This document summarizes a webinar on how humans can remain relevant in an automated world. The webinar discusses addressing concerns about automation, the core tasks humans complete that machines cannot, and how humans and machines can work together. It provides an agenda and introduces the presenter. The presentation then discusses how automation is used for grunt work, bidding strategies, keyword research, creative work, and optimization. It provides recommendations on when tasks should be owned, shared, or delegated to machines and stresses the importance of ongoing optimization and adjustment of digital marketing campaigns.

1. Man v Machine: How To Remain
Relevant In An Automated World
Navah Hopkins
WordStream

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The webinar will be recorded.
Check your inbox for the materials.
Submit your questions for Q&A!

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Agenda
• Addressing the Angst
• Core Tasks Humans Complete
• Working Together
• In digital marketing since 2008, international
speaker, & Top 25 PPC Influencer
• Work across our international book of SMBs
and the agencies who serve them
• Avid star wars, gamer, geekery fan & pet mom
About Me:
Put images or other content here.

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How Many Of Us Enjoy Doing “Grunt” Work?

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SEMrush Found That
The Most Desired
Marketing Skill Is Excel

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We Pay Our
Strategists More Than
Our Executors More
For A Reason

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The Human Mind Is Great For Having Ideas, Not For
Holding Them – David Allen

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If You Had To Staff For All The Grunt Work, You’d Go
Out Of Business

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If You Had To Do All The Grunt Work Yourself, You Wouldn’t
Have Time To Better Yourself/Execute At Scale

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Machine Learning & Automation Are Means To Unlock
Greater Potential In Ourselves

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The Things That Cause Job Angst Via Machine
Learning Are Creative, Close Variants, & Bidding

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Creative:
Mostly Focused
On Running Our
Tests, Or
Leveraging
Existing
Creative

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Most Marketers Aren’t Committing To RSA/RDAs Yet!

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Advertisers Who Leverage Smart Creative See 3X
Better Conversion Rates

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Close Variant Angst
The aggregated data in this post is based on a sample of 16,952 WordStream client accounts advertising on Google Search Network between September 24 and October
31, 2018 using exact match keywords. Clients represent all verticals and predominately US and English speaking markets.

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Close Variants: Allowing Us To Opt Out Of Competitive
Auction Prices & Keyword Concepts
The aggregated data is based on a sample of 16,952 WordStream client accounts advertising on Google Search Network between September 24 and October 31, 2018
using exact match keywords. Clients represent all verticals and predominately US and English speaking markets.

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Implied Words Also Hold The Potential For Discounts!
$0.00
$0.50
$1.00
$1.50
$2.00
$2.50
Exact Avg CPC Phrase Avg CPC Broad Avg CPC
Q2 2019 Avg CPC
Mover Rigging
0
5
10
15
20
25
True Exact Exact Via Phrase Exact Via Broad
Q2 2019 Conversions
Mover Conversions Rigging Conversions

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Bidding Strategies: Enter A Goal + Data, Get Back
What You Asked For

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Think Of Machine
Learning/AI As
Benefit-Free
Employee

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When To Delegate To Machines vs Own Our Tasks

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Data Acquisition With
Help From Machines

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Keyword Research:
Should You Own It, Share
It Or Delegate?

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Own: Limited Budget, Worked In
The Industry Before, Have Time
To Prove Out Your Campaign

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Important: New Match-Types Mean Ad Groups Should Be Collections
Of Themes, Not Granular & Quality Score Focused

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Still, Check Your Keyword Assumptions At The Local Level:
Search Trends Change!

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If You Own Keyword Research, Be Prepared For The
Full Ramp Up Time (2 Week Minimum)

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Share: Need Volume Tempered By Human Experience,
Have Budget For Data Informed Action, New Industry

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Opting Into DSA

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If You Use DSA, Be Sure You Set All Keywords You’ve
Actively Chosen As Negatives In Your DSA Campaign

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Using Both Broad Match & DSA Is Redundant
Going After The
Same Traffic…

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DSA is Happiest
Serving
Industries With
Lots Of Landing
Pages

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Delegate: Large Budget & No Experience In The
Industry

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Important: Full Delegation Means You’re Building In
LOTS Of Negative Work In The Optimization Phase.

