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Paid Search Keywords using Personas and Intent

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A search starts with a problem or question. As a business, your goal is to begin to resolve their problem/question with your paid search ad. Before you can accomplish this goal, you must uncover the person/personality of these users and the intent of their searches. While knowing each individual user who searches and their personal intent is impossible, it is practical to create a persona to represent each group/segment of your target audience in order to better reach and begin resolve their problems/questions.

Personas - Fictional Character behind PPC Searches

Creating personas to represent segments of your target audience can greatly benefit your paid search marketing tactics. Although the process of dividing your target audience into segments and then creating representative personas for each segment will be time consuming, the effectiveness of your paid search marketing campaigns will prove that the time was well spent. Instead of building a list of keywords including how your entire target market should, could and would search for your product/search, you can focus your attention on how a single persona thinks and searches for your product or service. Being able to focus your attention will streamline the keyword list building process and make it more efficient. Also, this allows you to tailor your ad copy to the needs/wants of that single persona to compel them to take action and interact with your ads.

Intent - The “Why?” of Paid Search

How a user responds to your ads will vary depending on the purpose of their search. Fortunately, users often give marketers a glimpse into their motives through the search terms used. For instance, someone looking for “reviews for …” or “best…” is currently comparative shopping. While searchers who include “cost” or “price” are closer to making a purchase. Another indicator is the specificity of the search. A comparative shopper still researching will use general terms like “shoes”, “sneakers” or “runners.” On the other hand someone that is ready to make a decision will use brand names like “Nike” or “Reebok” or even specific product lines “Adidas Springblades.” Determining how personas search for your product or service at different stages of the purchasing cycle will help you finalize your paid search keyword list. The biggest benefit from knowing the user intent is being able to direct them to a landing page with content that answers their questions and pushes them into the next stage of the purchasing cycle.

A perfect example of this is if a user is searching for reviews, you might want to direct them to a landing page with customer reviews and testimonials. From there, offer links to showcase additional features, make a purchase, or contact a sales representative. Allow the user to discover the answers to the questions that initiated their search while guiding them through your sales/conversion funnel. This customer nurturing process all starts with the Pay per Click (PPC) keyword list building.

Pay Per Click Keyword List Building Combining Personas and Intent

When using both personas and intent breakdowns your keyword lists should form a matrix structure similar to the one depicted below.

Breakdown of Paid Search Keywords
Simplified breakdown of Paid Search Keywords per the Intent of Persona.

The more personas with different intent will multiply out the number of column and rows of your chart, but it will also allow you to get more personal with real searchers. By combining persona segments with user intent, you will be able to connect with more of the real searches within your target market through you paid search marketing efforts. This personal connection will result in higher performing keywords, ad copy, landing pages, and ultimately more conversions (leads or sales.) Setting aside the time to fully work out personas and their intent could greatly boost your Pay per Click advertising ROI, proving that it was time very well spent.

If you have not created personas or leveraged user’s intent, we highly recommend that you set aside the time to give it a try. If you have done it previously, let us know what your experience has been in creating and using personas to represent your paid search target audience! In addition, if you have split your keywords into user intent segments, has it made an impact on your Pay per Click efforts?

We at DaBrian Marketing Group would love to hear your thoughts, comments, and experiences with personas and user intent.

Understand and Boost PPC ROI in 3 Steps

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Step 1: Understanding ROI of Your PPC

Return (or Value) on Investment (Cost) is easy enough to understand, but applying the concept to PPC can be tricky. Before going further, you MUST have Conversion Tracking setup on your PPC. Without tracking Conversions, there is no way to measure the Return (Value) of your PPC efforts. Once you have Conversion Tracking set up and have assigned a monetary Value per Conversion, measuring the value of your PPC becomes easy. As for Cost, it is already measured for you within AdWords.

Now that we have the Return (Value) and Investment (Cost), ROI is a simple division problem away. But, do you really understand how you earned the value and where the cost went? The next step is breaking down the components that contribute to the ROI equation.

Step 2: The Marginal Parts to Value and Cost

Cost is simply broken down into CPC or Cost per Click. While not every click is going to Cost the same, you will have an average CPC, which AdWords calculates for you, that can be used here. In a similar manner, Value can be broken down into Value per Conversion (from here on will be CV). This is very easy if you only have one Conversion type, but still doable with multiple Conversions (by using an average CV). When looking at the margin Cost and Value, we need a metric to tie the two together, which is where your Conversion Rate (CR), which is Conversions per Clicks, helps us.
At the breakeven point, your CPC = CV * CR. This also means that as long as CPC is less than CV * CR, you have a positive ROI. Below is a table illustrating the relationship of these metrics.

Examples to show that Comparing CPC to Conversion Rate times Conversion Value can determine ROI
Examples showing that using only marginal metrics works to determine a positive or negative ROI

Taking a deeper look at this table, one will notice that whenever the CR drops below 10% the Campaign is in the red, but a CR above 10% brings it into the black, and while the CR is exactly 10% the Campaign is at its breakeven point. The next table uses the same figures but only includes the CPC, CV * CR, and ROI columns.

Reveal ROI by Comparing CPC to Conversion Rate times Conversion Value

By looking at CPC and CV * CR, we can determine if a campaign has a positive ROI. Let us look at the final step, which is optimizing your Campaigns to boost your ROI.

Step 3: Boost PPC ROI

Since there are two sides to this equation, there are two methods to boosting ROI.

1) Reduce CPC
2) Increase CV and/or CR

CPC can be reduced a few different ways. The quickest is to lower bids or pause keywords with high CPCs. Of course, it’s best to keep the ones that are earning Conversions, because we do not want to lower the value side of the equation. Another method is to increase your Quality Score. A higher Quality Score allows you to pay less without losing Ad Rank (or Ad Position). Making sure that your Ad Copy and Landing Page content are relevant and even includes your top performing keywords will help boost your Quality Score.
Next is increasing CV and/or CR. Since Conversion Value is more often a fixed amount, I am going to focus on Conversion Rate. Begin by making sure your Landing Page clearly tells the visitor what the desire action (Conversion) is and the next step to take to accomplish it. Next, include a clear call to action within the Ad Copy (i.e. Buy Online, Sign Up or Register). Lastly, confirm that your keywords and other settings are reaching the right target audience. If you want people make a purchase, then people just looking for information are not within your target audience. Ensuring that you are getting your Ads in front of the right audience will help increase CR and boost ROI.

A Quick Recap

Just knowing the ROI percentage of your PPC, whether it is positive or negative, is not enough. You must really understand how and why your PPC earned (or failed to earn) its ROI. By breaking the equation down into the marginal metrics (CPC and CV) and tying the metrics together with Conversions Rate, you can tell if your ROI is positive or negative. Then, the next step is to improve it. Is your Cost side too high? Then start working on lowering the CPC. On the other hand, is your value lacking? Look at targeting settings, Ad Copy, and Landing Pages to make sure you are guiding the right audience all the way through your Conversions Funnel.

Now that you know how to give your PPC ROI a boost, share your success stories in the comments!