In a very interesting article in Adweek entitled “Google’s Ad Rank to Consider Phone Calls, Not Just Clicks
Bid-per-call coming to AdWords“, the author Ki Mae Heussner stresses th at Adwords will shortly factor in Phone Calls into Ad Rank calculations, which in the PPC world means Quality Score. Furthermore, according to article it also states “that the bids and call volume will factor into an advertiser’s Ad Rank and, therefore, influence the position of the online ads”

In essence, this is a very good problem to have because it allows for better management of ROAS%. Adgroup expansion is a sign of good Quality Score methodology. Overtime, there will be Winners, Losers and Others that need more attention. With that said, there are a few ways to alter the campaign structures to get the most out of the budgets. Here are a few ideas:

Keep them in their Family:
This approach, even though not optimal for conversions, is a good way to control the budgets across an entire group of related products or services. This can be applied to eCommerce as well as Lead Generation. If the client prefers to spend money on specific adgroups/terms, even though they do not generally drive a lot of conversions, this a good way to go.

Performance Classification:
Sometimes, you need to mix things up from the typical Quality Score structure. In this phase in the PPC Game, it’s all about Revenue’s and maximizing ROAS%. Bucketing the top performing adgroups will allow for increase Ad Serving exposure to those adgroups which need it the most. The difficult task in doing this is where the “cut off” line is with the adgroups, especially with Seasonality trends.

Intent Classification:
In this case, identifying the top keyword modifiers which drive the highest level of interaction from the searcher will generate this classification. In a past blog post on SemGeek entitled “Tips on How to Maximize Lead Quality in PPC Marketing”, I talk about the importance of measuring Keyword Intent and using that information along with conversions to create the different classification buckets.

In Conclusion:
As I mentioned before, this is a good problem to have because it’s a natural growing pain of a well structured campaign. The bottom line in all that we do in PPC is Optimal Performance. The more money we make for the advertiser/client, the better the relationship and that’s what we want. Personally, I think every PPC Marketer needs to be creative in how they approach Paid Search. Achieving good Quality Score is always a best practice, but I would take conversions and a respectable ROAS% over Quality Score any day.

Remember. Quality Score is just a metric. The only Metric that matters are Conversions!

Today, pay-per-click platforms like Google AdWords, Microsoft adCenter and Facebook Ads are becoming much more complex. Beyond the core components of a pay-per-click account mentioned above, adding to the complexity of a pay-per-click account are features and tools such as campaign settings and automation, ad extensions and retargeting. At times the complexity can be overwhelming but there is a way to think about all this that can help you dance through your day as a search engine marketing manager a bit easier and it begins by thinking in systems. This elevated view and thought process into pay-per-click advertising and search engine marketing enables accountable parties the ability to increase their capacity to think, learn, communicate and act more systemically¹.

The Pay-Per-Click Dance

In 2001, the late Donella Meadows published an article Dancing with Systems about her journey towards understanding systems. Dancing with Systems is a 14-step approach to learning how to develop your own way of working within any type of system – pay-per-click advertising and search engine marketing included. The key take-away for me by reading this article is that if you give up the need to control the system and predict outcomes you leave more time for delivering value-added work. The 14 steps include:

1. Get the beat.
2. Listen to the wisdom of the system.
3. Expose your mental models to the open air.
4. Stay humble. Stay a learner.
5. Honor and protect information.
6. Locate responsibility in the system.
7. Make feedback policies for feedback systems.
8. Pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable.
9. Go for the good of the whole.
10. Expand time horizons.
11. Expand thought horizons.
12. Expand the boundary of caring.
13. Celebrate complexity.
14. Hold fast to the goal of goodness.

When it comes to pay-per-click advertising, I’ve often thought that there is a certain rhythm, or beat, to managing accounts on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. I’ve written before about the idea that, if you listen and pay attention to what is important, keywords and text ads will tell you their story once the data begins to unfold. If you watch, listen and learn you will know what to expect from certain parts of the system and can prioritize work based on that knowledge.

Each day, search engine managers should crave to learn something new about an account or their approach to managing accounts and share what you learn not only with your immediate co-workers, but also with your clients. Like it or not, you are not isolated – everyone who touches a keyword is a part of the greater, global pay-per-click system. It is irresponsible to withhold information and doing so will come back to haunt you in the long-term. Collaboration and sharing of ideas and results, good or bad, can only help grow pay-per-click advertising efforts.

