Mind over mechanics in SEM

Posted On Wed, February, 22nd, 2012 by Sean Marshall

Paid search is nuanced. In optimizing accounts, there are a seemingly infinite number of variables to consider. This makes the job of an SEM challenging and time-consuming. In tackling account issues, analyzing data, and executing various tasks, search marketers must be efficient – there just isn’t enough time to get to everything. This time crunch has created a need for repeatable process. Problem is, SEM can’t be managed by one-size-fits-all solutions.

Process and SOPs should serve as a starting point – basic guidelines to inform the person executing the task what they might encounter. They should, however, enable the task-doer to maintain a critical eye and think things through. Too much rigidity can be a bad thing; managing an AdWords account isn’t like building a car in a factory. Even the most basic (but vital) of tasks – like a negative search report – can’t be fully automated. Things like spend and click thresholds are a good way to build a list of potential negatives, but there’s no substitute for reviewing the list and assessing a query’s value beyond what the numbers show you.

(Image credit: sghealthyliving.wordpress.com)

To be clear, I believe in the power of process – especially on the SEM agency side. Creating repeatable steps is essential to scaling an operation where people are executing the same task across multiple accounts. That said, there has to be more than just process to run an account to its fullest potential. Process and technology help create efficiency, but it’s the brain behind the machine that owns it in the end. Push forward with your efficiency plans, but be mindful of the pitfalls of following every process too closely. Build in review protocols and allow the process to evolve with every special case you encounter. In short – use your brain!

- Sean Marshall, Director of Search Engine Marketing

Normalizing Bids For A New PPC Campaign Launch

Posted On Tue, February, 21st, 2012 by Todd Mintz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait. –  Pablo Picasso

Since we launched our PPC Associates blog, we’ve brought to our readership a plethora of very sophisticated posts…focused on either strategy or point of view. We haven’t really published any really basic content yet…so let me correct that oversight right now.

When we take over an existing account for a new client, we use the old data as the basis for rebuilding the account following our Alpha Beta account strategy. After the new account structure is created, one of the things we have to figure out is what the initial bids should be for the keywords in the new campaign.

Frequently, I’m faced with a massive spreadsheet of information containing lines of data like the following:

So, what should the new bid be when I relaunch this keyword in a new campaign? (For this example, I’m going to assume $1.50 CPA target.)

First, I’m going to state right off that what I’ve pulled from AdWords is the “Search Query Report” (the actual keywords used by the searcher) and not the “Keyword Report” (showing the keywords to which the searcher queries were matched). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, stop reading this post at once and learn everything you can about Search Queries and AdWords.

The average CPC for this particular term is $.55. However, $.55 isn’t the current bid for the term.  Through experience, I’ve surmised that the likely bid average for such a term is roughly 20% above CPC, or $.66 in this case (an estimated number but a pretty good one IMO).

The average historical CPA for this term is $2.92 – which is almost twice as much as the target, meaning we’ll need to reduce the bid. But what formula should I use to calculate what the starting bid should be?

($.55 [Avg. CPC] * 1.2) * (1.5 [CPA Target] /2.92 [Historical CPA]) = $.34 Starting Bid.

Many factors change when we launch a new campaign, so this new starting bid may or may not achieve the new CPA. It could be wildly off target. Bid adjustments might be needed to be made very quickly depending on circumstances. However, once the campaign accumulates enough data under our management, the wild swings indicative of an account takeover should subside substantially.

Also, realize that the above calculation reflects what I’d bid for the Exact Match (Alpha) term. We would also launch the term in Modified Broad Match (Beta). I typically start the Modified Broad Match bid at 65% of Exact Match.

Happy strategizing!

- Todd Mintz, Senior SEM Manager

The Three Things Every Successful SEM Campaign Must Have

Posted On Fri, February, 17th, 2012 by David Rodnitzky

For about six years now, I’ve been pushing the concept of the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective SEM.” For those of you who haven’t yet read our fantastic whitepaper on this topic, the seven habits require choosing the right search engines, keywords, ad text, bids, landing pages, tracking, and targeting.

