PPC

One PPC Budget to Rule Them All

November 2, 2012 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Consider This PPC Advertising Scenario...

If you wanted to set up a Google AdWords Account with 3 Campaigns, and had 1 monthly budget that you were willing to spend across the account, then you would have to divide the monthly spend 3 ways (most likely not equally) between the 3 Campaigns. As the month goes on, 1 Campaign might max out its budget early, while another might not even come close to exhausting its budget. The month ends, and you only spent 2/3 of your monthly budget, but the high spending Campaign only ran for half the month and missed several potential clients.

Before the next month starts, you reallocate your budget. Money is shifted away from the lower spender to the higher ones. As the month goes on, the Campaigns and their spend act differently. The spending is reversed, you try to act quickly and adjust the budgets mid-month. However, the month ends and again you fall short of spending your entire budget. Although under budget can be a good thing, we all know it could lead to budget cuts too.

Sharing AdWords Budgets

Luckily Google Adwords has taken the guessing game out of budgeting for Campaigns. The shared budget concept within AdWords allows you to link Campaigns’ budgets together. This means that multiple Campaigns will pull for the same budget, rather than relying on just their own budget. So, if the above scenario occurs, the higher spending budget takes extra from the shared budget than the lower spending campaign. If the spending trends change, the budget gets allocated accordingly. As the PPC Account Manager, you do not have to stress over trying to predict the spend of each Campaign from month to month.

Although the Title suggest one budget for all Campaigns, that is not recommended, as different Campaigns spend at different rates. Try testing shared budgets between similar campaigns or campaigns that share the same goal. Let us know your test results, and whether shared budgets helped your PPC performance.

Rebranding of adCenter & Search Alliance

September 26, 2012 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

I’ve just finished taking the Bing Ads Accreditation exam , which is free until the end of September. Microsoft is graciously offering this exam for free as part of its rebranding promotion, which includes the renaming of adCenter to Bing Ads and Search Alliance to Yahoo! Bing Network. Offering something for free is always good at getting attention; in my opinion however, Microsoft did this a bit hastily.

What’s In A Name?

Image courtesy of InlineVision.com

The first issue with offering the Bing Ads test for free is the lack of updated questions. Sure, there are a few questions on updates to adCenter/Bing Ads features. The problem is that throughout the test the questions constantly reference adCenter, not Bing Ads! This also holds true for the Yahoo! Bing Network, which is never mentioned in the test either. Microsoft, if you are offering the test free for rebranding purposes, it makes more sense to make sure you call your own advertising platform (Bing Ads) and Network (Yahoo! Bing Network) by the correct name.

PPC Done By the Books

On top of missing a great opportunity to drill the correct/new name of Bing Ads and the Yahoo! Bing Network into the accredited professionals’ heads (assuming they pass the exam), the substance of the test still seems to be mostly textbook definitions. The only exception is when Microsoft starts asking about how to navigate and use their desktop editor, which is still called adCenter desktop in the test. Although this tool is useful for agencies who manage multiple accounts, it is not a necessity for everyone that manages a PPC campaign on Bing Ads to download and use the desktop editor.

As a recently re-accredited Bing Ads professional, I would love to hear your feedback on the rebranding and renaming of Bing Ads and the Yahoo! Bing Network. Also, if you have taken the Bing Ads test, please share your thoughts about it in the comments section below.

Muted Ads – Is Being Blocked Bad?

July 11, 2012 by Justin Miller 1 Comment

Google is always trying to give web surfers the best experience. Recently, with a change made to Display Advertising, Google has given the web surfer the capability to block or “mute” paid ads. As a marketer, initially my reaction was of fear and dread. Now, people on the web won’t just ignore my display ad, but go a step further and mute it! However, after thinking about this further, it may not be such a bad thing after all.

What is the new “Mute Ads” Feature?

The “Mute Ad” feature, which Google announced to the advertising world on June 29, is slowly being rolled out on their Display Network. This feature simply places an “X” next to the Ad Choice Logo on the top right hand side of your Advert.

If a web surfer chooses to click this “X,” then your advert will no longer appear to them, even if fit all of your targeting settings, such as placements and keywords. The first thoughts surrounding these “Muted Ads” were that they would lead to fewer Impressions and a decrease in reach.

