Download - Lessons from 95 Years of #PPC and 4 Years of Teaching It

LESSONS FROM 95 YEARS OF #PPC AND 4 YEARS OF TEACHING IT

Part 1: PPC Education ResearchPart 2: 10 Tools to More Empathic and Strategic PPC

Kahlil Corazo@kcorazo | corazo.org PPC Pinas 2013

Kahlil CorazoMy context: I teach PPC to undergrads

GOMC 2011 Global Top 20GOMC 2012 Asia-Pacific

Champions

*The Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) is an annual competition of undergraduate and graduate students all over the world hosted by Google. It is a great tool for experiential learning; to compete, teams of students plan, execute and optimize real PPC campaigns for real businesses. In 2012, more than 11,000 students joined the GOMC.

What should PPC students be taught?

Let’s ask the pros!

John Crestani Jeff Ferguson Rene Olano Brent Gaynor

Jason Lancaster Mannix Pabalan Pandiyarajan JP Bisson

Cell Jacela Pablo Kunert Soso Sazesh Hans Koch

95 Years of Collective PPC Experience

This is not a survey.

This is tapping into 95 years of collective PPC

experience.

Quality of interview data.

Diversity in some areas and lack of it in others.

♂♀100% 0%

☹

Gender Asked InterviewedConversion

Rate

Women 7 0 n/a

Men 32 12 37.5%

Hey, I tried.

This reflects the broader imbalance between men and women in PPC. For instance, in PPC Hero’s 25 most influential PPC experts, only 4 are women. This is a similar situation across science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) fields.

http://www.ppchero.com/25-most-influential-ppc-experts/




http://www.google.com/search?q=gender+imbalance+in+stem

http://www.google.com/search?q=gender+imbalance+in+stem

Synthesis

Synthesis posts and all interview notes available at corazo.org

Key characteristics of good PPC pros

Intellectual

VirtuesTechnical

skills

capabilities

PPC is a profession where you need to use both the analytical (left) and creative (right) sides of the brain.

Jeff Ferguson

SEM is equal parts science and art.

Soso Sazesh

CreativeAnalytical

Empathic

Strategic

Mentioned by everyone.

•Basic Math

•Basic Statistics

•Analysis of data

Several mentioned “creativity” but specific

examples are in its overlaps with empathy

and strategy.

Copywriting and managing perceptions.

Keyword research.

Empathy: mentioned the most after analytical skills.• "understanding of human psychology"

• "understanding consumer behavior"

• "understanding motivations behind search terms"

• "marketing"

PPC and online behavior analyticsOverlap between data analysis and empathy

The same way all Marines start as riflemen, all PPC professionals start

as marketers.

Cell Jacela

Strategy• How does online marketing play within

the business? How does PPC play within its online marketing? Conversion strategy.

• Understanding the “macroeconomics” of the platform (behavior and motivations of its players, including the game master).

Strategy X Analytics• Structuring accounts for testing and optimization.

• Judging what the key metric are.

• Mental habit and work procedure of hypothesis testing (eg, A/B testing different copywriting angles, different targeting options and different landing pages).

Creative

Analytical

Empathic

Strategic

• Math• Statistics• Data Analysis

Understanding market segments and their

motivations and behavior

Understanding a client’s business and the platform’s

ecosystem. Conversion strategy.

“Always be Testing.”

Knowing what the key

metrics are. Structuring

accounts for testing and

management.

Copywriting, managing

perceptions.Te

asing

out t

he m

eanin

g

from P

PC and

onlin

e

beha

vior a

nalyt

ics.

New an

gles i

n

targe

ting (

eg, n

ew

keyw

ords

).


