WebTrends Ad Director

Algorithmic Optimisation of Paid Search Marketing

2008 WebTrends Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Maarten SambreField Sales Engineer Benelux

Corporate Overview

• More than 4,000 Enterprise customers globally

• In total more than 10,000 customers using WebTrends

• Global operations - 350 employees

• Industry-leading Technical Services Team

• Extensive European Partner Network

• Specialists in Marketing Optimisation

World Headquarters in Portland, Oregon

Offices Across Europe & Australia

Bid management is time consuming.

Compiling and analyzing performance data takes time.

Too many possible keyword-creative-landing page combinations to reasonably test.

Limited visibility into what is driving conversions and revenue.

Result:

• Can’t grow revenue.

• Can’t increase spend for more volume.

• Too much time is devoted to dull, repetitive tasks.

• Can’t spend time on creating new campaigns

The Search Marketer’s Pain Points

Growth Quickly Brings Complexity

What is a bid tool?

• Self-service product which help users in managing paid search listings, budgeting, and updating bids.

• Provides consolidated performance reporting and updates any specified bids directly to the network accounts.

• The user can analyze more data and can work out of one consolidated interface instead of separately inside each network account interface.

• Key features:

• comprehensive reporting

• bid rule functionality

• consolidated cross-network user interface

How do bid tools work?

• Bid tools are fundamentally based on “bid rules”.

• Bid rules are set by the user to automatically exercise bid updates if certain conditions are met, frequently in complex chains.

• For instance, the user may specify that if a keyword falls below average position 5, the bid tool should automatically increase the bid by 25%, but only if the keyword has had an ROAS (return on ad spend) greater than 100% over the past 30 days.

Branded, generic, long tail…

Home Page, Product, Category…

Headline, Desc1, Desc2, Disp URL

USA, State, City…

Search, Content

Broad, Phrase, Exact, Advanced, Standard

Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask…

Multivariate Optimization variables

Keywords

Match Type

Network

Subnetwork

Geotarget

Creative

Destination URL

WebTrends Ad Director - Overview

• Self-Learning, Algorithmic Bid Management• Bayesian Theory of Probability

• Measures probability of a future event by recording many past instances of the event

• Portfolio Managed to Campaign Business Goal• CPA, COS%, ROAS%, Volume

• Data Accuracy• 1st Party Cookie (visitor history) ensures highest conversion/sale capture rate

• Avoids up to 28%* deletion rate from 3rd Party Cookies (*Jupiter Research) – long tail keywords

• Additional Bid Control• Set bid floors and ceilings

• Pause and resume keywords / ad combinations

• Automated Multi-Variance Testing• Non-stop testing of keywords, ad texts, match types, and landing pages

• All variants are measured against business goal

• Ad Director Dynamically Shifts Ad Spend to best performers

Ad Text

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

Landing

Exact Match

Match Type

Broad Match

“Caribbean Cruise”

Self-Learning Optimisation Example

Self-Learning Optimisation Example

Exact “Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

“Big Sale”

“Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

Match Type Ad Text Landing

Exact

Exact

Exact

“Big Sale”

Broad

Broad

Broad

Broad

Ad Director Identifies Eight

Unique Ad Combinations to Test

“Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

“Big Sale”

“Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

AllocationMatch Type Ad Text Landing

“Big Sale”

Self-Learning Optimisation Example

Equal Bids are assigned

Exact

Exact

Exact

Exact

Broad

Broad

Broad

Broad

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

CPA

£5.30

£8.50

£10.40

£1.70

£3.40

£5.50

£12.10

“Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

“Big Sale”

“Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

AllocationMatch Type Ad Text Landing

“Big Sale” £6.40

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

£ £

Exact

Exact

Exact

Exact

Broad

Broad

Broad

Broad

Self-Learning Optimisation Example

Exact

CPA

£5.30

£8.50

£10.40

£1.70

£3.40

£5.50

£12.10

“Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

“Big Sale”

“Buy Direct”

“Buy Direct”

“Big Sale”

Allocation

£ £

Match Type Ad Text Landing

£ £ £

Exact

Exact

Exact

“Big Sale” £6.40

Broad

Broad

Broad

Broad

Ad Director Multi-Variance Optimisation

Ad Director Identifies

the Winning Formula!

Multi-Variance Testing Scaled Up…

1000 Keywords3 Match Types

3 Creatives2 Landing Pages 2 Search Engines

= 36,000 combinations

Around the

Clock

Avoid Google Dominance with Cross Engine Optimisation…

£

££

Examples of Ad Director In Action…

• Financial Services Provider Increased Volume, Decreased Cost Per Lead

• 30% Reduction in CPL• 80% Increase in Leads

• Travel & Leisure Website Increased ROAS% by 400%

• From 600% to a consistent 1000% ROAS• Gift Experiences Online Retailer

Negative ROI to Positive ROI in < 1 Month Daily Revenue increased by 300% CPA reduced 150%

• Airline Consistently maintain CPA of £5.00 Increased volume and revenue using MVT

CPA/CPL = Cost Per Acquisition / Cost Per LeadROAS = Return on Advertising Spend (Revenue / Cost)

In Summary Ad Director will…

• Increase Volume & Lower CPA through…• Round-The-Clock Self-Learning Optimisation

• Ad Director makes millions of bid adjustments everyday

• Accurate data collection Methods (1st Party Cookie)

• Ensures highest possible conversion capture rate

• Automated Multivariate Testing

• Ad Director monitors every unique combination of:

Keyword, match type, ad text, landing page, search engine

What Happens Next?

Product Demonstration?

Speak to a Customer?

Receive More Information?

Review a Case Study?

Start a Campaign Trial?

Maarten.sambre@webtrends.com

Available to Agency & In-House Managed PPC