My Favorite Google Tool for Keyword Research

August 31st, 2010

by Laura Thieme

It’s not the Keyword Suggestion Tool either. That’s my least favorite keyword suggestion tool. It’s an actual Search Query Report, that used to be a required download, but is now built into every campaign/ad group down to the keyword level. For example, let’s take a campaign that one of my clients has running.

They are targeting medical healthcare educational programs throughout the Western United States. One keyword we are working to refine is “nursing school”. I can click on the checkbox to the left of “nursing school”, click on drop down box that says “See Search Terms”, click Selected, and view all the actual search queries that people have typed in. I can then take the root terms of these keywords and create “phrase match” and possibly even [exact match] search terms and add them to my campaign or ad group’s keyword list.

This is also a great place to determine negative keywords.

Here are some examples:

1) city nursing school
2) nursing schools
3) nursing schools city state
4) nursing degree
5) school for nursing
6) lvn training city state
7) top nursing schools city state
8) lvn schools
9) nursing degrees
10) nursing certification
and many other top keywords that show high impressions, high clicks and high conversion rates.

I can then look these keywords up in Google Analytics for my client, and see if the trend continues there. I always choose to run 13 months or more if the data is available so I can see if the keywords show up multiple times, drive high traffic, and note whether or not the traffic is organic or paid. If it’s mostly paid search, but from one search engine, here is an opportunity to expand your online marketing to Yahoo/Bing, and or to organic SEO efforts. Are these top keywords optimized in the page titles of the landing pages, and page headings, content, keyword/description metadata, and URL keywords?

This is what I think is the best keyword research tool of all: Mine Your Own Data Keyword Research.

For more on how to make this easier, visit Bizwatch’s Search Analytics tool for more info on how to mine your data faster, easier and with better results.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

When Search Marketing Works Quickly Hint-PPC

May 21st, 2010

by Laura Thieme

Often times, I get a new client lead and they tell me they “need help quickly with leads”, which is then followed by the question, “What can you do to help me?”

For some, they think SEO is the answer. But I quickly correct them. That is not the quick way to increase leads. PPC - or paid search campaign management is.

Let me tell you the story of a recent new client who came to me about 6-8 weeks ago.

They’re in the service business. They serve the consumer market. They also have a recent product business, and that business is hurting.

They weren’t getting much previously in terms of leads. They allowed me to review their paid search account in Adwords over the initial phone call. They were a client referral. There was already a level of trust from Day One.

We had the initial meeting. They called me the next morning and asked me to move forward immediately. I “needed to increase leads immediately.”

As of this month, as I looked at their Adwords account, we have brought them 40 accurately tracked leads & online orders, with a lead/online order acquisition cost of approximately $32.

We’re talking next steps about starting a more extensive project for them. So what did we do to increase leads immediately?

1) Pulled data into Bizwatch for historical trend analysis
2) Reviewed and edited campaign settings
3) Changed geo-target settings
4) Changed hours that ads that ran
5) Realized within first couple of weeks that conversions had not been setup accurately; despite their statement they could do it themselves. They made the common mistake of assessing a value with a page view, or a download video. In paid search, there are two real types of conversions, an ecommerce order, or quote request/lead form submission. Not a page view. Define your page views or downloads as Goals in Google Analytics, but not in Adwords.
6) Ensured conversions were tracking accurately.
7) Updated ad copy
8) Reviewed competitors, landing pages, ad copy, pricing
9) Updated ad copy again
10) Reviewed “search query data” in Adwords - LOVE this data
11) Reviewed top converting keywords, with high conversion rates, and lower cost of acquisition (Bizwatch helps with this)
12) Updated keywords
13) Frequent client communication every 2-3 days during initial 3-4 weeks, then weekly after that
14) Measured paid search PPC campaign management success

Results:
1) Went from 1-2 leads per month to 40 quality leads/online orders per month
2) Client has mentioned inventory concerns - ha - love when that becomes the problem - but that is a serious problem we’ve dealt with before - be prepared to handle leads and online orders, and ensure inventory can be addressed rapidly if lead volume increases quickly
3) Cost of acquisition for each lead is very acceptable to the client, but knowing their average online order, I’d like to lower it slightly over the coming months
4) Asking for more business from them - we’re discussing a full contract as a result of our first month of work

Next, we’ll write about what to do when search doesn’t work as quickly as one would hope, or in the form that we’d hope - in terms of lead gen or online sales/ecommerce orders.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

Expanded Broad Match vs Automatic Matching at Google Adwords

November 18th, 2009

by Laura Thieme

If you bid on keyword phrases at Google in the Adwords console, you should be familiar with three match types, minimum:

1) broad match
2) phrase match
3) exact match

You might have also heard about the opt-in system of Automatic Matching. You should also know what a negative match is.

