former ppc best practices gone wild by larry kim

CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DISTRIBUTE 1

Former PPC Best Practices

Gone WildLarry Kim, Founder/CTO,

WordStream

March 12, 2014

@larrykim

Epiphany #1:

Value of Quality

Score in 2014

Avg. Quality Score Has Been Falling.

• Today, average score is 5/10. Previously was 7/10

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DISTRIBUTE 7

The Impact of Quality Score on Cost Per Conversion

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Epiphany #2:

Google Expects

(Much) More Of

Your Ads

Which Ad Wins?

a)Ad A

– 32,423 Impressions

– 453 clicks (1.4% CTR)

– Average Position: 2.8

b)Ad B

– 36,223 Impressions

– 760 clicks (2.1% CTR)

– Average Position: 3.0

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

Trick Question! Both Ads Suck.

• Neither ad is worth declaring a “Winner”.

• Not even the 2.1% CTR in the 3.0 Avg. Position.

• Why??

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

What’s a Good CTR?

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

• Even the “Winner” is a Loser!

CONFIDENTIAL – DO NOT DISTRIBUTE 13

Even the “Winning” Ad is a Loser!

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

Epiphany #3:

What’s a Good

CTR These Days?

(You’d be

surprised)

What’s a Good Search CTR? (Account Avg. CTR’s)

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

But Lots of Variance!!

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

Under-Performing vs. Unicorns

Percentile Vs. ExpectedCTR

Name

Bottom 50% Below Expected CTR

Under-Performing Advertisers

Top 15% 2X Higher Awesome Advertisers

Top 5% 3x Higher Super Awesome Advertisers

Top 1% 6x Higher!! Unicorns

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

@larrykim

Unicorns?!

(6x Avg. CTR!)

What Unicorns (Top 1%) Look Like

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

Epiphany #4

Quality Score is

Mostly Just About

Getting Above

Average CTRs!

QS is Based on Your CTR vs. Expected CTR!

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Ad Text Testing

• Same Story – 20% of Ads Generate 92% of Spend

• 20% of Ads Generated 65% of Impressions

• But CPA, CTR, and Conversion Rates vary

@larrykim, @perrymarshall

1. Keywords With High Commercial Intent

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

2. Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

2. DKI Doesn’t Produce As Many Unicorns

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

3. Ad Extensions Impact on Quality Scores

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

3. Ad Extensions Impact on Click Through Rate

Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream

Epiphany #5

How To Write

“Unicorn” Ads

4. Most Ads Suck. Create Emotional Ads.

30

Creating “Emotional” Ads

An Example:

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Versus…

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Epiphany #6

“Always Be

Testing”?

Relative Abundance

Name Percentile RelativeAbundance

Vs. ExpectedCTR

Awesome Ads

Top 15% 1:6.7 2X Higher

Super Awesome Ads

Top 5% 1:20 3x Higher

Unicorns Top 1% 1:100 6x Higher!!

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Epiphany #7

You Need To Test

100 Ads To Find 1

Unicorn. You need

one Great Ad.

You’re Not Testing as Many Ads as You Think…

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Epiphany #8

It’s Not as Hard

As You Think

Most Small Businesses Aren’t That Active

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

85% of Impressions are From 5% of Ads

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Epiphany #9

How to Scale

Your PPC?

Quick Recap

1. Above Average CTR Keyword/Ads = Great Success.

2. Below Average CTR Keyword/Ads = Train Wreck

3. So … Delete the bottom third of your account and re-deploy that spend to remarketing

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Average CPC’s by Industry and Network

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Average Conversion Rates by Industry

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Average CPA’s for Search & Display, by Industry

Larry Kim (@larrykim)

Your Questions

Thank You SMX!

Benchmark your AdWords account today!

http://www.wordstream.com/google-adwords

Larry Kim

lkim@wordstream.com

http://twitter.com/larrykim

Larry Kim (@larrykim)