1.- Separate Content from Search
Online Marketers need to view their contextual listings campaigns differently from search, because the results and the customer are different. It is normal to expect lower clicks and conversion rates, with it not being a qualified, targeted lead. This does not necessarily mean an advertiser should not participate in content buys that decision is ultimately up to the statistics. The separation provides much more insight into what is working, and more importantly what is not working.
2.- Control spending by adjusting bid amounts, not daily spend budget
Often, the funds are simply not available to meet the demand (which that in itself could use some analyzing; because if a campaign is optimized correctly then the return should justify any spend.)
It is important not to control spending based on the daily budget. Advertisers need to lower the bidding cost, to reach the maximum amount of target customers. Controlling spending based on daily budget, leaves too many customers on the table.
3.- Create a negative keyword list
Eliminating unwanted traffic is an easy step to lower cost and improve conversion. All of the major pay-per-click providers allow an advertiser to create a negative list of keywords. In this case, less is more. Although this results in less traffic, the traffic that is eliminated is unwanted (non-buyers).
An example of negative keywords would be a site selling soap. If the consumer searches for any of the following, the advertiser would not want to pay for that visit: “soap opera”, “soap digest”, etc. The list of negative words could be: -opera, -digest, -abc
4.- Conversion matters, not click-through rate (CTR)
This point seems to finally be making its way to marketers. However, there are still a few that seem to think that quantity is better than quality. As any pay-per-click expert can tell you, it is easy to get traffic. Getting that traffic to buys is another story. By using all of the other habits listed here, the pay-per-click advertiser can weed-out unwanted traffic and only pay for conversions. It is important to keep an eye on the Cost per Conversion. How much does a customer cost? Not a click.
5.- Avoid #1
Bottom line: The number one position is a bad ROI.
Often times that can also be said about the #2 and #3 position. The traffic coming from the top positions are not buyers, they are just researching. Serious buyers WILL go to the 3, 4, 5 position. When the consumers are ready to buy, they will be back. Be patient.
6.- Bid Exact, Avoid Broad
This one takes time and a lot of work, but probably one of the best ways to get strong ROI on pay-per-click marketing. By using exact matching, the advertiser is eliminating the researcher and getting straight to the buyer. Like many of these habits the traffic will decrease, however conversion and online revenue should increase. The best way an advertiser can start is to triple the keywords by creating broad, exact and phase of every keyword. Then, after reviewing analytics, gradually eliminate broad, and possibly phrase keywords that result in lower conversion.
7.- Good Analytics
All of the above habits can not be truly comprehended with out strong analytics. A reliable analytics program is the backbone of any online (and often offline) marketing campaign. Determining the cost per conversion, the unwanted visitors, the negative keyword list, the ROI – all require dependable analytics.
Tags: Content Network, PPC
June 4th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
I wanted to add you need to work 6 an 7 together very closely to pick up on new words to exact match. This is a great way to build your keyword list up fast.
Great post!
June 7th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Hi John
Great tips here.
One clarification for EXACT match tactic.
You are 100% right that you can drive higher ROI higher by restricting matches to exact, but at the same time, this may shut off the flow of otherwise profitable leads.
1 order with $100 profit will have much higher ROI than 50 orders with only $25 profit per order. You put more $$ in your pocket in the second case.
June 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
what are some good analytics tools/software?
im having a hard time figuring out how to track ROI being only an affiliate programs marketer
June 11th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Luji,
There are some great analytics programs out there. However, if you are on a budget there is a lot you can do with Google Analytics. And it’s free.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Great post! I often use the three match types all together for testing a keyword. After analysis, I will sometimes keep all three, but change the bid strategy from bidding all the same amount, to lower the bids for broad and phrase match, and tweaking up the bid for exact, depending on click throughs and conversion rate. All in all, effective PPC management is constantly testing and trying to beat your best.
Thanks for the 7 tips.
June 15th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Interesting points you make with #2 & #5. If you don’t worry about CTR (which, in my experience is heavily affected by position) how are you not adversely affected by a poor quality score? I don’t try for first position, as I don’t want to overpay, but it seems like falling out of the top three would kill your quality score, which does affect your cost-per-click. Also, what do you say to people who want their company to appear near the top of the listings for their keywords?
