Image credit: google

Without a doubt, one of the most-talked about subjects in the SEM sector these days is Google’s launch of Enhanced Campaigns. This launch represents a fundamental shift in the structure of PPC campaigns, and as marketers and agencies, we owe it to ourselves and our clients to be ahead of the curve in adapting to the changes coming to AdWords. In this post, I’ll break down some of the major changes between so-called “legacy campaigns” and new Enhanced campaigns.

Quite simply, the move towards Enhanced campaigns symbolizes the fact that we now live in a multi-screen, multi-channel world. Indeed, with the growth of smartphones and tablets, we now have the opportunity to not only target our audience, but to target them at the right time and at the right place. While this sounds great in theory, it creates a loss of control for marketers.

In an Enhanced campaign, we’re no longer able to specifically target users by device (say desktop vs. mobile vs. tablet, for example). Instead, the campaigns allow us to target all devices at once, but lets us optimize our bids by device with bid multipliers for mobile. Say, for example, your desktop traffic performs better than your mobile traffic. You’d set a base CPC bid (let’s say $1.00), and then set a bid multiplier for mobile.

Because your analytics data shows that mobile traffic doesn’t perform as well as desktop in this particular campaign, you might set a bid multiplier of -35%… Meaning your mobile CPC bid would effectively be $.65. To “turn off” mobile, you’d need to set a bid multiplier of at least -100%. So what does this mean?

1. You need to mobilize

Mobile is the future, and by not being able to really turn off mobile traffic from your AdWords campaigns, it’s essential that you have a mobile strategy. Because you can’t target by device any longer, I’d strongly suggest moving toowards a responsive site design.

2. You can no longer treat adCenter campaigns as mirrors of your AdWords campaigns

For the time being, advertisers who are using adCenter can still precisely control their device targeting at the campaign level. This means that you should continue to optimize your campaigns precisely, and shouldn’t just mirror over your Google campaigns for adCenter. You’ll need to treat them as separate entities (which is a best practice anyway!)

3. Expect some changes in CPCs and ROI

As advertisers adjust to the new system, there will definitely be some wonkiness in the competitive landscape (does anyone remember the impact of Yahoo! Panama going live years ago?). Realize that CPCs will likely go up as advertisers adjust, and plan accordingly. You may want to set your base CPC bids a bit lower than you’re used to so that you can get a feel for how the ROI actually shakes out in the new environment.

While my strong focus in this blog has been the impact on device targeting, there are many other changes coming with Enhanced campaigns. While you may sense somewhat of a negative tone in this post due to the loss of control (what can I say, I’m a control freak!), I can say that there are some positive changes too (such as the ability to really promote app downloads, for example).

Regardless of your view on Enhanced campaigns, the fact of the matter is that they’re here – And while all campaigns will become Enhanced in the coming months, it’d be a wise move to start preparing for the changes now.

It used to be the only time I talked to my computer was to scream expletives about how long it was taking to calculate a pivot table. That’s all about to change.

It’s time to tackle the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How of search marketing.

Conversational search is here, and we expect to see exponential growth in more “human” types of search queries. Yes, it’s actually been here for a while, but we’re expecting to see more growth and more diversity of search queries as general users (and not just us early adopters) start getting used to using more “human” search queries.

To put it into context, take a look at the growth of a few choice Google Trends graphs for key “question” keywords.

“How Do I?

“What is the best?”

Why is this so cool?

Google’s conversational search is more than just voice-activated search. Contextual answers and the use of previous search queries is, well… pretty mind blowing and futuristic. Try a search for “What’s the weather today?” and you’ll find customized results based on your location. After searching for a specific subject, Google now uses previous queries to further refine your searches. For a more in-depth analysis of the consumer facing whistles and bells, give Danny Sullivan’s article a quick read.

So, it’s cool. It’s here. Now, for the big question: Is your search strategy ready for capturing and optimizing for conversational searches? Let’s shift our focus back to the bread-and-butter question:

As a search marketer, how can you take advantage of this?

Any change in search behavior almost always leads to low hanging fruit for the early adopters. Here are a few tips on how and where to incorporate conversational search queries into your SEM and SEO keyword strategies.

Here Are Five Tactical Tips for Capturing Conversational Searches

1. If you haven’t already, start building out some obvious question keywords that align with your client’s goals and products.

