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Run Great Campaigns With PPC Automation: The Whats, Whys and Hows

If you aren’t using PPC automation tools in your Google Ads campaigns in 2023, you’re leaving money on the table.

For years, we’ve been warning PPC campaign teams about the time-killers that limit revenue growth and eat into margins. Today, we have proof that these threats are more pronounced than ever before.

Boston Consulting Group confirmed that PPC automation performs best with human input, leading to 15% better campaign performance. Brands that fail to pair machine efficiency with human oversight won’t perform as strongly as ones that do.

Smart businesses run smart campaigns.

The good news is small and big businesses alike can start using automation to their advantage today, whether it’s the capabilities within Google Ads or a robust third-party solution like Optmyzr.

This article answers all the big questions including:

How Google Ads Automation Has Redefined PPC Ads

Google, Microsoft, Meta/Facebook, Amazon — virtually all PPC platforms are moving towards a single goal: automation solutions and automation features to make paid ads easier.

The Shift in PPC Management

Since 2020, Google has released more and newer capabilities to their PPC automation suite, each one taking less time to go from beta to default.

Computers were already better than humans will ever be at math and processing large quantities of data. Now, and with access to your unique business data, they’re starting to learn what levers to pull to make PPC ad campaigns spend more efficiently and run more optimally.

Will Automated Solutions Replace PPC Experts?

Google Ads’ advanced algorithms are smart and getting smarter. The ugly truth is that Google’s AI and machine learning systems can now do a lot of the things that PPC specialists have been doing for the past decade, and more.

Fortunately, PPC managers still have a crucial role — just not the one they’re used to. The future of humans in PPC will be about data quality and amplifying that which computers are unable to simulate, such as creativity and nuanced decision-making.

Collaborating with Algorithms

While PPC software and machine learning may provide actionable data, it’s up to you to combine data and business intuition. In the end, you will make the final call — not the algorithm.

PPC Automation Layering Brings Security, Control, Visibility

It’s not easy to let go of what you’re used to controlling. Letting Google handle much of the lever-pulling is a major adjustment, but it’s the hand search engine advertisers have been dealt.

Keeping track of all that automation can be time-consuming and mentally exhausting — you’re human, and it’s impossible to keep an eye on everything all the time.

This is especially true for marketers looking over multiple PPC campaigns at once across multiple ad platforms.

With PPC automation layering, you deploy one or more automation workflows in conjunction with the automation used by ad platforms like Google.

Marketers who use automation layering typically crave one or more of these benefits of PPC automation software.

Benefits of PPC Automation Software

Modern PPC management is no longer about pulling levers and pushing buttons in an ad interface. Today’s marketers need to prioritize providing high-quality inputs and vetting ad platform outputs.

Automation layering makes that not only possible, but faster and more efficient.

Here are some of the optimizations we recommend PPC marketers focus on.

Optimization Recommendations for PPC Campaigns

Automation Layering in Action: Smart Bidding Use Case

Smart Bidding is one of the more widely accepted incarnations of automation from Google Ads, but it’s far from perfect. Let’s take a look at what happens when things go wrong and how automation layering can save the day.

PPC marketers embrace Smart Bidding because by allowing Google to set and adjust bids in real time, they save considerable time and energy.

However, Smart Bidding can also expose campaigns to risks such as algorithmic malfunctions.

Proactively Avoid Potential Malfunctions in Automated Bidding

One potential malfunction (which has happened multiple times) is a spike in bids, typically caused by machine error when reading seasonal or historical data.

Without automation layering, it could be hours or even days before you notice that one of your accounts has been bidding 500% of its historic cost per click, exceeding the allocated budget and throwing profitability out the window.

Now imagine you’ve set up an alert that sends you a Slack notification the moment your average CPC exceeds a given threshold, within a specified amount of time.

Or perhaps you’ve created a rule-based workflow that automatically pauses any ad groups when spend exceeds a given value.

Serve Your Own Goals with PPC

Both of these are examples of automation layering — they require a third-party tool like Optmyzr — that creates layers of added security between Google’s automation and your campaigns.

More importantly, it’s automation that you configure and control, so it serves your interests rather than those of the advertising platforms you advertise on.

At the end of the day, Google is still a for-profit business that prioritizes the financial performance that comes with increased ad spend.

3 Steps to Prepare for the Impact of PPC Automation

In his presentation Beyond Click Metrics, Mike Ryan of Smarter Ecommerce draws an interesting parallel between PPC automation and the act of driving a car.

“Google’s automation is often described as a black box – I’ve even described it as a black hole. But I’d like to take the heat out of that conversation and simply unpack the automation concept a bit, inspired by research in the field of automated driving.

“In plain words, driving is the sum of monitoring and control activity at multiple levels. These range from navigation, event detection and response; to physical actions like braking. We could use this same framework to describe how campaigns are controlled as well.

“Navigation could be thought of in terms of goals and budgets; steering in terms of keywords, schedules, and modifiers; and the gas and brake pedals in terms of CPC bidding. Automation seeks to overtake those different control loops, while humans occupy different states along a spectrum of awareness and control, from in the loop to out of the loop.

“Not only are Google campaign actions being reduced, but observability and reporting have been limited as well. I see a two-fold challenge there. How can we best guide the platform toward our objectives with fewer tools at hand, and how can we differentiate from competitors using the same technology?”

Advertisers in paid search and ads need to take three important steps to avoid “merely participating in Google channels, rather than controlling them”.

1. Protect Yourself from Ad Platform Agendas

Google and other ad platforms have the same primary goals as any other enterprise: profit and shareholder value. Helping advertisers reach the right target audience and improve business performance is only a way to achieve those goals.

This makes automation layering an important tool to regain control.

While some experts view PPC automation as disruptive, Google sees thousands of brands and businesses who don’t use Google Ads because they find it too complicated.

Automation opens up a huge market and untold millions in revenue, but it also puts Google at conflict with PPC experts who’ve mastered more hands-on ad management over the years.

Don’t Just Set It and Forget It

Automated capabilities like Smart Bidding or responsive search ads can turn disruptive when you apply a “set it and forget it” mentality.

We saw this last year when Smart Shopping CPCs went through the roof and advertisers remained unaware for hours. Rule-based automation could have notified the advertisers the moment those bid amounts spiked.

2. Insulate Yourself From Economic Unpredictability and Volatility

If global conditions since 2020 have taught us anything, it’s that every marketer should always expect the unexpected.

From unconventional windows for holiday shopping to supply chain issues, the past few years have offered plenty of real-world situations that sent PPC strategies haywire.

Who knows what will disrupt your bid management this year?