How will “Muted Ads” Impact Your Display Campaigns?

Although getting fewer Impressions may be true, the “Muted Ads” could also mean lower costs, higher CTR (Click Through Rate), and decreased CPA (Cost per Acquisition). If you are a bidding CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions), then muted ads mean fewer Impressions to viewers who don’t want to see your ads – or less wasted dollars. If you do see a drop in Impressions, then overall Cost should drop with it, seeing as how you are paying per 1,000 Impressions. If you are running CPC (Cost per Click) bidding on the Display Network, “Muted Ads” can help you too. They will decrease your Impressions, but since you would lose people who didn’t want to see your ad, you should not be losing any Clicks (or at least valuable Clicks – the ones that lead to Conversions). This will result in a better CTR, which in turns will help improve Quality Score, reduce CPC, and improve ranking position. Altogether, the “Mute Ad” feature seems like it will be more beneficial than first expected. The question is, will people actually use it, or just continue ignoring irrelevant ads?

Could “Muted Ads” be Better?

In saying that I think this “Mute Ad” feature is good, I am also hoping Google AdWords will release more data around it once it is fully launched. Knowing where (which placements) an ad is being muted, or by which demographic (age, sex, geographic location) could be useful. This would enable advertisers to pull, revise, and replace irrelevant ads with more relevant ones to niche markets. For instance: An Ad may perform great in L.A. but get “muted” a lot in D.C. Knowing this allows the marketer to continue the successful Ad in L.A. while creating a new one for the D.C. area. So here is hoping that more data around “Muted Ads” is on the way.

What are your thoughts on this new “Mute Ads” feature, which enables web surfers to block specific display ads? Let us know in the comment section below.

3 Steps to a Successful Strategic PPC Campaign

June 14, 2012 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Pay per Click (PPC) are the paid ads the show above and and along side of the search results, when you use Google, Bing, or other search engines. PPC can be a very powerful form of advertising. Google and Microsoft often brag about its amazing reach and how cost-effective it is. However, like everything else in business, if your PPC advertising efforts are aimless, then the profitability will most likely not be there. In order to not waste your time and money, here are 3 Steps (Strategy, Implement, and Optimize) to consider prior to running a Pay per Click Campaign.

1) Strategy

First ask the all important question: Why? What is your purpose of advertising online? This begins the strategy building process, which all starts with an overall objective – Increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive more sales, etc. This defined objective gives your PPC Campaign a focus. Next, decide how much you are willing to spend. Your budget is best set either monthly or daily. The final stage of the strategic process is setting specific and measurable Goals – i.e. to increase sales 3% month over month.

2) Implement

Now that you have an objective, budget, and at least one goal, the next step is setting up the Campaign. Before heading to Google AdWords or Microsoft adCenter, you will want to do some research. A few questions to consider are – Who is your target audience (broad or niche), what are they searching (keywords), and where are they online (websites, Social Media, etc.)? With all of this newly found information, it is time to head to the most appropriate advertising platform(s) (AdWords, adCenter, Facebook, etc.) and set-up your PPC Account. Remember to include multiple ad copy variations, keyword match types, and landing pages for testing purposes, because it is never too early to begin testing to see what will be the most effective and efficient.

3) Optimize

Finally, your PPC is up and running. The last step is to monitor its performance and make adjustments accordingly. Re-visit your goal(s) and determine all your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), not just the final goal metric. For example, if your goal is to increase sales 3% month over month, your KPI’s would include:

Impressions – Number of times the ad was shown
Clicks – How often your ad was engaged with
Conversions – Sales, Lead Generation, Phone Calls, etc.
Cost – Cost/Click and Cost/Conversion
ROI – Measure and show Profitability

Between checking the important KPI’s and continuously testing different elements (Ad Copy, Landing Pages, Keywords, etc.) of your PPC Campaign, you will be able to make the modifications needed to ensure that you reach your goals and objectives.

To summarize, Pay per Click can do wonders for your business, but you have to put work into it, rather than just running it aimlessly. Start with putting together a strategy. Use that strategy to guide you through the set-up and targeting process. Finally, stay focused on your business’s goals as you monitor, test, and optimize your PPC Campaigns. This simple, yet time-consuming and work-intensive 3-step process will help you build and manage an effective and efficient PPC Campaign.