June 15th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I have not worried about quality score, at least not at this stage. Now, that may change with some of the new rule and policies. I always make sure my ads are precisely targeted, specific to the keywords, with very relevant landing pages that are searched. By doing that, my quality score takes care of itself.
On your other point, if a company wants “their company to appear near the top of the listings for their keywords”, I would ask why. Why do they want to be near the top? Why are they doing pay-per-click marketing? What is the ultimate goal of their pay-per-click campaign?
I can not answer those questions for any company. There are many reasons a pay-per-click campaign can be used other than making immediate revenue. I plan to touch on many of those in an upcoming post.
July 9th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
I think using the site related keyword tool in Google can help you identify new keywords that you may not have picked up on before. Also, using the basic keyword tool more often helps too. New keywords are being added everyday into the keyword tools - use them frequently! Ad text testing is another great way to increase your traffic. Always run two ads at the same time, and change the one that’s under performing.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I can’t agree with #2 more. In fact, I just wrote a post that explains why and gives more detail:
http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2.....manag.html
August 20th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
I enjoed the article, thanks.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:52 am
I guess it goes without saying to watch your keywords carefully. Keywords very specific to your product are obviously the best performers. “Elementary my dear Watson”.
What do you think of using a bid program to try to maintain a specific position with your exact match keywords? Is there a product out there that works?
Thanks - Jeff
February 25th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Jeff,
I think a previous post will answer your question:
Why I do not use a bid management tool, but you should?
March 4th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Excellent post, I particularly like the point about going for a lower ad position where the buyers will go rather than the researcher.
There are too many people ego bidding to be top rather than concentrating on quality clicks.
March 15th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Thanks for th good advice. I just upped my daily budget by $5 - now $15 higher than were I started - because Google recommended it (of course). I’ll go back now and have a look at some better options. Thanks again.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Great post. Regarding conversions, some advertisers rely on phone calls as their primary conversion lever. For those clients, bounce rates provide an inverse statistic for conversion rates. For such advertisers, we emphasize Cost per Net Click (CpNetC), which is calculated as: Cost / (clicks - bounces).
August 29th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Analysis is the Key. In my 3 years of PPC experience, and working with a lot of different verticals and inheriting some interesting PPC accounts for my company, I have realized one common theme i.e. lack of analysis. As obvious as it might be, a lot of Paid Search Marketers obsess about:
1. Conversions (as they should)
2. CTR (not so important as mentioned in this post)
3. Avg. CPC (good to obsess about it but not if you are meeting your ROI goals and conversion numbers - since only the search engines have control over the MIN CPC)
4. Impressions and overall traffic
These are all good things to look at but with the exception of #1 the other three are NOT so important. What takes precedence over them is basic analysis i.e.
1. Filter keywords with cost but no conversions - usually over 1-2 months minimum. This is where a lot of accounts loose money. If the keyword has not converted within 1-2 months and has cost even the 1s and 2s in spend - PAUSE IT or DELETE IT and see the difference in your cost the following week/month.
2. Filter keywords with conversions but Negative ROI - and I am pretty sure like me you will see only a handful of these. Analyze them spend the most time with them - why are they behaving like that? Are the positions too high? are the Max. CPCs too high? is the ad not written properly? are the landing pages for those keywords offbeat? How would you deal with them if all else is good? Know you ROI goal or CPA goal and try to calculate your new bid based on that - (Target CPA/Actual CPA)*Current Max. CPC
3. Filter keywords with no clicks and no conversions - ask yourself why is this happening? are the bids too low? are the positions as a result too low? look at the impression and click volume that is a good indicator of the keyword has enough search volume or not.
4. Filter keywords with conversions and meeting your ROI goals - either leave them as is and just monitor them or pick a handful of them and see if changing their bids, landing pages, ad copies boost your conversion at all.
As mentioned before, it is amazing to see how a lot of people do not do this basic analysis. I personally have cut down cost by $100K over the last 3 years for the companies I have worked with by simply following these steps.