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This Phase Should Only Last 1-2 Months At The Most –
Longer Than That, You’re Just Creating Waste

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Going This Route Means One Of Three Things:
“Smart” Campaigns, Small Broad, Or Pure DSA

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Smart: Once A Campaign Is Turned “Smart” It Can’t Be
Undone

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Smart Shopping & Display Have Great Potential For
Value

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Smart Shopping Vs Regular Shopping
August 2019
• Conversions: 1968.06
• Conversion Rate: 10.26%
• ROAS: 961%
• CPA: 6.48
• Spend: $12,753.43
August 2019
• Conversion: 40
• Conversion Rate: 10.64%
• ROAS: 112%
• CPA: 16.57
• Spend: $662.79

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Smart Search Is Riskier – Be Sure You’re Ok Giving Up
The Human Component

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Small Broad Structure: 2-3 ad groups with 1-2 Broad
terms

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Pure DSA: Don’t Forget Exclusions & To Audit Your
Search Terms Report

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Which Keyword Research Path Should You Take
Own Share Delegate
You Know What Keywords
To Go After & What They
Should Cost.
You Have A Good Idea Of
The Search Subtleties In
Different Regions
You’re Tight On Budget &
Need The Control
You Have Budget To Learn
How Your Prospects Search,
But Want To Control The
Scope
You’ve Worked In The
Industry Before, But Don’t
Have Time For The Full Ramp
Up Period.
Money Is No Object –
You’re Under Pressure
To Get Volume Now
You Have Buy In From
Sales/Leadership/Your
self To Invest Heavy
Now So Your Decisions
Later Are Data Backed

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Bidding: Own, Share,
Delegate

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Devil’s Bargain: Owning Your Bids Means Sacrificing
60+ Unique Signals

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If You Switch
From Manual To
Auto/Smart
Bidding (& Visa
Versa) You May
Be
Gaining/Losing
Levels Of Control

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If You Ask Google To Deliver on Volume, Don’t Hold It
Accountable For Value
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1.00%
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8.00%
9.00%
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate By Bidding Strategy
TCPA TROAS Max Clicks Max Conversions ECPC
0.00%
100.00%
200.00%
300.00%
400.00%
500.00%
600.00%
700.00%
800.00%
ROAS
ROAS By Bidding Strategy
TCPA TROAS Max Clicks Max Conversions ECPC
Based on data from 3200 client accounts in
July 2019

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I Lean Heavily On The Side Of Share & Delegate –
Provided You Take Precautions!

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If You Don’t Trust Your Conversions, You Can’t Use
Smart Bidding – Manual or Automated Only!

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Own: You’re Committed To Investing Time To
Micro-Manage Bids

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Use Bid Adjustments To Direct Budget

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Share: You Trust Your Conversions And/Or You Have
Budget For Some Data Acquisition, But Bid Caps Are
Used

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Check Your Impression Share To See If
The Keywords You’ve Chosen Fit Your
Budget In A Way That Provides Value

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Delegate: All Bidding Strategies Are Fair Game– NO
BID CAPS!

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Only Do This If You Know Beyond A shadow Of A
Doubt You Have The Budget For The Learning Period

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Which Bidding Path Should You Take
Own Share Delegate
You Have Time To
Micromanage Bids &
Adjustments
Your Conversion Tracking
Isn’t Trustworthy
You Know This Industry, &
Can Set Bids In Line With
Goals
You Either Trust Your
Conversions Or Are Ok Using
Bid Caps.
You’re Unsure What Auction
Price Will Get You Quality
Leads, But Can’t Commit To
Machine Owned Bids
(Expensive)
Money Is No Object –
You’re Under Pressure
To Get Volume Now
You Want To Teach
Your Team What Goals
Are Realistic Vs
Unrealistic, & Get
Their Buy In For A Test

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Creative: Should You
Own, Share, Or Delegate

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Ad Networks Intelligently Own That Not Everyone Is A
Brilliant Copywrite

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• All extensions you pay for should
be manually crafted.
• Ratings, locations, and structured
snippets are safe.
Google Will Also Make Extensions

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Can You Tell Which Was Made by AI?

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Can You Tell Which Was Made by AI?
AI AI
Human

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Comparing Metrics Dec. 10 – Jan 8
Top Performing AI Created Ad
• Impressions: 521
• CTR: 11.52 %
• Average CPC: $9.55
• CPA: $30.16
• ROAS: 9.95X
Human Created Ad
• Impressions: 145
• CTR: 4.14%
• Average CPC: $10.94
• CPA: $32.81
• ROAS: 9.14X
Runner-up AI AD:
Impressions: 329
CTR: 6.99%
CPA: $40.10
ROAS: 7.48X

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Google Can Make “Average Ads” So Consider That As
You Decide Where Creative Lives

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Facebook Makes It Simple To Get Started With
Automated Ads

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Are They Perfect? No, But They Work!
6%
Conversion
Rate
188% better
Conversion Rate
Than Non
Automated

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Own: You Genuinely Enjoy The Creative Process & Can
Invest Time In Matching Message To Market

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Ad Groups
Shouldn’t Be
Responsible For
More Than One
Persona – Bid
Up/Exclude To
Ensure Your
Messaging Lands!