Intellectual

VirtuesTechnical

skills

capabilities

Organized

Diligent

Meticulous

Patient

Perfectionist

PersistentHungry for better

performance

Careful

Thinks outside the box

Creative

3/4 Swiss virtues + 1/4 Hippie virtues

Asian version: 3/4 Japanese + 1/4 Filipino

Political correctness disclaimer: any and all stereotypes here are used purely for explanatory purposes. This does not in any way imply agreement or non-agreement to any of these stereotypes. Furthermore, this does not imply agreement or non-agreement to the validity of the concept of stereotypes.

Continuous improvement and learning

Outward looking

Problem-solver

Structured mindset

There are simply no tricks in search engine advertising, display advertising and search engine optimization.

Mastering PPC requires a lot of deep understanding, hard work, practice and time. There are simply no

shortcuts, no secrets.

Jeff Ferguson

PPC is one of those things that if you just work hard enough, you will

succeed.

John Crestani


Intellectual

VirtuesTechnical

skills

capabilities

Technical skills

★ Spreadsheet Jiujitsu

•The platform (eg, AdWords)

•Tools (eg, AdWords Editor, several keyword research tools)

IExcel seems to be the favorite tool of PPC Pros.

Not understanding each function of each AdWords feature is like playing chess without knowing the moves of

each piece.

JP Bisson

A guide for planning trainings.

A checklist for PPC candidates.

The gap between skills required

and standard training, tools and processes.

PPC Capability Areas Mentioned in Interviews

Creative-Empathic

EmpathicUnderstanding clicking behavior - observe your own behavior. Understanding the customer - using customer personas.

Analytical-EmpathicGoogle Analytics basics - take the certification course and exam.

AnalyticalBasic concepts in statistics - explanation.

Analytical-StrategicStructuring and optimizing campaigns - demonstration and hands-on. Mindset of testing - mentoring and hands-on.

StrategicConversion strategy - mentoring. Understanding the PPC platform and its players - background in macroeconomics.

Creative-StrategicKeyword research - demonstrate techniques. Creative thinking - throw questions and scenarios.

Creative

Swiss Virtues

Technical Skills

AdWords and Google Analytics basics - take the certification course and exam. Run a small campaign. Make mistakes in a controlled environment. Read books. Complete a PPC questionnaire. New features - follow industry blogs and twitter accounts. AdWords Editor, Excel - demonstrate and hands-on.

PPC Capability Areas Mentioned in Interviews

Creative-Empathic

EmpathicUnderstanding clicking behavior - observe your own behavior. Understanding the customer - using customer personas.

Analytical-EmpathicGoogle Analytics basics - take the certification course and exam.

AnalyticalBasic concepts in statistics - explanation.

Analytical-StrategicStructuring and optimizing campaigns - demonstration and hands-on. Mindset of testing - mentoring and hands-on.

StrategicConversion strategy - mentoring. Understanding the PPC platform and its players - background in macroeconomics.

Creative-StrategicKeyword research - demonstrate techniques. Creative thinking - throw questions and scenarios.

Creative

Swiss Virtues

Technical Skills

AdWords and Google Analytics basics - take the certification course and exam. Run a small campaign. Make mistakes in a controlled environment. Read books. Complete a PPC questionnaire. New features - follow industry blogs and twitter accounts. AdWords Editor, Excel - demonstrate and hands-on.

Only technical skills have a lot of systematic

training.

You can’t really teach this.

The focus of current training and industry blogs.

Creative

Ana

lytic

al

Empathic

Strategic

Opportunity: share tools for empathy

and strategy.

How do you bring ~20 undergrads from zero PPC to competition

level in a few months?

Sharing tools developed from this

challenge.

And running customer development

workshops (my other educational interest)

10 WAYS TO MORE EMPATHIC AND STRATEGIC #PPC

Tools from training PPC championship teams.

1Design the business’ website from strategy and not from convention (even if you’re not in charge of web design)

Ensures that the following questions are asked and answered:•What is the business all about?•Who are its customers?•What are the steps in the funnel, from awareness

to buying to loyalty?•What are their desires and concerns at each part

of the funnel?•How do you address those desires and concerns

with a website? What should be its content and their relative priority.