Today, I want to step back a little from the tactical habits that drive SEM success and introduce a new concept: the three things every SEM campaign must have for success. Here they are.

1. Great SEM

OK, this is a no-brainer. Basically, if you follow all seven best habits, you will create a great SEM campaign. At this point, you might think, “Game over; I’ve won!” Sadly, great SEM is only one-third of the equation. Think of it this way: imagine you create the world’s greatest Super Bowl ad for your store. The ad is so awesome that the next day, thousands of people jam your store’s parking lot and race to the entrance. There’s just one problem: the door to your store is locked, and the windows are boarded up. All that SEM work would be for naught. Which brings us to part two . . .

 

2. A Great Conversion Funnel

(Image source: http://www.kathyherrmann.com/blog/tag/mmarketing-automation)

Your conversion funnel includes your ad text, landing page, shopping cart, and any page along the way. The right conversion funnel can help you compete against better-funded competitors. The key to success in conversion funnel optimization is testing, testing, testing. Test one-page landing pages versus two-page landing pages; red versus blue buttons; different shopping carts; long versus short forms. Companies that relentlessly test their conversion funnel will eventually eke out improvements that will drive profit.

 

3. A Competitive Offer

(Image source: http://blog.iongeo.com/?p=1793)

A great SEM effort with a great conversion funnel will still fail without a great offer. The offer is the “deal” you offer to customers. The amount you charge for your product, whether you offer free shipping, bonus items, a warranty, installation, customer support, a money-back guarantee, and in-store pick-up – these can all define the parameters of the offer.

A great offer accomplishes two things: it compels customers to choose your product or service over competitors, and it gives you enough profit to compete effectively in ad results. It’s important to understand that both of these elements are present in a great offer. For example, if I offered a new Ferrari for $50, I would certainly get a lot of people to buy cars, but I wouldn’t have any profit margin, and I couldn’t afford to buy ads. By contrast, an offer to sell a gallon of milk for $30 would give me a lot of margin but would result in no buyers.

As with SEM and conversion funnels, you arrive at the right (and therefore “great”) offer by testing. What happens if I offer $5 off – will the increase in conversion rate offset the lost margin? Does free shipping matter (usually, the answer is yes)? The more you test, the more you can discover what combination of factors will drive the best returns.

To finish the Super Bowl analogy, if SEM is a great TV ad and conversion funnel is a well-lit entrance to your store, the right offer is like having a store that’s clean, organized, and offers products people want at prices they are willing to pay.

So there you have it – SEM, conversion funnel, and offer – the three factors that combine to produce fantastically successful SEM campaigns. Easy, right?

Well, sadly, no. Many companies have no resources for conversion funnel testing and don’t have flexibility from “management” to test different offers. I get calls from these companies all the time. They’re hoping for an SEM miracle – that there’s some secret sauce we SEM gurus can sprinkle on top of their AdWords campaigns that will suddenly turn their frog of a campaign into a handsome prince. I wish SEM was a dark art and that I did have some magical powers, but I don’t, nor do any other SEM firms. So until we can concoct a magic potion of bats’ ears and newts, the three factors in this article are what you need for SEM success.

- David Rodnitzky, CEO

The Challenges of Mobile Retargeting

Posted On Thu, February, 16th, 2012 by admin

By Caroline Watts, Retargeter.com

Every year for the last few, we’ve heard proclamations that this year will be year of mobile. To some extent it’s hyperbole, but to some extent it’s true. 43% of American cell phone users own a smart phone, and 62% of all 25-44-year-olds own smartphones. That number grows every day. Forrester predicts that by 2016, one billion people will be using smartphones. As of late 2011, there were almost 1.2 billion mobile web users globally, and 12.6% of total website traffic came from mobile browsers. That’s a 102% increase from the year before.

