Google AdWords is the most powerful and sophisticated advertising platform ever created. What better time to get your message in front of a prospect than at the exact moment when they have expressed an interested in what you sell by typing a relevant keyword into a search engine? What better way to target your message than by zeroing in on the actual keyword the person is seeking information about?
If only it were that simple! Perhaps you’ve received a card in the mail from Google inviting you to give it a try. Maybe you’re already an AdWords user but are struggling to make it perform profitably. Or maybe you’ve wanted to get in the game but have held back because you’re heard stories of money spent with little or nothing to show for it. Any way you slice it, jumping into Google AdWords without knowing what you are doing is no longer an option. If you’ve got the bankroll and the patience, you may eventually get an education, but it won’t be cheap.
3. 3
Level-Set
• Do you currently manage campaigns on AdWords?
• Are they profitable?
• Can you prove it?
• Any particular issues or challenges you’d like to
learn more about today?
4. 4
Agenda
• Your objectives & Google’s objectives
• Search vs Display
• Fundamentals of Search PPC
– Keyword selection & targeting
– Matching options
– Ad creation, options and best practices
• Cost per click
– Quality Score
– Ad Rank
• Examples, tips and take-aways
Important Tip
Common Mistake
5. 5
• Get more prospects to your website as
inexpensively as possible
• Convert a higher percentage of website visitors into
leads
• Convert a higher percentage of leads into sales
Your Online Marketing Objectives
8. 8
• More advertisers
• More money from each advertiser
• More people clicking on ads
• Charge more for each click
Google’s Business Objectives
9. 15
Basic Concepts
• AdWords is an Ad-Serving Engine used by
advertisers to bring traffic to their websites.
• AdSense is an Ad-Serving Engine used by website
publishers to monetize visitor traffic
• AdWords allows advertisers to “fish in 3 ponds”
– Google Search
– Search Partners
– Display Network (AdSense participants)
10. 16
Search vs Display Network
• Search ads appear on Google search results and
search network partners (AOL, Google Maps, etc.)
• Search ads are formatted as text
• Display ads appear on >1 million different sites that
allow Google to show ads
• Display ads can be text or image ads. Image ads can
appear in 8 different configurations
12. 18
Search vs Display Network
• PPC ads in BOTH Search & Display Network by default
• Motivations of clickers are different
– Intent, motivation (Search)
– Discovery, awareness (Display Network)
• Display Network clicks are generally cheaper, BUT:
– Non-contextual match
– Greater incentive to cheat
– Always run Search and Display in separate Campaigns
14. 20
Image Ads
• Appear on Display Network sites
• Can be animated
• Acceptable file formats: .GIF, .JPG, .JPEG, .PNG, .SWF
• File size limits: 150 KB or less for all files
– 250 x 250 square
– 200 x 200 small square
– 468 x 60 banner
– 728 x 90 leaderboard
– 300 x 250 inline rectangle
– 336 x 280 large rectangle
– 120 x 600 skyscraper
– 160 x 600 wide skyscraper
15. 21
Image Ads – Things to Consider
• Include a text ad in your Display Network campaign
– Some sites don’t support Image ads
• Image ads include a “cancel” feature
– When someone clicks it, your ads will be “muted” for that
user -- they generally won’t see your ad again
17. 23
Fundamentals
• Basic AdWords Structure
Item What it is
Account Billing and account access
Campaign Network, budget, geo-target, day-parting
Ad group Ads, keywords, bids, landing page URLs
Account
Campaign1 Campaign2 Campaign3
Ad Group1 Ad Group2 Ad Group3
18. 24
Finding & Selecting Keywords
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google auto-complete
• SpyFu / SEMrush
19. 25
Grouping Keywords
• What is the
….motivation
….mindset
….perspective
….of the person typing in the search keyword?
• Learn Chinese vs. Chinese Language Lessons vs.