2. Look for the WWWWH in your search query reports and pay closer attention to where the search activity is coming from and continue to build your keyword lists.

3. Google’s Knowledge Graph is attempting to answer most basic factual questions; so, instead, focus your strategy on subjective questions. Stay away from terms with simple empirical answers since Google & Bing are both trying to cut out basic informational sites with immediate answers and not web links. Focus on superlatives like “what is the best/top/recommended/highest rated”.

4. Don’t forget your landing pages! If your landing page isn’t answering the question that prompted the query, then the incremental traffic won’t mean much. Build out FAQ’s on your site or focus blog content around answering questions essential to your clients and customers.

5. Not all questions are positive! An interesting and effective way to go after competitive keywords or products is to identify frustrated customers and provide a better option. For example, Apple could go after terms like “Why is my PC so slow?” or Honda could start buying terms like “How do I know if my Toyota has been recalled?”.

Never a dull moment in search. Now go. Adapt!

Image credit: blogs.philips.com

There’s no doubt that online advertising is changing, and at a rapid pace. Those of us who have been around for a while can marvel at these changes, and even those who have only been at it for the last couple of years are sure to be aware of the many technological advancements that are being made in online advertising. The challenge for all of us is to keep up with all of the changes in order to be able to create well-rounded marketing campaigns, making the best use of all the technology that’s available to us.

Growth & Change

It’s not so long ago that one could roll out a successful campaign on just one search engine. Maybe two. These days, there are a lot more properties to choose from thanks to the rise of biddable media, and notably RTB systems that make it easier for direct response marketers to access only the most valuable impressions from publishers’ inventory. There is definite intent to follow in Google’s footsteps from a lot of different networks and publishers.

We’re seeing new channels for advertisers on an almost monthly basis. Perhaps that’s hyperbolic, but there are enough new advertising channels for marketers to start to get lost pretty quickly in a sea of choice.

Facebook continues to put out new options and is in a constant state of development in their advertising program. Amazon and eBay are putting up ad exchanges with their own UI to cash in on new RTB technologies and further capture their target audience and create new revenue. LinkedIn and Twitter have pretty strong offerings in biddable media. Pinterest is rumored to be getting in the game with rumours of an ad network of their own. Even the Local and Yellow Page publishers are getting in the game as well.

And it seems like new mobile ad networks are popping up every day, not to mention the many ad management, tag management and attribution management businesses that are quickly sprouting up. All of this is a very good thing for advertisers, but rapid change of this kind creates serious challenges.

Fragmentation

Image credit: danielsmithphotographer.com

With all of this opportunity comes the challenge of keeping up with the inherent fragmentation that comes with advertising through a variety of channels. With all of one’s advertising separated in multiple silos, the problem becomes keeping track of all of the campaigns with any manner of efficiency, allocating credit for success correctly. And then allocating money to those ads that deserve it.

And though one might find the means to measure one’s success by spending hours downloading data from multiple points into a spreadsheet, and running ad hoc analysis, the ability to measure without being able to make immediate changes will be useless. Advertisers who can’t immediately respond to fluctuations in the online campaigns are merrily floating down a proverbial creek without a paddle.

The current space is far too fragmented, and for serious marketers, these many channels will not be able to operate on their own for very long. Tracking results with the right mix of ad tech is key to making proper attribution decisions, which is required for success in online marketing, and with this kind of fragmentation, tracking is a difficult task, to say the least.

Budget Allocation

Wrapping our heads around attribution is also key to budget allocation. Knowing one’s success in channels aids in one’s ability to properly allocate budget. There is also the question of whether to pull resources from one channel to aid another, or to simply create new working capital for a specific advertising channel. Without resources that allow marketers to track how their capital is working for them, they are, in essence, flying blind – something no digital marketer wants to do.

Final Thoughts

The many technological advancements being made available to marketers and the ever wider variety of ad inventory available through auctions could be a boon to online advertisers, but the fragmentation in which it is currently operating makes taking advantage of new technology and new media opportunities far too limiting.

In the very near future, those who want to take full advantage of the opportunities available will require tools to help them get their efforts out of silos and allow them to properly track attribution and take immediate action across all channels in response to the information provided. Without this ability, it is impossible to understand the dynamics of media on human behaviour, never mind gaining the ability to rapidly optimize inefficiencies. But first, organizations must want to break those silos. Forward thinking organizations are already doing so, but it will take a few years until advertising silos are history.

