Mastering the PPC Challenge: Enhanced Campaigns, AdWords & PLA’s

What You Might Have Missed and What’s Next

John A. LeeManaging Partner – Clix Marketing

Who Am I?

John A. LeeManaging Partner – Clix MarketingPPC, Display and Social Advertising

Blogger Speaker

Enhanced Campaigns!

Enhanced Campaigns and the Evolving Google AdWords Ecosystem

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via crescentinteractive.com

PLAs & Shopping Campaigns!

Remember that Evolving Ecosystem Thing?

Let’s Chat About PLAs and the Transition to Shopping Campaigns

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via searchenginejournal.com

Enhanced Campaigns Timeline

February 2013: Google Announces Enhanced Campaigns

April 2013: Google PM Paul Feng Gets Accosted at #HeroConf

July 2013: Forced Migration

April 2014: We’re All Crying a Little Bit Less at Night

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April 2013: Bing Ads Promises to Maintain Device Segmentation &

“Advertiser Choice”

Enhanced Campaigns History

• Bye, bye device segmentation!

• Mobile, geographic & ad schedule bid adjustments.

• Mobile preferred ads.• Flexible bid strategies.• Upgraded Call Extensions

and Sitelinks.

What Changed in Google AdWords?

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Fear Leads to Anger,Anger Leads to Hate,Hate Leads to Suffering…

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Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns. …Taking the Good with the Bad Since 2013What You Might Have Missed

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The Shift in Mobile Targeting

• Mobile, tablet & desktop targeting consolidated into a single campaign.

• Loss of isolated bids for tablets and desktops.

• Mobile given a bid modifier.

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The Shift in Mobile Targeting

• Mobile preferred ads.• Use to test mobile ad

copy.• Mobile preferred Call

Extensions and Sitelinks.

• ValueTrack “ifmobile” parameter for mobile landing pages.

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Impact of the Mobile Shift?

• In summary, not as bad as we all feared.

• Companies with large sets of data like iProspect and Wordstream report improvement in CTR and workflow; reduction in CPC.

• Data via Larry Kim of Wordstream• Source:

http://searchengineland.com/new-data-suggests-adwords-enhanced-campaigns-actually-work-173315

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Bid Adjustments FTW!

Geographic Bid Adjustment

Ad Schedule Bid Adjustment

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Bid Adjustments and Optimization Strategy

• PPC managers are encouraged to rethink their campaign structure and targeting strategy.

• Granularity in geotargeting and ad schedule pay off with more control over bid and performance.

• Combined with AdWords Scripts, can be a powerful tool.

The Silver Lining of the Enhanced Campaign Bid Adjustments?

Bing Ads Parody

• Despite maintaining device segmentation...

• Microsoft created complete parody between AdWords Enhanced campaigns and Bing Ads.• Mobile bid adjustments & preferred ads.• Ad schedule bid adjustments.• Geographic bid adjustments.

• Maintain a small piece of your sanity.

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Flexible Bid Strategies

• Customizable bid automation? Yes, please.

• More options. Key point: flexible.

• Set different bid strategies at the ad group and keyword level.• e.g. keyword a –

manual CPC, keyword b – Target CPA

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Flexible Bid Strategies

• Enhanced CPC• Existed before Enhanced Campaigns.• Bid is adjusted up to +/- 20% based on

the likelihood of conversion.• Maximize Clicks

• Formerly known as Budget Optimizer.• Target Search Page Location

• Bid to position (ish).• Target CPA

• Formerly known as Conversion Optimizer.• Target Return on Ad Spend.

• Can’t leave e-commerce advertisers out, can we?

Flex Your PPC Skillz

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Flexible Bids in AdWords Editor

Want to Manage Flexible Bid Strategies in AdWords Editor?

Nope. Better Luck Next Time!

This campaign employs Max CPC and Target CPA (which doesn’t have a Max CPC) at the keyword level. Can’t edit either one.

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PLAs & Shopping Campaigns. …Welcome to Enhanced Campaigns v2.0What’s Next for Product Listing Ads

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PLA & Shopping Campaigns Timeline

October 2012: Announced That Google Shopping Would Become AdWords Product Listing Ads

November-December 2012: E-Commerce Managers Complained. A Lot

All of 2013: E-Commerce Managers Got Used to PLAs – Even Liked Them

October 2013: Google Announces a New Campaign Type for PLAs – Shopping Campaigns

March 2014: Microsoft Announces (finally) That PLA Campaigns are Live in Bing Ads

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April 2nd 2014: Google Announced

the Forced Migration from PLA

to Shopping Campaigns by

August

Bing Ads PLAs They Really Do Exist!

• Set up Bing Merchant Center.

• Import Google product feed.

• Set up your store.• Create product targets.• Boom, baby!

What’s the Difference Between PLAs and Shopping Campaigns?

• PLAs: all product feed review is done in merchant center.• Products targeted via Auto Targets in

AdWords.• Performance analysis done in 3rd party tools

or only as good as Auto Target segmentation.

• Shopping Campaigns: product feed review is done in AdWords.• Organize inventory into product groups.

Streamlines feed-to-targeting process.• Leverage AdWords labels.• Conduct performance analysis at product

level.• Gain access to competitive data to

influence bid and targeting strategy.• PLA bid simulator FTW!

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Google Shopping Campaigns

Quick Segmentation Based on Product Feed

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Google Shopping Campaigns

Product & Category Level Performance Analysis

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Google Shopping Campaigns

Competitive Analysis

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Google Shopping Campaigns

Product Listing Ads Bid Simulator

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Google Shopping Campaigns

• Legacy PLA campaigns will be lost in transition to Shopping Campaigns.

• Initial backlash over lack of ad group structure and control.• Announcement/release last

week erased these concerns.• bit.ly/ShoppingAdGroups

• Complete shift in e-commerce PLA management strategy.

Potential Concerns

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Shopping Campaigns: Is This “Enhanced Campaigns v2.0?”

• Rumor mill has been active, but today it was confirmed.

• Legacy PLA campaigns will be forced to migrate (“automatically upgraded”) by August 2014.

• bit.ly/ShoppingMigration

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THANK YOU!

• Have questions?• Twitter: @john_a_lee• Email: john@clixmarketing.com• Web: www.clixmarketing.com

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