Have Safeguards Ready to Go

External events will always dramatically shift consumer behavior, so you should have safeguards ready to go. In PPC campaigns, automation layering can minimize losses and limit added expenditure.

When your targeted audience shifts, find ways to keep data clean and minimize movement to potential negative keywords.

While alerts, scripts, and automated workflows and rules can’t stop a health crisis from invalidating recent data and trends, they can help you limit any damage until the system corrects itself.

3. Make the Right Choices for Your Business with PPC Automation Tools

From paper-thin margins to creating a healthy runway, there are a number of motivating factors behind why businesses chase greater success with fewer resources. Of course, success means different things to different businesses.

For an agency, it could mean doubling your managed ad spend or improving the quality of your service without hiring additional marketers.

Third party automation tools can amplify the control of your campaign creation, planning, and monitoring.

Stay in Control of Your Insights

Giving your team a third-party automation solution like Optmyzr — rich enough in insights and flexible enough to let you apply them as you see fit — is a great way to stay in control of what Mike calls a “closed-loop system where you have only input and output”.

“Measure the right things, measure them better, and offer smart inputs,” Mike adds. “This could mean offering Google first-party target audience data, optimizing on profit rather than revenue, bringing in more detailed product data — or any number of efforts to educate Google’s automation.

“In a supply chain crisis, for example, it could be more important than ever that your ecommerce campaigns consider availability, sell-through rate, and on-order status.”

Changing the Way We Think About PPC Automation

Feeling like Google is replacing you is a tough pill to swallow, but the truth is that human PPC experts offer so much more than the ability to push the right buttons.

Your real value is your ability to contextualize and think creatively, so look at Google’s automation features as a complement rather than as a competitor.

  1. Set up monitoring systems to keep an eye on performance
  2. Go hands-on to test for optimal solutions for messaging, structure, etc.
  3. Sharpen Google’s decision-making by sharing post-conversion data

While Google’s automation tools feels like a blanket solution for PPC advertisers of no particular type, we know that one size never fits all.

Shape Google’s Tools to Your Accounts and Business

Automation layering is how you shape what Google does to suit your brands and accounts.

“This is a digital marketing journey, and even a total business journey,” Mike adds. “You’ll need to align with finance teams, business intelligence teams, and use test-and-learn practices along the way. Those with the best hypotheses and the fastest speed of learning will out-compete.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is PPC automation?

PPC automation combines AI, machine learning, and logic-based automation to streamline the management of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.

Digital marketing agencies, advertisers, direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, and online retailers use PPC automation tools to focus on marketing activities that impact business growth.

What are the benefits of PPC automation tools?

PPC automation has multiple benefits and outcomes including:

What are some examples of PPC automation tools?

PPC automation takes many shapes and forms, but the three most common ones are scripts, alerts, and automated rules.

PPC Scripts

Google Ads scripts are blocks of code that tell Google Ads to monitor for something and take action when it’s found. While effective, scripts are a roadblock to anyone unfamiliar with Javascript, making them inaccessible and time-consuming.

Optmyzr offers what we call Enhanced Scripts — these can be set up through our UI and require zero coding expertise.

They can be customized for a variety of purposes, including budget management and checking for broken landing pages.

PPC Alerts

Alerts are notifications that tell you something in your PPC account requires attention, such as anomalies or deviations in performance.

They’re often the first line of defense for PPC marketers who have better things to do than stare at an interface all day.

When ad spend is spiking out of control, your team will know at the very moment - not after the money is spent.

Optmyzr customers can create alerts for budgets or any trackable KPI at the account, campaign, label, bid strategy, or campaign type level.

Define your date range and values, and choose to be notified via email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or any other software (via Zapier) so that you know the moment something is wrong on one of the ad platforms.

PPC marketing does not need to be stressful and worrisome. PPC tools can allow you to run multiple campaigns with ease and less anxiety.

Automated PPC Rules

Automated rules use simple “if x, then y” logic to take specific action when certain conditions are met.

Advertisers determine what those conditions and actions are, but what you can control depends on where you build those rules.

You have more options and greater control using an API-connected PPC automation tool solution like Optmyzr.

That’s what makes the Rule Engine one of our most popular automation tools. It saves advertisers a tremendous amount of time, money, and hassle by automating rule-based workflows, such as applying bulk changes or pausing expensive keywords.

In fact,the Rule Engine is so versatile that you can automate any routine tasks or process that you can write down.

This article was originally published on February 21, 2022 and was last updated on January 16, 2023.

How to Make Your Shopping Campaigns Profitable

Everybody loves ecommerce.

For buyers, it offers unparalleled convenience and control. And given prevailing world conditions, online shopping is by far the safest option. With everything from luxury apparel to essential groceries available online, ecommerce truly is here to stay.

For retailers, it presents an opportunity to reach people in a much wider catchment area than a brick-and-mortar store ever could. Plus with no additional overheads other than the cost of advertising and shipping, it offers better margins on certain products like perishable goods.

Direct-to-consumer brands benefit even further by cutting out retail middlemen whose share of the pie drives up the price end consumers pay.

But when you advertise for products online, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a positive ROAS means you’re turning a profit.

Why ROAS is not the best indicator of success

To illustrate how misleading ROAS can be, let’s consider three hypothetical product groups in a shopping campaign. Each group contains a single product, and each product has a different price (conversion value) and profit margin (excluding ad costs).

In scenario A, the ROAS makes it seem like you’re breaking even. But what’s actually happening is that you’re spending $100 on ads to sell a $100 product at a margin of $75. That covers only three-quarters of your advertising budget, so you’re actually losing $25 per sale.

The ROAS for scenario B looks like you’re getting a 2x return. But you’re spending $100 on ads to sell a $200 product at a margin of $100 – that means all of your margin is spent on advertising. So while you aren’t making a loss like scenario A, you’re also not making any profit.

Scenario C is what ecommerce advertisers want to aim for. You’re spending $100 on ads to sell $500 worth of products at a margin of $125. The margin here is the smallest of the three, but each conversion yields a true margin of $25 after ad costs. That makes it the only profitable scenario.

Optimizing for profitable shopping campaigns is a combination of aligning operating costs, sale price, and advertising costs to find a ROAS target that will reflect well on your books, not just an end-of-month Google Ads report.

As a result, shopping campaigns can embrace a variety of structures – grouping products by ROAS target, profit margin, and groups of individual products (GRIP) are all viable depending on what you want to do.

To optimize these campaigns, some of the things you may wish to try are:

Remember, the example we’ve provided is purely illustrative. In the real world, there’s usually a tradeoff between ROAS and volumes. It’s usually difficult to achieve high numbers for both, so high-volume conversions tend to have a lower ROAS and vice versa.

Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Builder allows you to build new shopping campaigns. The tool uses your merchant feed to smartly group products based on your chosen split hierarchy.

We include options to create campaigns by ROAS and price, which you can’t do directly in Google Ads. You can create standard shopping and Performance Max campaigns, restructure campaigns created outside of Optmyzr, and set bids.

Tracking Your Progress

As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making. Optmyzr recommends tracking the following metrics at different stages of your effort to optimize shopping campaigns for true profit.

Beginner Stage

Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift. At this stage, you want to track Impressions, Clicks, and Conversions.

These beginner metrics give you an idea of whether your shopping ads are getting in front of the right people, whether those people are showing interest, and whether that interest is strong enough to generate a sale.

Intermediate Stage

You want to start tracking these intermediate metrics after achieving some degree of growth. At this stage, you should be tracking Conversions and Costs.

These intermediate metrics are ideal for when you start to optimize your campaigns, filter out expensive and low-converting products, and restructure product groups based on profitability or ROAS target.

Advanced Stage

Advanced metrics like ROAS and True Profit Margin are for when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine.

These metrics help you better understand at what ROAS target your product groups and campaigns become profitable, and whether that profitability is limited to the advertising ecosystem or extends to your actual ledger.

Conclusion

If used efficiently, Standard Shopping campaigns can bring you profitable results. So, if you are leaning towards Standard Shopping over Performance Max, here are some tips to run profitable Standard Shopping campaigns.

Optmyzr 2021 Wrap

2021 was an eventful year for Optmyzr. From launching new capabilities and tools to improving existing ones, we’ve been doing everything we can to help make advertisers’ lives easier.

We’re thankful to everybody that has been a part of this journey, and we hope that you continue to choose us to improve your PPC management experience.

Here are the major updates across 12 months.

New tools/features -

Segment Explorer

In the Google Analytics interface, it is difficult to view performance data for multiple segments at a time - say number of sessions coming from California from Males using a mobile device.

The Segment Explorer lets you view performance metrics for all your connected Google Analytics accounts for multiple dimensions combined at once.

Learn more about Segment Explorer.

Score segments to get Value Rules suggestions

The new Segment Scorer allows you to score your segments based on how well they perform once you get a conversion from them. You can assign a number between 1 (lowest) and 5 (highest).

Once we get enough scores from your team, we’ll use that data to suggest Conversion Value Rules that will help optimize your account’s performance by teaching Google’s automations (like those that handle bidding) more about what’s valuable to your business.

View tool.

Campaign Experiments tool

With Campaign Experiments, you can analyze the performance of active experiments across all your Google Ads accounts in one place. Find winning and losing experiments, and apply or end them in a single click.

Optmyzr compares your experiment and its original campaign based on statistically significant data to highlight whether the experiment is winning.

Utility Tools: New Auctions Insights Visualizer

The new Auction Insights Visualizer enables you to generate charts using the Google Ads auction insights data. As Auction Insights data is currently not available via the API, you can drop data files into the tool and use the data.

We’ve also added a chart visualization of the auction insights to help users understand how their competitors are performing.

Our senior Engineer, Shashank Tiwari, who built the tool, was also featured in a Search Engine Journal article highlighting the utility of the tool.

Read more about the tool here.

Create well-structured Shopping campaigns and get more control over how they re-sync.

You can now create Standard or Smart shopping campaigns based on ROAS or Price points using the Shopping Builder. The system will also help you keep them up to date by moving the products from one campaign to another, depending on their ROAS/Price points, every time the Refresher is run. Read more about this feature here

Here’s how to build a perfectly structured campaign and how the Shopping Campaign Refresher works.

Facebook on MCC dashboard

You will now be able to view Facebook data along with other platforms supported by Optmyzr. You can:

1. See live data for all platforms in one place.

2. Mark as favorite, add notes, tags, and calculated metrics to help you monitor the performance of your Facebook accounts on the MCC Dashboard.

Campaign Projected Gain in AB Testing tool for Google & Microsoft

The Campaign Projected Gain feature gives you the projected gain for a selected metric, using the ‘Find winners by’ filter. This is Optmyzr’s estimation if an ad copy is optimized as per the suggestions shown in the tool. For example, if you are searching for winner ads by CTR, Optmyzr will show you how many clicks you can gain by pausing the loser ads.

Rule Engine updates

Account Level Placement Exclusion in one click

One-click optimization for Account Level Placement Exclusion is now available under the Placements section.

If you’re running smart campaigns, this update is especially useful as these campaigns respect only account-level placement exclusions. You can identify non-converting placements and exclude them from your account in one click.

You can also create your customized strategies in Rule Engine to get a report of or exclude placements at the account level.

Bid adjustment changes - ad group and campaign level

At the ad group level, users can create customized rules to analyze performance at the device, demographic, and audience level and change bid adjustments based on performance. Read on for more details.

At the campaign level, you can apply bid adjustments by devices. Adjust Bids by Device.

SA360 conversion data supported in the Rule Engine

Search Ads 360 actions and transactions are available in the Rule Engine for linked Google Ads accounts. Use this to gain extra insight from SA360 actions/transactions to make informed decisions.

Learn more about it here.

Budgets

More control to limit multi-platform overspending

Optimize Budgets Across Platforms now pauses the campaigns of a budget group if their shared monthly target is reached, and re-enable them on the 1st of the next month.

This helps make sure your accounts do not overspend across Facebook, Google, and Microsoft Ads.

New Budget management Features for Microsoft Ads

View tool.

View tool.

New UI

New UI for Campaign Automator

Campaign Automator is a standalone Optmyzr product that lets you build scalable, automated, and inventory-driven PPC campaigns.

Watch this webinar to know more about Campaign Automator capabilities.

Users can also create Responsive display ads for Display campaigns using Campaign Automator. Here’s how.

New UI for Account Dashboard Google ads:

Including new widgets and functionalities

  1. Easy access to Pre Built Templates
  2. View Quality Score data
  3. Analyze PPC Investigator Chart
  4. See your Audit Score and access full PPC audit report
  5. Review your tasks due and overdue

Workflows

More control over Account Blueprints

We now support both scheduled (paused or active) and on-demand Account Blueprints. You can create a Blueprint without scheduling tasks and run them on demand. Also, now you can choose to pause a scheduled Blueprint to not create new task alerts.

Zapier Integration: Send blueprint tasks or alerts to your project management system

With Zapier you can integrate Optmyzr with almost anything. For example: You can now send tasks created by blueprints to your own CRM or project management system (like Salesforce, Asana, Basecamp, Trello, etc.).