Mandarin Instructor
• BMW Tuning vs. BMW Tuner
20. 26
Keyword Matching Options
• broad match
• [exact match]
• “phrase match”
• +modified broad match
• -negative match
– Note that even with Exact Match, close variants are no
longer optional. Your ad may show for singular/plural or
misspellings, for example.
21. 27
Broad Match
• No delimiter
Broad Match Keyword Ads may show on searches for
low-carb diet plan carb-free foods
low-carb diets
low calorie recipes
Mediterranean diet plans
low-carbohydrate dietary program
22. 28
Phrase Match
• “Double Quote” delimiter
Phrase Match Keyword Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for
“tennis shoes” red leather tennis shoes
buy tennis shoes on sale
red tenis shoes
shoes for tennis
tennis sneakers laces
23. 29
Exact Match
• [Bracket] delimiter
Phrase Match Keyword Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for
[tennis shoes] tennis shoes
tenis shoes
red tennis shoes
buy tennis shoes
24. 30
Modified Broad Match
• +keyword
Modified Broad Match Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for
+tennis +shoes tennis shoes
tenis shoes
shoes for playing tennis
red tennis shoes
red tennis sneakers
buy tennis footwear
court shoes
25. 31
Negative Match
• Keyword = tennis shoes
Negative Match Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for
-walking tennis shoes
tenis shoes
shoes for playing tennis
red tennis shoes
tennis walking shoes
tennis shoes for walking
26. 32
Negative Match
• Keyword = women’s hats
Negative Match Ads may show on searches for Ads won’t show on searches for
-women girls’ hats
sun hats
hats for women
women’s hats
-”women’s hats” girls’ hats
women’s baseball hats
women’s hats
Women's hats
women's hats for sale
want to buy women's hats
-[women’s hats] buy women’s hats
women’s hats on sale
women’s hats
Women's hats
27. 33
Negative Match Usage
• When:
– With Broad, Phrase and Modified Broad Match
Keywords
• Why:
– Avoid non-relevant searches
– Improve Click Through Rate
28. 34
Creating Ads - Objectives
• Match Ad to Keyword “intent”
• Write 2 or more ads per ad group. Rotate ads and
monitor CTR
29. 35
Creating Ads
• 25 character headline
• Display URL
• 35 character subject line x2
31. 37
Text Ad Tips
– Look at other ads, try to make yours stand out
– Headline – Include Keyword
– Subject Line 1 – Benefit
– Subject Line 2 – Feature or offer
32. 38
Ad Extensions & Sitelinks
Google
Shopping
Campaigns
Sitelink Extensions
Callout
Extension
35. 41
Quality Score affects your Cost Per Click
QS Affect on CPC (2013)
10 Discounted by 80%
9 Discounted by 64%
8 Discounted by 48%
7 Discounted by 32%
6 Discounted by 16%
5 No change
4 Increased by 16%
3 Increased by 32%
2 Increased by 48%
1 Increased by 64%
Source: WordStream
36. 42
A higher Quality Score gives you…
• Reduced Cost-Per-Click
• Higher ad position
• Quality Score is calculated based on:
– CTR (~60% weight)
– Ad Relevance (~25% weight)
– Landing Page quality (~15% weight)
37. 43
Improving Quality Score
• Expected CTR
– Not the same as “CTR”
– Bidding for a higher position won’t fix QS
• What to try
– Rewrite ad copy
• Try different approaches – stand out from the crowd
– Use Ad Extensions – Sitelinks, callouts, etc.