Image credit: www.panoramio.com/photo/13583898

When we kick off a client at SEER, we do a deep dive into any existing data to make sure we were covering top performers & using insights. As we manage accounts, we constantly A/B test, pause/expand keywords, tweak landing pages and copy and just generally toy around with the account as any good agency would.

What I think most PPC managers don’t do often enough (myself included) is look at the core layout of accounts, the foundation if you will.  Why do we only look at the extremely long term data when we build an account?

The fact of the matter is best practices in PPC change rapidly. Let’s take a quick look at major AdWords since May 1^st, 2011:

May 2011 – Display URL added to headlines

July – Tablet Targeting announced, Call extensions cost $1

October – Bid per call

February ‘12 – Crazy enhanced sitelinks

March ‘12 – Contextual targeting is keyword based (again)

April ‘12 – Near-phrase & near-exact, Ad Rotation Fiasco

You get the idea, and that was only a years’ worth of major changes. Obviously there have been many more, all of which have drastically change what an ideally structured account looks like. Needless to say, structure will change even more when Enhanced Campaigns become a forced reality. If we simply pile more and more things onto an old cracked foundation, things could go bad in a hurry.

A frequent complaint we get from prospects is that they feel as though they’ve stalled out, that their account isn’t going anywhere. I often argue that a full campaign refresh can often solve the problem; starting from scratch, but using your own data.

I’d recommend you pour a whiskey or two, and get ready to rebuild.

Image Credit

Here’s the process that I’d typically take. Full disclosure; make sure you have plenty of RAM, as the files can get huge.

1. Run a search query report for as long as you or your agency has had the account (or as conversion tracking has been correct).
2. Pull out all converters into a separate tab (save non-converters for negatives), and categorize into campaigns. Make sure they’ve converted at an acceptable CPA, lest you waste money.
3. Run estimates for converters on exact. Do they have volume? Good! Create ad groups for these guys on exact match only, and make sure they never go dark. You know they work, so keep them live!
4. Don’t neglect phrase/broad match! Build out ad groups to coincide with exact match to serve as a clean-up crew and get everything that you or the estimators missed.
5. Find long term ad copy insights. I’m not talking about if Ad A beat Ad B for the purple kitten factory ad group, I’m talking ­extremely broad themes like which value propositions tended to work, whether you should put a CTA in the headline or otherwise. Create copy accordingly.
6. Run long term, rolled up geo and time of day reports. Does Wyoming tend to do terrible across the board? Cut it! Does Arkansas tend to convert great? Boost the bids with Enhanced Bid modifiers. Use these long term insights to guide the campaigns.

The obvious concern here is giving up data and ad/keyword history will create a major drop off. Here’s a before/after for a few campaigns I rebuilt using the above strategy for a client to allay any concerns.

Overall, we did see CTR decrease quite a bit, though that’s something that we’ll likely be able to correct as we update ads. The key metrics are the increases in conversion rate and sharp decreases in CPA. I can’t think of a person in the world who wouldn’t want more leads with a 30% lower CPA

Constant “On-Going” Segmentation

When trying to measure success with Facebook Ads, especially with conversion tracking, it’s important to know the Age, Sex and even GEO location of your best audience. In a typical campaign, Advertisers should target a specific or group of interests that they are catering to. Within each and every campaign, advertisers need to understand that Age and Male/Female segmentation allows not only a better potential CPA (Cost per Acquisition) but also a longer shelf life which can help with the length of Ad Fatigue. Here is a previous post entitled Facebook Ads: Slicing and Dicing Your Way to a Successful Strategy

Getting the Most out of Ad Shelf Life:

Ever notice that your Facebook Ads campaign’s CPA is constantly increasing with every passing day? Tried changing images, ad messaging and still nothing. Well, this is a problem that requires not so much aesthetic changes, but more of an audience change. The effectiveness of reaching a specific audience only lasts so long, however it does enable marketers to constantly push the envelope to try and reach that new audience who have not seen the Ads. This expansion requires the advertiser to think outside box other than the obvious. If an advertiser sells Fishing Supplies, try to identify with the audiences other interests such as Fishing Magazines, Boating Magazines, Fishing TV shows, Fishing Brands, etc….