•What roles can online marketing play in this funnel? What is the conversion strategy?

After this exercise, it is very easy to build a PPC account based

on strategy!

2Documenting the background of the business and its customers.

For my students, the pre-campaign document required by Google for entry to the competition does the job.

http://www.google.com/onlinechallenge/discover/campaign-reports.html





3Alternatively, use the Business Model Canvas

Figure out the role of online marketing here.

http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas



4Brainstorm for customer empathy using XPlane’s empathy map.

http://glennas.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/empathy-map-example.jpg



5Or Lean Startup Machine’s Persona Development Canvas

http://leanstartupmachine.com/



6Or Alex Osterwalder’s Value Proposition Canvas

The Value Proposition Canvas

Gain CreatorsDescribe how your products and services create customer gains. How do they create benefits your customer expects, desires or would be surprised by, including functional utility, social gains, positive emotions, and cost savings?

Pain Relievers

Do they…

Create savings that make your customer happy? (e.g. in terms of time, money and effort, …)

Produce outcomes your customer expects or that go beyond their expectations? (e.g. better quality level, more of something, less of something, …)

Copy or outperform current solutions that delight your customer? (e.g. regarding specific features, performance, quality, …)

Make your customer’s job or life easier? (e.g. flatter learning curve, usability, accessibility, more services, lower cost of ownership, …)

Create positive social consequences that your customer desires? (e.g. makes them look good, produces an increase in power, status, …)

Do something customers are looking for? (e.g. good design, guarantees, specific or more features, …)

Fulfill something customers are dreaming about? (e.g. help big achievements, produce big reliefs, …)

Produce positive outcomes matching your customers success and failure criteria? (e.g. better performance, lower cost, …)

Help make adoption easier? (e.g. lower cost, less investments, lower risk, better quality, performance, design, …)

Rank each gain your products and services create according to its relevance to your customer. Is it substantial or insignificant? For each gain indicate how often it occurs.

Describe how your products and services alleviate customer pains. How do they eliminate or reduce negative emotions, undesired costs and situations, and risks your customer experiences or could experience before, during, and after getting the job done?

Do they…

Produce savings? (e.g. in terms of time, money, or efforts, …)

Make your customers feel better? (e.g. kills frustrations, annoyances, things that give them a headache, …)

Fix underperforming solutions? (e.g. new features, better performance, better quality, …)

Put an end to difficulties and challenges your customers encounter? (e.g. make things easier, helping them get done, eliminate resistance, …)

Wipe out negative social consequences your customers encounter or fear? (e.g. loss of face, power, trust, or status, …)

Eliminate risks your customers fear? (e.g. financial, social, technical risks, or what could go awfully wrong, …)

Help your customers better sleep at night? (e.g. by helping with big issues, diminishing concerns, or eliminating worries, …)

Limit or eradicate common mistakes customers make? (e.g. usage mistakes, …)

Get rid of barriers that are keeping your customer from adopting solutions? (e.g. lower or no upfront investment costs, flatter learning curve, less resistance to change, …)

Rank each pain your products and services kill according to their intensity for your customer. Is it very intense or very light?

For each pain indicate how often it occurs. Risks your customer experiences or could experience before, during, and after getting the job done?

Products & ServicesList all the products and services your value proposition is built around.

Which products and services do you offer that help your customer get either a functional, social, or emotional job done, or help him/her satisfy basic needs?

Which ancillary products and services help your customer perform the roles of:

Buyer (e.g. products and services that help customers compare offers, decide, buy, take delivery of a product or service, …)

Co-creator (e.g. products and services that help customers co-design solutions, otherwise contribute value to the solution, …)

Transferrer (e.g. products and services that help customers dispose of a product, transfer it to others, or resell, …)

Products and services may either by tangible (e.g. manufactured goods, face-to-face customer service), digital/virtual (e.g. downloads, online recommendations), intangible (e.g. copyrights, quality assurance), or financial (e.g. investment funds, financing services).