But have you ever heard of Expanded Broad Match?

In my recent blog posts, I’ve referenced my concerns over a particular client’s ad campaign in Google Adwords. In short, I’ve discovered many keywords showing up in the:

See Search Terms queries on a selected keyword that has clicks in a given period of time

Which are NOT relevant at all to the search query that my client bid upon

Quick background note:
Bizresearch provides PPC Conversion & CTR audits that assess KPIs across a 12-13 month period of time
We work to improve CTR, CVR, cost of conversion, and average position, as well as quality score ratings at campaign, ad group and keyword level

In doing our PPC audits, we often find numerous opportunities with match types; content vs search; and a lack of negative keywords.

In recent weeks with the Google Adwords account manager, I’ve learned that this particular client is on ‘expanded broad match’, something that is automatically elected, and not a part of an opt-in system, or opt-out system.

So, if my client chose to bid on the word “design school” broad match, and phrase match - don’t you think that my client should show up for terms that include “both” design “and” school, or for broad match, with at least one of the keywords “design” or “school”?

What if my client showed up for terms that had NOTHING, NADA, ZILCHO to do with “design school”?

Adwords account manager says that we’re in an expanded broad match program. Huh?

What the heck is expanded broad match?

Well, Adwords person says it’s to help my client show up for misspellings and singular vs plural.

I’m sorry but what I’m showing up for, by the way, is way off on a misspelling.

How are “brown and blue bathrooms” related to design schools? Yes, the word brown or blue has to do with color. Color has to do with design. But if I wanted to show up for colors, and bathrooms, I would have bid on it, damn it!

Google makes no reference whatsoever to expanded broad match in its Learning Center.

So, if you haven’t clicked on keywords that have clicks, poor CTR, and/or high cost of conversion; click on the keyword, choose a date range of at least 3+ months if possible or where at least 50 or more clicks exist, and “see search terms” for that one keyword. If you see keywords that in no way relate to your ad campaign, and weren’t an issue of simply adding a negative match (see blog entries below for ideas on negative matches); I’d be documenting it and asking Google for a refund.

I’m also asking Google to create an opt-out system for expanded broad match. I want the ability to ensure that my client isn’t paying $13+ per click for keywords that I didn’t say I wanted to show up for.

There is no “plural” or “misspelling” on the word “design school” if you show my client for “blue and brown bathrooms” or “church blueprint ideas” or “daycare decorating ideas”. They may be contextual in concept, but Google your relevancy concept is profiting you and only you in this regard.

Please examine your recent data. Write me on Twitter @bizresearchlmt if you have questions about this. And then document the number of keywords and cost related to non-related keywords. Again, I’m not looking for negative matches, I’m looking for terms that should have never been included.

Lastly, I’m not seeing this with all clients on broad match. I’m seeing this really with only one client. It just happens to be a client who is spending tens of thousands each month.

Perhaps we can get the client’s spend down $20k a month by handling this issue, and perhaps the cost of acquisition will become acceptable for this particular campaign within this long-term account.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

My Client’s Google Adwords Refund for Automatic Matching

November 6th, 2009

by Laura Thieme

I received a response from Google Adwords regarding my request for refunding my client $2,000 for automatic matching to “design school” broad match keyword. My client spent $7600+ in the last three months for this one keyword, out of 20,000 keywords. So the client is spending a good amount on PPC, has two accounts both equal spend, and thus is worth making happy if you ask me. Google indicated they are happy to refund my client $350, out of my $2k request on a $160k/mo ad account. Hmmmmm.

What do you think? I responded and let them know that I’m not happy with $350, as Google decided to show my client for keywords unrelated to “design school” broad match. See below for examples in this post and previous post.

I figured I’d better go back and re-educate myself on keyword match types in Google’s Online Adwords Learning Center. In Google Adwords Learning Center “Keyword Matching Options” it references broad match keyword systems. It now shows you for “homes” in response to search query “houses”. I get that, even though that is NOT how it used to be. Previously, broad match required that I use the one of the words in my search query. So if I really wanted to show up for “houses” in addition to “homes”, I’d have to insert both terms into my broad match string of keyword possibilies. Broad match meant I could show for “new homes”, “homes for sale” and other related queries. So if my client wants “design school” broad match, I’d get keywords that could be in front of “design” or “school” as well as anything in between “design” and “school” and after the word “school”. It meant as long as either design or school was in the query, anything was fair game. That was the “OLD” broad match in Adwords.

