What Would Beyoncé Do? By Maddie Cary

#SMX #14B1 @MaddieMarketer

Fierce PPC Tactics To Make Your Account A Super Star

WHATWOULD

BEYONCÉDO?


Senior Client Manager at Point It

4+ Years in PPC

Oversee $35M in Media

Global SEM Program Lead 20 Person Team 30 Languages 60 Markets

Run Point It’s Training Program

I QUEEN BEY

WHO AM I?


ALL HAIL


BEST NEW PPC FEATURES OF 2015

DRUNK IN

LOVE WITH PPC


UPGRADED URLS Destination URLs became

Final URLs on July 1st, 2015 Ads keep performance data If changes made to tracking template,

ads aren’t sent back for review

SASHA FIERCE TIP:Don’t let Final URLs be the BEST THING YOU NEVER HAD. AdWords Editor still

shows the Destination URL field, so it’s easy to miss updating your Final URL field when

building or updating ads


ADWORDS EDITOR 11 New features rolled out including

redesigned interface, plus support for labels, call-only ads, & upgraded URLs

PRO: More bulk edit/multi-select options CON: New navigation & advanced

search not as intuitive to use

SASHA FIERCE TIP:CHECK UP ON IT! Did you know there are new keyboard shortcuts to use with AWE, including CTRL+B to change bids

and CTRL+U to change URLs


RLSA – GOOGLE ANALYTICS AUDIENCES No longer limited by the AdWords tag!

Now can also use GA audiences Not all GA data available to use due to

privacy policies Limitations for GDN dimensions and

specific language & tech dimensions

SASHA FIERCE TIP:CRAZY IN LOVE with the idea of RLSA?

Get the most out of it by creating new campaign, target generic keywords, write new

ads, and bid up on narrowed valuable audience by using target & bid


AUTOMATED SHOPPING EXTENSIONS New extensions displayed alongside

PLAs at no additional cost Automatically show free shipping &

price-drop information Promotional text retired end of Sept 2015

SASHA FIERCE TIP:GOTTA BIG EGO? Want to highlight other offers? Utilize other Shopping

extensions like Merchant promotions, Product Ratings, & Trusted Stores

certification


BIDDING TACTICS YOU SHOULD TEST

IF YOU LIKE IT THEN YOU

SHOULD HAVE PUT A

BID ON IT


FLEXIBLE BID STRATEGIES AdWords offers multiple automated,

algorithmic bidding strategies, found in the Shared Library – and you should be testing them!

Maximize Clicks Target Search Page Location Target Outranking Share Target CPA Target ROAS Enhanced CPC


TARGET ROAS Case study with Gaming client

One of the first to test strategy

Aim to maximize conversion value to hit goal ROAS target

Bids changed based on predicted performance of ads

ROAS ROAS up +47 points Revenue up

+8%


TARGET OUTRANKING SHARE Case study with Consumer

Electronics client

Set goal percentage of target outranking share relative to main competitors in last 3 months

Focus was to start outranking competitors following up to Black Friday

ROASTop of Page Rate increased +5%

Avg Position improved +13%

Better position in 100% of searches

on Black Friday

+3% profit increase

Yeah, that’s right.

WHAT’S UP


MULTI-STRATEGY FLEXIBLE BIDS Case study with e-Commerce client

Used multi-strategy approach:

Target Search Page Location to drive volume for promos

Maximize Clicks to increase traffic with brand value keywords

Target CPA to maximize orders on last-click conv keywords

+65% increase in convs

Reduced CPA by

4%


COMPETITIVE BIDDING Target Page Location to test bid

to position on key terms

Test flexible CPA or ROAS targets on keywords with high competition

Target Outranking Share* to bid more aggressively when a new competitor enters the auction*but use wisely…this one can spend!


HOLIDAY BIDDING Target Outranking Share* to bid more

aggressively during key sales days*but use wisely…this one can spend!

Maximize Clicks on new holiday keywords to boost impression volume

Switch over from Conversion Optimizer to Target CPA prior to holidays to give your flexible bid strategy time to learn before crucial conversion periods


FLEXIBLE BID STRATEGIES NEED TIME TO LEARN

SASHA FIERCE TIP: Check Your Flexible Bid Strategy Status in Shared Library! Check to see if your strategy is:

Learning Change made to the strategy & AdWords is gathering performance data in order to optimize bids WHY: New Strategy? Budget Changed? Setting Changes? Added/removed from the strategy?

Limited Strategy needs to be edited in order to start optimizing bids WHY: Max Bid Limits? Not Enough Data? Low Spend? Budget Constrained? Low QS?


