In “4 Steps to Outsmart the PPC Competition: Analyze, Assess Apply, Adjust,” WordStream and SEMrush offer a new approach to PPC advertising. Learn the four most important strategies for paid search, and how to evaluate the competitive landscape for risks and opportunities. Analyze the competition’s performance and strategy; Assess and optimize your campaign performance; Apply PPC best practices; And repeat, adjusting to trends and changes in your market.

1. #PPCcompetition
Brought to you by:
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4 Steps to Outrank the PPC Competition: Assess, Apply, Analyze, Adjust

2. www.wordstream.com/learn
Want to get smart in paid search?
#PPCcompetition

3. Larry Kim
CTO and Founder, WordStream
@larrykim
Today’s Panelists:
Michael Stricker
Marketing Director, SEMrush
@RadioMS
#PPCcompetition

4. PPC Competition: Internal vs. External View

5. PPC Competition:
Internal vs. External View
•Internal: Are my Key Performance Metrics any Good or Not vs. my competitors?
•External: What are my competitors doing?
#PPCcompetition

6. Google Keeps Advertisers in the Dark
#PPCcompetition

7. Not Much Transparency Around How Things Really Work
#PPCcompetition

8. Example: Which Ad Wins?
•Ad A
•2,423 Impressions
•453 clicks (1.4% CTR)
•Average Position: 2.8
•Ad B
•36,223 Impressions
•760 clicks (2.1% CTR)
•Average Position: 3.0
#PPCcompetition

9. •Neither ad is worth declaring a “Winner”
•Not even the 2.1% CTR in the 3.0 Avg. Position
Trick Question: They Both Suck
Why??
#PPCcompetition

10. Because Competitors are Kicking Your Butt
#PPCcompetition

11. Even Your “Winning” Ad is a Loser!
#PPCcompetition

12. Because Competitors are Kicking Your Butt
Forest vs. Trees

13. So What is a Good CTR These Days?
#PPCcompetition

14. Higher Than Most Would Expect
#PPCcompetition

15. Some Competitors Doing 2x, 3x, 6x Better
#PPCcompetition

16. Unicorn vs. Donkey PPC Accounts
Percentile
Vs. ExpectedCTR
Name
Bottom 50%
Below Expected CTR
Donkeys
Top 15%
2X Higher
Good
Top 5%
3xHigher
Really Good
Top 1%
6x Higher!!
Unicorns
#PPCcompetition

17. Why Should I Care About High CTR?
#PPCcompetition

18. Because Quality Score is Calculated Based on Beating The Average.
It’s Graded on a Curve.
#PPCcompetition

19. Why Should I Care About High Quality Score?
#PPCcompetition

20. Quality Score Impacts CPC
[graphic]
#PPCcompetition

21. QS Impacts Ad Position
[graphic]
#PPCcompetition

22. QS Impacts Cost Per Conversion
[graphic]
#PPCcompetition

23. QS Impacts Impression Share
[graphic]
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24. [graphic]
QS Matters 2x More on Mobile
#PPCcompetition

25. What’s an Average Quality Score?
#PPCcompetition

26. It’s Been Falling. Today: 5/10
[graphic]
#PPCcompetition

27. Winners and Losers in the AdWords Game
•Lower CTR vs. Competitors = Low Quality Score
•Low Quality Score means…
•Less prominent ad positions
•Very low impression share
•Huge CPC penalties (+400% Tax)
•High Cost Per Conversion (+64%)
#PPCcompetition

28. Beating Your Competition is the Key to Everything*
•Be Very Picky. Bid on Only High Commercial Intent Keywords and Get HIGH CTRs.
•Delete Junk Keywords (Bottom Third of your Account)
•PRO TIP: Use impression weighted average quality scores for Campaigns & Accounts (ignore keyword-level QS)
#PPCcompetition

29. Is My Conversion Rate Any Good?
#PPCcompetition

30. Typical Conversion Rate for PPC
#PPCcompetition

31. Donkeys vs. Unicorns

32. Donkeys vs. Unicorns
Distribution Point
ConversionRate
VsAverage
Comments
Average
2.35%
Donkeys
Top 25%
5.31%
2x
Good
Top 10%
11.45%
3-5x
Unicorns!!
#PPCcompetition

33. Top 10% of Accounts have 3-5x Conversion Rate!
Distribution Point
All accounts
Ecommerce
Legal
B2B
Finance
Median ConversionRate
2.35%
1.84%
2.07%
2.23%
5.01%
Top 25% Conversion Rate
5.31%
3.71%
4.12%
4.31%
11.19%
Top 10% Conversion Rate
11.45%
6.25%
6.46%
11.70%
24.48%
#PPCcompetition

