The Striking Similarities of Paid Search & Fantasy Football
I recent had one of those moments where something just made enough sense to put a blog post together. I was at the gym running on a treadmill and realized that Paid Search and Fantasy Football have a lot in common. You may ask yourself, OK, where is he going with this. Well, if you take every element of Fantasy Football from the Draft night to the mid season analysis, it is very much like PPC. Let me make the case.
Typical Sunday Morning for me:
It was Sunday morning and I poured myself a cup of favorite Cafe Du
Monde Coffee and turned on my laptop. The first thing I do is check my
latest roster and new for the upcoming day of my Fantasy Football
League. Yes, I'm a fantasy football junkie! Anyways, as soon as I read
the latest news on all of my players, I then opened a new window in my
browser and checked my client's Adwords & Yahoo (sorry MSN) Accounts. I looked at the costs, conversions, identified some interesting metrics and made some bid adjustments and
then logged off. Then once I logged off, it hit me. What I just did was very similar in context. The Strategy for Fantasy Football is the same as Paid Search. Which is to win the game.
All Strategies are created equal:
Before and during the fantasy draft, your typically by a magazine which
tells you who's hot, who's on the rise, what off-season transaction and
news will affect your decisions. During the draft, you give the
commissioner your $$$ and you make decisions that will affect your
entire season. You then take out you draft plan and strategy and start
choosing players.
With both of these, you have to do the following
Research Phase : (Pre-draft = keyword research)
- Identify the best players for their relevant positions on the field.
- Look at the overall Team, coaching and other players which can have an impact on your player
- How strong is their division? Are they at the end of their contract?, etc..
Planning Phase: (Draft night = setting up Campaign Structure)
- Select your Top Ten must have players
- Choose the best players in their positions first that will give you the highest Points
- Carefully plan out a secondary/backup plan fir bye weeks and possible injuries
Launch Phase: (Prepare for Season's First Game)
- Make sure all of Roster is set and ready to go
- Make sure your up to date on the latest news on your players
Optimization Phase: (Weekly Roster Updates)
- Review latest player injuries and team performance
- Replace injured starters with best backup alternatives
- Propose trades with other teams in your league
- Find best available free agents
- Check the weather conditions and decide who to start
- Prepare & identify best players for replacement of anticipated BYE weeks
- See what Rookies are doing well and pick them up (if applicable)
Weekly/Monthly Performance Reports (Weekly Standings)
- Identify which players are not performing
- Identify teams that are doing well and can influence decisions on Free agents/trades.
- Drop or trade players based on injuries, poor performance
- Continue to makes necessary roster changes to ensure winning continues
In Conclusion:
So, I know it's a little TMI (Too Much Information) for those reading this post, but it just shows you that I enjoy Paid Search almost as much as I love Fantasy Football. The only problem is that my Wife has one (1) rule for me. "Don't get mad when you lose!" So far, I've been pretty good at that. However, when it comes to my job and paid search, I have a high standard and make it a priority to make sure all my PPC clients get the best results possible.
I would like all of my clients to think I am the '07-'08 New England Patriots of their Paid Search initiatives. Honestly, why else should we do it!
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