– Change or pause keyword – e.g. different matching option
38. 44
Improving Quality Score
• Ad Relevance
• What to try
– Rewrite ad copy
• Use keyword in headline or body of ad copy (bold)
39. 45
Improving Quality Score
• Landing Page Experience
• What to try
– Increase information on LP
– Improve layout
– Use keywords in headline and body copy
– Allow navigation on LP
– Move response form to a separate page
– Reduce page load time
40. 46
Bidding and Ad Position
• Bids are placed at the Keyword level
• Your bid is the maximum you are willing to pay
– But often you will pay less
• Ad Rank determines your Ad Position
– Top position ad does not always pay the most
– Ad Rank = Bid x Quality Score
– Ad Rank affects Impression Share
• Just because your ad is in Position 1 doesn’t mean it’s shown all
the time
41. 47
How Google calculates the cost of your click
P1 =
B2 Q2
Q1
P1 - Price paid by advertiser
B2 - Next-highest-placing ad’s bid
Q2 - Quality Score of next-highest-
placing ad
Q1 - Advertiser’s Quality Score
47. 53
Budget Strategies
• Determine average value of a lead or sale and work
your way back
• Generally, more spend = lower click quality
$$$
Click Quality
$$
$
48. 54
Budget Strategies
• Use conversion tracking to find cost-effective keywords
• Check spend against daily budget
– If you often hit daily budget limit, consider eliminating
under-performing keywords and ads
– Google’s advice is to increase your budget
49. 55
Landing Page Optimization
Consumer Interest & Behavior Landing Page Users
Awareness Browsers
Interest Evaluators
Desire Transactors
Action Customers
• A good landing page answers the questions:
– Do you have what I want?
– Why should I buy it from you?
– What should I do next?
51. 57
• AdWords, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn
• Challenges:
– Complex management platforms
– Pay for each click
– Lead attribution
• Most common failures:
– Low-quality clicks
– Few or no conversions rates
Pay-Per-Click advertising
52. 58
• Regional pest exterminator
• Spending $8,000 / mo. for clicks
• AdWords account managed by the business
owner with help from Google
Case Study
53. 59
Before and After
Before: 1 mo. Later:
% spent on bad keywords 24.7% 4.1%
About $2,000 per month wasted on totally
bogus keywords
54. 60
Bogus keywords?
• ants in my pants game
• how do ants move on those tiny legs
• alvin and the chipmunks
• swot analysis (about $8 per click!)
• squirrel meat
• 1997 maxima power ant
• bed bath and beyond
55. 61
…pests you didn’t know existed
• mortar and pestle
• powerpoint terminates suddenly
• where can I buy german roach
• how to get taller
• homeless man ant got no rent
• i ant got no iphon
56. 62
…and for the intellectually curious
• do squirrels sleep
• what is the name for a female raccoon
• worlds biggest rat
• pictures of bedbugs
• pictures of bedbug bites
• are bedbugs asexual
• aesop’s ants working all day long
57. 63
But it’s worse than that…
Before After
Click-Through-Rate 1.03% 3.55%
• Poor keyword choices lowers CTR
• Low CTR hurts Quality Score
• Poor Quality Score increases Cost Per Click, but
lowers Ad Position and Impression Share
58. 64
• Adwords, Bing and LinkedIn PPC can attract highly
targeted traffic BUT platforms are tricky
– Competition is fierce, so clicks are expensive
– Adwords default settings optimize Google’s income
• Devote internal resources to develop great offers and
assets to convert paid traffic into leads. Conversion is
key!
Take-aways
59. 65
• Not every nut can be cracked with Search.
– LinkedIn can target precise demographics
• Utilize web analytics and conversion tracking
– Don’t guess -- Invest in what works
Take-aways
60. 66
Take-aways
• You don’t need to overhaul your whole website first
• Use Web Analytics – track everything!
• Keep Search and Content campaigns separate
• Align keywords, ads and landing page copy
• Daily checkups – especially at the beginning!
61. 67
Take-aways
• Start out with top positions for strong Click-
Through-Rate (CTR) and Quality Score
• Take advantage of matching options
• Kill underperforming keywords early
• Use Negative Keywords – check your Web Analytics!
62. 68
Tools and Resources
• Google’s Keyword Planner
– Requires Google AdWords account
• Google Ad Preview Tool
– Simply “Google” ad preview tool
• Google AdWords Editor
– http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/
63. 69
Tools and Resources
• Google Analytics
• Google Webmaster Tools
– https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
• Competitor analysis
– SEMrush
– SpyFu