To communicate with an audience that increasingly uses smartphones for browsing the web, marketers will be forced to go mobile – and savvy mobile marketers will figure out how to make the best use of one of the industry’s most ROI-friendly practices.

Retargeting – the practice of serving ads to users who have previously visited your site – has become a preferred tactic for internet marketers due to its high ROI relative to traditional display advertising. The technology for mobile retargeting exists, but is still in its early stages, particularly when compared to the exciting new technologies created every day in the thriving web-based retargeting sector.

There are many unique challenges presented by mobile retargeting that don’t apply to web technologies. Here are a couple of them:

Public Sentiment

After over 15 years of banner ads, people have grown accustomed to seeing ads online. Many believe that online ads can be valuable, and that targeting can be beneficial.

Though user privacy is a major issue in the online targeting world, 52% of customers are willing to have their online behavior tracked in exchange for discounts or special offers or in order to consume online content for free.

Mobile advertising is newer, and in general tends to generate more negative sentiment. Because mobile is a more intimate space, there is a heightened sense of invasiveness. A 2011 study published in the European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences found that attitudes toward mobile advertising are significantly more negative than attitudes toward advertising in general. (The study also found attitudes toward mobile can be positive if users feel the advertising is informative—a point to keep in mind.)

Technical Difficulties

From a technical standpoint, mobile differs from web in that each mobile user spends his time in two distinct ecosystems: mobile browsers and apps.

Traditional web-based retargeting uses cookies to anonymously track users. Mobile web browsers operate much like traditional browsers, and it is easy to implement a retargeting campaign that works exactly like a web-based campaign. However, mobile browsing isn’t the end of the story. On average, 30% more time is spent in app than browsing the mobile web. If you only retarget users within their mobile browsers, your reach will be severely limited.

The process for retargeting in app is different than the process for retargeting in browser.  Retargeting in app identifies unique users anonymously and creates anonymized, unique user IDs that are then tracked around the app ecosystem.

The dichotomy between the two ecosystems presents a conundrum for the retargeter: Where do you tag people – in the app or in the browser? You probably have more customers visiting your app and people tend to spend more time in app, but the majority of new users may first visit via their mobile browsers. You can tag both, but this issue of frequency caps comes into play.

The important takeaway is that there is no-one-size-fits-all mobile retargeting campaign. The preferred tactics will depend on your company and your unique marketing goals.

- Caroline Watts is a Marketing Associate at ReTargeter, an online ad platform specializing in retargeting.

The path to proper PPC benchmarking

Posted On Wed, February, 15th, 2012 by Sean Marshall

During a recent roundtable discussion of paid search for B2B at Focus.com (roundtable MP3 here!), one of the participants asked about benchmark conversion rates from click to form fill. As much as I hated to do it, I had to answer, “It depends.” There really isn’t a fixed standard. A number of factors influence CVR – number of fields, content you are offering, and, most importantly, the audience you’re going after. In the end, I find this type of benchmarking to be a futile exercise.

I think it’s in a marketer’s DNA to want to compare/evaluate himself against his competition – and this goes double for SEMs.  Auctions are competitive in nature; we’re always running head to head with our closest competitors. The only problem is that search is an auction with incomplete information – specifically, you don’t know about every outcome. Naturally, people want to get at this information, but the reality is that you don’t need it to be successful. If anything, constantly trying to compare your performance to your competitors can be a distraction. There are some things that you can and should compare your program against – most notably, your own performance.

Even with all of the competitive performance data in the world, your goals shouldn’t vary from this: run a profitable, growing PPC program within the economic framework of YOUR business. PPC shouldn’t dictate the economics of your business; it works the other way around. Clients often ask us what their targets should be, and my answer is always the same: choose your targets based on your financials, and we can give you an honest assessment of how it translates in terms of volume and expectations for the program.  PPC isn’t about vanity; it’s about results. Perpetually comparing yourself to what your competitors are doing (outside of messaging, which is an area where you need to pay very close attention to competitors) will lead you nowhere and, most likely, distract you from your primary objective.