Learn how you can integrate Blueprints or Alerts with Zapier. You can also watch one of our YouTube tutorials.

Alerts

New alerts for Facebook, Amazon, Quality Score

New alert types for additional platforms, functionalities, and metrics. These include:

Learn how to connect Slack and Optmyzr.

Support to get Rule Engine alerts on the Triggered alerts page on all platforms

You can now get alerts on the Triggered Alerts page based on Rule Engine suggestions, allowing you to see all alerts in one place.

Get alert notifications directly in Microsoft Teams

Apart from Slack, your team can now be notified directly in their Microsoft team account. Whenever an alert is triggered, your team will be notified on Microsoft Teams as part of the chat for the Optmyzr app.

Connect Optmyzr to Microsoft Teams

Amazon Ads updates

Product Targeting and Negative Product Targeting

Search terms (specifically ASINs) can now be added as Product Targets or Negative Product Targets using the Search Terms scope of Rule Engine for Amazon.

This new action allows for more granular filtering based on performance and lets you add ASIN search terms as positive or negative product targets accordingly.

Optmyzr Express for Amazon

Optmyzr Express is designed to work as a to-do list and lets you breeze through multiple optimization tasks in minutes! It shows you optimization suggestions across accounts based on predefined algorithms.

For Amazon, users can see suggestions to:

1. Add Negative Keywords

2. Add New Keywords

3. Pause Non-Converting Keywords

View tool.

Campaign placement optimization for Amazon Ads

A new scope, Campaign Placements has been added in Rule Engine for Amazon Ads. It allows you to see your Amazon Ads performance based on campaign placements and adjust bids (by %) for the corresponding placements.

This improvement helps you adjust bids by placements in a more granular way than the Amazon Ads interface, as our Rule Engine lets you filter by any condition that suits your needs.

Yahoo! Japan

We have added support for Yahoo! Japan Ads across multiple tools:

  1. Rule Engine (scopes - keywords, campaigns, ad groups, and device bid adjustments)
  2. Hour of Week Bid Adjustments
  3. Pause Non-Converting keywords
  4. Negative Keyword Finder
  5. Keyword lasso
  6. URL Checker

Optmyzr also has its very own roadmap now, where users can view upcoming updates and suggest feature requests of their own.

View the Optmyzr product roadmap & make feature requests

Optmyzr now has our own Roadmap page where users can:

Visit the Roadmap Page

How to Reduce Costs on your PPC Ads

Despite its many iterations, the nature of search advertising remains the same: spend money to get your ads seen by the people most likely to click on them and give you a sale. But what happens when you don’t target the right keywords or audiences, or when you get plenty of clicks but they don’t convert at a good rate?

Budget bleeding is one of the most common PPC problems, affecting even the most seasoned account managers and strategists. While no account can realistically hit 100% efficiency, you can take steps to create as little wastage as possible.

Best Practices to Reduce Costs

Wastage in paid search can be broken down into two major categories:

In either scenario, the advertiser is investing money that doesn’t generate the returns it should.

Some of the common causes of overspending and low-converting ads include:

Tracking Your Progress

As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making.

We recommend tracking the following metrics at different stages of your cost reduction effort.

Beginner Metrics

Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift. Use these as indicators of progress while you pause or reduce bids for keywords generating clicks without conversions, exclude placements leading to wasted spend, add negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic, and improve your landing pages.

Intermediate Metrics

Track these intermediate metrics after achieving some degree of growth. They will show you whether your efforts to optimize ad text/creatives and pause underperforming ads are working.

Advanced Metrics

Last but not least, our recommended advanced metrics help you better understand if your bid adjustments are resulting in more efficient overall spend. Track these metrics when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine.

Here’s how Optmyzr can help reduce wasted spend on your ads. You can also get in touch with our support team for any further assistance.

PPC in 2022: Predicting the Unpredictable

If the last two years have taught me anything, it’s to expect the unexpected…and the unpredictable. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have some thoughts on where PPC is headed. Here’s what I think will matter in 2022.

The Three Truths

There are three ongoing trends that I expect will continue to shape our industry. These are the “three truths” of PPC advertising:

  1. Ad platforms will continue to automate.
  2. Advertisers will get less access to data.
  3. Control over targeting, bidding, and messaging will keep decreasing.

We’ll Shift to Managing Goals Rather than Details

As automation continues to improve, the need for granular controls will decline. Instead of managing PPC details inside the ad platforms, our roles will shift to managing higher-level goals at these systems’ periphery. Less managing search terms, more managing how we identify good leads and conversions.

Even Facebook recently added “Lead Conversions” to their platform. Advertisers are getting smart to the fact that leads are meaningless if they don’t convert into customers.

We’ll Rethink Old Assumptions

In the good ol’ days, if you were selling something on the internet, you could assume that there was basically an unlimited supply of the thing you were selling. You could go full steam ahead, offering big discounts and special promotions, and aggressively pursue campaign expansion. You knew the limiting factor was how many buyers you could drum up and not how much stuff you had in inventory. The supply-chain disruptions of 2021 changed that. You can no longer assume unlimited supplies. That means a modern PPC marketer needs to be more nimble than ever.

Here’s another assumption we’ve had to challenge. It used to be that, to get more traffic to an ad group, you had to add keywords or raise bids. That was true before RSAs, which are now the default and will soon replace ETAs. In our recent study of the RSA ad format, we found they can drive four times as many impressions as ETAs, simply because Google’s machine learning is able to boost the relevance of an ad by constructing it on the fly, based on a user’s query and circumstances.

Our decades-old best practice of using the metric “conversions per impression” to find the best ad in an A/B ad test was based on an assumption that is no longer true. To do A/B ad testing right, you now also need to consider that each ad has a unique impact on the ad group’s impressions and hence its ability to drive incremental conversions.

Here’s another false assumption: the higher the ROAS, the better. That was never really true, but advertisers are finally coming to realize this and are beginning to favor POAS (profit over ad spend) instead, since this metric better reflects actual business goals.

We’ll Have to Continue Grappling with New Questions

If you’re selling new cars, you’re faced with the question: do you actually need to advertise? You may already have a one-year backlog due to supply-chain disruptions. Why advertise just so that people can sign up on a waitlist? Is that really necessary? Or is tight supply your opportunity to reset the expectation that cars will be sold below MSRP into one that they will now command a premium over MSRP and you want to double down on ads while the margins are high?