PPC STRATEGY TIPS FOR BIG BRANDS

SAY MY NAMESAY MY NAME


BIG BRAND PPC BIGGEST CHALLENGE

Protecting The Brand(Favoring Brand Voice Over

Best PPC Practices)

Testing & Innovating(Having Fun!)


PROTECT THE BRAND Discuss ad messaging guidelines before

launching new ads Consider internal vs. external brands What’s the appropriate CTA? Be realistic about what can fit in the limitation

of 95 characters

Brand protection isn’t only done with ads Avoid being generic in your landing experience –

searchers notice and bounce off! Drop searchers on most relative page you can

Multiple accounts and/or campaigns? Set up regular auditing for consistency Align with other internal teams bidding


PRIORITIZE VALUE PROPS Big Brands gotta work hard to

compete & stand out in PPC! What are your value props? What are your competitors

highlighting in ads & on LPs? What’s your audience looking for?

Free Shipping? Best Price? Free Whitepaper?

Back up the argument to test best practice PPC over brand messaging with data!


MANAGE COMPETITION Use Auction Insights

Seriously, it better be your best friend

Label & Regularly Monitor Top Keywords Keep an eye on your high-converting,

lower-funnel keywords That’s where a surprise competitor can

go from a small slip in performance to a big loss

SASHA FIERCE TIP: Set Up a QS tracker! Implement QS Tracker AdWords Script Generate graphs to monitor historical QS


TIPS TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL PPC PROGRAM TEAM

YOUR PPC?***FLAWLESS


YOUR PPC TEAM

PROACTIVE

ANALYTICAL

CURIOUS

SELF-STARTER

COLLABORATIVE PERFECT

PERFECT

PERFECT

PERFECT

OMG PERFECT


GROWING YOUR TEAM Put in a training model before you need it

Encourage collaboration & knowledge sharing

Provide safe-ground for mistakes

Acknowledge team and individual accomplishments

“Aim For The Middle” when leading larger PPC teams


THINK NOW ABOUT HOW TO SCALE Weigh resource-impacting requests

based on if they were scaled larger

Mix senior talent with junior members

Share learnings from tests, betas, & new initiatives across accounts

Encourage deep diving into data as well as big-picture thinking


TELLING THE STORY Don’t settle for mediocre. Be flawless!

Mentor your team on how to tell the story when it comes to reporting & analysis

If your audience (client, internal team, boss, etc) can’t get the main message in 30 seconds, it needs to be changed

SASHA FIERCE TIP: Get Visual!Too many long paragraphs in emails?

Pages of bullets in reports? Encourage your team to use simple visuals

like graphs or SmartArt to tell the performance story


GETTING THROUGH PPC DROPS

I’MA

SURVIVOR


IDENTIFY THE PROBLEMFIRST: Where did the drop in performance happen?

Keyword? Ad Group? Campaign?


ASSESS COMPETITIVE IMPACTSSASHA FIERCE TIP:

Use Auction Insights Script!BrainLabs has an awesome Auction Insights Script that you can run in a Google Doc to

see your Auction trends over time. It also creates visual graphs you can easily

send to clients or use internally!

WHERE MY COMPETITORS AT?


ALLOW FOR FLEXIBILITY Set KPIs per campaign category

Branded vs. Non-Branded Product Specific Testing Goals

Set thresholds to determine when it’s time to pivot your bidding strategy

Give yourself room to test, but set guardrails to keep things in check

Budget caps Max CPC caps Automated email reports/notifications

Yes, that is human-being Beyoncé doing that


BOUNCE BACK IN BEYONCÉ STYLE The great thing about PPC?

You can make changes nearly instantaneously and bounce back!

Be proactive Learn from your mistakes Remember you are human Share your wisdom with the

SEM communityFLAWLESS


1 2 3 4 5TAKEAWAYS

BEY//KEY

New Features! Try RLSA!

Test Flexible Bid Strategy

Find Intersection of Brand Voice + PPC Best Practices

Build Strong PPC Teams Who Can Tell The Story in 30 Sec

Use Auction Insights Script to Bounce Back Faster

ASK YOURSELF WHAT WOULD BEYONCÉ DO?


I’MA

SURVIVORQUEEN

BEYALL HAIL


CAN’T GET ENOUGH

BEYONCÉ?Story of my life…

Check out my presentation blog post for more info & resources:

www.pointit.com/blog/what-would-beyonce-do

ALSO, check out this playlist of my favorite Beyoncé jams!

bit.ly/SMX-East-Beyonce-Playlist

Internet

What Would Beyoncé Do? By Maddie Cary