The only benchmark you should compare yourself against is your most recent performance. Making sure to look at a large enough window of time (the more volume you generate, the shorter the window), you should always be looking to see if you are growing. You need to be reasonable – don’t expect every major category to grow every month. However, you should always be tuning something and, on a month-to-month basis, should see improvements in any number of categories: clicks, impressions, CTR, CPCs, CVR, impression share, etc. If you fall behind in any of these categories, all the competitive data in the world won’t make a difference.

In your self-comparison, though, be wary of false positives. Seasonal trends should be evaluated before you assess how well (or poorly) you did in a given month. (For instance, I wouldn’t put much stock in increased conversions activity for air conditioning units in July.) These are cases where year-over-year trends are more important. Seasonality aside, improved conversion rates (on the lead gen side) could create leakage in other areas.  Sometimes opening up the top of the funnel can have adverse effects later on – clogged lead qual resources, poor sales etc.  In short, you need proper context to measure your monthly, quarterly, and yearly gains.

In the end, even benchmarking against your own data can be misleading. It takes a discerning eye (and knowledge of how the data was generated) to make this useful benchmarking. That said, I wouldn’t waste too much time digging for dirt on the competition. Shoot for 5-20% improvements from month to month, and once you hit on some nice optimizations, ask yourself this: how can I do it again?

- Sean Marshall, Director of Search Engine Marketing

A Guide to PPC Associates Conference Call Etiquette

Posted On Tue, February, 14th, 2012 by Todd Mintz

“Oh, oh telephone line/Give me some time, I’m living in twilight” – ELO

At PPC Associates, I participate in two weekly conference calls:  A Monday-morning conference call featuring all the account managers and a Thursday-afternoon conference call featuring all members of the staff.

When I started with PPC Associates last March, there were very few people dialing into the conference lines: me, a staff member who was temporarily working from home, and the Chicago office calling into San Mateo (plus the occasional person who couldn’t make into the office for whatever reason). Now, with several more telecommuters on our staff plus others with more flexible work arrangements, we can easily have 12-15 people dialing into the meeting, and the “ding” of a new person joining the call is a frequent repetitive noise around the time the meeting starts.

What I’ve found really interesting is how the behavior of people on the calls has evolved over the last year.

When you dial into a conference line, after entering the proper meeting code, the robotic voice tells you to “please state your name” after the tone. Sure enough, when I first started doing these calls, that’s precisely what I did, and I would engage in small talk with the other people on the line until the main meeting began from the San Mateo office.

This would go on week after week. As much as I liked each and every one of my teammates, these sorts of conversations became a little forced; the meeting would start at any second, and anything we’d be saying to each other would be shut down immediately (even if we were in mid-sentence).

However, as time evolved and more people became call regulars, people started evolving away from announcing themselves, mostly preferring to wait in silence (though no doubt continuing to do their work) until the meeting began.

Or, sometimes when I would call in, there might be a couple of people already on the line chatting with each other. Not being the sort of person to interrupt, I would tend not to say anything – nor would the dozen others also joining the call.

Sometimes I would call in and the prompt would tell me that I was the 4th / 7th / 10th person in the conference. Then, I would hear absolute silence. If nine other people are on the call and not saying anything, it would be pretty darned awkward for me to speak up :.)  Of course, if the meeting had already started, I would make it a point to stay in the background (and with the anonymity of conference calls, the folks in San Mateo wouldn’t know it was actually me who was a little late).

Despite what you might think from reading these preceding 450 words, there is a ton of communication going on at PPC Associates between teammates. For direct communication, we use Skype very heavily, and while nobody is saying anything to each other on the conference call line, there are likely several Skype conversations going on between people who are currently on the phone but not taking advantage of the conference-call capabilities to talk directly to each other.