Broad match is the default setting as one would read or watch in Google’s Learning Center, which is a huge issue for major campaigns, as well as search newbies. So many people don’t understand match types, nor do they have transparency between agency and business owners/managers to know what type of match types are in place for their PPC campaigns For example, Google states “car repair” will trigger “repair car”. Again, I agree with this. This was the old way of showing ‘broadly matched’ terms. But what about non-related terms as shown below?

Phrase match requires exact sequence “design school” would only allow my ad to show up for something before and after that exact sequence “design school”. Nothing could be inserted in between “design” and “school when using phrase match. But phrase match can be somewhat limiting, as I’ve seen with converting keywords in large PPC campaigns. I like the concept of broad match in addition to phrase match. Sometimes you just can’t guess all the ways someone will search for “design school”. They might put relevant terms in between “design school” and thus I might want to keep broad match.

Exact match requires the same order/sequence of design school, and excludes anything else before or after the sequence for [design school]. So, it turns out hardly anyone searches for just “design school” exact match or Google just doesn’t show us for that.

Negative Match would allow me to get rid of terms I don’t want unrelated to “design school” broad match or phrase match as mentioned in my previous blog post earlier this week. See below. Embedded match is a combination of negative match and exact match. I might have to learn more about that one.

In the Adwords Learning Center it broadly references “homes” might get “houses” searches under broad match, but this can be a really big problem for a client.

In our PPC Conversion Audit for this new client that shows up for “design school”, the following terms have to be closely monitored and determined if relevant under “broad match” settings:

1) “art institute” - Google delivered our ad with the keyword search query “art institute” - relevant or not? - Possibly
2) “make a adenovirus cell for school project” - relevant or not? NOT
3) school floor plans - relevant? NOT
4) football field house designs - relevant? NOT
5) school girl make up for customs - relevant? NOT
6) school skirt sewing pattern - relevant? NOT
7) school hat design - relevant? NOT
8) church design with school & gymnasium 70000 square feet - relevant? NOT
9) school letterhead designs - relevant? NOT
10) cool ties pattern - REALLY? Seriously? cost my client $12 ($11.95)
11) cheerleading uniform design - NOT
12) daycare decoration - NOT - cost my client $11.67
13) nursery decorating ideas - $13.71
14) baby nursery designs - $24.46
15) make an ecosystem - $7
16) zebra pattern school supplies - $12
17) cheap class rings - $11.32
18) brown & green bathrooms - $7.62
19) class of 2013 - $6.72
20) make friends in middle school - do people really search this way? 7.05
21) class of 2012 - $12.41
22) large storybook templates for classrooms - $14.58
23) church blue prints - $14.94
24) perporseful desing mathematics grade one teacher - I’m not sure design school is what they need - maybe first grade spelling would be good here - $13.21
25) school reunion supplies — good root keyword to negative match “supplies” and “reunion”
26) school brochures - $12.92 - good term for negative match - “brochures”
27) designing a sunday school resource room - perhaps a term to negative match - “room” and “sunday school”
28) license display cabinets - this is another one that pisses me off - where is “design school” related to license display cabinets - in any way? “display” related to “design? maybe? this cost $14.44
29) discount class rings - another one that just doesn’t match to “design school” despite class being relevant to school $9.29 for that one

So far, my client has been offered $350 refund out of $2k requested for this one term analysis. I’ll keep you tuned.

The moral of the story - if you broad match your terms, please audit your search terms monthly. Every month, you’ll come up with new negative matches.

Why did I keep “broad match” in Adwords for my client until the other day? Well, Google hasn’t shown their “phrase match” ad for ‘design school’ but four times out of 2,000 impressions. They keep showing the ‘broad match’ keyword phrase. Perhaps now, it will show more often. In addition, look at the terms that converted:

15 keywords out of 500+ keywords converted in the past three months. They were all highly relevant. Some were clear broad match queries but phrase match would help in this particular case. I have phrase match in this keyword case. But oddly enough, Google has only delivered clicks 4 times out of 2,000 impressions, so phrase match is either not showing correctly or not performing at all for us on this term.