Rank all products and services according to their importance to your customer. Are they crucial or trivial to your customer?

GainsDescribe the benefits your customer expects, desires or would be surprised by. This includes functional utility, social gains, positive emotions, and cost savings.

Pains

Customer Job(s)

Describe negative emotions, undesired costs and situations, and risks that your customer experiences or could experience before, during, and after getting the job done.

What does your customer find too costly? (e.g. takes a lot of time, costs too much money, requires substantial efforts, …)

What makes your customer feel bad? (e.g. frustrations, annoyances, things that give them a headache, …)

How are current solutions underperforming for your customer? (e.g. lack of features, performance, malfunctioning, …)

What are the main difficulties and challenges your customer encounters? (e.g. understanding how things work, difficulties getting things done, resistance, …)

What negative social consequences does your customer encounter or fear? (e.g. loss of face, power, trust, or status, …)

What risks does your customer fear? (e.g. financial, social, technical risks, or what could go awfully wrong, …)

What’s keeping your customer awake at night? (e.g. big issues, concerns, worries, …)

What common mistakes does your customer make? (e.g. usage mistakes, …)

What barriers are keeping your customer from adopting solutions? (e.g. upfront investment costs, learning curve, resistance to change, …)

Describe what a specific customer segment is trying to get done. It could be the tasks they are trying to perform and complete, the problems they are trying to solve, or the needs they are trying to satisfy.

What functional jobs are you helping your customer get done?(e.g. perform or complete a specific task, solve a specific problem, …)

What social jobs are you helping your customer get done? (e.g. trying to look good, gain power or status, …)

What emotional jobs are you helping your customer get done? (e.g. esthetics, feel good, security, …)

What basic needs are you helping your customer satisfy? (e.g. communication, sex, …)

Besides trying to get a core job done, your customer performs ancillary jobs in differ-ent roles. Describe the jobs your customer is trying to get done as: Buyer (e.g. trying to look good, gain power or status, …)

Co-creator (e.g. esthetics, feel good, security, …)

Transferrer (e.g. products and services that help customers dispose of a product, transfer it to others, or resell, …)

Rank each job according to its significance to your customer. Is it crucial or is it trivial? For each job indicate how often it occurs.

Outline in which specific context a job is done, because that may impose

constraints or limitations. (e.g. while driving, outside, …)

Which savings would make your customer happy?(e.g. in terms of time, money and effort, …)

What outcomes does your customer expect and what would go beyond his/her expectations? (e.g. quality level, more of something, less of something, …)

How do current solutions delight your customer? (e.g. specific features, performance, quality, …)

What would make your customer’s job or life easier? (e.g. flatter learning curve, more services, lower cost of ownership, …)

What positive social consequences does your customer desire? (e.g. makes them look good, increase in power, status, …)

What are customers looking for? (e.g. good design, guarantees, specific or more features, …)

What do customers dream about? (e.g. big achievements, big reliefs, …)

How does your customer measure success and failure? (e.g. performance, cost, …)

What would increase the likelihood of adopting a solution? (e.g. lower cost, less investments, lower risk, better quality, performance, design, …)

Rank each gain according to its relevance to your customer. Is it substantial or is it insignificant? For each gain indicate how often it occurs.

Rank each pain according to the intensity it represents for your customer.Is it very intense or is it very light.? For each pain indicate how often it occurs.

On:

Iteration:

Designed by:Designed for:Day Month Year

No.

Customer Segment

www.businessmodelgeneration.com

Use in Conjunction with the Business Model Canvas Copyright of Business Model Foundry GmbH

Value PropositionCreate one for each Customer Segment in your Business Model

http://businessmodelalchemist.com/blog/2012/09/test-your-value-proposition-supercharge-lean-startup-and-custdev-principles.html



7 Or simply write it down.

I found this table helpful in ensuring that each piece of content is aligned to a communication or conversion goal.