Understand Facebook Ads is a Different Beast Altogether

The reason why traditional Search Marketing has a much slower Ad Fatigue, is because there is a much larger range of volume and diversity with regard to the searchers. It’s also a different behavior for people who are searching for things, rather than being targeted because of their Facebook Interests. So for advertisers who are “fatigued” themselves from going from Facebook Ads to Adwords, there are some silver linings on being on both platforms. Here’s an article that I wrote entitled “How Facebook Ads Can Help Your Next Google Display Campaign Strategy”

In Conclusion:

To be an effective Facebook Advertiser requires a deeper understanding of not just the interests/audiences that are available, but how those audiences are equally separated by Age, Sex, GEO, etc… Facebook Ads is also very different from traditional PPC Marketing, because FB advertisers are targeting interests, not keywords or phrases. Also, Ad Fatigue plays a huge role in keeping the messaging fresh and keeping the CPA within requirements. If there is one “take away” from this article, please DO NOT SET IT AND FORGET IT. (- quote from the “alive and well” great Ron Popeil)

The Interactivity Digital conference is just around the corner, and for those of you who will be attending, you won’t want to miss out on this session presented by our co-founder and VP of Business Development Marc Poirier, along with Larry Kim and Cassie Oumedian.

On May 16th, this knowledgeable group will assemble to present “Reeling Customers in with Remarketing.” We all know that remarketing is fast becoming a popular addition to search marketing campaigns, but with it all happening so fast, there may be some things that those who are new to remarketing are missing out on.

Make sure that you’re not missing out on everything that remarketing has to offer and get the lowdown from marketers who are deeply involved in this exciting marketing technology.

In addition, Marc Poirier will be available to answer your questions on remarketing and any other digital marketing questions you might have, as well as to show off the capabilities of Acquisio’s new Bid & Budget Management features – it’s like RTB for search, with results that you will want to see for yourself.

The “Reeling Customers in With Remarketing” session runs from 3:30pm to 4:30pm on May 16th. Don’t miss it!

The company has changed so much over that period – in the beginning, we were a 10-person agency, but after 5 years, we sold the agency business, raised some money and focused exclusively on building software to help digital agencies improve their SEM operations and deliver better results to their clients.

Since the beginning we have added some amazing people to the Acquisio team, and we’re amazed every single day by the knowledge and professionalism displayed by our co-workers.

Along the way there have been some fun events, some things that happened that have been significant in the growth of our platform, and some amazing developments. So sit back, relax, and enjoy 10 of the highlights from Acquisio’s last 10 years.

1. Acquisio T-Shirts

When we attended our first event, we were the new kids on the block (not the band, the saying) and were trying to get some attention. The answer came in the form of a t-shirt.

At every event we’ve ever been to, our t-shirts have been one of the most sought-after items each and every time. It’s been a great way for us to get some attention, and it’s also a great way for people who wear our shirts to get attention. The messages on the shirts pull no punches, and we’ve spoken to many of the things that online marketers feel on a daily basis, as well as how we go about helping them out with those challenges.

We’ve given out more than 4,000 of the “I Hate Doing This Shit” t-shirt, and there are tens of thousands more out there sporting messages like “I Make the Rules,” and “I Answer to No One.”

Looking back, was the t-shirt a good way to get people talking? Sure was!

2- Acquisio’s First Show

Our first show, Ad:Tech New York in 2006, was nerve wracking. We did not yet have a completed product, and we had been positioned all the way on the third floor at the very back of the convention center. What we did have were some awesome t-shirts and a MINDBALL game (it’s exactly as exciting as it sounds)!

The good news is that we were able to get some people over to talk to us who were genuinely interested in what we were doing, and it was enough for us to know that we would be able to move forward.

What it taught us is that you don’t need the biggest booth, you just need the best ideas.

3- The Amazing Coffee Machine

As the Acquisio team started to grow, more energy was needed. Enter: The Coffee Machine!

The pride and glory of the Acquisio office, this bad boy has kept more people awake than worrying about bills has.

Its popularity can be measured in the amount of emails our HR department gets on the odd occasion when it is not working. It’s definitely one of the things our staff loves the most about working here.

4- First Clients

As a business starting out, it’s not unlikely that you’ll not have a lot of money to work with. Such was the case with Acquisio and so, in the early days, it meant being the best at enabling PPC and SEO.