Paid search advertising has become an increasingly powerful marketing tool, but it also has the ability to make 95% of the users look like used car salesmen. Understanding the implications of how your approach to pay-per-click advertising, whether positive or negative, influences the greater system of search engine marketing and eCommerce is critical to its sustainability allowing you to dance all night long…

Resources

Thinking in Systems – Donella Meadows

Systems Thinking – F. E. Emery

¹isee systems

The single most important phrase of any PPC Client-Agency relationship is the Discovery Phase. This is where all of the questions are answered so the agency can  start mentally preparing a strategy. However, where most agencies fail, is that are hired to drive qualified traffic to the client’s website and if conversions do not follow, they will cut keywords, lower bids, rewrite text ads and do everything they can do with the search engine platform. That might be the biggest mistake an agency could make. Let me explain.

Here are a (3) Three Common “Before the Click” PPC Myths.

Myth #1: Good Quality Score means Success.
False.:I have seen countless keywords and text ads with a low “Google Quality Score” rating, yet they possess a high level of conversions. Would you change anything? Probably not.

Myth #2: Using DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion) to improve CTR%
False.: While, you may have an improved CTR%, you are limiting yourself with persuasive messaging tactics, which is crucial for not only getting that click, but converting on that click.

Myth #3: Having lots of Impressions is a good thing?
False: Unless you are running a Display Banner on the Display Network, Impressions are a bad thing in the Search Network. It’s simple math. The more impressions you have, the lower the ctr% and lower your Quality Score. Furthermore, Google’s Impression Share Ratio is an interesting metric to look at, but not of it matters unless you are getting conversions.

Monetize Everything for PPC.
When I speak to either a Prospect or a new client, I always ask them about conversions online as well as offline. I need the advertiser to understand that if they are doing PPC, we need to track everything aspect of the website which triggers an interaction with the visitor. This includes Orders, Order Value, Newsletter Signups, Contact Forms, Live Chats and Phone numbers. All of these conversion elements should be tagged before any money is spent on PPC.  If these interaction points are not tracked, then ongoing strategies will fail.

Landing Page Usability
When people are searching online, their behaviors are not the same as if they were driving from store to store looking for the best price. There is a level of “instant gratification” that needs to be addressed and that starts with Text Ad and continued with the Landing Page. Meaning, if they are looking for a specific product of service, the Landing Page must have every possible element visible to them as well as interaction point for them to engage you. Landing Pages are the end result of all of the hard work to get them there.

In Conclusion:
Advertisers should not just care about clicks. All they should care about is conversions. They will spend more if they make more. The agency/consultant has a responsibility to communicate to their client that if they see an opportunity to increase conversions. Advertisers hire PPC geeks to make them money online simply because they don’t know how to or don’t have the time to do it themselves. As long as there’s 100% transparency and the agency is continuously optimizing, testing and coming up with new tactics and strategies, what happens “before the click” is an after-thought.

In a recent article entitled “Companies to Spend More on Internet Marketing This Year – Survey” written by Nina Varghese from PlanetInsane.com, Nina talks about how Google and Bing are set to see in increase in ad budgets because more companies who were recently surveyed will allocate more money to Internet Marketing than the previous year. The article also goes on to say that many of the retailers surveyed, will put more dollars into Bing/Yahoo. However, what the article did not mention at all was Facebook Ads, which has seen an increase in Ad revenues over the past year. According to SoftPedia.com, they project that Facebook’s Display Ad Network will beat rivals Google and Yahoo this year. Moreover, another interesting thing to note from the SoftPedia Article is “the new revenue doesn’t even come from other web advertising budgets, it’s mostly drawing from budgets previously reserved to traditional venues, like TV.”

So, now that we are starting to see a trend where more and more companies are continuing to shift more Ad dollars to the Internet, I want to know where “Tactically speaking”  will they be spending them. I would like to know the following:

• Search Networks
• Google Re-marketing
• Yahoo Behavioral Targeting
• Display Networks
• YouTube
• Mobile
• Facebook Sponsored Stories
• Facebook Fan Pages
• Facebook Ads (external)

More Ad Dollars means Better Efficiency:
According to Nina at PlanetInsane, she states “About 41 per cent of the companies surveyed said that they would divert some spend on Bing, for their Internet marketing. The latest technology enables advertisers to move search campaigns to Bing.” Now, the AdCenter Desktop Editor is easier than the Bing Platform, but still is not as efficient as the Adwords Editor. On the other hand, there are much better alternatives than these Editors. In fact, software companies who focus just on the PPC Industry provide features which would significantly reduce the headaches of all of the “day to day in the weeds”. For example, Acquisio’s PPC Management Software and Performance Media Platform offers the following:

• Google Search & Display
• Display Retargeting
• Yahoo/Bing, Facebook Ads
• Tracking and Attribution
• Bid Automation & Rules
• Terrific Reporting

 
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According to Google, “Call Metrics works by assigning and placing a toll-free forwarding number next to your ad text on Google search pages. When a user sees your ad and calls the number, AdWords registers the call and forwards it to your business.”