PPC Advertising Battle: AdWords Vs adCenter

May 17, 2012 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Everyone knows that Google is king of search. But when it comes to Paid Search Advertising (PPC), is going with the Google always the best option? Although Bing and Yahoo combined do not compare to Google’s daily search volume, their paid advertising via Microsoft adCenter might be a cheaper alternative that could generate a higher ROI for you.

Round 1 of the PPC Advertising Battle: Stats & Metrics

From my experience, there seems to be less competition and therefore cheaper prices (CPC) on adCenter. Below is a snapshot look into a client’s account on adCenter.

As you can see, they had an almost 2% CTR, an Average Position within the top 2-3 spots, a CPC below $1.00, and a CPA under $20.00. Now let’s compare those performance metrics to the same time period on Google AdWords.

Stats are taken for the same Date Range from Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. As expected, Google AdWords brought in more traffic, and therefore more conversions (7 more to be exact). However, each Click cost $0.71 ($0.07 more) and each Conversion cost $26.26 (almost $10 more.)

Round 2 of the PPC Advertising Battle: ROI

If, for example, we assume the value of each conversion is $50 each, which PPC Account has a better ROI? Microsoft adCenter is showing a Cost of $583.10 (CPA $16.66 x 35 Conversions) with a returning Value of $1750 (35 Conversions x $50 value per Conversion). That results in an ROI of $1166.90 ($1750 Value – $583.10 Cost).

Keeping the same assumption of a $50 value per Conversion, Google AdWords earned a returning value of $2100 (42 Conversions x $50 Value), but had a cost of $1102.92 (Cost/Conv. $26.26 x 42 Conversions). With that said, the ROI for Google AdWords was $997.08 ($2100 Value – $1102.92 Cost.)

In this particular case, although Google AdWords earned a 90.4% ROI ($997.08), it was trumped by Microsoft adCenter, which earned an incredible 199.9% ROI ($1166.90).

Google AdWords Vs Microsoft Adverting Battle Re-cap

Microsoft adCenter did well in Round 1 with maintaining a good CTR (almost 2%) and generating 35 Conversions. However, Google was able to out muscle Microsoft, with more than double the CTR (above 4%) as well as an additional 7 Conversions (42 in total.)

In Round 2, Microsoft adCenter came out swinging with it lower CPC and CPA (or Cost/Conversion). After multiplying the incremental costs out, it turned out to be too much for Google. Bing Ads was able to pull out the victory with a very impressive ROI of over $1,000.

If you run similar or identical campaigns on both Google AdWords & Microsoft adCenter, let us know which is performing better. Does your paid search advertising battle end the same way this one did with Microsoft earning the higher ROI?

The Cost of a Low Quality Score

January 4, 2012 by Justin Miller 1 Comment

Quality is important in advertising, but even more so in PPC advertising. Google AdWords gives the top Ad Position to the highest Ad Rank, and Ad Rank is Max CPC Bid multiplied by Quality Score. This means that there are two factors that decide what position your PPC ads are shown – 1) How much you Bid (CPC) and 2)What your Quality Score is. A Quality Score can range from 1 (terrible) – 10 (excellent), as shown below.

In order to clearly see the Value (or Cost) of Quality Score, let’s walk through an example. First, assume a competitor is Bidding $0.75 with a Quality Score of 7. This means their Ad Rank is 5.25. The Table below reveals the CPC Bid that is needed in order to achieve the same Ad Rank depending on your Quality Score.

As you can see, a Higher PPC Quality Score can actually save you money, while a lower Quality Score could cost you $1.00 or more of additional cost per click (CPC.) Let’s continue with this example and assume 100 Clicks in a month. The below Table shows the additional and total savings/cost due to Quality Score.

The Yellow Highlighted Row is your competitor. The Green Highlights show the possible savings per click, and how you could be paying less than your competitor, if you have a higher Quality Score. However, the Red Highlights reveal that a low Quality Score could cause you to pay more than double your competitors per click. Now you should be able to clearly see how a Low Quality Score will greatly increase your Cost per Click, which in turn increase overall Cost, but also how a high Quality Score could lower you Cost and increase your Bottom Line.