#PPCcompetition

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www.wordstream.com/learn

4 Steps to Outrank the PPC

Competition: Assess, Apply,

Analyze, Adjust

www.wordstream.com/learn

Want to get smart in paid search?

#PPCcompetition

Larry KimCTO and Founder, WordStream

@larrykim

Today’s Panelists:

Michael StrickerMarketing Director, SEMrush

@RadioMS

#PPCcompetition

PPC Competition:

Internal vs. External

View

PPC Competition:

Internal vs. External View

• Internal: Are my Key Performance Metrics any Good or Not vs. my competitors?

• External: What are my competitors doing?

#PPCcompetition

Google Keeps Advertisers in the Dark

#PPCcompetition

Not Much Transparency Around How

Things Really Work

#PPCcompetition

Example: Which Ad Wins?

•Ad A• 2,423 Impressions• 453 clicks (1.4% CTR)• Average Position: 2.8

•Ad B• 36,223 Impressions• 760 clicks (2.1% CTR)• Average Position: 3.0

#PPCcompetition

•Neither ad is worth declaring a “Winner”

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

Trick Question: They Both Suck

Why??

#PPCcompetition

Because Competitors are Kicking

Your Butt

#PPCcompetition

Even Your “Winning” Ad is a Loser!

#PPCcompetition

Because Competitors are Kicking Your Butt

Forest vs. Trees

So What is a Good

CTR These Days?

#PPCcompetition

Higher Than Most Would Expect

#PPCcompetition

Some Competitors Doing 2x, 3x, 6x Better

#PPCcompetition

Unicorn vs. Donkey PPC Accounts

Percentile Vs. Expected CTR Name

Bottom 50% Below Expected CTR Donkeys

Top 15% 2X Higher Good

Top 5% 3x Higher Really Good

Top 1% 6x Higher!! Unicorns

#PPCcompetition

Why Should I Care

About High CTR?

#PPCcompetition

Because Quality Score is Calculated

Based on Beating The Average.

It’s Graded on a Curve.

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Why Should I Care

About High Quality

Score?

#PPCcompetition

Quality Score Impacts CPC

[graphic]

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QS Impacts Ad Position

[graphic]

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QS Impacts Cost Per Conversion

[graphic]

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QS Impacts Impression Share

[graphic]

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[graphic]

QS Matters 2x More on Mobile

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What’s an Average

Quality Score?

#PPCcompetition

It’s Been Falling. Today: 5/10

[graphic]

#PPCcompetition

Winners and Losers in the AdWords Game

• Lower CTR vs. Competitors = Low Quality Score

• Low Quality Score means…• Less prominent ad positions

• Very low impression share

• Huge CPC penalties (+400% Tax)

• High Cost Per Conversion (+64%)

#PPCcompetition

Beating Your Competition is the Key to

Everything*

• Be Very Picky. Bid on Only High Commercial Intent Keywords and Get HIGH CTRs.

• Delete Junk Keywords (Bottom Third of your Account)

• PRO TIP: Use impression weighted average quality scores for Campaigns & Accounts (ignore keyword-level QS)

#PPCcompetition

Is My Conversion

Rate Any Good?

#PPCcompetition

Typical Conversion Rate for PPC

#PPCcompetition

Donkeys vs. Unicorns

Donkeys vs. Unicorns

Distribution

Point

Conversion

RateVs Average Comments

Average 2.35% Donkeys

Top 25% 5.31% 2x Good

Top 10% 11.45% 3-5x Unicorns!!

#PPCcompetition

Top 10% of Accounts have 3-5x

Conversion Rate!

Distribution Point

All accounts Ecommerce Legal B2B Finance

Median Conversion

Rate

2.35% 1.84% 2.07% 2.23% 5.01%

Top 25% Conversion

Rate

5.31% 3.71% 4.12% 4.31% 11.19%

Top 10% Conversion

Rate

11.45% 6.25% 6.46% 11.70% 24.48%

#PPCcompetition

Aim For 3-5x Increases! (not 3-5%)

#PPCcompetition

Am I Doing Enough

Work?

#PPCcompetition

What PPC Marketers Say They Do vs.

What They Actually Do!

#PPCcompetition

Exhibit A: Self Reported PPC

Management Activities

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Exhibit B: What They’re Really Doing

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The Bar is Very Low

#PPCcompetition

What’s an

Average CPC?

