This work by Matt LeVeque is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
May
17
Paid Search Basics | Do the Right Thing
May 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment
TWENTY YEARS AGO, well before paid search, SEM, online marketing or Google was even a consideration, Spike Lee released his film Do The Right Thing. I have been an admirer of Spike and his work so now, twenty years later, his film title and message is partially inspiring a paid search blog post. It must be the shoes!
At this point in my career I would, with modest distinction, consider myself an expert in paid search campaign design and best practises. I have come across a lot of paid search foul play via paid search assessments and even though every time I think I’ve seen it all, something new and ridiculous comes across my monitor. Tonight was such a time and what set me off this time was a post from the Google AdWords section of WebmasterWorld.com. The post from ‘Ember’ reads as follows:
I was running an AdWords campaign for a site but am no longer. I have a huge list of cheap, well-converting keywords in a particular niche and I would like to see if I can send them to someone else’s website and be paid a bit more than it costs us to generate the traffic. If I send the traffic directly to their site, they will see what the keywords are, drop me and generate their own traffic for less. I hate to see these keywords go to waste. Is there anyway to send the traffic so the webmaster can’t see the keywords in his logs?
Seriously? I mean WTF? I am trying my hardest to keep my emotional intelligence in check so I will keep this as constructive as possible. In my opinion Ember clearly has some highly questionable ethical ppc practises in play here. Assuming Ember owned the former account he would own the keyword list and should be able to do with it as s/he pleases. As stated that does not seem to be the case. It also seems that Ember is trying to deceive his new client to solely benefit one person – Ember. I don’t believe there has been labels associated with shady paid search practitioners (read: black hat SEO), but this certainly would be an example. And sadly, not the only case.
Doing Things Right for Sustainability
In this industry Google, Yahoo! and MSN make it pretty easy to run a paid search marketing program. Okay, so all the tools and variations of the platforms are not always so easy to navigate, but in general there is a clear road map as to how to design a paid search campaign and design it right the first time in order to receive the benefits of Quality Score. Even still there are shady practitioners that waste time trying to come up with short-cuts to beat the system just like Ember does. Unfortunately when this type of thing takes place true practitioners like myself and gold-teeth-gold-chain-wearin’ practitioners like Ember both lose. In trying to beat the system, in this case AdWords, the only winner is Google because they make more money by slackers like Ember jacking up the price of a click.
History proves that this type of half-assed short cut approach may provide high returns, but does not provide long term sustainability. Look at what happened to companies like Enron, Lehman Brothers, Chrysler and GM. I recently heard a GM executive explain that the reason they were closing 1,100 dealerships was to ‘promote the company’s sustainablity’. Really? I don’t think that’s really the right choice of words…
Although paid search is typically associated with quick wins and guaranteed conversions there is still an element of doing things right (the first time) from a long term sustainability approach that needs to be followed. Paid search design for sustainability takes time and patience. Otherwise, not only do all paid search programs suffer, but the industry as whole fails to move forward at the same pace. Google makes it painfully clear how to design and manage paid search programs to ensure that you are paying the lowest possible amount for a click. And I would say the 95% of Google’s advice and policies are valid. I’ve had bad experience with the double serving ads loophole and we all know that there is a missing piece of Quality Score that no one outside of Mountain View will even know. I know that Google and the other platforms are in this business to make money but I also know that Google and the other will reward you, over time, for doing the right things when it comes to well planned and designed paid search programs.
Paid Search Design for Sustainability
So how does one go about designing a paid search program for sustainability? First I want to clarify that for the purposes of this post, we are only discussing pre-click or before the click tactics of a paid search program. Obviously there are post-click analytics that influence pre-click actions. Also, from a systems thinking perspective, there is a broader scope of how a paid search program fits into the mix with other online marketing channels, etc. Both of those ideas and considerations as it relates to sustainability will be discussed in future posts. For now lets just focus on the task at hand - paid search design for sustainability.
1. Plan. And plan again. If starting from scratch, map out your campaign structure by using something as simple as your website navigation or site-map. For more advanced planning use mental model or affinity diagram methods. While mapping out your campaign structure think about what you have to offer and how it provides a solution for your customers.
2. Develop highly targeted keyword sets. Once you’ve thoroughly mapped out your campaign structure you should now have a foundation to bucket your keywords in a way that each ad group is unique unto itself. Beyond advanced match type tactics each ad group should contain keywords highly relevant to each other. The number of keywords in an ad group is irrelevant. At a certain point you will know when enough is enough.
3. Create relevant and persuasive ad ad creative text. Text within an ad creative should in some way reflect the keywords being targeted. When possible make sure that at least one keyword (phrase) in your ad group is in the ad creative title and in the body of the ad. Three to four ad creatives is recommended unless you are multivariate testing.