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Share: You Have Ideas, But Can’t Own The Process -
Responsive Search Ads, Customizers, & DSA Enter Into
The Equation For Human Guided Assistance

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Responsive: reacting quickly and positively

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Responsive Display Ads: Empowering Analytical Types To Be
Creative

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Responsive Search Ads: Messaging Match-Makers
Don’t be afraid to PIN the
messaging you need to be
in Headline 1-2!

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But We Can’t See The Full Ad! What Good Is That Intel


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That’s Why We Have Two ETA’s Playing Body Guard On
Messaging!

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Delegate: You’re No Copywrite - Allow Auto-Created
Ads To Be Your Messenger With Heavy DSA Use.

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Can You Find The DSA Ad?

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DSA’s Metrics Depend Entirely On How Well You Set It
Up For Success
9.73% CTR vs
1.73% CTR .35% Conv.
Rate vs .64%
Conv. Rate

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Negative Targets Are Just As Important As Negative Keywords
– Don’t Waste Valuable Traffic On A Non-Converting Page!

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Which Creative Path Should You Take
Own Share Delegate
Writing Ads Brings You Joy,
& You Have
Time/Objectivity To Audit
Ads At Regular Intervals
You’ve Set Up Your Ads To
Easily Test For Variables
Your Brand Requires You
To Run Creative By Others
You Don’t Love Writing Ads
But Are Required To Control
Core Messaging
You’re Unsure Which
Messaging Will Land & You
Don’t Have Time To Manage
Tests
You’re The Analytical
Numbers Person –
Creative Just Isn’t Your
Thing/You Don’t Have
Time To Be Creative
You’re Not Under
Strict Guidelines On
Creative

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Optimization With Help
From Machines

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Quality Control Begins With SERP Analysis

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DSA Can Get You To Revisit Keyword Concepts You
Might Have Written Off

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Depending On How Much You “Delegated” You Will
Either Have An Intensive Optimization Phase Or An
“Incremental Gains” One

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Close Variants (Search Engines’ Ability To Make Logical Leaps
On What You Want) Must Be Part Of The Equation
Exact-Match
leading to
“broad”

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Close Variants: Forcing Us Away From Granular
Structures In Favor Of Business Needs
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$0.50
$1.00
$1.50
$2.00
$2.50
$3.00
$3.50
$4.00
$4.50
Average Desktop CPC AverageMobile CPC
Average CPC By Query & Keyword Match-Type
True Exact Exact From Broad Exact From Phrase
Variants on
“Phrase” gave us
access to an
average 33%
discount!
Based on data from 3200 client accounts in
July 2019

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If You Owned Data Acquisition: Auditing Variants &
Some Negative Work!

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If You Delegated: LOTS Of Negative Work + Auction
Price Audits

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Workflow: Is My Time
Being Invested Correctly

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There Is No Such Thing As A “Set It & Forget It”
Campaign

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But Making Too Many Changes In A Short Period Will
Hurt You

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Owning: Be Mindful Of When You’re Best Suited To
“Creative Vs Analytical” Tasks

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Organize Your Day By Tasks That Align With When
Your Mind Is Active

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Do You Have Your 5 Unmovable Minutes Scheduled?

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Sharing: Use Native Recommendation Engines Or
Third Party Tools

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Before You
Accept A
Suggestion,
Consider If
It Will
Actually
Help Your
Business

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Ad Testing Solutions Like RSA &
RDA Will Play A Big Role

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Facebook Creative Testing & Goals Help Empower The
Right Creative For The Job

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Delegate: AI Oriented Tools – Be Careful Here

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Account Structures AI/Machines Create Often Aren’t
Fun To Take Over

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Fully Delegating Means You Will Spend More Than If
You Managed Yourself – Is Your Time Worth It?

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Which Workflow Path Should You Take
Own Share Delegate
You Know Yourself & Can
Be Disciplined In How You
Allocate Your Time.
You’ve Set Yourself Up
With An Account
Structure You Can Easily
Navigate & Report On.
You Need Help Knowing
Where To Work, But Can Get
It Done Yourself.
You Have Enough Knowledge
to Audit Machine Driven
Suggestions
You Honestly Can’t Be
Bothered With Active
Management, But
Can’t Afford An
Agency/In-House
Person

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Final Take Aways

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Man VS Machine Is Dead – Long Live
Man X Machine!

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Invest Your Mental
Energy On Tasks That
Spark Joy

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Test Out Partially and
Fully Automated
Campaigns – You’ll Still
Own Creative

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Automated Bidding Can
Score Big Wins – Be Sure
You Ask For What You
Want!

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Honor What You Will Be
Held Accountable For &
Build Campaigns That
Meet Those Briefs

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DSA Can Be A Really
Powerful Keyword
Research Tool – Invest In
Known Entities

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Ad Networks Can Write
“Average” Ads – Only Invest
Your Time On Creative If You
Will Craft Good Creative

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