It certainly does sound exciting, but more than an element of caution should be exercised. When conjugating vast amounts of ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ there is always going to be the chance that some keywords may simply may not make any sense. Without applying some sort of checking procedure, the build software may suggest that I add ‘work as a warehouse’, or worse ‘job in a secretary’ to a keyword list (true story).

It is of course possible that with continual improvements our building software could iron out such a problem; our software will already automatically flag up any duplicates across keyword lists, so what’s to say it can’t automatically remove silly choices like the ones above? While it would be quite easy to adjust the software to accommodate this, then what about the problem of ‘work as a admin’? Of course then we could rectify it to change all ‘a’s to ‘an’s when preceding a vowel, but there will surely be another problem lurking straight after that one that we haven’t yet considered.

Even if we had attempted to cover every nuance we think the English language could throw at us, I still wouldn’t recommend blindly setting the building software to complete auto-pilot. We will always need the human element for this checking process, particularly when dealing with campaigns with hundreds of thousands of keywords. Although of course there is a lot of potential that we can improve our software yet further, as each time we encounter such a problem it is very easy to make it so that we will never have to face it again.

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You first take a number of keywords, then you order the keywords in order of their likelihood to convert based on historical data from most likely to least likely. Conversion Optimiser would use this data and make sure that the appearance is very strong for the top 40% of keywords in the Campaign. The bids will be increased for these keywords to make sure that the strong appearance is continued. Considering these keywords are highly likely to convert anyway, the advertiser is not going to mind a little increase on the CPA per keyword, especially since it is still below the target CPA that they requested when setting up Conversion Optimiser (not considering that they could get it for even cheaper). The Advertiser may become concerned when they see that the CPC is much higher than previously. This is when Google get sneaky.

Analysing the search terms for before and after the Campaigns were taken off Conversion Optimiser shows a massive hike in the number of search terms that were matched to whilst on Conversion Optimiser. About 10% of these search terms converted, pretty low for ‘Conversion Optimiser’ on Campaigns with 20-25% Conversion Rates. The rest of the search terms were made up of irrelevant terms, but the CPC on these other search terms was very low indeed, and I’m talking <1% of the top converting terms. The volume of these low CPC keywords therefore will be balancing the effect the increased bids are having on other keywords.

My main issue with Conversion Optimiser however is that keywords are left out in the cold because of their ‘low conversion rate’, the other 60% of keywords classed as unlikely to convert can still greatly benefit your account. Once I took these campaigns off Conversion Optimiser, it opened them up to a lot more relevant traffic likely to convert and not so likely to convert traffic. After optimising the campaign, the conversion rate has dropped, but with CPC dropping also and volume of traffic increasing, the volume of conversions is higher than before for a slightly lower CPC.  I believe that as long as the keyword list you create is relevant and optimised well, then you can find a happy medium for each keyword within your internet marketing campaign.

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The Facebook-esque feature of en masse social approval, designed as a relevancy tool to recommend sites to your peers has seen promising success after its launch in June this year and from October will be extended to appear across text, image and video ads across the Google Display Network. This also coincides with Google+ opening it’s doors to the uninvited and could be part of Google’s further attack on the social network stranglehold currently held by Facebook.

A view of how the +1 will show on the Google Display Network

One thing to consider however is this; what are +1’ers actually liking on the display network? A small proportion could be +1’ing it when they are attempting to recommend the site. If using an image ad, is the visitor +1’ing the ad itself? Visitors that view an image ad that they like may +1 it without actually visiting the site advertised, rendering that plus irrelevant, despite Google claim that it ads relevancy to advertising and to the consumer. We have only to look across to Facebook and the example of liking Groups. How many times have you or your friends liked a group because of the title, but not navigated further down to view it’s content?

The good news is that it will be an integrated feature across sites, search and display, so that a single +1 will be applied across the board and not be limited to where it was seen.

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It is easy to understand why some keywords will be searched for in seasonal periods such as Christmas, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, winter, summer etc. For example, it is straightforward to see why there will be a large increase in searches for BBQs during the summer months.

For some products and services, seasonal trends are a lot more difficult to predict or understand. Many products and services may also have seasonal trends when you expect them to sell fairly consistently throughout the year.