4. Landing page relevancy. So technically the landing page comes into play post-click, but it is a component of a paid search program that ties into Quality Score. Just as keywords and ad creatives are required to be relevant to each other, the landing page also is required to be relevant to the preceding components. Landing pages should be as relevant as possible to what the ad creative messaging is about.
Pretty easy huh? After planning, at a high level, there are only three things you need to do right in order to start down the path towards Quality Score nirvana. Beyond keywords, ad creatives and landing pages designed in a logical, well thought out campaign structure there are few additional design tips to consider.
5. Negative keywords. Use them and use them deliberately. At a minimum they should be used at the campaign level (AdWords) and when required they should be added at the ad group level.
6. Search Queries. This is really what it’s all about – matching your keywords to the search queries users are actually typing. If you are not analysing search queries for keyword expansion and negative keyword implementation you missing out on conversion and cost reduction opportunities.
7. Budgeting. Make sure you are not spreading yourself too thin. If you have a small budget make sure your campaign structure fits. For example, if you start off with 10 campaigns and you can only afford $100 a day in spend you are only allocating $10 per campaign (assuming the distribution is even). At that distribution chances are you’ll run out of daily spend early in the day, your impression share will be low and it will take a long time to gather statistically significant data.
8. Campaign naming. This is often over looked, but assuming you are running a paid search program in all three or more engines, you’ll want to name your campaigns and ad groups accordingly. This does not tie into anything Quality Score related, but it does help when managing and reporting on the program performance. For example, if you are running a paid search program in Google, Yahoo! and MSN and you have the same campaigns, with the same name, in each account, third party tools will roll-up all three campaigns into one view. Naming your campaigns and ad groups specific to the engine in which they live reduces the time wasted in guess work and work-arounds to solve the problem otherwise.
9. Duplicate keywords. Many times when I do paid search assessments I almost always come across the same keywords, with the same match types across multiple ad groups, targeting the same network. Personally I think this happens when mass production of campaigns and ad groups takes place. It’s easy to replicate ad groups with tools like Google’s desktop editor and ClickEquations Manager, but the ease of use should not replace the attention to detail.
10. Geo-targeting. If geo-targeting makes sense for your business do it. There are cost benefits for geo-targeting, but only if you do it right. Tradition geo-targeting includes using the campaign settings that enable you to target a specific city, region or state where your product or services are provided. Geo-modifying your keywords and targeting the entire country is not an effective, cost savings way to geo-target – it’s just lazy.
This is not an exhaustive list of paid search design for sustainability tactics, but it is a good starting point. Besides aligning your program with Quality Score requirements, following these steps has implications outside of the components of a paid search program. When you do this part right, you have more time to analyze the post-click data. You’ll also spend less time reorganizing mega lists of keywords from one ad group to multiple ad groups and spend more time ad creative testing. Following the Quality Score requirements also allows for more accurate bid testing. Overall, if you do things right and design for sustainability there is less time being spent on the things that do not add value and your program has much better chance of out lasting the competition while continuing to maximize its return.
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Apr
3
Carbon Offset Calculator for Online Advertising Campaigns | Local Agency Making Digital Advertising Good
April 3, 2009 | 3 Comments
CONTINUING WITH MY series about carbon offsets for search engine marketing and Google’s Green Initiatives I stumbled across a company that seems to be doing it right. But first some background… A few weeks ago I wrote a couple posts announcing a fake ‘Google GreenWords’ program followed by another post for an idea around carbon offsets for paid search impressions. While researching these ideas for a more socially responsible way to manage paid search advertising I thought I had searched thoroughly enough on the topic of carbon offsets related to internet advertising, but clearly I did not.
The gem I found today is imc²’s Clear Sky Media’s carbon offset calculator for online advertising campaigns. imc² worked with Cody Taylor (IFC International) and Jonathan Koomey (Stanford University) in developing the math behind calculating the estimated cost to offset the carbon footprint of an online advertising campaign. The working paper – Estimating Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Internet Advertising – supports their findings and is available free at the imc² website.
At present the calculator is only for banner or display media advertising and is exactly what I had in mind when thinking about carbon offsets for paid search impressions on keywords. In fact since AdWords does support image ads, this handy tool can be used if your strategy includes such tactics.
The funny thing (to me) about this is that for all the research I thought I had completed in support of my earlier ideas, I only had to search as far as my own ‘backyard’. Turns out imc²’s Philadelphia office (Conshohocken, PA) is in the same building as ClickEquations where I reside.
imc² on Corporate Responsibility
Beyond sharing the same building, imc² is an established Dallas based all services type of internet advertising agency that seems to focus mostly on pharma/healthcare, consumer goods and retail industries. On the surface it looks like imc² is just another run of the mill agency until you dig a little deeper into the corporate responsibility section of their website. Wow. This unassuming company has a corporate social responsibility program in place that rivals the Toyota’s and White Dog Café’s of the world and is simply doing it right.