Please do not think I’m saying phrase match is the only way you should manage your PPC campaigns. I’m not! Broad match can work, but I’m saying you need to do a PPC Conversion Audit and this is where you will uncover issues like I’ve revealed above. I can save, and you can too, a lot of money for clients by analyzing terms that don’t convert, as well as those that have a high cost of conversion.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. 3 Comments »

 

Google Adwords Automatic Matching is Now Automatic Like it or Not

November 5th, 2009

by Laura Thieme
Update posted on Nov. 6th re the REFUND

When I first started engaging in PPC campaign management in Google Adwords, I preferred it way over any other PPC ad console. I loved broad match, phrase match and exact match. I learned the value of negative matches. But there is one thing that Google did about a year ago, that I did not like and that was something called “automatic matching”, or what it is now which is what I’ll call “expanded broad matching”. Actually, I’ll call it what it is right up front - it’s a way for Google to make a lot more money without most advertisers being aware of it.

Bizresearch provides PPC Conversion Audits, or a service tied to our Bizwatch Search Analytics tool that looks for non-converting keywords, and high cost keywords that are coming up short in terms of proper ROI/ROAS.

I have a PPC Conversion Audit client that shows up for “design school” not just in phrase match, but broad match as well. I’ve seen value in showing up for large scale campaigns for broad match, or the old way that broad match was used. Broad match meant that either of the two word variance mentioned above (design school) could be used, in any order. Examples: columbus ohio design school, fashion design columbus ohio, columbus design training. Broad match would enable you to monitor how people search, and get ideas to add on under “phrase match”, or in some cases [exact match]. But Google’s expanded broad match, or what at one point was an opt-in system of “automatic matching”, is not such a good idea for its advertising clients. It’s a very good idea for Google to increase revenue without adding relevancy for its users.

Here are the basic details:

Target term: Design School
Conversions - about 16, some of which were for “fashion” related terms
Problem: Cost of conversion exceeds acceptable margins
Additional problems revealed: number of unrelated terms coming under broad match as you’ll see below

Currently broad match and phrase match are in use. Broad gets all the clicks and thus, cost. Phrase match gets basically none of the clicks (4 out of 2,000 impressions)

I do give Google credit on one thing. You can now see most of the search terms that people are entering under their new interface, by selecting a keyword, and choosing “See Search Terms/Selected”. In MOST cases, you can see all the data on keywords with clicks.

Here’s what the new Google Search Query term report shows me, using the new Google Adwords interface. Remember my broad match term is ‘design school’ which means that either the word design or school should be included in the list below, and it can be in any order. Even better if I see the two words together along with other terms that are relevant.

Alternatively, here’s the type of data I’m seeing:

drawing lessons for kids 100.00% $11.44 —- not relevant as this is college level education
vintage skateboard drawing 100.00% $6.24 —- NOT RELEVANT
obstacle courses layouts 100.00% $9.86 — NOT RELEVANT
drawing lessons online 10.00% $13.55 — potentially relevant
mapquest collins school of design 100.00% $8.74 — hmmm, don’t think that’s relevant
nail art designs 100.00% $12.62 —could be relevant
disine your school bus online 100.00% $11.74 — NOT RELEVANT
church design in party supplies 100.00% $11.99 — NOT RELEVANT
class of 010 33.33% $6.92 - EXTREMELY NOT RELEVANT
school donation letter template 100.00% $14.98 — NOT RELEVANT
hair design 100.00% $11.87 -not likely relevant
lesson plan templates 12.50% $9.41 — NOT RELEVANT
church 100.00% $13.26 — huh??? really??? Google??? Seriously, I thought for a second I was using another search engine
make a school map 100.00% $13.96 — STILL SCRATCHING MY HEAD
school bus check designs 50.00% $13.40 — now i’m getting mad
make school work 100.00% $8.77 — still guessing
upgrade cs4 design premium 100.00% $11.22 — sure, somehow not - negative match opportunity on cs4 right, upgrade another possible negative term
educational value in mexico grafic 100.00% $8.58 —- laughing on this one
nursery design 50.00% $12.90 — OKAY, NEGATIVE MATCH IDEA “NURSERY”
classroomarchitect 100.00% $13.55 - hmmmm
2d design class 50.00% $4.71 — don’t think so
class ring design 50.00% $10.06 - negative match idea ‘class ring’
dishware school design 50.00% $12.31 - hmmm, maybe
school project desing map 50.00% $12.02 - no
create your own back to school backpack 50.00% $9.70 - negative match idea

None of the keywords above have ever had a conversion. They’re all tied to the keyword “design school” broad match. Yet, in some of the cases it’s because we just need to add a negative match. For example, to get rid of anyone searching on “class ring design”, I can add “ring” or “class ring” to my negative keyword list. I can add “backpack” and “back pack”.

