S E M F O R T E C H S T A R SELAN MOSBACHER, SUMMER 2016

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• Intro• Why SEM Matters• About Me• SEM vs SEO• Everything you need to know about

SEM in 1 deck• How to not fail

G O O G L E T R E N D S

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G O O G L E T R E N D S :

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G O O G L E T R E N D S : S U P E R B O W L

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G O O G L E T R E N D S :

W H Y S E M M AT T E R S

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S E M I S A M A J O R I N V E S T M E N T F O R M O S T S TA R T U P S

• Google is top 5 publicly traded company• > ¾ of Google’s revenue comes directly from SEM• After headcount, SEM is often biggest line item for startups

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by_market_capitalizationhttps://investor.google.com/earnings/2015/Q3_google_earnings.html

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T O P A C Q U I S I T I O N C H A N N E L S F O R C H I C A G O S TA R T U P S

24%

20%

8%8%4%

4%4%

4%4%4%

4%4%

4%4%

Top Acquisition ChannelsSEMSEOWord of MouthPartnershipsSocialReferralPROutbound SalesOtherFacebookEmailDirect TrafficContent MarketingConferences

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M A R K E T I N G B U D G E T F O R C H I C A G O S TA R T U P S

22%

56%

11%

11%<$100K$100K to $499K$500K to $999K$1M to $5M$5M to $10M$10M to $25 M$25M to $100M$100M+

W H O A M I ?

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A B O U T M E

Elan Mosbacher

• Serial Startup Marketer: Head of marketing @ 3 venture funded startups

• VP of Marketing @ SpotHero Past 3 Years (Seed to Series B)• >$10 Million in SEM Management (3 FTE, countless

consulting gigs)• Kellogg MBA, B.S. in Finance & Entrepreneurship• Techstars companies I’ve helped:

o Power2Switcho GiveForwardo WhimseyBoxo UrbanLeash o SpotHero (as FTE)

S E M V S S E O

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S E M W A R N I N G : A M I N U T E T O L E A R N , A L I F E T I M E T O M A S T E R

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S E M V S S E O

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S E M ’ S A D V A N TA G E

• Immediate traffic to your website• Flexible budget• Easy to scale• Optimized for testing• Measureable and data rich• Full control over targeting & ad copy• Capture existing demand resulting in

relatively high ROI

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H O W T O G E T S TA R T E D

The 3-Step Elements Wave

E V E RY T H I N G Y O U N E E D T O K N O W A B O U T S E M I N 1 D E C K . . .

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S E M A D V E R T I S I N G A C C O U N T S T R U C T U R E

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L E T ’ S S TA R T W I T H K E Y W O R D S

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K E Y W O R D S

What Keywords Are You Customers Looking For?

• Google Keyword Planner• Google Instant / Google Suggest• Uber Suggest • SpyFu / SEM Rush• SKUs, or names of products and services you sell

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K E Y W O R D S : K E Y W O R D P L A N N E R

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K E Y W O R D S : K E Y W O R D P L A N N E R

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K E Y W O R D S : G O O G L E I N S TA N T / S U G G E S T

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K E Y W O R D S : U B E R S U G G E S T

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K E Y W O R D S : S P Y F U O R S E M R U S H

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K E Y W O R D S : M AT C H T Y P E S

NotRelevant

LessTargeted

MoreTargeted

Negative Match: -gamesWon’t show for: parking games

Broad Match: parking Show: parking, best place to park

Broad Match Modifier: +chicago +parking Show: chicago monthly parking, parking in

chicagoNot: Evanston parking

Phrase Match: “chicago parking”Show: chicago parking rates, best chicago parking Not: Chicago cubs parking

Exact Match: [chicago parking]Show: chicago parkingNot: chicago parking rates, loop parking, parking chicago

PRO TIP: When in doubt, use a more targeted keyword match type.