We also have an internal communication system called Nabble, which we use to either communicate to our clients about their accounts or communicate to each other internally about managing the accounts. We do also use email, though the younger members of the team tend to do less of that than the older members.

So, to sum up, most PPC Associates team members are busy actively managing our client accounts or silently communicating with each other while we wait quietly for our conference calls to begin.  :.)

- Todd Mintz, Senior SEM Manager

Who Are the Best SEM Agencies? Don’t Ask Google!

Posted On Mon, February, 13th, 2012 by David Rodnitzky

Search for “best sem agency”, “top sem agency,” or “best ppc agency” on Google, and the organic results will all show the same #1 listing: topseos.com (note: make sure to search in “incognito” mode so that Google doesn’t personalize your results).

Who is topseos.com? Well, if you believe the info on their site, they have a simple, and dare I say, noble mission:

“The core focus of topseos.com is to provide a quality evaluation and ranking service for customers seeking internet marketing services and products. This service offering evaluates the services provided by internet marketing companies and professionals and compares the results to the information collected from their competitors in order to create a listing of the best internet marketing service providers. Our evaluation process has refined since 2002 through research and testing to ensure that the highest integrity is maintained in our evaluation and rankings service.”

There’s an alternative perspective on TopSEOs. Rather than editorialize, I’ll give you some quotes – many from well-respected industry experts – that tell a different story:

“I’m putting a call out to the industry to request that TOPSEOs and its associated properties be shut down. Your name in itself is deceiving.”

“The only proper solution is for TOPSEOs to shut down.”

“TOPSEOs charges its members thousands of dollars PER MONTH and the per month fees directly correlate to where they’re ranked.  Those who pay more, rank higher.  Thus their ranking system is inherently flawed, intentionally misleading to consumers and not at all based on merit.  Christian or not, choosing to turn a blind eye to such an egregiously fraudulent business practice is equivalent to condoning it.”

“Yesterday I got a call from someone who was looking for some SEO services, and in the course of the conversation he thanked me for saving him from wasting huge amounts of money with a company he had found through TOPSEOs. He had assumed they were truly a highly ranked SEO company, not that they had paid for their rankings.”

“TopSEO’s is quite simply a scam.”

“Topseos would want you to believe they are an “Independent Authority on Search Vendors” when they are nothing more than a cheap thin affiliate site extorting money from SEO companies!”

“I need to vent- topseos.com is a SCAM. In order to even be on their so-called list of TOP seo firms you must pay- and pay BIG. I sent an email today and one of the owners of the company said that it would cost $1,000 per month to even be ‘considered’ and ranked on ONE list. So it would cost an additional 1k for every list you want to be on- and that’s PER MONTH. What a joke and what a scam! Nobody in their right mind should buy into this and consumers need to beware as SEO firms are simply buying their way to the top. “

“TOPSEOs is a like bidding game where the highest bidder gets the top position in their TOP SEO Companies Rating List. You do not need a great website, good client portfolio, excellent services because what matters mainly is the amount you pay.”

“Hopefully these clowns quite scamming people. Enough is enough.”

Sources for these quotes come from Sphinn, HTMLLink, SEOChat, and SEOBook. What is clear from these reviews is that TopSEOs is a “pay to play” service. If you don’t pay, your odds of showing up toward the top of the rankings (if at all) are slim to none. If you do pay, your odds of showing up highly are quite high. Whether or not a direct correlation between the amount you pay and your ranking exists is unknown.

Taking a look at the top 10 “pay per click management companies,” I have to admit that I’ve actually only heard of four of the top 10, and one of those I’ve only heard of because it’s an SEO – not SEM – firm. And well-known PPC agencies like iProspect, iCrossing, Efficient Frontier, 360i, IMPAQT, Covario, The Search Agency, RKG, and PPC Associates are nowhere to be found (actually, I’m glad not to be associated with this site). I actually ended up finding eFrontier ranked #26, with revenue of less than $5 million (off by about $60M) and run by CEO Ellen Siminoff (she left the company at least five years ago).