But why is my client showing up for “class of 010″ and “class of 2009″ - how does that relate to “design school”? The other two columns of data show CTR click thru rate and Cost Per Click. Yes, my client is pay $12.02 for the keyword “school project desing map” and $9.70 for “create your own back to school backpack”. Typos included. Some of these terms can be added, like “back pack” as mentioned above. But class of 2010, doesn’t have either word “design” or “school” in it. It’s related to “school”, and this is part of Google Adword’s automatic matching.

According to my Google team, they say that it’s automatically turned on for broad match. I can’t turn it off anymore, even if I wanted to. I’d have to turn off the design school broad match keyword. I keep adding more negative terms, but Google keeps coming up with new ones. Noting the 50-100% CTRs, and the high cost per click, I’ve opted to pause this term.

In case you’re wondering, why don’t I just put this term as phrase match “design school” and “design schools”? Well, I have had it on for a couple of months, and do you know that Google served my client 4 clicks for that variance. Over 2,000 impressions but only 4 clicks. Well, that pulls down my quality score and increases my overall costs. So, those terms aren’t working either. Clearly if phrase match does work for this term, exact match won’t either.

Here’s the crazy thing - I did have 19 conversions, all time, for this keyword “design school”, but because of automatic matching and all of the terms Google shows my client for - I simply have to turn off the term. I fold. Google wins. My client doesn’t.

I exported all the keywords that Google has come up with for “design school”. For this one term, they spent over $7k. I can clearly see nearly $2k in spend that has absolutely no relevancy whatsoever to “design school” simply due to automatic matching.

I’m asking Google Adwords for a refund. And, I’m just getting started on this path. I wonder how much more I’m going to find in non-converting or poorly converting keywords due to automatic matching.

I’ll report back as I learn more about why Google seems insistent on showing my client for non-related terms and what they can do to help me. And by the way, you just can’t add more negative matches when you’ve got 188 negative terms based on the list thus far.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

PPC Consultant Lowers Ad Spend But Has to Defend Her Services And Rates

November 2nd, 2009

by Laura Thieme

I have one of those PPC/SEO clients who really has a sensitivity to paying consultants. You might have one of those clients too. I always get a kick out of looking at a company’s Adwords expenses in Bizwatch (a search analytics platform that reports on PPC, SEO, Analytics). I see no problem in their spending several thousands of dollars a month, but what I do have a problem with is the following:

1) Not tracking conversions and cost of conversion (lead or online sale)
2) Telling me they think their ad campaign is working because their phone is ringing
3) Simultaneously questioning my charge of barely a $1,000 for Bizwatch ($595) and 4 hours of consultation to review, make recommendations and make edits; or making me explain myself in numerous emails and phone calls
4) Finding out they contacted my colleague and asked for a cheaper rate, and bad-mouthed me
5) Waffling on spending a couple hundred bucks with me a month
6) Coming back to me after they’ve bad-mouthed me, amongst others

Despite that, I looked at their seemingly free Bizwatch data, since they haven’t paid for this month yet. Within a few minutes, I can learn the following:

1) It tells me within 5 minutes that by adding negative keywords to your ad campaign, your ad spend in Google decreased YOY by nearly $1k.
2) It tells me that while I decreased their ad spend, I simultaneously increased their traffic by about 1k visitors
3) It continues to tell me that the company still isn’t tracking conversions, which their last vendor inadvertently left out when he/she/they redesigned that website
4) The real measure of success is in the number of leads and the profitability and/or cost of those leads. That said, the value of such information costs money.
5) I can’t tell quickly which keywords are performing best on the Adwords side, but that’s because client needs to authorize the newly hired web guy to install the code and approve it.
6) I can tell that one term continues to be highest cost keyword; whether or not that term is profitable is based upon conversion data

It’s a waste of my time if I have to defend my services & rates to someone who is spending thousands of dollars each month in Adwords, and wonders why they should have to pay me $1,000 to analyze, recommend and fix their problems. Why is it that some companies question the value of PPC Analytics consultants, yet they pay Google directly and haven’t got a clue what to do, or which keywords are working?

By the way, in case you’re wondering, I don’t typically work for $1k a month for any company. This was a returning client, and so I gave them the small business discount as a loyal customer. But there are times when I say this is why I don’t work with very small businesses because I literally can’t afford to talk to them, much less service them.

