Getting Better Every Day

Search Engine Strategies 2006, Chicago, IL Incisive Media © Copyright 2006. Find Me Faster Nashua, NH. All Rights Reserved.

Matt Van Wagner

• start

Better Every Day

• Process Creates Sustainable Advantage– Its not just about keywords, ads, bids– Plan on working hard

• Use Systems-Level Thinking– Align campaign goals with larger company goals.– Increase sales, not visitors

• Track Performance and Make Adjustments– Be methodical, measure and test everything you can– Don’t react too quickly, but don’t get analysis-paralysis

• Set Good Goals and work towards them

Evolve Your Tactics

Manual

CPC

Clicks

CTR

Time of Day, Day of Week, Month, Seasonal Bid Management

Non-constrained Algorithmic bidding

A/B Testing Ads / Pages

Multivariate Testing

Demographic Targeting

Behavioral Targeting

More….

Measuring Conversions

Managing to ROI

Integrating On/Offline Data

Geo-targeting

Track Competitors Tactics

Beginner Expert

Automated

Define Campaign Objectives

Searchers Like Uninterrupted Logic

Pets We Loved

60% of PPC searchers were coming in on from general keywords and dog-related terms.

70% of orders were coming from women who owned cats.

PPC Challenge: Cash Strapped Small Business

Take general /dog keywords offline. Focus spending and ad campaign on cat lovers.

Make website changes to be more inclusive to dog owners, create new pages.

Re-start ad campaign for dogs when site is ready.

Recommended Actions

Managing Campaigns

What is the Your Primary Goal of Your Campaign? Leads, Sales, Brand Building?

How Do You Define Success?

Online vs. Offline Sales Conversions

Steps on the path towards sales conversion

Start Measuring ACTIONS. Don’t Manage Just CTR or CPC

How Do You Measure Success?

Google, Yahoo, and (soon) MSN Conversion Tracking

3rd Party Web Analytics Tools (Hitslink, WebTrends, Webside Story, etc)

How much the phones are ringing.

Hybrid reporting approaching using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Organizing Your Campaign

Not easy to take a quick pulse with this setup.

What Words Go Where?

Not So User-Friendly

Campaign names here appear to marginally significant.

In fact, are really just spur of the moment naming inspirations.

Where do you put new words you think of?

Naming Conventions

Campaign / AdGroup

Car-Sport

BMW

Maserati

Cadillac

Mercedes

Campaign / Order Campaign / Adgroup

Car-Sport

BMW

Maserati

Cadillac

Mercedes

Car-Sport

BMW

Maserati

Cadillac

Mercedes

Increasing Ad CTR

Bid to Highest positions #1, #2, or #3

- Google and MSN: Try Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) Tool

- Yahoo: Use Keywords in Titles

- Increase Relevance of Ad to User Search Intent

- 800-Number in your Ad (Google only)

Use Keywords In Ad Headlines and Description Lines

- Use Capital Letters in the Ad Body, URL and Ad Text. (Google Only)

Write Killer Ads

Note the Variety of Copy Styles:

1st Person story.

Trusted Authority – “Use Quotes”

Price Appeal

Convenience - Call 800 #

Get Information – Medical Alert Guide

We’re different from “Them”

Which of these is the Best Ad?

Evaluating Ad Performance

Which of these Ads is performing better?

Lessons: Watch small samples sizes. Track Conversions, not click-throughs.

Note - Google’s Ad Optimizer only optimizes CTR, not conversion rate.

Conversion Rate: 10.5% Conversion Rate: 2.5%

Simple Stats Test

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/webtools/web_chi.html

Google: chi square tutorial

What is the question?

A) 5

B) 3

C) 1

The Answer is:

How many @#$@#$ Variables should we test at once?

Create Excel Run Charts to Understand Campaign

Performance

Raw Google Report Data

Question: Can you spot the trouble we had this month?

Keep Track Of Changes

• Use Excel to create control run charts

• Maintain a log of campaign changes• What changed (match-type, status, bid, Ads)• When and why did you make the change?

• Start to document ‘rules’ for making changes.

• Look back at cause and effect of actions taken.

• *** Check-out Google’s Change Tracking Tool.

Interpreting Data

Visual Representation of Data makes it easier to spot trends

Track Your Changes

Only Google provides a changes report. (N.B. Data Lives Only 90 days.)

Refining Keywords

Tuning Broad Match Lists

Sock Monkey old fashioned sock monkeysmall sock monkeymonkey sock toysstuffed sock monkeysock monkey clubjamondas sock monkey girls curiosity kits sock monkeysock gorillasock monkey clothessock monkey ornamentssock monkey calendar

Tuning Broad Match Lists

Sock Monkey 557 .37 $206.09

Tune-up Savings 23%

$159.00

Get Rapid Keyword Software

This tool will save you hours in text manipulations

Bids and Positions

• Google– Determines what matches are relevant

– Highest position = QS + MAX Bid + CTR

– Closed Bids – you have to make guesses and approximations.

• Yahoo Search Marketing ~ Changing Soon ~ – Determines what matches are relevant.

– Exact Advanced

– Rewards you for bidding on the precise user search term

– Open Bid System – keep an eye out

– Use a bid management tool for competitive terms.

• Microsoft AdCenter– Google like determination.

– Bid Boost to target specific demographic audiences.

What Position to Bid to?

Performance can vary by position.

- Run Reports and Test

- Make sure sample size is reasonable

- Isolate Ad position as the variable.

- Keep Landing Page and Ad Copy constant.

You can use Google & Yahoo Reports for Analysis, but…

Start looking at Other Web Analytics Tools.

Google Analytics - Now Reports Position.

Choose your Battlegrounds

PPC Geo-targeting Capabilities

Google - Available. Easy to Setup Worldwide

MSN - Available US only. Setup can get easier.

Yahoo - Available for US, but you may want to wait for Pan.

Simple Concept

Where you have an advantage…

Increase Ad Coverage & Investment

Geo Targeting

PPC Day of Week Scheduling

Microsoft / Google Available, Very Easy Setup

Yahoo - Not Available yet.

Simple Concept

If you are a Mon-Fri Business, take your campaign offline

Advertise when you can take calls.

Day of Week Targeting

PPC Time of Day Scheduling

Microsoft - Available, Very Easy to Setup based on USER Time Zone

Google - Available, Easy to setup, Advertiser Time Zone.

Yahoo - Available, but you may want to wait for new release.

Simple Concept

Show Ads when people are buying

Advertise when you can take calls.

Time Of Day Targeting

Demographic Targeting

Microsoft - Available, Bid Boost

Google - Available, on Content network only

Simple Concept Show your ads to most likely buyers.

Demographic Targeting

Conclusion

Become Process Oriented to Gain Advantage

Make Improvements not changes

Plan, Do, Study, Act

Have Fun and Use Both Sides of your Brain

Bonus Section

I0I Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

I0I Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

# I Letting Content Ads Suck The Life Out Of Your Google Campaign

I0I Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

# I0 Letting Content Ads Suck The Life Out Of Your Yahoo Campaign

Yahoo Content Bids Default to Search Bid

I0I Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

# II Using Google’s Ad Optimizer without understanding it.

I0I Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

# I00 Not Using Negative Match Words on Yahoo (Globally)

I0I Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

# I0I Not Using Negative Match on Google (Campaign Level)

I0I Rookie Mistakes To Avoid

# I0I Not Using Negative Match on Google (Ad Group)

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