June 3rd, 2009 by Richard Lee
Mythbusting PPC Urban Legends
We’ve all heard them. Domain traffic is awful, DKI ads are great, DKI ads are horrible. Bid high at the beginning of your campaigns to juice your quality score, and so on and so forth. In this session, we take a look at the common perceptions and misperceptions about paid search advertising. So what really is true?
Moderator:
Jeffrey K. Rohrs, Vice President, Marketing, ExactTarget
Speakers:
Scott Brinker, President & Chief Technology Officer, ion interactive, inc.
Reid Spice, Director of Search Media Strategy, iCrossing
Frederick Vallaeys, AdWords Evangelist, Google Inc.
Myth#1: A landing page is a single page
- A landing page is a bridge between ad and conversions.
- Don’t use a short bridge for a long jump.
- Other times a 2 or 3 page “path” is better
- Segmentation landing page (40% lift)
When you want to segment respondents:
- Ease someone into a process, lead them down a path.
- Don’t think of it as a landing page, think of it as post-click marketing
Myth #2: Flash on landing pages is evil
Loading delays, lengthy, design over clarity, expensive to build
iRobot (43K in size, loads < 1 sec), writing is text not image, Google can index, images load asynchronously, sharp text rending
Why climb the flash mountain:
- Higher conversion rate
- Better branding
- Easier engagement
- Creative differentiation
Myth #3: MVT is better than A/B Testing?
Multivariable Testing vs. A/B Testing = Apples and oranges
MVT limited to one page, A/B can have multi page paths
Speaker: Frederick Vallaeys
Google Adwords Evangelist
fredrick@google.com
Myth: No value in the Google Content Network?
- Is there any value in the Google Content Network?
- 5% of people’s time is doing searching
- 95% multiple touch points
- 20% of conversions came from content network, CPA of content network is 2% cheaper than search on average.
Best Practices:
- Separate campaigns for content vs. search
- Use enhanced online campaigns
- Use Placement Performance Reports to discover opportunity
- Use Conversion Optimizer
- Review Conversion rate/ position report
Myth: Should I lower my bid so I won’t be first? (Curious clicks?)
CTR drops as the position decreases
Total sales = Impression x CTR x Conversion Rate
Finding the sweet spot
Step 1: Determine your value per click
Conversion rate x Profit margin per product sold
5% conversion rate x $7 per item sold = $0.35 value per click
Step 2: Experience with different bids determine incremental cost per click
CPC = Cost/Clicks
ICC* = Difference in cost/Difference in clicks
*INCREMENTAL COST PER CLICK
Myth: Is Broad Match Worthless?
- Broad Match is Very Useful
- People can’t spell
- Queries are getting longer (3 word to 8 words are gaining share)
- Broad match accounts to 33% of conversions
- Does not affect quality score
Tips:
Run search query reports on a regular basis
Lower your bid on broad match vs. exact match
Myth: Can I Juice My Quality Score by Bidding High?
Normalize for position (Top position must have high CTR may lower Quality Score if you don’t meet it and vice versa)
PPC GEO Targeting Myths
Myth: IP Addresses can reliably locate you
i.e. Reston VA = AOL servers
VPN server, ISP server, Legacy ISPs, etc.
The smaller the target, the less accurate it will be
i.e. Virginia Beach = 425,000 people
Search Engines could supplement IP data with other info like weather queries, news, movies, signed-in info, but they don’t. Most use IP data to geo-target PPC Ads.
Best approach for GEO targeting:
Hybrid approach: States & cities
General PPC Tips:
- 7 to 15 keywords per Ad text / Ad group
- Content Network: Figure a theme, but is difficult with less keywords
- DKI = Dynamic Keyword Insertion (Be careful what keywords you use, not a great experience).
- Use DKI for landing pages (Keyword inserted, bolded, etc.)
- Broad match doesn’t impact Quality Score