A good example of a product like this is life insurance policies. Seasonal trends for life insurance policies may be difficult to predict without any research. Fortunately there is a simple tool to help us!

Using the Google trends tool we can easily spot trends in keyword searches to help us predict and understand seasonal trends and how they influence user behaviour.

Life Insurance

We can see using Google trends that there is a drop in searches for life insurance at the end of each year. This may be due to the fact that people won’t be thinking about death at this time of the year and/or are too busy to sort out none urgent matters.

Whatever the reason, spotting this trend will help with building a more efficient campaign for life insurance products. Using a simple search of the Google Trends tool we know that there is less demand for life insurance policies in the last 2 months of the year.

This tool is quick, simple and can be used to spot seasonal trends in search terms for products even if the causes are not known or understood; this is vital tool for agencies planning PPC and other search marketing campaigns.

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So I decided to put together a spreadsheet which explains in layman’s terms what sort of effect differences in your own and your Competitors Quality Score has on your eventual ad rank when combined with your max CPC.

In the table the Ad Rank = QS x Max CPC. The Actual Price = Max Bid (Position Below) x QS (Position Below) / QS (Your Own). It goes a little something like this:

The effects of Quality Score are apparent already.

You can see already from this that if Advertiser D’s ad gets clicked then he will pay £1.15 more than advertiser B would even though he is in a lower position.

Advertiser E would pay more than either B or D would if his ad is clicked.

Then from here through optimisation of the account, if Advertiser C works to Increase his Quality Score from 6 to 8 then not only does his position increase from 2 to 1 but his CPC decreases by £0.12!

In this instance advertiser E has increased his Quality Score from 4 to 6. However, the improvements have been to his position as opposed to his CPC which has actually increased by £0.04.

Now we see that Advertiser B has upped his game and increased his bid, most notably here we see that Advertiser E is paying the same CPC despite being in a lower position than before.

Now Advertiser A has caught up with all the changes and increased his bid from £1 to £3.

He has leapt him up to position 1 but most notably it means that advertisers B,E,C and D have all dropped one position whilst they are still paying the same CPC.

After Advertiser B Decides to Optimise his Campaign and decides that position 3 is the most profitable position for him, he reduces his Max CPC Bid to lower his position to position 3 which, if you take Volume of Clicks and Conversions as a constant (very unscientific I know but hey it’s an example at the end of the day) he would see a 15% reduction in CPC and an 11.11% reduction in CPA.

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Unfortunately many of our clients have been ‘burnt’ by other PPC agencies in the past. It is a practice of some to report on top line figures only, this means that a generic campaign can be made to look profitable, but upon full investigation the branded keywords are usually holding up the entire campaign. Both of these leave some clients reluctant to bid on their own brand.

I do not believe that everyone should bid on their own brand; for example, in some cases if you dominate most of the 1st page of Google organic results rather than just position 1 and if there are no competitors bidding on your brand through PPC. I am however going to give 3 strong arguments in favour of brand bidding on PPC:

1.    Stop your competitors stealing your traffic. Imagine if your MD searches your company name and see’s your top competitor sitting pretty above your organic listing with their PPC ad. Do not let this happen. By bidding on your own brand you will easily push any competitors off the top spot.  Also once your ad is live, the CTR and Quality Score of your competitors ad will drop quickly. Soon their Quality Score will be too low to maintain the first position and eventually their minimum first page bid will become unprofitable.

2.    Reduce your whole account’s CPC. Even the most inexperienced PPC Manager can get an excellent CTR and Quality Score from their own brand keywords. With time, this excellent Quality Score will begin to affect your entire account. We have several clients with very popular brands, we have seen that brand bidding has reduced their CPC on non-brand keywords.

3.    Complete the PPC campaign loop. Even if you only use standard AdWords Conversion Tracking you can still see a user’s path to conversion using AdWords Search Funnels. However this only tracks PPC clicks, a common path would be to start with a non-brand keyword search and then progress to an own brand search to complete the conversion. If a user clicks on five PPC ads and then clicks an organic listing from a brand search you will never see the assist in Search Funnels. This level of data becomes more important as budgets increase and ROI is key.