If you want to get an additional sense of the “quality” and “integrity” of the research done by this site, just check out their review of a little business called “Google AdWords.” Here are some of the salient facts I learned about AdWords from TopSeos:

  • Based in Washington State! (nope, Mountain View, CA)
  • Founded in 1995 (um, try 1998?)
  • Annual Revenue: $5-$10M (an hour?)
  • Languages: English  (plus 100 more)
  • Major Clients: Carolina Rustica, First Crush, GolfNow (too bad they couldn’t attract slightly bigger sites)

So . . . just to conclude: TopSEOs has been derided by industry insiders as a “pay for placement” “extortion” “scam” and has data that is so out-of-date and inaccurate that it is nothing short of laughable. And yet, do any search on Google for [positive adjective] + [SEM or PPC] + [Agency] and this is the number one organic result. If the Google organic algorithm isn’t already dead, it’s definitely on life support.

- David Rodnitzky, CEO

Improve Your PPC ROI in 3 Steps

Posted On Fri, February, 10th, 2012 by Jeremy Mayes

There’s no shortage of tips and suggestions for improved PPC performance. I’m fairly certain that at least once a week, there’s a top-5 or top 10-post on the subject. I could probably rattle off 100 different things in this post that may or may not apply to your campaigns, but instead I decided to focus on three best practices that can bring the most impact and are the ones I most commonly see not happening.

1.  Make sure keywords that should be serving your ads are actually the keywords that are serving your ads. 

This seems pretty obvious, and your first reaction probably is “of course they are,” but you would be surprised how often the exact opposite is true. A common setup I run into is accounts that have three or four match types for a certain keyword, e.g. Blue widget, “blue widget”, +blue +widget, and [blue widget]. One would think, and Google’s documentation would also suggest, that if someone searched for blue widget, your most restrictive match type would serve the ad. Wrong. Let’s see what the AdWords documentation says:

When several keywords match a search query, which one is used?

There are a number of scenarios there, but the one I’m most interested in is this one:

If you have multiple keywords that are the same, the system will prefer to use the keyword with the more restrictive keyword match type.

Note the use of the word “prefer.” Do you always get or do what you prefer? No? In this case, neither does Google. There a number of reasons Google won’t always show your most restrictive match type, and in some cases your ad may be triggered by a keyword that’s not even the same. Using the example terms listed above – Blue widget, “blue widget”, +blue +widget, and [blue widget] – one would think that it would be extremely rare for a Blue Widget ad associated with a broad matched term to be served as a result of a query for Red Widget (even when you’re bidding on Red Widget), but it happens more often than you would think.

In my opinion, eliminating this type of behavior is step 1 in optimizing an account. If you don’t have control of what keywords are triggering what ads, your data will be a mess. And as a result, you will never be able to truly optimize your account.

You could write an entire white paper on this practice, but at its core there’s a simple step you can take today to start controlling what ads are served for each query. (Note: this assumes you’re not mixing match types within campaigns.) Create a negative keyword list that includes all of your exact match keywords. Associate that negative keyword list with all campaigns except for the campaign that houses the exact match keywords. If AdWords is going to serve your ad, this will force it to serve the ad that’s associated with your exact matched term.

2. Isolate tablets.

Until recently tablet volume was relatively low, and if there was a noticeable difference in tablet performance vs. desktop performance, it was probably for the worst, so people would just opt out of tablets. That’s no longer the case. Thanks to tremendous growth in the tablet market, tablets are quickly becoming a significant opportunity for digital advertisers.

If you’ve opted out of tablets or are just targeting them in the same campaigns as desktops, it’s time to give them their own home. At minimum, this will allow you to manage bids for tablets separately from desk/lap tops, which can bring additional efficiency. Depending on your products/service there may be other reasons to do this as well.