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T I P : F O C U S O N T H E L O N G T A I L K E Y W O R D S

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K E Y W O R D S U M M A R Y

• Brainstorm keywords• Be sure to use the right match type• Be sure to use negative keywords• Group them into buckets of similar themes

o Brando Geo o By product or serviceo By stage of the funnel (e.g. ideas vs. compare vs. buy)

Tip 1: Use the “search query” tool to find new exact match and new negative match termsTip 2: This is an ongoing process. You do it regularly, not just once.

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A D S & A D G R O U P S

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A D S & A D G R O U P S

• Themes of keywords go in a bucket called an ad group• On the front of the bucket, you’ll have an ad

Adgroup 1 Adgroup 2 Adgroup 3

BrandTerms

ProductTerms

ServiceTerms

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A D S & A D G R O U P S

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A D S & A D G R O U P S

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A D S & A D G R O U P S

Use the keywords in your ad

Test at least two ad copy versions• Headlines• Descriptions• Display URL• Ad Extensions

Make sure your keyword, ad and landing page offers match

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Q U A L I T Y S C O R E & B I D D I N G

Bidding• You set a max CPC you are willing to pay• Google looks at CPC, CTR & Quality score to determine what you pay• Better CTR means Google makes more money• Better CTR means higher quality score• Example: $1 x 1M or $1M x 1

Quality Score:• How relevant is your ad & landing page to the search term?• How strong is the click-through rate relative to others?• How good is the User Experience on the landing page?• Relevant ads are better for the user and make Google more money

Therefore, Google reward higher quality score accounts with lower CPC

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Q U A L I T Y S C O R E & B I D D I N G T I P S

Quality Score Tips:• Tight buckets of keywords themes in adgroups• Tailor ad copy to intend of search, include keyword• Split test ads to boost click-through-rate (CTR)• Build landing page to meet needs to search

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A C C O U N T S & C A M PA I G N S

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A C C O U N T S & C A M PA I G N S

Campaigns are where you set budget, targeting & distribution• Product line, geo, service type, etc• You have have multiple per product, geo, or service

When your accounts get big enough (100ks keywords), you may open multiple accounts with one search engine under one MCC account

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W AY S T O M E A S U R E

SEM is about balancing costs and volume

• CPM = Cost Per 1000 impressions• CPC = Cost Per Click• CPL = Cost Per Lead• CPA = Cost Per Action or Acquisition• ROAS = Return on Ad Spend• GM = Gross Margin• CAC:LTV = Customer Acquisition Cost : Lifetime Value• Payback = How many months until you break even?

H O W N O T T O FA I L

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PA R T 1

Ask: Is SEM right for you?• Target Audience (e.g. Not developers)• Demand Capture > Demand Generation• Budget? Competition? Profitability (e.g. eCommerce > social network)?

Be sure your web analytics and conversion tracking are set up properly

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PA R T 2

Keywords: Avoid broad match, which is the Google default because it makes them the most money

Ad Groups: Get a granular as possible:• 1 keyword : 2 a/b tested ads : 1 dedicated landing page

Bidding: Bid on:• Your brand terms• Long tail terms• Terms with purchase intent (e.g. rates, compare, vs., buy)• The specific products you sell (e.g. SKU #)

Focus on one thing at a time• More volume (keywords)• Better CTR (ads)• Better conversion rates (landing pages)

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PA R T 3

Start small and grow slowly, or you can waste a lot of money

Don’t: Set & forget! Forget to ask for help.

Hack: Take your competitors’ email subject lines & run an exact match display campaign…you’ll end up in your competitors’ customers gmail inboxes

Get Adwords Editor! Makes life way easier

Need help? For starters • One-time audit > ongoing monthly retainer

T H A N K Y O UElan MosbacherVP of Marketing

elan@spothero.com@mosbacher773.888.ELAN

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A D D I T I O N A L R E S O U R C E S

Terms to know:SEMSEOPPCCTRCPMCampaignAd GroupAd CopyKeywordExactPhraseBroadBroad ModifierQuality Score

Where to get started:Google Adwords Certification (To learn)Google Adwords Account (To start)Google Keyword Planner (To build)Google Adwords Editor (To scale)