The most important thing to do is track and report on any brand bidding separately to any other PPC activity. Do not lose focus on any other campaign just because the brand campaign seems like easy money and do not let anyone pull the wool over your eyes. You need to know the performance of each of your campaigns not just top level.

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Understanding, or at least being able to accurately estimate the incremental increase in CTR from paid ads, can help a company more accurately determine a budget for a PPC campaign. Thankfully, some intelligent Google boffins have conducted a study showing that 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic traffic when the ads are paused. This incremental traffic is a great reason to invest in PPC services.

The survey was conducted due to the lack of information that can be garnered from ad clicks alone; for example, that does not tell you about the incramentality of traffic generated by paid search advertising. Businesses have been known to pause PPC campaigns because of concerns about whether the traffic generated by them is incremental in relation to the click-through-rate of organic search results.

It was pointed out however that there are certain factors that contribute to the incramentality such as the similarity between the paid ad and the natural search listing. The Google engineers who conducted the White Paper also stated that their meta-analysis is not representative of all the factors that could drive a decline in advertising expenditure. However, the results are taken from a very wide cross-section and they do help to establish an expected rate of incremental ad clicks.

As mentioned, the meta-analysis revealed that over 89% of the clicks on search ads is incremental because it wouldn’t be generated without the PPC campaign. This does not mean, however, that the conversion rates of websites will also be incremental – that is still down to landing page design, and is generally a more holistic aspect of search marketing. Notwithstanding this, businesses are always on the lookout for ways to more accurately gage the potential cost of an online campaign, and this study by Google is a valuable source to be used when determining that figure.

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We had our campaigns split out to target devices with the following 3 ways:

1.    Computers – by checking ‘Desktop and laptop computers’ only

2.    iPads – by checking ‘iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers’ then selecting ‘Target only selected mobile devices’ and checking ‘iPad’ under ‘Advanced device and operator options’

3.    Mobile -  by checking iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers’ then selecting ‘Target only selected mobile devices’ and checking ‘Android’, ‘iPhone/iPod Touch’ and ‘Palm webOS’ under ‘Advanced device and operator options’

We generally do not target WAP Phones in most campaigns so this has been left out of the above.

However we noticed that Google had started to roll out the new device targeting options in the image, and we saw that our Computers campaigns were suddenly targeting Computers and Tablets! So we had 2 campaigns targeting duplicate keywords on Tablets, thanks Google.

This has not been fully rolled out yet so not all AdWords accounts will have the options in the image above but beware if you currently target iPads in a separate campaign, when Google do roll this out to your account you will need to change your targeting.

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The key issues that should have the most influence on the decision making process are the level of expertise that the agency is able to offer, the degree of transparency you will receive with the service and how accurate and reliable the agency can be in measuring the progress and success of campaigns.  Because PPC is such a complex form of advertising, obviously you will want to ensure that the agency you approach has a high level of expertise as well as a proven track record.  The level of visibility the agency will allow you is probably just as important.  The willingness to work closely with clients shows a willingness to fully understand the market; this is essential in developing the most effective strategy.  Finally, being able to accurately track the progress of a PPC campaign can help build trust between the client and the agency.  With these factors in mind, Click Consult have devised and answered a 10 Question package designed to help you select the best PPC agency.

1.    Experience: How long has your agency offered a PPC service?

Established in 2003, Click Consult have quickly built a reputation as one of Europe’s leading PPC Management agencies.

2.    Focus: How focused is your agency on PPC?

Click Consult have a team of dedicated pay-per click advertising experts, as well as having teams of professionals in other digital marketing disciplines such as search engine optimisation, web development and copywriting.  Each client is also assigned a designated account manager.  This system promotes effective communication between client and agency as well as endorsing transparency.

3.    Transparency: What level of transparency does your agency offer?

Click Consult offer complete transparency; the clients have access to all data.  By giving all clients access to our clickTELLIGENCE® software package – a unique online reporting suite – we are able to live up to the claim of offering an entirely transparent service.