I am, however, interested in working with companies who spend tens of thousands of dollars or more per month in Google, and know the data is overwhelming and there is no way they want to go it alone with managing their PPC strategy and ROI. That’s the client I want. Add a personal human being how knows what they are talking about, and attends the SES and SMX conferences - that’s an added bonus!

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

Negative Matches for a PPC Conversion Audit

October 22nd, 2009

by Laura Thieme

Do you ever note the cost per conversion column in Google Adwords? Let’s say your CTR (click-thru rate) is good, and your conversion rate is good (CVR). But what about that cost per conversion column in Google Adwords?

Negative Matches

Above is an example of a PPC Conversion Audit where I’m working on lowering the cost per conversion. Google Adwords has made it much easier to see what terms people are clicking on, and not converting as you see from the screenshot above.

Example: 1% CTR - working on improving by working on keyword accuracy
Example: 4.25% CVR - not bad, but might still be even better when you look at negative match opportunities
Cost Per Conversion: $350 over the accepted amount per campaign conversion cost or acquisition cost

So, if you want to lower cost per conversion and increase conversion rates, look at the keyword that has:

1) The most clicks in a given period of time - where you have high cost of conversion and/or lower than desired conversion rates

Select keyword, and then select
2) Click on that one search term at a time - then click on See Search Terms in Adwords, click on Selected

Negative Match Term Opportunity

Once you’ve selected “see search terms, selected”, you might be able to see some keywords that are absolutely non-relevant to your product or service.

For example, I can see for “design school” the following keywords, that are costing my client about $11 a click and exceeding them in acceptable cost per conversion rates or cost per acquisition rates. Warning - the keyword is on broad match - but has had some conversions that would be difficult to have strategized. So, what we want to do is get rid of the non-relevant terms, or add to the negative keyword/match list.

1) design hoodies
2) designs for church bulletins
3) school embroidery design
4) school spirit designs
5) logo design
6) logo design sweater
7) school hat design
8) class ring design

Many more of these terms exist. What happens when your Adwords campaign has keywords on broad match? You have the opportunity to update your negative keyword list on a monthly basis, but do you? Google has made it much easier for you to see the terms that don’t convert, but receive clicks. The question is are you utilizing this every month to further reduce your cost per acquisition?

Within one month of turning off keywords that never converted in 13 months, getting rid of terms that had a very high cost of conversion, and enhancing our negative keyword match list, we have accomplished the following:

1) Increased click thru rate from .04 to 1.04%
2) Increased conversion rate from 2.75 to 3.61
3) Cost per conversion has improved but still needs more work; currently $400 over CPA

Caution:

One of the reasons that cost per acquisition can be so high is that the campaign could be new, and keywords need to be better researched to begin with.

Another reason could be content match

Another reason could be negative matches are lacking, or root negative terms aren’t added on monthly basis based on actual search data

Another reason could be turning on and off your campaign throughout the month to leverage your PPC budget

Another reason could be PPC conversion code is not installed correctly

Have Bizresearch pull a 13-month PPC Conversion Audit to determine how to increase:

1) CTR for terms that are more likely to convert
2) CVR for terms that have lower cost per conversion

Posted in Paid Search Tools. No Comments »

 

When Was the Last Time You Performed a PPC Audit?

September 27th, 2009

by Laura Thieme

It’s a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. It’s cool enough in Columbus, Ohio today to wear a long-sleeve turtleneck or light jacket. It rained all day yesterday, making the grass and colors even more vibrant. I love this time of year. When I’m driving, I love to take in the colors. Not just the obvious Fall colors of red, gold and orange, but the color of green. Do you notice how green the grass is at this time of year? Grass is so much greener at this time of year, in Columbus, OH. The rain has polished off the ground in its last hurrah before cold weather eventually turns it brown for several months. There is something about the color of green grass that makes me feel good, like it’s necessary oxygen to breathe.

Perhaps, that’s because we all love the color green when it comes to sales and operating in the black. With many companies experiencing losses, layoffs, and budget cuts, due to operating in the red, it’s something very enjoyable when you hear that a company or someone is doing particularly well.

I was on Twitter today, Twittering for a client of ours. I read something rather sad. The Twitterer indicated that a art gallery friend of hers was pulling all of his jewelry and getting it melted down. He could make more money that way. Some in the retail and B2B space are doing well. Why are some doing very well, and others doing very bad? Did the former group make better decisions? Did they operate with larger margins? Did they know how to compete better? Were they willing to do more? Were they more creative with better solutions? Did they compete on analytics to make better advertising and marketing decisions?