If you sell fitness bikes, and orders get canceled in droves when patience with shipping delays runs thin, do you allow your systems that adjust order values to Google to continue as before? Do you mark these conversions as bad? Or was the fault actually not with marketing finding low-quality buyers? The answer may seem obvious, but whatever you decide has implications on what the machine learns and therefore does next, so tread carefully.

We’ll Need to Rely More on First-Party Data

Before ads became personalized, they were just annoying. Personalized ads are much more useful and relevant. That advertisers are willing to pay a premium for better targeted ads is what’s been floating the rapid development of the web in the last couple decades.

The most important method of personalization has been third-party cookies, which enable the system to draw a far more detailed demographic and psychographic picture of each individual user. But third-party cookies are now considered invasions of privacy and being eliminated. What happens when third-party cookies are gone?

If we can no longer do some of the personalization that made the internet useful, many websites are going to lose considerable revenue. Google did a study and concluded that in the absence of personalization, 62 percent of revenue for online newspapers would go away.

That is a real problem. As is so often the case, a major shift has unintended consequences. Privacy is a desirable goal that may well cause the web as a whole to decline in value. That could be catastrophic. But it’s a problem only if there’s no replacement for third-party-cookie technology. To prevent this, new ways to let advertisers continue to subsidize a free web need to be developed.

Several initiatives to protect user data, while still enabling interest-based advertising and remarketing without third-party cookies, are in development. The most prominent has been Google’s now-discontinued FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts).

While we can’t predict the exact solution, it is certain that it will involve machine learning, which draws inferences from masses of data. The more data a machine-learning system is trained on, the more accurate it will become at audience segmentation and personalization.

One possibility is that audience segmentation will be based on devices surveyed, not individual users. I tend to use my laptop for business and my iPhone for personal matters. Under the new system, it’s possible that I’d fall into different cohorts depending on my device and that could actually be really helpful to advertisers who could then target cohorts of work personas or personal personas.

All of us as individuals have many dimensions, which so far have been hard for advertisers to target. Our technical problem-solvers may be able to make a virtue of the necessity of restoring personalization by other means.

The problem is so urgent that we can expect any number of solutions to be developed in the coming year. As always, there will be a competitive shake-out of the various approaches, with one or two eventually emerging as the favorites. We’re well-advised to keep an eye on this trend in 2022. Cliché though it is, it’s also true that every crisis brings new opportunities.

And while waiting to see how things shake out, advertisers should work overtime to increase the first-party data they collect, so they can cut back their dependence on data from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and the other platforms.

Happy New Year

In a recent PPC Town Hall, Chris Moreno from Google said, “The only thing that we know is that we don’t know anything.” Basically, 2022 is going to be as full of surprises as the last two years were. We need to be ready to be nimble and able to respond to whatever may happen.

Happy New Year and good luck to us all!

Building Better PPC Display Campaigns: What, Why & How

Display campaigns in pay-per-click advertising are some of the most eye-catching ads you can run (when they’re done right). The Google Display Network (GDN) is a series of placements across Google properties and the web that helps you promote your business by showing creatives as people browse, watch YouTube videos, check their Gmail, or use their mobile devices and apps.

Google Display Network is designed to help you find the right audience, with targeting options that let you show your message to potential customers in the right place and at the right time. Use audience targeting or remarketing audience lists to find new prospects, or work with automated targeting.

Some of the ad subtypes you can run on Google Display Network include:

  1. Responsive Display Ads: A combination of ad text, images, and logos. Google uses a machine learning model to determine the optimal combination of assets for each ad slot based on predictions built from your performance history.
  2. Uploaded Image Ads: You can upload ads as images in different sizes or HTML5, for more control.
  3. Engagement Ads: Run engaging image and video ads on YouTube and across the Display Network.
  4. Gmail Ads: Show expandable ads on the top tabs of people’s inboxes.

Types of Display Campaigns

Display campaigns are a great way to expand the reach of your Search ads to other parts of the web. They also allow you to follow up with remarketing ads to new and existing customers.

  1. Standard Display: You get full control over targeting the right audience, bids and budgets for your display campaigns, and ad creation. However, the time investment for setup and monitoring is significantly higher.
  2. Smart Display: You don’t have to set up targeting for Smart Display campaigns, which automatically optimize your targeting, based on the campaign goal. Automated targeting uses website visitors, landing page insights, and your search campaigns’ best performing keywords to automatically target customers across the web.

Targeting for Standard Display Campaigns

Google Display Network’s targeting helps show ads to your preferred audience types – people who you think will be interested in your business or products. You can set targeting for your ad groups to show your ads to a certain type of people e.g. US residents aged 21-30 or female residents of the European Union (read more).

Different ways of targeting include:

  1. Audience Targeting is for when you want your ads to be seen by a particular audience. This can be achieved using remarketing or customer match lists, affinity audience, or demographic targeting.
  2. Contextual targeting is for when you wish to target a certain type of content. You can target keywords or topics in your ad groups.

To increase the impact of a particular targeting setting, bid higher on them. For example, if you’d like to make sure that your ads are shown to females of age 25-34 more, you can bid higher on this targeting option.

About Optimized Targeting

Optimized Targeting helps your campaign explore customers who have the highest likelihood to convert based on your campaign goal – sales, leads, brand awareness, etc. If you set up targeting for your ad groups, these targets are used by Google to find similar criteria to serve your ads on.

Read more about how optimized targeting is different from audience expansion.

How to Create Successful Display Campaigns

1. Set the right goal. Your goal will help you determine what topic or which audience you should target. Display campaigns can help you:

2. Target the right audience (Standard Display). Connecting to customers at the right place and right time boosts visibility and the likelihood of getting conversions. Show relevant ads to customers by setting up contextual targets or using placements. Control the appearance of your ads by optimizing for demographics, locations, and schedules.

3. Use both Responsive Display Ads and Image Ads. These get the best results, rather than Image Ads alone. Best practice recommends that advertisers follow these guidelines while creating:

4. Set bids and budgets. Display campaigns can be set to run on manual bid adjustments or Smart Bidding strategies, depending on their goal. If you want to focus on impressions, consider Viewable CPM bidding. To get more clicks, consider Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks bidding. Aiming for conversions? Run your campaigns with Target CPA or Target ROAS. Display campaigns support custom bids for a particular target in each ad group.

5. Adjust bids for targets (Standard Display). You can set bid adjustments when your campaigns are running the Manual/Enhanced CPC or Viewable CPM bidding strategies. Bid adjustments can be set at the campaign level (for devices, times, days, and locations) and can also be used to bid more competitively for specific targeting methods (keywords, audiences, demographics, topics, or placements) in your ad groups.