3. Purge underperforming ads.

Most accounts I’ve run into could use a good round of ad cleansing. Regardless of the ad rotation setting, it’s a good idea to regularly purge campaigns of underperforming ads. Even when using the optimize-settings (CTR or conversions) function, the lower-performing ads will still accrue a small amount of impressions. Poor-performing ads drive up costs and can contribute to missed opportunity. Define “performance” criteria that makes sense for your account, and eliminate all but the two best-performing ads from each ad group assuming they have x number of impressions/clicks/etc.

Like all things PPC, some of these items will be more applicable to you than others. Pick and choose what works in your situation, but get these practices in play if you haven’t already. Your account will show its appreciation through a marked improvement in performance.

Have a great weekend!

- Jeremy Mayes, Account Executive

Three 70% Deltas Affecting 100% of Your AdWords Account (Part 1)

Posted On Thu, February, 9th, 2012 by admin

I need to start this blog post with a disclaimer – 70% is a totally random number. That being said, it’s a much more catchy title than ‘Three really big deltas in your AdWords account’ or something like that. Now, on to the post!

I’ve met a lot of SEMers in my day, and they sure do define success differently. Some are scratching for 2% Deltas, others 80% MoM growth! It really depends on how mature your account is, and how badly the person before you managed it. That being said, whether your account is in the top 1% or the bottom, there are three big topics you should be considering that affect your entire account. If your SEMer hasn’t at least mentioned these topics, they’re missing the forest and focusing on the trees. Today we’ll focus on the first: Top vs. Side ad positioning.

Where you’ll find the 70% Delta: Profit, Revenue, or Conversion volume

What You Need to Know: On July 13th, 2011, I lost some secret sauce! That was the day Google gave all SEMs part 2 of the holy grail of AdWords data (the first being the SQR) in the top vs. side report (now called ‘top vs. other’). Google’s angle was to get advertisers to understand the CTR difference depending on the location of your ad on the Google SERPs. I was always aware of this difference, but not until Google gave me a report did I see just how big the difference was. Even so, I instantly liked this report because CTR conversations no longer had to be just about product positioning and keyword stuffing. Turns out, real estate had it right the whole time: location, location, location! Whether your ad is on the top or part of the dreaded ‘other’ is the single greatest factor in your CTR.

I took three B2C account managed by PPC Associates and ran a ‘top vs. other’ report. I only considered Google.com data and only pulled data from exact match keywords. Here are the results of the aggregated account data:

I’d like to see someone write an ad with a 3,338% CTR delta, because that’s what top vs. other shows us!

What’s great about this data is that it’s not skewed (much) by aggregation. If you a/b test a given exact match keyword, I’m very confident you’ll find at least a 700% delta between the last ‘top’ position and the first ‘side’ position.

Unfortunately, I haven’t used the position ValueTrack parameter extensively enough to map out the CTR differences by ad position, but I’m sure it’d look something like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why it’s actionable: If your goals are primarily visits-based, then you know exactly what it takes to get your account to the next level. In short, you’ve got to kick up your CPCs enough to get in the top. Luckily, with the ‘top page bid estimate,’  you’ve got a good starting point to report to management. That being said, you’ll still need to pull your ‘top vs. other’ report to confirm your bids are high enough.

If you’re using an ROAS or a CPA goal, and are managing PPC with some positive margin (especially one of 25+%), you’ve got something very important to consider. ROAS is a great metric as a proxy, but if you really want to maximize profit, you need to pay attention to top vs. side. If you get 7x as many quality clicks out of 1t3 (first page, third position on top) vs. 1s1 (first page, first position on the side) for only a 10% higher CPC, your much more profitable move (by volume) is the former, albeit it at lower profit margin per order. By extension, the same can be said for CPA-based goals. If you’ve been sold on ROAS, and your bidding platform doesn’t have the ability to ‘maximize profit,’ the platform isn’t considering CTR in its calculations. If so, you should certainly explore one that does!