Google’s Call Metric Stats So Far to Date:

• Google says they have connected 5 million+ calls for thousands of businesses.
• Calls generated from ads using Call Metrics last six minutes, on average.

New “Bells and Whistles”:

• Reporting is now available at the ad group and campaign level for manually-dialed calls (subject to minimum volume).
• Continue to segment reports to compare how many calls were received from mobile clicks-to-call and how many were manually dialed after the ad was shown on a desktop, notebook, or tablet computer.

New Pricing Structures:

• A $1.00 USD (or equivalent in CAD) charge applies to manually dialed calls completed to your Google forwarding numbers. These calls occur when a potential customer on a desktop, notebook or tablet computer sees your ad and dials the number shown.
• Pricing for mobile clicks-to-call remains unchanged, whether you use Call Metrics or not. They continue to be charged as regular mobile search ad clicks.

Most Interesting:
One of the most interesting pieces of this post, is their mention of a future release called Ad Rank calculations which identify Ad Position and CPC. Google states the following:

“In a future release, we plan to incorporate calls into Ad Rank calculations, which determine an ad’s position and cost per click. At that time, you’ll be able to influence your ad position by specifying a bid per call greater than $1.00 USD. This will parallel the way that clickthrough rate (CTR) and max CPC bids can influence Ad Rank today.”

In Conclusion
Google continues to provide it’s advertisers more ways to spend money and at the same time take out the competition for those 3rd party companies offering additional services (outside of Google) to enable the advertiser to get the most out of their investment. However, Google is very smart to be developing these tools for free because they are continually finding ways to get more advertisers dollars. With every Google release of a new tool for the platform, it forces 3rd party software companies to push the envelope and come up with more innovative ideas and that is not necessarily a Bad thing (from an advertiser’s view of course)

#2 Prospects Reporting is Vague and Incomplete:
Advertisers who hire a PPC agency, need to know what the hell is happening with their investment. providing excel files of impressions, clicks, ctr% and match types are completely useless and does not tell a simple damn thing. The Reporting should be high level, show conversions, ROI, ROAS%, which campaigns, adgroups, keywords and text ads that are converting, as well contain analysis, insight and future optimization suggestions. It is lack of detail and frankly “laziness” which is hurting the industry as a whole.
My Recommendation: Use a 3rd Party PPC reporting Platform such as Acquisio where you can automatically slice and dice the data anyway you want and not have to spend hours and hours in excel creating charts. Acquisio does charge for their service, but it’s definitely worth the cost of a client and a potential referral.

#3 Prospects Conversion Tracking is not Setup Properly:
If the client does not have conversion tracking at the search engine platform level, it’s not an accurate metric to report successes and failures. Relying on Google Analytics for PPC reporting is a very bad idea and it is not 100% accurate.
My Recommendation: Just explain to them that GA is not a reliable tracking source for Adwords and provide their webmaster with detailed instructions on how to add the code to the confirmation page, as well as show them how to add the dynamic SUBTOTAL variable to track actual revenues for ROI and ROAS metrics.

#4 Prospect Feels that PPC is a Scam
This is the toughest part of the conversation to try and persuade them to get back into the game. While you need to be careful not to completely “bash” the current agency.
My Recommendation: You need to professionally explain all of the missing opportunities that exist that have not yet been implemented, as well as back it all up with accurate Analytics and reporting. Many Prospects feel that everything is setup once and the account is on autopilot. In order to reassure them that you are a different agency, you need to explain that automation (even though it has it’s advantages) is not always the best practice, especially when trying to convince that PPC does work.

#5 Prospect Needs more Reassurance
At the end of the sales call, the prospect is reviewing their notes, feeling this is a little “too good to be true” and needs a little more from the potential agency to get that “real deal” feeling.

My Recommendation: One of the best things you can do to persuade them to go with you is to contact them immediately after the call via email and offer them referrals of current clients as well as a Case Study and even a sample report so they can use that as a deciding factor. It’s all about timing and urgency to gain their trust and business. The faster and more proactive you can be, the better the chances you will get them as a client.