I’ve worked for some large brands over 12 years. I’ve often been amazed at no matter how large the brand, or the financial resources, it seemed nearly impossible that they would not track PPC (paid search or pay per click) advertising to the keyword level. Often the contract was an issue, or the legacy website system was an issue affecting the ability for the brand retailer to easily track conversions to the keyword level. In addition, there has been another major problem affecting retailers. It is the ability to track latency, or time of click to time of purchase. Did their search analytics platform easily enable extended tracking periods, beyond the same session?

I recently worked with a major retailer on a sales and conversion problem. They only had a same-session conversion tracking analytics platform. They were in the process of switching to another vendor. But this major multi-channel retailer brand had a major well-known search analytics platform. The problem with the PPC program was not a concern. In fact, they did not know they could even track conversions in Adwords. They left that to the agency and search analytics program.

There are seven things in search marketing that any business, regardless of retail, must be able to track & trend, if sales & revenue are important:

1) Keywords that were the source of conversions
2) Conversion rate to the keyword level
3) Cost of acquisition to the keyword level
4) Which terms are most profitable to your business?
5) Which terms are least profitable to your business?
6) Due to the economy, have these key performance indicators (KPIs) changed?
7) How does seasonality affect your KPIs, or is it harder to measure knowing the economy’s additional impact?

In search marketing analytics, here’s what we look at to analyze the above:
1) CTR
2) CVR
3) Cost of Conversion
4) Average Position (this affects CTR)

Most of the time, we look at PPC campaign summaries, and where we spend most of our money. And many say they focus on conversion rates and total cost. But it’s one thing to exceed budget, but more importantly, shouldn’t you focus on how much each sale costs, or how much it costs to generate a lead? It’s not total cost as much as it is cost per lead. How does your cost per lead affect your total sales/revenue and total costs? For example, here is one campaign summary I’m analyzing right now for a PPC Audit - let me know how this sounds to you:

1) CTR is 1.25%
2) CVR is 7.3%
3) Total spend is over $80k
4) Nearly 1,000 orders
5) Average CPA is $83

So, what’s the problem? Well, there are several. CTR is low, compared to industry standards, and could be improved. CVR is great - since the CVR is so good, clearly we need to focus on the poor CTR campaigns to figure out what’s going on there. The spend is about $10k over budget. The CPA or cost per acquisition is about $33 over budget.

How do you improve your key performance indicators (KPIs) in your PPC campaign? And why should you be concerned about your PPC campaign? If you drill down into the details, we could make your PPC campaign much more profitable, guaranteed. Seriously, I said and really meant “guaranteed.”

Next, if you already have a search marketing agency, or full-time person on paid search, or PPC? We can work with you and them, on this audit. Sometimes people are too close to the data to realize something is trending that they might not have expected, or realized due to their lack of technology tools, or time and resources.

I’ll write back on how to dissect your PPC campaign, how to do a PPC audit, and how to fix it. I’ll also be speaking about this at SMX (www.twitter.com/bizresearchlmt for updates), on October 6, 2009 in NY.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Web Analytics. No Comments »

 

Considering a Paid Search Budget Cut? Think Bizwatch & Start Saving Money

May 19th, 2009

by Laura Thieme

I know a lot of people who are dealing with budget cuts, and determining if they should bring search in-house. The question is how will you manage search marketing analytics with less resources, and less tools? What about learning curve? How will you manage all those paid search campaigns? How will keep up with your SEO ranked competitors? How will you track which keywords convert? And how will you find the time to do all this?

I’ve been talking about search marketing and website analytics since 2001. I’ve advised a number of search marketing tools how to improve their tools. I’ve issued wish lists so many times and improvements have been made. Of course, I had our own tool, Bizwatch, but never marketed it publicly. And the tool was developed in 2001 and it was beginning to look a little shabby in the fancy tools market. So, I completely re-engineered Bizwatch and we’ve now launched a fabulous new application.

Here’s what I didn’t want: One more tool that just did paid search, or analytics, or SEO. I didn’t want to do what some tools do very well. I didn’t want to be a link checker, a metatag generator, or do what Google Analytics, Adwords Editor or Omniture does well. I didn’t want to do what Wordtracker does well. I didn’t want to charge percent of ad spend, or percent of page views. I didn’t want to charge per user. I didn’t want it to be completely self-serve, but capable of being self-serve.