13 Tips & A Checklist for Better Display Campaigns with Optmyzr

1. Create Responsive Display Ads for Smart and standard display campaigns. You can create Display campaigns with responsive display ads in Google Ads account using Campaign Automator - a stand-alone tool by Optmyzr. Campaign Automator helps you to dynamically create, edit or pause ads based on your input source file. Check out this video about Campaign Automator.

2. Tweak campaign-level targets for Smart and standard display campaigns. Rule Engine can help you increase, decrease or set targets at the campaign level, based on the performance of your campaigns. If your campaigns are running on Portfolio strategies then Rule Engine will not make any change to the campaign level tCPA or tROAS.

3. Tweak ad group-level targets for Smart and standard display campaigns. You can set up Rule Engine strategies and automate them to run on fixed intervals and make changes to the ad group targets based on the performance. If the campaign is running on Target CPA or Target ROAS Portfolio strategy, you can still tweak the ad group targets using Rule Engine.

4. Modify CPC and CPM bids at the ad group level for standard display campaigns. You can create Rule Engine strategies to make changes to the ad group level bids based on the performance data.

5. Optimize your budgets. You can analyze how much the budgets linked to your display campaigns are going to spend by the end of a selected time period, using Spend Projection. At the same time, you can use Optimize Budgets to reallocate budgets across campaigns in order to meet the target budget. You can also set up a Flexible Budget script to make sure your display campaigns do not overspend, and at the same time use Reach Target Monthly Spend script to ensure you reach the target budget.

6. Update dayparts and apply bid adjustments for standard display campaigns. You can use Hour of Week Analysis to analyze the performance of display campaigns for a given time period and find out which day of the week and hour of the day gets you the most conversions or highest traffic. You can then use this information to make bid adjustments and edit dayparts using Hour of Week Bid Adjustments

7. Exclude locations and apply bid adjustments for standard display campaigns. Geo HeatMap offers a quick visualization of how much traffic do different cities, regions, countries drive for your campaigns. You can also choose to apply bid adjustments based on the bid modifier recommendations on Geo Bid Adjustments tool. You can also use Rule Engine to apply bid adjustments or exclude locations from the campaign.

8. Adjust bids by audience and device for standard display campaigns. Audience bid adjustments can be applied to both targeted and observed audiences, using the bid modifier recommendations from the Audience Bid adjustment. And, device bid modifications can be applied using Device bid adjustment tool. You can also use Rule Engine to create a strategy and apply changes. In order to exclude a device, you can apply a bid adjustment of -100% using Rule Engine. These bid adjustments also apply only to standard display campaigns.

9. Apply bid adjustment to age range and gender for standard display campaigns. You can create your strategy using Rule Engine to apply bid adjustments for gender and age range at the ad group level. We do not support the exclusion of demographics in the tool.

10. Manage placements for Smart and standard display campaigns. Display Placement Exclusion is a simple and quick way to identify your non-performing placements and exclude them from standard display campaigns. We also have optimizations to help you exclude placements at the account level – essentially the only way you can manage placements for Smart Display campaigns. You can also create custom optimizations using Rule Engine.

11. Set mobile app exclusions for display campaigns. You can quickly identify all mobile apps that are not converting for you and exclude them from the ad groups in standard display campaigns. You can even customize the Rule Engine strategy based on your requirements. You can create a similar strategy and run it at the account level to exclude mobile apps from all your campaigns; including smart display campaigns.

12. Manage bids for placements in standard display campaigns. If you want to manage bids for your added placements, you can enable custom bid for the placements in an ad group (in Google Ads) and then add placements to the ad group with the required CPC bid using Rule Engine. This will update the bids for the existing placements, only if the campaign runs on the CPC bid.

13. Manage bids for display keywords in standard display campaigns. Display campaigns support custom bid for targeting methods, users can choose to support custom bid for one type of targeting method in an ad group. If you choose to allow custom bids for keywords, you can then use Rule Engine to change the bids for your keywords based on the performance data. This is applicable for campaigns running on eCPC and vCPM.

Manage Display Campaigns: A Handy Checklist

Using our PPC project management tool Account Blueprints, you can create and save a plan to help manage display campaigns. You can see a sample approach below, and the Blueprint is available in our account as “Optimize Display Campaigns in Optmyzr”.

Watch a brief walkthrough to build your own Blueprints for display campaign management (or anything else).

How Can D2C Brands Leverage PPC Ads to Drive Customer Acquisition?

D2C Ecommerce retail is skyrocketing. The global D2C sales have almost doubled in the last two years, and this uptrend is likely to continue. Brands like Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, Casper, and BarkBox are revolutionizing the D2C space.

Consumers are also showing interest in shopping from D2C brands. Over 40% of customer spending is projected to go towards D2C retail. As a result, 78% of D2C brands have increased their marketing budgets.

However, increasing your marketing budget isn’t enough. You need to implement the right marketing strategies to get more sales.

Paid advertising has emerged as one of the most effective marketing strategies for D2C brands. Here is a comprehensive guide that will help you leverage PPC ads to drive customer acquisition.

The D2C Business Landscape and Target Audience

Ecommerce has grown exponentially in the past couple of years. Global retail Ecommerce sales have doubled from $2,982 billion in 2018 to $4,891 billion in 2021. Furthermore, they’re projected to reach $6,388 billion by 2024.

One of the fastest-growing segments within Ecommerce is direct-to-consumer (D2C) retail. D2C Ecommerce sales in the US alone touched $129 billion in 2021 and are likely to reach $175 billion in 2025.

Global Growth of D2C Ecommerce

Several factors are fueling the growth of D2C Ecommerce, including:

These intermediaries charge a commission on every sale, which reduces the brand’s profit margin. D2C eliminates such intermediaries, allowing brands to be more profitable.

This first-party data also allows D2C brands to streamline their marketing campaigns and acquire new customers.

Target Audience for D2C Brands

If you want to run successful, high-performing marketing campaigns, you need to first understand your target audience.

D2C brands primarily rely on digital channels to reach customers and drive sales. Thus, their target audience includes younger consumers that actively use online channels. Three-quarters of the D2C customer base is under the age of 55 years. Millennials and Gen Z readily shop from D2C brands.

There are various reasons younger customers prefer shopping from D2C brands, including:

D2C Sales Funnel and Acquisition Channels

The D2C marketing and sales funnel are similar to the standard marketing funnel. It comprises three stages:

D2C brands can use several channels to reach customers and drive sales. The channel you choose depends on your goals. If you’re looking for a marketing strategy to support your long-term goals, SEO and social media can be effective channels.

