sleep

• what is the name for a female raccoon

• worlds biggest rat

• pictures of bedbugs

• pictures of bedbug bites

• are bedbugs asexual

• aesop’s ants working all day long

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But it’s worse than that…

Before After

Click-Through-Rate 1.03% 3.55%

• Poor keyword choices lowers CTR

• Low CTR hurts Quality Score

• Poor Quality Score increases Cost Per Click, but lowers Ad Position and Impression Share

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• Adwords, Bing and LinkedIn PPC can attract highly targeted traffic BUT platforms are tricky

– Competition is fierce, so clicks are expensive

– Adwords default settings optimize Google’s income

• Devote internal resources to develop great offers and assets to convert paid traffic into leads. Conversion is key!

Take-aways

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• Not every nut can be cracked with Search.

– LinkedIn can target precise demographics

• Utilize web analytics and conversion tracking

– Don’t guess -- Invest in what works

Take-aways

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Take-aways

• You don’t need to overhaul your whole website first

• Use Web Analytics – track everything!

• Keep Search and Content campaigns separate

• Align keywords, ads and landing page copy

• Daily checkups – especially at the beginning!

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Take-aways

• Start out with top positions for strong Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and Quality Score

• Take advantage of matching options

• Kill underperforming keywords early

• Use Negative Keywords – check your Web Analytics!

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Tools and Resources

• Google’s Keyword Planner

– Requires Google AdWords account

• Google Ad Preview Tool

– Simply “Google” ad preview tool

• Google AdWords Editor

– http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/

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Tools and Resources

• Google Analytics

• Google Webmaster Tools

– https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

• Competitor analysis

– SEMrush

– SpyFu

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Hans Riemer

hjr@market-vantage.com

978-482-0131

Questions?

• Business card or email address

• Indicate if you’d like a free 15 minute private review of your AdWords account