If you take some time and read their 2007 Positive Impact Report it is very clear that imc² is a dedicated people, profit, planet (triple bottom line) type company with sustainability at the forefront of everything they do.
The Positive Impact Report is extensive so I am not going to call everything out in this post. However I would at least like to point out that the imc² positive impact report follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Guidelines which is the leading international standard for social, environmental and economic performance. Since there are no official standards for this type of thing until ISO 26000 (guidance on social responsibility) is officially published, the GRI guidelines are best to model.
I would also like to point out that from the Positive Impact Report, imc²’s economic commitment is founded on the companies ‘ability to serve and lead our people and our clients into a more sustainable future.’
Their economic commitment is also closely tied to operational excellence also known as ‘process’. The argument that sound processes lead to tremendous sustainable growth is well documented organizations like the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and in articles like Corporate Social Responsibility by Denis Leonard and Rodney McAdam. It’s not clear as to what, if any, type of process methodologies are being implemented at imc², but as with any focus on operational excellence there come challenges. At imc² they state that ‘to overcome these challenges, we are aggressively developing and implementing a system for operational excellence that focuses on three key aspects of our operations — processes, people, and finance — to create systems that support accountability, enable smooth delivery, and enhance profitability.’
People at imc² matter too. They understand that ‘sustainability is about the growth of our people’. Internally, imc² has replaced its HR department with a People Team that views people in a more human and holistic way rather than just viewing people as resources. Although the changes to HR in 2007 we just the beginning, the following are noted as some of the most significant:
- Expanded People Team to provide more comprehensive support for the organization (vice president, people; director, learning; director, recruiting; director, people relations)
- Created a Learning Department and developed a new Learning Program (see Learning section for more details)
- Created the People Advisory Board (see People-Focused Teams section for more details)
- Enhanced our benefits programs, absorbing the entire cost of healthcare premium increases
In addition to the economic, process and people focus briefly outlined in this post, imc² also includes detailed information on how service, society and the environment also fit into their corporate responsibility program. Overall it is a very impressive program for a relatively young company with roughly 600 employees. This is a true testament to the fact that a small operation can be innovative, inspirational and have an impact in leading the way for the next generation of socially responsible companies.
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Mar
22
I Am A PPC Farmer | Paid Search Gardening Tips
March 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment
THE FACT THAT I get up early in the morning before most neighborhood roosters makes me think I’d be a pretty good farmer. I have a strong work ethic, can be extremely patient and have a pining for owning John Deere equipment. All that combined with some fertile land and a little luck would make for an interesting side career in suburban Philadelphia. But seeing as though I don’t have much land or a fancy John Deere tractor I am resigned to planting a generous sized vegetable garden in my backyard. For now this will satisfy the farmer in my blood, my interest in self sustainability and eating locally grown food
In fact, this weekend, I got out my cow poo pots, organic soil and started the heirloom seeds I bought from Tomato Bob in anticipation of the forth coming last frost. This year I am planting a variety of tomatoes with delicious names like ‘Indian Dark Violet Beefsteak’, ‘Livingstons Perfection’, “German Johnson’ and of course the stately ‘Abraham Lincoln’ in honor of the President’s 200 year birthday anniversary. Alongside the tomatoes I am also planting a couple varieties of Summer squash – ‘Crookneck’ and the ‘White Bush Scallop’, a zucchini, Peruvian Purple Peppers and bunches of herbs. And while I was going through the process of filling the poo pots with soil and following Tomato Bob’s seed starting tips it began to dawn on me that starting seeds, tending to a garden or a crop and the timely results of the harvest is not much different than planning and implementing the various components of a paid search marketing account.
Sowing The Campaign Keywords
So how on earth is planting and managing a vegetable garden anything like implementing and managing paid search? Well, first and foremost you need to follow a fundamental, disciplined process in order to maximize your results. That alone should be obvious right? The not so obvious bits are in the way seeds are started and the ultimate design and layout of the garden. As Tomato Bob states in his tips ‘if you are starting many varieties of tomatoes or other seedings, you should have a separate starting container for each variety’. Hmmm… sounds very much like a well organized paid search ad group structure. As if keywords are the seeds of your paid search garden, keywords relating different products, styles, services etc. should always, always be separated out into their own ad groups (containers) making the ad group as highly targeted as possible for Quality Score.
In the initial stages of starting seeds it is essential to ‘check your seed trays 2-3 days to make sure they stay moist’. Okay, so we are not watering our keywords since that would probably fry your laptop, but in the first few hours and days after launching a paid search campaign it is necessary to monitor and assess the new keywords and make the required adjustments. If your keywords are in position 1 and you are paying too much for that position you may be in a situation where you’ve ‘over watered’ or set the Max CPC too high and may want to scale back some. The idea here is that, especially in the first few days, you can’t set and forget about new paid search implementations otherwise your account will be domed.