At the end of the day, you need to do the math associated with ‘top vs. other’ (even if it’s just to make sure your algo has it right). This is one instance, however, where all that number-crunching is actually worth it! The pot at the end of the rainbow isn’t a 5% delta; it’s an ‘Oh man, I so deserve a promotion right now’ delta.

How to Pull the Data: Keyword Tab –> Download button –> Ad Segment –> Top vs. other.

I recommend focusing on Google.com exact match data when dealing with hard math (because the data is more valid when compared to phrase or broad, which is really just an aggregate of hundreds of auctions).

 

Please look for parts 2 and 3 over the upcoming weeks!

- Mike Nelson, Senior SEM Manager

Query me this: Googlers ask the darndest things

Posted On Wed, February, 8th, 2012 by admin

Hi – I’m Jaime Sikora, PPC Associates Production Manager. I am relatively new to the world of paid search; I’ve been at PPC Associates for about six months. As I’m sure you can imagine, the past couple of months have been full of learning experiences – Excel tricks, keyword research, search behaviors. As I’ve made this journey, I couldn’t help but notice a couple quirks of the paid search world – or, more so, of the users of the internet.

Judging by what people search for, there are markets for products that I didn’t know existed. That, or there are potential untapped markets for some interesting new inventions. Like what, you ask? Well, ‘male corsets,’ for example. What these might look like or why one might want one, I don’t know. But what I do know is that someone, somewhere was looking for one. And a mustache on a stick? Oh, someone wants one of those too! No judgment.

What else are people looking for, besides just physical products to purchase? Well, someone who ended up on an engagement-ring landing page was looking for an official proposal template. (I’m guessing romance isn’t his strong point. It’s ok, buddy.) And while we’re on the subject – a woman (presumably) was wondering ‘should I buy my own engagement ring’? I found myself wanting to offer relationship advice to a complete and total stranger.

From the keyword report:

That brings me to a rather deep question: what role, exactly, does Google (and any other search engine) have for its users? I realize that a general, safe answer is that it’s a source of finding information on the internet. But how much and what kind of information do people think the internet holds?

Google’s global search volume on ‘when will i get married?’ is 165,000. ‘What is the meaning of life?’ comes in around 550,000. ‘Am I crazy?’ logs 110,000. Now, don’t get me wrong – it’s not that it surprises me that people were wondering these things.  What gets me is that these people turned to Google, thinking it was the route to finding the answer. Is Google just a modern-day magic 8 ball? Or maybe, in the case of ‘does he love me?’ (49,500), a daisy with petals waiting to be plucked? What I really want to know is this: how much stock are these searchers putting into the responses retrieved on their SERPs?

(For what it’s worth, it looks like some companies can capitalize on these searchers!)

Maybe some people simply view Google as the wise master. Maybe, after all this face time, Google starts to seem more like a friend, a confidant, and a therapist. Is it the mere exposure effect, perhaps? Whatever it might be, something about that comforting search box lets people truly open up and share their feelings, their hopes, their fears. (Someone who ended up converting for a higher education account searched on ‘I feel shame for not having completed my degree.’ I’m glad we were able to help you fix that, whoever you are.)

Yup, people aren’t afraid to get personal with Google. Someone who ended up on a health-related website wanted to know, ‘Am I bipolar, or just a [jerk]?’  Maybe it’s best to keep such things between yourself and your search engine.

Maybe it’s the promise (or really, the illusion) of anonymity that has attracted such searcher behavior. Maybe Google has become such an omnipresence that people think it really does hold all the answers. I don’t necessarily know what was going through the heads of these searchers, but I do know that run-of-the-mill keyword research projects can turn up some pretty extraordinary glimpses into the lives of everyday Googlers.

- Jaime Sikora, Production Manager

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