Misperception #6: High Quality Score means a Good Campaign:
This sounds confusing, but this is absolutely not true. How many times have you see a High Quality Score rank for a term that has no conversions. How many times have you seen a very low Quality Score Rank for a term that possesses many conversions. This metric means nothing and should not be looked at with any concern. Furthermore, the algorithm behind this rank is very suspect and should be modified to be based on Conversions. Word of advice, STOP thinking about it.

Misperception #5: Good CTR% is Most Important Metric
Yes, a good CTR% is a sign that you have a good impressions vs. clicks ratio. But it does NOT mean SUCCESS. You could argue that a good CTR% is a sign of a good quality score and that is correct. But that doesn’t matter if you are not getting any conversions from it. Wouldn’t you rather have a lower CTR% and 10 Conversions, vs. a high CTR% and 1 conversion? Having both a high CTR% and many Conversions is the best of both worlds, but don’t rely on a good CTR% as a success. The only success is the sound of the cash register.

Misperception #4: Lots of Keywords and Negatives is a Good Thing
This one makes me crazy to no end. Having lots of keywords in a specific adgroup is a sign that it needs to be broken out into many other adgroups to improve on relevancy. If you have tons of Negative Terms, that is a sign that you are (1) not targeting the right audience or (2) not using the proper keyword matching options available to you. Just because you spent money on expensive keyword research tools does not mean you will make a return on that investment. In most cases, you will have 500 keywords running and at the end of the month, you might have like 10-20 that might actually perform well for you. Remember, you are trying to reach and identify potential customers, not everyone under the sun.

Misperception #3: Display/Content Network is a Waste
That may have been true 5 years ago, but not today. In a world of high competition and inflated CPCs, Google’s Display Network is “Prime Real Estate” right now for advertisers. Now it does NOT have the amazing targeting abilities such as LinkedIn and Facebook, but they do have the power of Remarketing as well as YouTube Targeting. Also, so Branding is making a comeback in PPC and is a must strategy that deserves a larger piece of the Ad Budget. The only downfall you may have with the Display Network is the person behind the Strategy and “day to day” management. Remember the days when your Content Network budget was consumed by a few Adult-Oriented or completely irrelevant sites which made you freak out and demonize the network? Well, perhaps it was a matter of Management and in today’s world it could be a potential goldmine for your business.

Misperception #2: It’s OK to Use PPC To Drive Traffic WITHOUT Conversion Tracking
Sorry to break it to you, but unless you just won the lottery and want to make a donation to provide more Filet Mignon’s and Italian Gelato to the Google Cafeteria Budget, I would never suggest to use PPC for just driving traffic and not monetizing anything. For every dollar you spend in PPC, Google has provided every advertiser with all of the tools needed to ensure that you know what is working and not working with your investment. Tip: Don’t be lazy, find someone to set this up. It’s worth it!

Misperception #1: Being Adwords Certified Means your an Expert:
Being Adwords Certified means only one thing. You have an idea on how to use the platform. Just because someone is Certified does not mean they can outsmart someone who is not Certified. This is probably one of the biggest issues in PPC today. Yes, the Certification provides some excellent best practices that are crucial to a successful campaign. I would rather hire someone with past experience than someone who just passed the exam. Here are just a few things that the Exam does not teach you:

• How to come up with a Good Strategy
• How to be Proactive and Reactive when it matters most
• How to deal with Client Management
• What to do when something goes wrong
• How to understand true ROI and Atrribution
• How to look at “Offline” influencers that affect PPC efforts
• How to deal with Affiliate and Resellers who are invading the advertisers space
• Shall I go on………..

In Conclusion:
Good PPC Marketing comes from experience, best practices and passion for doing the work. It also encompasses a strong dedication and loyalty to the client and/or company you are working for. Passing an Adwords Exam only show that you are either a Good Test Taker or you know how to use their platform. That is all it does. The key to success is how you use the platform and all of it’s bells and whistles to your client’s advantage.

Here are some thoughts about why Size Doesn’t Matter in PPC

Issue: Lots of Impressions in the Search Network and Display Network with Text Ads is a BAD THING.
Solution: Lots of Impressions for those using Display Banners on the Display Network is a good thing to have, especially if your settings are set to CPA or CPC. It is also beneficial to identify any and all View Thru Conversions.