8 The ad targeting table

BY PRODUCTSEARCHERS BROWSERS GEOGRAPHY DEMOGRAPHICS

Bags

* Authentic (brand of bag) bags* Affordable (brand of bag) bags* Buy (brand of bag) bags online* Gift for (insert person here)* Gift for (insert occasion here)* Pre-loved (brand of bag)* Pre-used (brand of bag)* Brand new (brand of bag) bag* Online seller of bags* Bags on sale

* Fashion Trends* Fashion Blogs* Dress like (name of endorser)* Fashion tips* Fashion websites (eg. Mega Publishing) * Fashion news

* Any point in the Philippines * USA* Singapore* Dubai

* Mothers (30 years old and above)* Working women (20 - 29 years old)* Teens (16-19 years old)

Shoes

* Authentic (brand of shoes) bags* Affordable (brand of shoes) bags* Buy (brand of shoes) shoes online* Gift for (insert person here)* Gift for (insert occasion here)* Brand new (brand of shoes) shoes* Online sellers of shoes* Shoes on sale




Wallets

* Authentic (brand of wallets) wallets* Affordable (brand of wallets) wallets* Buy (brand of wallets) wallets online* Gift for (insert person here)* Gift for (insert occasion here)* Brand new (brand of wallet) wallet* Online sellers of wallets* Wallets on sale




Cosmetic Pouches

* Authentic (brand of pouch) pouch* Affordable (brand of pouch) pouch* Buy (brand of pouch) pouch online* Gift for (insert person here)* Gift for (insert occasion here)* Brand new (brand of pouch) pouch* Online sellers of cosmetic pouches* Cosmetic pouches on sale




Bracelet/ Ring

* Authentic Hermes bracelet* Authentic Chanel ring* Affordable Hermes bracelet* Affordable Chanel ring* Buy Hermes bracelet online* Buy Chanel rings online* Gift for (insert person here)* Gift for (insert occasion here)* Brand new Hermes bracelet* Brand new Chanel ring* Online seller of Hermes bracelet * Online seller of Chanel ring




Other accessories

* Online seller of Bath & Body Works PocketPac*Buy Bath & Body Works PocketPac Online




BY BRANDSEARCHERS BROWSERS GEOGRAPHY DEMOGRAPHICS

Burberry

* Authentic Burberry bags* Affordable Burberry bags* Buy Burberry bags online* Brand new Burberry bag* Online sellers of Burberry bags

* Fashion Trends* Fashion Blogs* Dress like Emma Watson* Fashion tips* Fashion websites (eg. Mega Publishing) * Fashion news


* Mothers (30 years old and above)* Working women (20 - 29 years old)

Chanel

* Authentic Chanel bags* Authentic Chanel accessory* Affordable Chanel bags* Buy Chanel bags online* Pre-loved Chanel bag* Pre-loved Chanel accessory * Order Chanel bags online* Order Chanel Accessory online* Online sellers of Chanel bags* Online sellers of Chanel accessory




Guess

* Authentic Guess bags*Authentic Guess wallet*Affordable Guess bags* Affordable Guess wallet* Buy Guess bags online * Buy Guess wallets online* Brand new Guess bag* Brand new Guess wallet* Online sellers of Guess bag* Online sellers of Guess wallet




Hermes

* Authentic Hermes bags* Authentic Hermes bracelet* Affordable Hermes bags* Affordable Hermes bracelet * Buy Hermes bags online* Brand new Hermes bag* Order Hermes bag* Online seller of Hermes bag




Kate Spade

* Authentic Kate Spade bags* Affordable Kate Spade bags* Buy Kate Spade bags online* Brand new Kate Spade bag* Online seller of Kate Spade bag




Longchamp

* Authentic Longchamp bags* Authentic Longchamp pouch* Affordable Longchamp bags* Affordable Longchamp pouch* Buy Longchamp bags online* Buy Longchamp pouch online* Brand new Longchamp bag* Brand new Longchamp pouch * online seller of Longchamp bag* Online Seller of Longchamp pouch