34. Aim For 3-5x Increases! (not 3-5%)
#PPCcompetition

35. Am I Doing Enough Work?
#PPCcompetition

36. What PPC Marketers Say They Do vs. What They Actually Do!
#PPCcompetition

37. Exhibit A: Self Reported PPC Management Activities
#PPCcompetition

38. Exhibit B: What They’re Really Doing
#PPCcompetition

39. The Bar is Very Low
#PPCcompetition

40. What’s an Average CPC?
#PPCcompetition

41. Average Cost Per Click
Industry
Google Search
Display Network
Finance
$3.09
$1.03
Travel
$0.29
$0.28
Shopping
$0.25
$0.27
Jobs & Education
$1.80
$0.34
Internet & Telecom
$1.11
$0.40
Computers & Electronics
$1.29
$0.44
Business & Industrial
$1.67
$0.97
Home & Garden
$0.76
$0.83
Autos & Vehicles
$0.97
$1.03
Beauty& Fitness
$1.11
$1.01
#PPCcompetition

42. What’s an Average Conversion Rate?
#PPCcompetition

43. Average Conversion Rates
Industry
Google Search
Display Network
Finance
6.12%
5.12%
Travel
1.45%
2.99%
Shopping
3.58%
2.19%
Jobs & Education
6.09%
2.09%
Internet & Telecom
6.27%
8.59%
Computers & Electronics
4.79%
2.96%
Business & Industrial
4.23%
4.10%
Home & Garden
2.21%
3.43%
Autos & Vehicles
4.29%
6.15%
Beauty& Fitness
4.56%
2.27%
#PPCcompetition

44. What’s an Average CPA?
#PPCcompetition

45. Average Cost Per Conversion
Industry
Google Search
Display Network
Finance
$50.49
$20.12
Travel
$20.00
$9.36
Shopping
$6.98
$12.33
Jobs & Education
$29.56
$16.27
Internet & Telecom
$17.70
$4.66
Computers & Electronics
$29.02
$14.86
Business & Industrial
$39.48
$23.66
Home & Garden
$34.39
$24.20
Autos & Vehicles
$22.61
$16.75
Beauty& Fitness
$24.34
$44.49
#PPCcompetition

46. Don’t Settle For Average. Be The Unicorn Among a Sea of Donkey Advertisers.

47. www.wordstream.com/google-adwords
www.wordstream.com/landing-page
Grade Your AdWordsAccount
Grade Your AdWordsLanding Pages
#PPCcompetition
#PPCcompetition

48. Analyze From Without
(Look externally)

49. Google’s 2013 revenue exceeded $57 billion
__________
90% of that from Ads
#PPCcompetition

50. PPC Advertising is a key component for 48% of Marketers*
*MarketingSherpa2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report
#PPCcompetition

51. ..66% of those marketers were dissatisfied,finding their ad campaigns only somewhat effective to not effective……..
at all
#PPCcompetition

52. We could all learn a lesson from the 32% who labeled their PPC as “very effective”.

53. Harness the power of competitive intelligence for your PPC campaign
•Relevant keyword research
•Traffic estimations at domain and keyword level
•Spend trends
•Budget comparisons
•Real-world, crowd-sourced campaign ideas.
#PPCcompetition

54. Whatever tool you use, the data must be:
•Big (106M U.S. keywords)
•Fresh (popular terms daily)
•Growing (add new terms)
#PPCcompetition

55. •Showing Ads (historical trends)
Whatever tool you use, the data must be:
#PPCcompetition

56. •Tied to Domains (40M U.S.)
•Linked to Landing Pages
Whatever tool you use, the data must be:
#PPCcompetition

57. •Estimate Traffic by keyword
•Estimate Level of Competition
Whatever tool you use, the data must be:
#PPCcompetition

58. •Estimate Spends, domain-level
•Estimate Spends, keyword-level
#PPCcompetition

59. Seek Rewards While Minimizing Risk

60. Identify True Competitors…
Crush the rest
•Business Competitors
•Logically Unrelated Businesses
•Ambiguatedentities
•Aggregators, catalogs and resellers
•Homographs (e.g. bar)
#PPCcompetition

61. That’s the First Power of Competitive Intelligence
But wait, there’s more
#PPCcompetition

62. Analyze
Assess
Apply
Again
Again and Again
#PPCcompetition

63. “We look at the present through a rear view mirror; we walk backwards into the future”
~ Marshall McLuhan
#PPCcompetition

64. Bring your success full-cycle
•Competitive research to periodically sample the market
•Detect spend reallocations
•Use trends to detect market changes
•Keyword research to take advantage of semantic shifts.
#PPCcompetition

65. What changes?

66. How customers use keywords
•New Opportunities Open Up
•Grab the ‘first-in’ advantage
“Over 15% of daily searches are for new terms.”
~ Google
#PPCcompetition

67. How customers use keywords
•Old standby’s start to decay
•Competitive research to prove the value of alternative keywords
•Trends!
#PPCcompetition

68. Pride comes before the fall
•The cleverest phrases are not the smartest strategy
#PPCcompetition

69. Trademark Hijacking
•How competitors use keywords
#PPCcompetition

70. Final takeaways
1.Sit “at the shoulders” of searchers
2.Use data with broad reach across millions of keywords
3.Track results historically to capture trends that can be judged for their severity and established reliability
#PPCcompetition

71. There is no end…
•Bring it Full Cycle
•Increased revenue AND reduced risk? What advertiser can’t get behind that?
#PPCcompetition