If you have short-term goals and want to drive quick sales, paid advertising or PPC advertising is one of your best options. Since many D2C brands focus on getting quick, consistent sales, PPC advertising has emerged as the preferred marketing strategy for them.

How Can Paid Advertising Campaigns Bolster D2C Customer Acquisition?

One of the major reasons to use PPC ads is versatility. You can use them at every stage of the sales funnel. When your prospects are in the TOFU stage, PPC ads help you increase brand and product awareness.

In the consideration stage, PPC ads enable you to filter customers based on their intent and drive engagement. PPC advertising in the BOFU stage is all about getting sales.

Quick entry, versatility, and seamless optimization are some other reasons to use PPC marketing. Unlike SEO that takes months to show results, PPC ads start driving results sooner. This way, D2C brands can promote their products instantaneously and penetrate the market.

PPC ads are highly versatile as you can run them for every awareness stage. You can tailor your content strategy and marketing messages based on customer awareness and positioning, and goals.

Paid ads also offer versatility in terms of ad formats. There are so many paid advertising formats:

Additionally, PPC ads are measurable and trackable. You can set and track key performance indicators (KPIs) of each ad campaign to determine how it’s performing. This also paves the way for A/B testing — running two versions of an ad simultaneously to determine which one performs better.

This trackability and scope for experimentation make PPC ads an excellent alternative to print ads and physical advertisements that are usually not easy to measure.

Note: There is a smart way to make your print ads, billboards, and other physical advertisements measurable — using QR codes. All you need to do is create a QR code, link it to the target URL, and place it on your ad. Users can scan the code from their smartphone to engage with it.

QR codes are trackable, and you can see how many times your code has been scanned and from which location and device.

Leveraging Google PPC Ads for D2C Customer Acquisition

Paid advertising is beneficial for D2C brands, but it’s also competitive. Almost every D2C brand uses paid ads to increase awareness and boost customer acquisition.

So how can you stand out in a saturated market?

Here are four steps you can take to effectively use PPC ads for increasing customer acquisition, retention, and revenue.

1. Planning Ad Campaigns Based on Your Marketing Strategy

The first step in setting up a paid ad campaign is to formulate a marketing strategy that includes reaching prospects across awareness stages. Let’s look at how you can use paid ads for each awareness stage.

Top of the Funnel

In the TOFU stage, your aim should be to create brand awareness and educate people about your brand and the products you sell. Display ads enable broad interest targeting, and hence, they’re best suited for building awareness.

You can also use social media ads and search ads to engage people at the top of the funnel.

Middle of the Funnel

Customers in the middle of the funnel are aware of your product but aren’t yet ready to buy. At this stage, your ads should focus on instilling confidence in their minds. You can do that by sharing case studies and testimonials. You can also promote the benefits you offer, like a “free 30-day money-back guarantee.”

Remarketing is effective at this stage. In remarketing, you show ads to people who visited your website or a product page but didn’t complete a purchase. Retargeting ads can help nurture these prospects and push them further down the funnel. Besides, retargeting ads have a 10x higher CTR than traditional display ads.

Targeting rivals is another useful approach in the MOFU stage. It’s an aggressive advertising strategy where you target potential customers searching for your competitors. The idea behind this strategy is to show the customers what you offer is better than what your competitors provide.

Bottom of the Funnel

The final stage is the bottom of the funnel, where your only objective is to convert a prospect into a customer. At this stage, you can leverage branded search campaigns, high-intent search ads, Google Shopping ads, and retargeting.

2. Tracking Ad Campaign Performance

In the previous section, we delved deep into developing a paid advertising strategy based on the awareness stage and your marketing goals. Now, let’s discuss the KPIs you can measure to track the performance of your ad campaigns.

The KPIs are different for each awareness stage.

TOFU

MOFU

BOFU

By combining all these metrics, you can track the performance of your ad campaigns accurately.

3. Optimizing Ad Campaigns to Boost Conversions

Now that you know which metrics to track, let’s understand how you can optimize your ad campaigns using these KPIs to boost conversions. We’ll pick a use case from each funnel stage for better understanding.

Let’s start with the TOFU stage. Suppose you run a display ad campaign that gets a lot of impressions but hardly any clicks (low CTR). It could be an indication that your ad isn’t catchy enough. Changing the image, headline, or description of the ad can help.

When you show ads to prospects in the MOFU stage, your ads may get a lot of clicks but few conversions (low conversion rate). A low conversion rate indicates that your offer isn’t engaging enough to convince the prospect to take action. Changing your landing page and revamping your offer can help.

You can also use A/B testing to test different landing pages, ad copies, keywords, audiences, etc., to find the best-performing options.

In the BOFU stage, you may have a high conversion rate but low RoAS. This means your ads are getting conversions, but the revenue generated is low. You can resolve this issue by reducing your customer acquisition costs.

4. Developing a Robust Lead Nurturing System and Sales Funnel

Gone are the days when siloed marketing was effective. Even though paid advertising is the most useful marketing strategy for D2C brands, you must complement it with other marketing and customer experience strategies.

For instance, you can support your paid ads by leveraging organic SEO. Ecommerce SEO has many benefits. It helps you rank higher on search engine results, drive brand awareness, expand remarketing audiences, and generate leads to fill your marketing funnel. Moreover, a solid SEO strategy can help you reduce your paid advertising costs.

The next step is to boost the user experience at each touchpoint. D2C brands generally use various touchpoints to acquire customers. Some examples include paid ads, organic SEO, social media, and email. It’s essential to identify all these touchpoints and ensure a seamless onboarding process on all of them.

Finally, invest in post-purchase engagement to elevate customers to the stage and loyalty and advocacy and increase their lifetime value (LTV). Asking for feedback, requesting referrals, and implementing cross-sell/upsell strategies are useful ways to engage your customers after a purchase.

Conclusion

The rise of D2C brands has been one of the major trends in the Ecommerce space in the last couple of years. Many customers prefer buying from D2C brands to enjoy authenticity, low prices, and convenience.

If you are a D2C brand, you can leverage paid advertising to increase brand awareness, engage potential customers across awareness stages, and drive customer acquisition.

This is a guest post. The views and opinions expressed by the author are solely their own and do not represent that of Optmyzr.

About the author:

Akshay is a digital marketer and a startup enthusiast exploring the myriad avenues of everything marketing. At Beaconstac, he enables companies to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds through the use of custom QR codes.

How to Optimize Your Smart Shopping Campaigns

Note: Smart Shopping campaigns have been upgraded to Performance Max in September 2022. We suggest you refer to these links below to know more about Performance Max.