#PPCcompetition

Average Cost Per Click

Industry Google Search Display Network

Finance $3.09 $1.03

Travel $0.29 $0.28

Shopping $0.25 $0.27

Jobs & Education $1.80 $0.34

Internet & Telecom $1.11 $0.40

Computers & Electronics $1.29 $0.44

Business & Industrial $1.67 $0.97

Home & Garden $0.76 $0.83

Autos & Vehicles $0.97 $1.03

Beauty & Fitness $1.11 $1.01

#PPCcompetition

What’s an

Average

Conversion Rate?

#PPCcompetition

Average Conversion Rates

Industry Google Search Display Network

Finance 6.12% 5.12%

Travel 1.45% 2.99%

Shopping 3.58% 2.19%

Jobs & Education 6.09% 2.09%

Internet & Telecom 6.27% 8.59%

Computers & Electronics 4.79% 2.96%

Business & Industrial 4.23% 4.10%

Home & Garden 2.21% 3.43%

Autos & Vehicles 4.29% 6.15%

Beauty & Fitness 4.56% 2.27%

#PPCcompetition

What’s an Average

CPA?

#PPCcompetition

Average Cost Per Conversion

Industry Google Search Display Network

Finance $50.49 $20.12

Travel $20.00 $9.36

Shopping $6.98 $12.33

Jobs & Education $29.56 $16.27

Internet & Telecom $17.70 $4.66

Computers & Electronics $29.02 $14.86

Business & Industrial $39.48 $23.66

Home & Garden $34.39 $24.20

Autos & Vehicles $22.61 $16.75

Beauty & Fitness $24.34 $44.49

#PPCcompetition

Don’t Settle For Average. Be The Unicorn Among a Sea of Donkey Advertisers.

www.wordstream.com/google-adwords www.wordstream.com/landing-page

Grade Your AdWords Account Grade Your AdWords Landing Pages

#PPCcompetition#PPCcompetition

Analyze From Without(Look externally)

Google’s 2013 revenue

exceeded $57 billion__________

90% of that from Ads

#PPCcompetition

PPC Advertising is a key

component for 48% of

Marketers*

*MarketingSherpa 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report

#PPCcompetition

..66% of those marketers

were dissatisfied, finding

their ad campaigns only

somewhat effective to

not effective……..

at all

#PPCcompetition

We could all learn a lesson from the

32% who labeled their PPC

as “very effective”.

Harness the power of competitive

intelligence for your PPC campaign

• Relevant keyword research

• Traffic estimations at domain and keyword level

• Spend trends

• Budget comparisons

• Real-world, crowd-sourced campaign ideas.

#PPCcompetition

Whatever tool you use, the data must be:

• Big (106M U.S. keywords)

• Fresh (popular terms daily)

• Growing (add new terms)

#PPCcompetition

• Showing Ads (historical trends)

Whatever tool you use, the data must be:

#PPCcompetition

• Tied to Domains (40M U.S.)

• Linked to Landing Pages

Whatever tool you use, the data must be:

#PPCcompetition

• Estimate Traffic by keyword

• Estimate Level of Competition

Whatever tool you use, the data must be:

#PPCcompetition

• Estimate Spends, domain-level

• Estimate Spends, keyword-level

#PPCcompetition

Seek Rewards

While Minimizing

Risk

Identify True Competitors…

Crush the rest

• Business Competitors

• Logically Unrelated Businesses

• Ambiguated entities

• Aggregators, catalogs and resellers

• Homographs (e.g. bar)

#PPCcompetition

That’s the First Power of

Competitive Intelligence

But wait, there’s more

#PPCcompetition

Analyze

AssessApply

Again

Again and Again

#PPCcompetition

“We look at the present

through a rear view mirror;

we walk backwards into the

future”

~ Marshall McLuhan

#PPCcompetition

Bring your success full-cycle

• Competitive research to periodically sample the market

• Detect spend reallocations

• Use trends to detect market changes

• Keyword research to take advantage of semantic shifts.

#PPCcompetition

What changes?

How customers use keywords

• New Opportunities Open Up

• Grab the ‘first-in’ advantage

“Over 15% of daily searches

are for new terms.”

~ Google

#PPCcompetition

How customers use keywords

• Old standby’s start to decay

• Competitive research to prove the value of alternative keywords

• Trends!

#PPCcompetition

Pride comes before the fall

• The cleverest phrases are not the smartest strategy

#PPCcompetition

Trademark Hijacking

• How competitors use keywords

#PPCcompetition

Final takeaways

1. Sit “at the shoulders” of searchers

2. Use data with broad reach across millions of keywords

3. Track results historically to capture trends that can be judged for their severity and established reliability

#PPCcompetition

There is no end…

• Bring it Full Cycle

• Increased revenue AND reduced risk? What advertiser can’t get behind that?

#PPCcompetition