One of our very first clients, SEER Interactive from Philadelphia, has grown along with us, and has become a powerhouse of PPC marketing. They have stuck with us from the very beginning (from the very first quarter!) and we are mesmerized by their patience and unwavering support for what was a vision, more than a product. And by the many blog posts they post on the Acquisio blog, one can be fairly certain that they’re getting a lot out of using the Acquisio platform!

5- First User Summit

Our first User Summit was more successful than we had ever dreamed it might be when we thought of the idea.

We had Acquisio users from all over the world attend the three-day event held during Montreal’s Jazz Fest. Kicked off by a great keynote from Mitch Joel and some incredibly exciting announcements, each day featured sessions from some of Acquisio’s top users that gave others the ability to get even more out the world’s best performance media platform.

The entire weekend was fun, productive, and educational, and we can’t wait to do it again!

6-  Worldwide Expansion

After a couple of outings to SES and ad:tech in London, we kept hearing over and over again from those we spoke to, “We’d love it if you had a local presence. And so we did. We met Laurent Boninfante and he was chosen to head up our London office. He had been doing such a great job that we hired him a General Manager and gave him the mandate to build a world-class team for our EMEA expansion.

In December of 2011 the offices were opened, and less than a year later we expanded to London’s Tech City with a team of amazing folks who spread the word and support our EMEA clients.

This success triggered more expansion, and we have since opened offices in Seattle, Chicago, and New York. No matter where they’re located, they are all integral parts of the Acquisio team and we’re excited to have them all along with us on this ride!

7 – Strategic Acquisitions

Early on we realized that there were people who had expertise in areas that we did not, and our platform could benefit from that expertise. As such, we’ve made a few acquisitions over the years of complimentary businesses to our platform.

Beginning with ClickEquations in 2011, a strategic addition that allowed us to rapidly expand our service offerings to better meet the needs of our clients with killer features for  search marketing, shopping engines and product search.

And then in August of last year, Acquisio acquired ScienceOps, a Seattle business that has created the most powerful algorithms for Display advertising available to online marketers. Created by a former NASA scientist, the algorithms have been proving themselves to be far and away the best product on the market for marketing on the Google Display Network and our clients are amazed at the results.

Since then we’ve been adding more of their science to our platform. We’ve altered these algorithms to do the same job with Search campaigns, with updates to campaign bids and budgets every 30 minutes, and millions of decisions made every day to help marketers suppress CPA and increase volume. You can find more details in our Spring Release notes.

8-First Make-A-Wish Foundation Events

As those who have been privileged enough to have a lot, it is, as the saying goes, on us to ensure that we give back. As one of the ways in which we do this, each year we participate in the 48 Ride for Wishes, A Make-A-Wish Foundation fundraising event.

Each year we assemble teams of Acquisio employees who, rider by rider, take part in a 48 hour cycling relay. We have a great time doing it, but more to the point, we have been able to raise more than $30,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation through our fundraising efforts. To all of you who have donated, thank you!

In addition, Acquisio is pleased to offer all of the proceeds from our Cafe Press store (where you can buy those world-famous t-shirts of ours) to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. So get on over to the store, and do something good for someone else while getting something good yourself!

9 – Office Move 2012

As with any growing business, the time comes when you have to give up the original space that you’ve learned to know and love, and move on to another space to accommodate the extra space required with growth.

 We started by having the kind of space we needed designed for us in a way that could accommodate our new space. As construction began, we all started to get very excited.

We moved in at the end of February, 2012, and haven’t looked back. We have managed to retain a nice, open office style, while still giving everyone enough privacy to get their work done in peace. If you’re ever in Montreal, come on by for a tour. And you know that you’re going to get a great cup of coffee while you’re here!

10- The New Acquisio

The New Acquisio is being used in Beta by many of our clients right now, and the feedback that we are getting is amazing. It has been a massive project for us with with many hours dedicated to getting it right from our world-class development team. We are fortunate to have some of the best developers in the world here at Acquisio, and they’ve been diligently working away on our biggest project yet.

We want our users to have the best experience possible, and attain the best results possible in the process. We started by building software iteratively and have added module upon module with some integration, but realized that there was room for improvement which could only be addressed by changing both the technology and the approach.

And this is what we have done with the New Acquisio. Redesigned and redeveloped from the ground up, we are very proud of what we have been able to achieve and can’t wait for all of you to be using it in the very near future. Faster, more intuitive, and with more features than ever, this version of our platform is the perfect spot to begin the next 10 years.

