Beyond Revelance in Paid Search | Understanding the Entire Value Stream

January 4, 2009 |

AT THIS POINT at the beginning of 2009, anyone in the search industry actively engaged in paid search should have a solid understanding of highly targeted and relevant campaigns> ad groups> keywords> ad creatives> landing pages and its implication for Quality Score performance. If you are not up to speed on Google AdWords and the implications of Quality Score check out the ClickEquation blog or catch up at the links blow in the ‘related articles’ section of this post.

The fundamental industry best practice for structuring a paid search campaign for any platform, be it Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search marketing or MSN adCenter is the implementation of highly targeted, relevant ad groups. This is a part of the ‘before the click’ process that can easily be controlled and maintained. If this is not happening you have bigger issues than what the rest of this discussion is about. That being said, separated out into its own stop along the entire value stream, the paid search campaign is a relatively easy thing to manage and manage well. However, as we will see, the paid search campaign which for all intents and purposes is the middle of the value stream, can only sustain long lasting success if the upstream and downstream processes are completely aligned to serve the customer with the best user experience.

Upstream From The Paid Search Campaign

Before a paid search campaign can take form and become effective an in-house or agency paid search team needs to have certain basic information from the client who is further upstream in the process than the paid search team is. The following are key points about how to be most effective and what to avoid further upstream from paid search.

1. Goals and KPI’s- To begin the client should have a good idea as to why they are getting into the paid search game or how they’d like to grow their current paid search. The client should know the goals they want to achieve, their key performance indicators and their tolerance/risk for testing to learn. Paid search experts can help set expectations and guide the client in understanding what the potential may be for reaching certain goals however the initial goal setting should come from further upstream. Since both parties are working towards the same end results, ideally these are collaborative goals and targets agreed to by the expanded team before implementing or optimizing paid search.

2. Messaging Information- If the paid search program has already been implemented or is in the process of being developed, one of the most critical components of a paid search campaign is the ad creative. And it’s just not the relevance of the ad creative for Quality Score or how targeted it is, but moreso in what the ad creative messaging offers. Is there a generic call to action in the ad creative or is there some amazing discount or benefit that only your client can offer its potential customer?

In some cases differentiated messaging can be found on a client website that can be worked into the ad creative copy. In many cases, on a large e-commerce sites where there are 100’s of vendors and 1,000’s of products, hunting and pecking for sales, discounts and offers is not an efficient use of time. These offers, sales and discounts should be available to the paid search team in the form of a merchandising calendar so pro-active planning can occur. This type of information comes from further upstream from the paid search team and sometimes further upstream than its direct contact.

3. Internal Communication- At times there are internal communication issues outside of the paid search team that occur further upstream that can have a significant negative impact on the success of paid search. Whether it’s an in-house paid search team or an agency there can be multiple layers of people and departments involved. If those parties further upstream fail to communicate effectively the lack of communication can trickle further down stream and limit the effectiveness of the paid search team. This not only adds stress to the relationship between the paid search team and the departments further upstream, but in effect, when the lack of communication and alignment reaches the paid search team and it is left to work with limited information this situation begins to have a negative impact on the potential customer - the very person you are trying to convert and become loyal.

The impact of upstream goals, information or lack of information can vary but can mostly be managed to a certain level of success. The sustainability of long term growth may be at risk, however, if the upstream processes are not fully aligned internally and aligned with the paid search team.

Downstream From the Paid Search Campaign

As part of the development, implementation and continuous improvement of a paid search campaign there are a couple of ‘post-click’ components that occur on the website that have an even greater significance on the success and growth of the account than those further upstream in the process.

1. Does the Website Work/Are the Landing Pages Valid - This downstream process is the most critical in the mix because this one comes closest to the customer who you are trying to convert. First and foremost your website should work 100% of the time. Beyond that it should be user friendly providing the best customer experience possible. Once a customer had decided that your paid search ad matches closest with what they want to buy or it provides a solution to their question, customer satisfaction is key. First impressions are the most important ones.

This also requires that not only the website work and that its usability and navigation are at its prime, but that the landing pages selected are still functioning. In reference to the large paid search program above, if you tag keywords and/or ad creatives with destination URLs it is critical to have open communication (from further upstream) as to when those URLs change due to inventory levels or other website structure changes. If the landing page has been updated or the product no longer exists and there is not a redirect in place until the paid search URL can be updated, customers landing on error pages or some other random page is never a good thing. This not only impacts the customer experience, but also can have Quality Score implications.

2. Proper Implementation of Web Analyics Tracking & Tags - We all know paid search and all other online marketing channels are usually inaccurate within a acceptable range. That’s just the nature of this industry. Within a certain control level differences between click traffic & conversion data at the engine level and reported click traffic & conversion data from a third party analytics tool is okay. The problem occurs when web analytics site tagging is not implemented correctly the first time. The other problem is when URL tagging parameters are not used correctly - used as a temporary work-around to fix a problem futher upstream instead of fixing the root cause of the problem. These types of downstream problems create additional challenges in reporting and decision making further upstream in the process.

Both examples hint of responsibility further upstream from paid search but since analytics tagging happens at the website level it is considered a downstream process.

Regardless of upstream or downstream from paid search, the entire value stream should be considered as a total system. When all of these processes are aligned there is a greater opportunity for success of the paid search account. The alignment of the entire value stream also builds trust between all those involved creating a more productive team for long term sustainability.

Related Articles & Resources

Insider Tips on Google AdWords Quality Score

An Introduction To Systems Thinking for Online Marketing

Design for Search Engine Marketing (DFSEM)

Value Stream Management for the Lean Office

The Lean Office Training Set