Issue: Lots of Keywords in an adgroup is a bad thing. Tells me that you need to break out more relevant adgroups
Solution: Having lots of keywords is an indicator that the advertiser need to create more “tightly” grouped adgroups in order to maximize the Quality Score, as well as ongoing optimization.

Issue: Lots of Negatives is a sign that you have targeting issues, that reflect the poor choice of HEAD Terms.
Solution: Negative Keywords is an effective tool to filter out traffic. However, the proper use of keyword matching and types of negatives can force the advertiser to reconsider the audience they are trying to reach. Having too many negatives means there is a bigger issue with keyword matching and not enough long-tail keywords.

Issue: Lots of Display Network sites showing your ads is a bad thing. Most likely you should exclude most of them that are not performing in terms of conversions.
Solution: When you start a display campaign, it’s not a bad thing to see lots of sites that either the advertiser has chosen manually or to have shown automatically. It’s a bad thing however, when you do not monitor and start performing Site Exclusions. This is MUST tactic in order to control the spend and where your ads are showing.

Issue: Lots of PPC Traffic can be a bad thing. Unless it’s converting, it is increasing site bandwidth and a sign that there might be usability or audience issue.
Solution: Controlling the PPC Traffic has always been a “double edged” sword. It all has to do with Conversions. If the conversions are coming in, then optimize which terms of adgroups they are coming from. Having a goal of just driving as much traffic as possible in order to “try and see what happens” is a very bad strategy.

Issue: Lots of traffic from 2nd tier search engine platforms can be a bad thing. If not converting, waste of bandwidth and expectations.
Solution: Using other search engine platforms to get a lower CPC and increase traffic is not a good strategy to have. It would make a great 1 month test to see the results, but would not recommend based on cheaper traffic. Again, if it’s converting and your ROAS% is good, then continue.

Issue: Too many text ads can be a bad thing because of the time needed for an accurate sample size, as well as the messaging tactics.
Solution: The use of multiple text ads is a very good thing if there is a Messaging Strategy in place. If the advertiser is just changing a few words around and creating 10-15 ads per adgroup, then understanding the successes make it more difficult.

Issue: Too many people working in the same PPC account can be a disaster unless there are strict rules in place
Solution: When working in Adwords, it’s imperative to view the “Change History”. You do not want to have too many hands in the cookie jar because it will increase the probability that someone will inadvertently make a change that would be detrimental to your efforts.

Issue: Too many PPC accounts within company divisions can be a nightmare to manage due to keyword and audience overlapping, not to mention URL overriding.
Solution: Consolidation and communication amongst a large company is crucial to avoiding a PPC tug or war.

Issue: Too many affiliates using PPC can be a very bad thing as it drives up the CPC costs, increases risk for display URL overrides and overall branding and messaging inconsistencies.
Solution: Affiliate Marketing and Resellers in the PPC space can have many issues for the advertiser. In order to properly handle this issue, the advertiser must have a set of rules for affiliates to follow. The advertiser must also understand the expectations that there CPC’s would like increase and this is driving up competition.

What have you done for me Lately?
Everyone wants to make money, that is why we work. But, in order to make money, one needs to be comfortable with whom they are working with. The same goes with technology partners. When something breaks, API issues, etc.. the PPC marketer is the first in the line of fire. So, in order for everyone not to lose any sleep over these issues, a clear understanding must be transparent all the way back to the client. This is where the “true value” of the business relationship lies. I would prefer an honest partner than one who can promise you the world

Do you really want to work with me?
Sometimes, many PPC marketers (novice or expert) choose who they want to partner up with and often creates a “love-hate” relationship. It’s a bad thing, but opens your eyes a little. Every PPC Maketer or agency has their own way of doing things, and choosing an additional technology company should never be personal. If it does, then the CLIENT LOSES and YOU LOSE!

Do you really care about my Clients?
Whether it’s the latest bells and whistles with a technology platform or a new strategy on attribution, an intelligent PPC Marketer needs to know better about how it will effect their client’s performance and often questions the motives of the potential business partner. Since everyone is about making money, the PPC Guru needs to separate greed from client expectations.

In Conclusion:
PPC Marketers are passionate about their own best practices, and strategical vision on how to run their own business. Not every technology company or even a recent presentation may not be in your best interest. For us Geeks, it can be a difficult transition from CTR Junkie to Business Monkey, but what helps guide the “wavy” road is the CLIENT. We do what is in the best interest of the client. Nothing is ever personal, nor is it detrimental from “trying to stay in the Click” (No PPC Pun intended). As mentioned before, the ONLY LOYALTY should be to the Client. If not, bye bye client!