Here’s what I did want: A 3-in-1 tool that combined SEO tools with paid search tools, web analytics with keyword research, and even competitor research. I wanted to charge flat rates by whichever tool was being used. I want to offer affordable hourly consultation rates if you’re using the tool and need some one-on-one guidance. I want to be able to import Google Adwords, and Google Analytics data easily and organize it into monthly views. I want PDF exports. I want professional tables and charts. I want color filtering. I want it to be easy to use.

So, we brought on our existing clients in late 2008 and continued to add features, like the new paid search filter which highlights campaigns and ad groups that are operating in the red. The first month that red filters were used, we made some recommendations to our client’s CEO and showcased the info. We showed a trend analysis to the CEO and marketing manager of how five campaign ad groups were not profitable to the company. We suggested that we re-allocate funds to another campaign that has shown recent improvements. Within one month, here’s what happened with their Google Adwords account:

Cut the month’s ad spend by $2,300.
Increased the month’s web leads for Google Ad campaign by 17%
Spent just 1-2 hours reviewing the information, preparing presentation to CEO & marketing manager
Spent 1-2 hours making changes on campaigns operating in the red
Logged into Bizwatch May 1 and saw we were no longer operating in the red on 4 out of 5 campaigns worked on

Bizwatch simplifies the paid search analytics process. It’s too difficult to determine which campaigns, ad groups and keywords you should work on when there are numerous campaigns. We focus on one thing:

Keywords that convert at an acceptable cost of conversion. That’s it.

If your keywords aren’t converting at an acceptable cost of conversion, then we should talk about why. Consider using Bizwatch at just $595/month. Learn more about the paid search tools, SEO & competitor analysis tools, and website analytics tools.

It will not require more code if you’re already using Google Analytics, tracking goals, and Adwords. If you’re tracking conversions on Adwords, then we’re set for that as well. No more code installation, just a verification that it works correctly and is tracking accurately.

Consider Bizwatch and start saving money on your paid search Google Adwords campaign. Simplify monthly reporting with Bizwatch Search Analytics Platform today.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

I Love It When I Increase Paid Search or Organic Conversions

October 24th, 2008

by Laura Thieme
October 24, 2008

The best part of my day is when I review trend reports, using Bizwatch 2.0, our new paid search and organic trending tool, and I can see I’ve helped my client to increase conversions and/or conversion rate, and possibly even lower conversion cost (even better).

Today, one of my clients asked on our weekly phone call, if a high click-thru rate but much lower conversion rate was okay on a particular Google Ad Group. In the past two weeks, twice, I’ve seen two separate cases where CTR (click-thru rate) was very high (nearing 10%) and conversions rates were either non-existent or less than 2% (average).

So, to answer the question, should you be concerned about low conversions if you have click-thru rates of nearly 10%, there are some things I am going to want to know before I answer the question.

As in all research, the answer depends on your situation, which is more than I know in the beginning of the conversation, guaranteed. I pull up the Ad campaign into Bizwatch and review now 10 months of data for the client. I review the trend reports for all the major paid search KPIs (key performance indicators). I review the ad campaign as a whole, the ad groups, and suspect keywords that have high CTR but low CVR (conversion rate to lead or sale).

High CTR but low CVR could be a number of things:

Great ad copy that encourages people to click, along with great average position of 3 or better (1-3) for an extended period of time (months hopefully)

The ad copy is competitive and encourages people to click on your ad

You are then rewarded as a campaign, potentially for a good quality score, if your keywords within the ad group all perform similarly

So what’s causing you to have a poor CVR, if so many people are interested in your product or service?

Click fraud, maybe - always a possibility

Maybe your landing page sucks - sorry - but it could be true

Maybe your conversion is a phone number and you’re not tracking that accurately or at all

Maybe your online conversions are not being tracked at all, or accurately either

Maybe you stopped marketing when you designed your landing page, or you confused the offer in your checkout process

Maybe you are simply too close to the problem - and you need an outside opinion, someone who is looking at the data analytically over time, using trend analysis

Be willing to be competitive in your ad copy to increase CTR, but only if you’re willing to pay for leads or sales - and thus, your landing page must be just as competitive in content, offer, process, etc.

It’s always easier on the outside to review and analyze this - than it is to be on the inside of the problem.

Call Bizresearch at 614-846-7560 or email me using contact form to learn more about how we can help you increase conversions, and/or conversion rate, and if we’re lucky lower that conversion cost, which is indeed possible with a good working client relationship who is willing to try new things on their site and in their online marketing campaign.

Posted in Paid Search Tools. No Comments »

 

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