Transplanting A Keyword
After some amount of time your seedlings will be ready to transplant outdoors. This will allow for your plants to begin to grow and produce efficiently. In the same regard, at a certain point, some keywords that perform well need to be transplanted or graduated into their ad groups in order to maximize their results. When we do this typically we will promote a broad or phrase match keyword to an exact match keyword. As an exact match keyword we are also more willing to pay a little more for that click since the expected conversion rate is higher than keywords set to broad or phrase matches. Setting up selected well performing keywords into their own ad groups not only has conversion potential, but also has the opportunity to receive cost cutting Quality Score benefits
Keyword Care In Your PPC Garden
Now that the seedlings have grown into plants and are safely transplanted to your garden they should be watered daily for the first week. At this stage the plants are still young and it is essential to take the proper precautions in order to keep the cutworms and hornworms from eating the plants you’ve worked so hard to start. Caring and protecting your keywords and your budget is no different. In order to make sure you are targeting the right audience and receiving the most qualified traffic, negative keywords should be in place from the get go. You might not identify all the negative keywords at first but with regular maintenance and mining search queries for more negative keywords to add to your ad groups and campaigns you should continue to prosper and deliver fruitful results.
PPC Garden Rotation
Year over year it’s a good idea to try and not plant the same vegetables in the same plot of soil. Planting in the same spot over and over again drains the soil of nutrients and your harvest will begin to suffer. Same goes for the need to continually keep keywords and ad creatives fresh. Otherwise if you keep keyword or ad group bids and your ad creative messaging the same, over time setting and forgetting those key components will begin to produce less than desirable results.
And of course, as it is with vegetable gardening or farming, you need to work hard at paid search and have a tremendous amount of patience. Some paid search implementations will produce bumper crop-like results and others will not. But if you keep at it and you are diligent about nurturing your ad groups, keyword, ad creatives and other components – with a little luck you’ll be sure to develop a sustainable program and never have to worry about selling the farm.
Realted Article
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Mar
14
Computing Power Tips | Power Down for the Planet
March 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment
TODAY I HAD the chance to go to the Go Green Expo here in Philly and had an informative time. Besides learning about ‘greening’ my lifestyle, chatting with Rowen Spivey from the SBN and meeting the Brighter Planet cool kids from Vermont I also had the chance to see the Phillies World Series trophy in person and up close.
Before all that though I was catching up on some blog post reading and came across a recent entry on the Google blog from last week – Power Down for the Planet. The post is in reference to a new project that Google has co-founded called Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The initiative was started by Google and Intel in 2007 and now hosts support by most of the major global computing and environmental giants like CSC, Dell, World Wildlife Fund, Microsoft, Hitachi, HP and ENERGY STAR. Supporters and participants of the program commit to producing energy efficient products and/or purchasing energy efficient computing equipment. As stated on their website, the Climate Savers Computing Initiative mission is:
By 2010, we seek to reduce global CO2 emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons per year1, equivalent to the annual output of 11 million cars or 10–20 coal-fired power plants. With your help, this effort will lead to a 50% reduction in power consumption by computers by 2010, and committed participants could collectively save $5.5 billion in energy costs.
In addition to the membership requirements of the board level, sponsor and associate companies the Climate Savers Computing website lays out several actions affiliate companies and individuals can do now, for free, in order to participate. For example one quick and easy action I took in order to reduce the power consumption of my home computer was to download a power management utility from the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. This utility simply allows you to run your monitor and computer at a more energy efficient level. I have also installed Verdiem’s Edison application that monitors the energy consumption of my home pc. For these tools and others check out the entire list on the Climate Savers Computing applications page.
Climate Savers Computing Initiative is also hosting the Power Down for the Planet Video Challenge now until April 17, 2009. In collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program, is introducing Power Down for the Planet – a challenge program designed to encourage universities and their campus communities to reduce their own IT power consumption and get their students, faculty, and staff involved in the fight against climate change. The team with the most compelling video can win up to $5,000 and energy efficient laptops; students at participating universities are also eligible to win $5,000 and Specialized Globe bicycles.
I would encourage anyone reading this to take a look at the list of companies and individuals participating in this program. The list is long, powerful and contains both David’s and Goliath’s across various industries leading the to raise awareness to this already weighty problem. It’s hard to tell from the list if there are any Online Marketing or Search Marketing agencies or software developers on the list other than Google, Yahoo! & MSN, but I guarantee that sooner or later these issues will need to be addressed by all entities that contribute to the creation, marketing and management of web content. Although the goal of reducing of CO2 emissions from IT operations is set for 2010 I say - why wait?
Resources and Related Articles
Carbon Offsets for Paid Search Impressions
Google Introduces Its “GreenWords” Paid Search Program