To all of you who have supported us over the last 10 years, we’d like to say a very big THANK YOU! It’s through your support that we’ve been able to get this far, and through your questions and requests for more functionality at each step of the game that we have been able to create the performance media platform that sets the industry standard.

Here’s to another 10 great years!

Let’s Face the facts. When a company hires a PPC Agency or “In-House” marketer, they expect some level of “Interest” into their business to help drive success. It is this expectation that whomever they hire, they want them to be as passionate as they are. However, once reality sets in, that is not such an easy task. This is especially true for PPC agencies that simply do not have the bandwidth to be that intimate with the client. This conundrum kinda reminds me of the movie Jerry McGuire where in his mission statement, it mentions. “Personal Relationship, Less Clients, more attention, etc” Now of course, even though we are not Sports Agents, it does resonate on the effectiveness of PPC Strategies, successes and relationships.

Here are just some of my thoughts:

Discovery Phase Does not End after the Initial Kickoff Call:
The most intuitive questions and strategy shifts that makes the most difference happen during the first couple months of the relationship. If you have a scheduled weekly or monthly call, always have a handful of questions to keep the client’s confidence in you that you are just not the same old PPC Agency.

The client would like to here new ideas or other search or social media related trends that you are seeing perhaps with another client. There is nothing more important that open communication on hat is happening (good or bad), what is being done about it and what is next on the optimization, expansion or testing pipeline.

Constantly Review the Client’s Website Content
Clients are always adding new products & services, altering content to their websites, and the PPC marketer needs to be on top of these updates if they want to constantly “move the needle”. In terms of Text ad Copy, the best content will be hidden in the existing content of the website, which would also compliment Quality Score, Relevancy and continuation from “before the click” to “after the click”.

Writing Text Ads is more than just (25) characters for the Title and (35) characters for the descriptions and just filling whatever you can to fill in those areas. It’s about taking what is found on the website and applying marketing-centric messages that not only get the attention of the user, but also compliment what the advertiser is actually offering.

Indirect Keywords Are The Goldmines:
Whether in conversation or direct questioning, finding out other ways that people label their services or products are an easy way to drive increased conversions and lowered acquisition costs. What I mean is, PPC Marketers usually rely on Keyword Research Tools to find the terms that people search for to find their products or services. However, there are times where the Keyword Tool does not go deep enough and the best keyword tool is the client’s business interaction with their “offline” efforts. This can also be found within the websites “internal search results”. The main point here is simply ask the client if there are other ways to say the same thing.

In Conclusion:
The best thing a PPC Marketer can do is to honestly care about the client’s business and start learning everything you can about their business. It’s much more complex than driving specific keywords to their site. I also think that taking on a new client requires the PPC Marketer to “on occasion” impress the client with their knowledge of their business. PPC is becoming much more than keywords, it’s evolving into a multi-faceted strategy where finding the searches through keywords, visual Ads, mobile networks and social networking. So the more you know about the client, the better your chances are for leveraging the clients performance.

1.) Google Updates & Streamlines their Trademark Policy

To bid or not to bid. These are the answers.

Google has recently announced a slight adjustment to their trademark policy. Officially not a whole lot is changing, according to Google’s announcement “we will not prevent the use of trademarks as keywords in the affected regions [but] trademark owners will still be able to complain about the use of their trademark in ad text.” Although it’s nothing drastically different, some changes are worth noting and always worthy of a reminder.

Here’s what’s new

1.      Google finally has a uniform global policy that should help international search marketers scale and enforce brand protection.

2.     The update affects advertisers in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Brazil which now have policies in line with other international markets.

3.      The change will go into place on April 23rd, 2013 and trademarked terms in international campaigns previously disapproved will be pushed live.

The most “Important” distinction: Bidding on Trademarked keywords is not the same as using trademark in ad copy.

Quick Polls

2.) If you are a prominent international brand worried about brand attacks, here’s a quick checklist of “what to do about it”.

1.      Own your brand terms in paid search. Yes, plenty of controversy since Ebay’s study a few weeks back but the general consensus from the SEM world is that Ebay is wrong.

2.      Utilize all available ad extensions to own more real estate on the SERPs

3.      Monitor your brand terms

          a)      Don’t forget about monitoring international domains

          b)      Tools we like

          i.       AdGooroo

          ii.      The Search Monitor

  4.      Check your SQR reports for competitors as you might be conquesting without even knowing it since Google’s broad match has a habit of matching category keywords to competitive branded keywords.