* Fashion Trends* Fashion Blogs* Dress like Kate Moss* Fashion tips* Fashion websites (eg. Mega Publishing) * Fashion news



Louis Vuitton

* Authentic Louis Vuitton bags* Affordable Louis Vuitton bags* Buy Louis Vuitton bags online* Pre-loved Louis Vuitton* Brand new Louis Vuitton bag* Online Seller of Louis Vuitton bag

* Fashion Trends* Fashion Blogs* Dress like Madonna* Fashion tips* Fashion websites (eg. Mega Publishing) * Fashion news



Marc by Marc Jacobs

* Authentic Marc Jacobs bags* Affordable Marc Jacobs bags* Buy Marc Jacobs bags online* Brand new Marc Jacobs bag* Online seller of Marc Jacobs bag




Michael Kors

* Authentic Michael Kors bags* Affordable Michael Kors bags* Buy Michael Kors bags online* Brand new Michael Kors bag* Online seller of Michael Kors bag




Tommy Hilfiger

* Authentic Tommy Hilfiger bags* Affordable Tommy Hilfiger bags* Buy Tommy Hilfiger bags online* Brand new Tommy Hilfiger bag* Online seller of Tommy Hilfiger bag




Tory Burch

* Authentic Tory Burch bags* Authentic Tory Burch shoes* Authentic Tory Burch wallet* Affordable Tory Burch bags* Affordable Tory Burch shoes* Affordable Tory Burch wallet * Buy Tory Burch bags online* Buy Tory Burch shoes online* Buy Tory Burch wallet online* Brand new Tory Burch bag* Brand new Tory Burch shoes* Brand new Tory Burch wallet * Online seller of Tory Burch bag* Online seller of Tory Burch shoes* Online seller of Tory Burch wallets




Fitflops

* Authentic Fitflops * Affordable Fitflops* Buy Fitflops online* Brand new Fitflops* Online seller of Fitflops




Salvatore Ferragamo

* Authentic Salvatore Ferragamo shoes* Affordable Salvatore Ferragamo shoes* Buy Salvatore Ferragamo shoes online* Brand new Salvatore Ferragamo shoes* Online seller of Salvatore Ferragamo shoes




For first-time keyword researchers, it helps to have a structure.

http://www.triciatjia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/persona2.jpg

9Brainstorm using customer personas built with interviews.

Non-obvious keyword research could only come from empathy. Use customer personas to frame keyword brainstorming.

Props to JP Bisson, Ian Callet and Jeremie Lim for sharing how they used customer personas at cebujobs.com



10Master hypothesis testing and judging what the key metrics are.

The Lean Startup “movement” probably has the most developed tools in using analytics for hypothesis testing, and selecting key metrics from analytics based on business objectives.

The best marketing-specific articulation I have encountered of this is Scott Brinker’s Agile Marketing talk.http://chiefmartec.com/2013/03/agile-marketing-for-a-world-of-constant-change/

http://chiefmartec.com/2013/03/agile-marketing-for-a-world-of-constant-change/




Bonus: The Flipped Classroom☺Student

ActivitiesTraditional Classroom

Flipped Classroom

Inside the classroom

Listen to a lecture (theory)

Learning activities with coaching

Outside the classroom

Do assignments (practice)

Video lectures (theory) and some

practice

In case you need to train 20+ students at a time.

Bonus: The Flipped Classroom☺Teacher

ActivitiesTraditional Classroom

Flipped Classroom

PreparationPrepare lecture

and exams

Curate content and plan learning

activities.

DeliveryDeliver lecture and

exams

Orchestrate learning activities

and coach.

Thank you! - @kcorazo

Read detailed posts about this research plus notes from all interviews at

http://www.corazo.org/ppc-education-research.html