4.    Specialisation: Does you PPC team specialise in anything else?

Click Consult’s team of PPC experts are dedicated to this particular element of internet marketing.  We also have teams of SEO programmers and web developers, ensuring that any clients who undertake out PPC service receive an approach that holistically encapsulates all aspects of digital marketing.  Click Consult’s PPC team also work closely with the clients to draw on industry knowledge in order to fine-tune and perfect their advertising strategies.  We are not dedicated to one particular niche, minimising the chances of managing campaigns for competitors.

5.    Capability: Does your agency offer a service capable of achieving results across multiple PPC platforms?

Click Consult do offer a service that incorporates all the major PPC Platforms, not just AdWords.  We can implement a PPC advertising campaign across Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, MSN AdCenter, Criteo and Facebook.

6.    Certification: Are your PPC team certified in Google AdWords?

Click Consult are one of the only agencies in the UK where all the PPC campaign managers are fully certified.  Each campaign manager has passed all four of the Google AdWords exams and also the rigorous Google Analytics exam.

7.    Reporting: How will I be able to track the progress of my PPC campaign?

Using our trademarked clickTELLIGENCE® reporting suite, all clients have access to reports that track every keyword and every penny spent.  As well as these standard reports, clients can specifically request a bespoke report to address any concerns they may have.  The Account Manager assigned to the client will also produce a monthly report on the progress of the client’s entire website, not just their PPC campaign.  Again, these reports are conducted in order to offer the clients complete transparency.

8.    Portability: What would happen if I decided to move PPC Management in-house?

Click Consult have a client retention rate of 90%, so portability issues are rarely an issue for us.  Our clickTELLIGENCE® reporting software was developed in-house, so leaving the company would mean losing the analytics data that Click Consult will have built up.

9.    Flexibility: How flexible is your agency for meeting specific requests of the clients?

Click Consult can adapt their approach to PPC campaigns in order to cater for the specific needs of the clients.  In the past we have managed non-brand campaigns while brand specific work is managed in-house and we have also managed the Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter platforms when Google AdWords has stayed in-house.  We understand that clients face a difficult decision when choosing a PPC agency to manage their campaigns, and we realise that there may be scenarios where it is necessary to win the trust of clients.  Click Consult will therefore do their utmost to support the needs of the clients while allowing the expertise of the PPC team to still get results.

10.    Measurable: How does your agency measure success?

One of the first procedures that Click Consult carry out with a client who pays for our PPC service is to agree a set of key performance indicators.  It is routine for us to ask the clients to help us establish these KPI’s, not the other way round.  Using these mutually established KPI’s, the clients has a clear standard by which they can measure the success of their PPC campaign accurately.

The PPC campaigns that we manage are conducted with the goal of combining profitability with a transparent and progressive approach to digital marketing.  We build profitable marketing campaigns, not just a few ads on Google.  Hopefully some of these questions will allay concerns about the authority of PPC agencies, and if you have an follow up queries don’t be afraid to get in touch with us.

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Competitor bidding is a touchy subject to most advertisers, with the majority agreeing that as well as being a costly exercise with relatively poor results, it increases the likelihood of competitors bidding on your Brand in retribution, leading to increased CPC and CPA on your own Brand Campaign from a vicious circle of bidding and counter bidding.

We have been approached by many Clients asking how we can prevent Competitors appearing on their brand terms. The short answer is, you can’t! There have been recent cases where some big names have fought to prevent competitors bidding on their brand and had slight success but realistically the best we can do is fight fire with fire.

Build efficient, relevant Brand and Competitor Campaigns and use unique, enticing ad text. Know how your USP’s compare to that of your Competitors and keep on your toes for any changes your Competitors make to their ads and bidding strategies, look for gaps in your competitor’s keyword strategy and exploit them with a Competitor Campaign Rampage. Creating ads that exploit your competitors’ brand names also helps.

If the main aim of your Campaign is to increase Brand Recognition then CPA and ROI targets should become irrelevant. If however ROI is your thing, then we recommend holding back for a month or so before including your Campaign in your Account, allow Quality Score to Build on other Campaigns first (most notably the Brand Campaign) and then you will receive a higher than average initial Quality Score on your Competitor Campaign. This will obviously then be effected by CTR and relevancy and the quality score will start to drop, so choose your keywords carefully, thinking how best to exploit the competition, and optimise consistently to improve the CTR. Good Luck!

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