3.) Now for the big question…. To Bid or not to Bid? should you go after competitors’ Trademark Keywords?

At some point every one of our clients ask about bidding on competitive keywords and there isn’t a right or wrong answer. Depending on your business goals and budgets, conquesting might be a worthwhile strategy, but in all cases the following should be considered:

1.      Google will make you Pay! Quality scores on conquesting campaigns are always hideously low leading to very high first page and top of page bid requirements from Google.

          a)      Based on this, if the goal is market share acquisition we typically recommend going after non-brand category keywords which usually come at ⅓ the CPC of competitive trademark keywords. It will always be cheaper to convert a shopper vs. convincing someone to change brands.

          b)      If you are looking to steal high value clients or to get your name out there, then conquesting can definitely be effective, assuming you have a convincing landing page and aren’t just sending traffic to your home page. Another added benefit is that net CPM’s are extremely cheap due to lower CTR’s. From a brand exposure standpoint you can generate a lot of impressions at a reasonable cost.

  2.      Keep in mind that competitive bidding could become a two way street. While you may be able to siphon off a few hundred clicks a month from your competitors’ brand intenders, keep in mind that backlash could be far more damaging. If multiple competitors go after your brand terms and increase the CPC by just a few cents, it could cause significant loss of efficiency in branded campaigns. If you have a lot of brand volume, even 1 or 2 consistent competitors could move your brand CPC from a $0.10 CPC to $0.13 which is a 30% increase in costs. For some of our larger clients this could mean an extra $50K per month in media costs just to protect branded keywords during peak months!

Quick tip for the conquesters out there: There is a “trademark in ad copy” loophole by using subdomains & display URL’s, which Google does not enforce with trademark restrictions. Google does not enforce trademark usage within your display URL’s such as www.YourBrand.com/Competitor.

So in conclusion… there is no “Catch-all” solution. Know your brand, know your competitors and make sure you’ve thought through all of the repercussions before you go after your competitors.

What we don’t consider often enough is exactly what types of conversions we’re getting from the top 20% head terms, or if the leads may be worth different amounts depending on searcher intent truly provide different values. Is a lead sourced from a query like “tracking software” worth the same amount as a user that converts on “IT asset tracking for midsize business?” Probably not, but I’d be willing to bet tracking software would drive far more traffic, cost & conversion volume. 

I have a client where we were able to explore exactly that issue; we wanted to see if the top terms really were the top dogs.  A pair of exact match terms had been spending well over 25% of our budget for a specific product. Conversion volume was strong, though the CPA for these particular terms was about 15% higher than more specific tail terms. The campaign had been hitting its budget consistently, losing about 35% of impression share due to budget.

This reminds me of The Ewing Theory, published by ESPN writer Bill Simmons in mid-2009. The Ewing Theory ascertains that the ’99 New York Knicks (among other teams) were significantly better team without their star player, entirely because the rest of the team got a chance to shine. It’s a perfect analogy for this long tail PPC test; we theorized that excluding the highest volume queries (like the Knicks’ all-star) would have a net positive impact on campaigns, allowing the lower volume (but more specific terms) to have their moment of glory.

Executing the test was simple; we paused the two high-volume terms, added them as exact match negatives across all campaigns and worked hard to make sure budgets remained flat. We let the test run for 30 days, and took a look at performance for the same time period before and after.

Results

It worked! Admittedly the test isn’t a perfect A/B as it was more of a before and after, but overall the results were as expected. Conversion volume & conversion rate went up while CPA decreased. We did wind up having a slight decrease in spend, though that was no fault of the test.

Unexpected Bonus Results

In addition to the obvious wins, we noticed a pair of key benefits that we hadn’t initially thought of that may help the account as a whole.

After pausing the two head terms, average CTR increased by 33% for the entire campaign. It may be a bit of a fringe benefit, but maintaining a significantly boosted CTR could help the accounts quality score down the line.

Secondly, the client noted an improvement in lead quality. The broader terms tended to generate leads that were broader in scope; focusing our efforts led to more qualified and easier to convert leads.

Overall

The results certainly didn’t make anyone into a millionaire, but this strategy worked surprisingly well given the environment. If you have a campaign that’s hitting its budget because of a few high-volume terms, pause the big guys to let the tail terms do the work!