Intro to digital marketing - Chapter 6: Paid search marketing

Paid search marketing

When a search engine charges a webmaster after someone clicks on their link

Why do firm’s do paid search marketing?

• Search engine advertising drives more NEW website traffic than any other online advertising method

• No other advertising method enables a more precise targeting of potential customers.

• The site owner can measure the effectiveness of search engine advertising more reliably using DATA

• Google Ads (advertisers bid to get ads shown on SERP)

How are Google ads shown?

1. Google search

2. Complete ad list with all bidders

3. Auction where bids and quality’s evaluated

4. Results where winning ads are ranked and displayed

What factors do advertisers select when it comes to showing their ad?

1. The entered search phrase

2. Other traits of the search (e.g. the searcher’s location, device used, etc)

What sort of people do companies want to advertise to?

People who show an interest that lines up with the offering provided by the company

Exact match

A search-up phrase that’ll match an exact keyword and close variants such as misspellings, synonyms, abbreviations, etc that’ll waste little money advertising to uninterested searchers 

How to use exact match 

Place brackets around [a keyword]

Broad match

Listing a keyword with no modifying characters, which leads to the ad showing up for any relevant searches to their products

Phrase match

Tells Google to show ads on searches that have the include the keyword, close variants, or other terms with a similar meaning

How to use a phase match

Put quotation marks around “a keyword”

Negative keyword

Ensuring an ad won’t be displayed is a certain word is used, regardless of what’s searched up

e.g. If a firm doesn’t sell men’s dress shoes, then dress will be entered as a negative keyword to make sure the ad won’t show up if dress is used

Other selection factors

• Geography

• Device type

• Timing

• Language

Search intent

The why behind a search

e.g. to learn something, make a purchase, looking for a site

Searcher’s flow

1. Search box

2. Search page

3. Landing page

4. Conversion

How to search for yourself

Take on the role of a customer, sit at a computer, and think about what you’d search and what keywords you’d put in

Google Keyword Planner

Provides suggestions on relevant keywords as well as their searches, competition, top of page bids, etc

The 4 things to consider when choosing keywords to use in search advertising

1. Searcher intent

2. Search volume

3. Level of competition 

4. Suggested bid

Branded keywords

When a firm includes its name on a search query

e.g. Best Buy Tv

The 5 key elements of ads in search results

1. Final URL

2. Headlines

3. Display path

4. Descriptions

5. Ad extensions 

How does Google evaluate ad quality (1-10)?

1. Expected CTR (effective ad copy)

2. Ad Relevance (use of key words being searched for)

3. Landing Page Experience (fulfills expectations)

Higher quality yields a higher ranking

How does Google determine what you pay?

Ad rank of the person below you divided by quality score + $0.01

Shopping ads

Ads that display product images and prices as opposed to text. They can show up on different areas of the webpage

Google maps ads

Text ads that can be displayed when someone is searching on Google Maps, and can be set up by connecting a business’s local listing on My Business with its Google Ads account

Call only ads

Makes the number of the business the main content of the ad

Call extension

An additional line attached to a usual search ad that allows users to click to make a call

Dynamic search ads

Lets advertisers turn over some control of their search ads to Google for it to pull info about the advertiser’s products to show on relevant search results

Keywords for relevance

When keyword usage and bolding improve click rate(s)

What can an effective headline and description with good grammar do?

Make a good impression to visitors

Unique value proposition (UVP)

Something that sets a site apart from other sites

e.g. Geico offering 24/7 service, State Farm having fast and free quotes

Call to Action (CTA)

The last push to get the consumer to click on an ad

e.g. “Get a free quote”, “Switch and save”, etc

Ad rank

The ad locations for searches on any given keyword; is determined by bids on a keyword

Quality scores

A measurement of how relevant the ads, keywords, and landing pages are; higher quality scores can lead to lower prices and better ad positions

The criteria that affects quality score

1. Expected CTR

2. Ad relevance

3. Landing page experience

Cost per action

The amount an advertiser is willing to pay per conversion

e.g. An advertiser with 4% conversion rate who bids $20 cpa would essentially be submitting a cost per conversion bid $0.80 ($20×0.04)

Benefits of automated bidding

• Google’s knowledge of keyword performance traits will be applied to campaigns

• Performance will constantly improve as Google learns which keywords and traits lead to higher conversion(s)

• Prevents common errors caused during manual bidding

Drawbacks of automated bidding

• Hinders learning about the search market

• Campaigns will grow unfavourably if the wrong bid strategy is chosen

• Large amounts of data are needed in order for improvements to occur

Impressions

Every appearance of an ad on the search results page

Click

Each time someone clicks on an ad in the results page

Click-through rate (CTR)

The percentage of impressions that get a click

e.g. 60,367 impressions got 2,101 clicks for a CTR of 3.48%

What does Cost per click (CPC) determine?

Determines whether the search ads are profitable

Cost

The cost per click times the number of clicks

e.g. $0.83 per click times 2101 clicks equals a cost of $1742 for a keyword 

Conversions and profit

Multiply the profit per sale by the number of conversions

e.g. If one generated 140 conversions with $20 in profit each, they would’ve gained $2800 in profit from a $1742 cost, thus making a profit

Conversion rate

The percentage of visitors who convert

e.g. 140 of 2101 visitors converted, leading to a conversion rate of 6.66%

What should an advertiser do if they suspect a lower than average conversion rate?

• Make sure the ad and landing page are relevant to the searched keyword

• Make sure the ad and landing have compelling and competitive offers

• Ensure broad match keywords aren’t attracting traffic from irrelevant sources

• Stop use of the keyword if all else fails

Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS)

(Total Profit/Total Adspend) x 100

What’s the typical click through rate for ads across multiple industries?

Between 1% and 4%

Search query reports

Shows the searches that resulted in a click; it’s valuable as it shows where Google chooses to show an ad

Poor mobile optimization

When sites not optimized for mobile usage lead to lower conversion rates from mobile users

Low purchase intent

When users research a product or look for basic info, thus makes more sense to adjust mobile bids to be lower to save money on searches with unlikely conversions

Alternate mobile conversion

When a user researches a product they like on their phone, but takes the process to their computer to convert from there

Google Ads Account structure

Account

Advertisers who add their credit card info to pay for the clicks

Campaign

An easy-to-remember name, as well as the type of campaign, which allows advertisers to pick which advertising network they’re trying to reach

Display network only

A campaign type for running text and banner ads across Google’s ad network and its huge list of sites that run Google’s ads on their site

Search network with display select

Allows text ads to display on keywords a company chooses in Google SERP

Shopping

A campaign type that allows an advertiser to separately manage its Google Shopping ads

Ad extensions

Ad extensions and other adjustments which are made at the campaign level; the structure of successful campaigns can be copied and reused, but not whole ads and keywords

Ad group

The user picks keywords at the Ad group level and can specify the bid amounts for manual CPC strategies only

Keywords

Keyword bids, match types, and data can only be managed at the campaign and ad group levels

P.P.C

Pay Per Click