Performance Max Campaigns Guide for 2023

Performance Max Guide: How to Diagnose Your Ecommerce Campaign Performance in 2023

Performance Max Campaign Tips for Retail and Ecommerce

How to Manage and Optimize Your Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max: 5 Effective Ways to Safeguard Your Campaigns in 2023

Classic paid search was about controlling levers. New age PPC is about monitoring automation.

Google Ads is increasingly moving to automate many parts of its complex machine. Bidding, targeting, and even parts of the ad text experience are either fully or partly automated.

Smart Shopping is one of the more popular automations Google currently offers, and takes the bidding and micromanagement out of shopping ads. On the flip side, advertisers who think they can hand things over to Google once and get the results they want will be in for a shock.

While you may not control the bid strategy and adjustments with Smart Shopping, you can (and should) optimize many other parts of it: your campaign structure, merchant feed, and budgets are all still within your control.

Let’s take a look at how to work with Smart Shopping to drive the results you need while enjoying the convenience you want.

Best Practices to Optimize Smart Shopping

From our experience working with hundreds of advertisers as well as expert teams from the ad platforms, we’ve compiled a list of 14 recommendations for account managers and strategists new to Smart Shopping:

  1. Get 20-30 manual conversions over the past 45 days across existing shopping campaigns and an audience list of at least 100 users before deploying Smart Shopping. The more historical conversion data you start with, the easier it will be to work with this automation.
  2. Enable dynamic remarketing on your website.
  3. Enable conversion tracking and assign values for transactions.
  4. Try to regain as much control as possible with the tools that are available.
  5. Never adopt a ‘set-and-forget’ approach to Smart Shopping campaigns. Use alerts to know when intervention is needed and optimize periodically as you acquire new data.
  6. Make sure your feed is in good shape. Polish your product titles, make sure product descriptions are robust, and carefully select images. Google uses this information to build your ads.
  7. Use multiple campaigns to club together products of similar characteristics or performance. For instance, create separate Smart Shopping campaigns for different:
    • prices or ROAS targets to avoid Google from exhausting the campaign budget on easy, low-value conversions
    • stages of the product life-cycle
    • product margins to include real business goals in planning
  8. Alternately, follow Google’s recommendation to include all products in one campaign and keep tracking their performance to understand which products are being advertised on. As always, testing and close observation are highly recommended.
  9. Be cautious about advertising the same products in multiple campaigns, as Smart Shopping will be prioritized over standard ones.
  10. Keep an eye on the campaign-level Target ROAS and the actual ROAS. If you’re new to shopping campaigns altogether, consider defining a Target ROAS after 30-45 days at the earliest to avoid limiting initial data collection. Setting up a target that cannot be reached, results in your ads not being shown in the first place.
  11. Exclude low-performing, high-cost product groups to steer resources towards better-performing product groups.
  12. Be hawkish with budgets. This is one of the few things you can actually fully control on Smart Shopping, so take advantage.
  13. Test, tweak targets, and compare performance to previously run standard shopping campaigns (if you have any).
  14. Make seasonality adjustments to avoid sudden spikes in cost.

Tracking Your Progress

As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making. Optmyzr recommends tracking the following metrics at different stages of your efforts to optimize Smart Shopping.

Beginner metrics

Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift.

  1. Impression, Impression Share & Total Eligible Impressions: Know whether your ads are showing.
  2. Conversions & Conversion Tracking: Make sure you’re feeding the algorithm the most accurate data possible. Beware of tracking multiple conversion actions as separate conversions e.g., ‘add to cart’ and ‘purchase.’
  3. Click Share: Know how many clicks your campaign received out of all the clicks it was eligible to receive.
  4. Click-through Rate: A low CTR may be an indicator of an unoptimized feed. Actual ROAS/Conversion Value: Understand how your products are performing and set a realistic Target ROAS.

Intermediate Metrics

You want to start tracking these intermediate metrics after achieving some degree of growth.

  1. Daily Ad Spend vs. Target ROAS: Make sure scaling happens in a sustainable way.
    • Make sure your campaigns aren’t underspending and settling for achieving the set target.
    • Reinvest some of the ROAS in your campaigns at the scaling stage. As your campaign reaches its Target ROAS, simply increasing your budget doesn’t lead to scale.
  2. Actual ROAS/Conversion Value: View these numbers by campaign, product group, or product to identify low-ROAS products.
  3. Product-Specific Clicks, Conversions & ROAS: Identify high-performing products.

Advanced Metrics

Advanced metrics are for when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine.

  1. Cost Per Acquisition: Determine whether the cost of your conversions is within an acceptable range.
  2. Target ROAS & Actual ROAS: Keep your target and actual figures close to each other and scale them bit by bit for sustained growth, rather than bursts of performance.
  3. Click-through Rate & Conversion Rate: Monitor these during remarketing to pursue website visitors. Both numbers should increase.

Conclusion

In August 2021, Google Ads introduced Value Rules, giving advertisers better control over their Smart Shopping campaigns. While this isn’t and should not be used as a complete replacement of bid adjustments, it still allows for more control by allowing you to adjust conversion values. You can read all about Value Rules and how to use it here.

If you’re still not convinced about using Smart Shopping over Standard Shopping, you can read about different use cases to help you better understand which campaign type works best for your needs.

If you lean towards Smart Shopping after your research, you can try these 6 optimizations to gain more control over your campaigns and improve profitability.

How to Use First-Party Data for PPC Campaigns

Data is increasingly becoming an asset to companies. It provides insights that would otherwise be impossible to access, and this is essential to marketers and PPC campaigns.

We take a look at it - specifically, at first-party data - below.

What Is First-Party Data?

First-party data is any form of data a company gathers from its audience. This could mean customers or even just website visitors.

First-party data isn’t only harvested from a company’s website. It can be sourced from mobile applications, email and SMS marketing, Google Analytics, phone calls, and more.

Marketers and PPC experts can use this data to inform their campaigns and ensure they’re appropriate for their audience.

How Does First-Party Data Differ from Second and Third-Party?

The type of data you use - whether first-party, second, or third - is ultimately a trade-off. You must compromise on something, and this is usually either the quality of the data or its reach.

Third party data

Second-party data is gathered by another company in a related industry about its customers. This means it’s less specific to you but still helpful. Third-party data, on the other hand, is collated from many sources - it spreads its net wide but isn’t necessarily as focused. It’s often collected through tools like cookies.

Data of any kind is essential for marketing. It enables you to see how successful a campaign is and how customers behave, allowing you to alter and improve your efforts. In March, however, it was confirmed that Google was removing support for third-party cookies, effectively putting an end to third-party data.

This means it’s more important than ever to know how to use customer-provided data rather than relying on the trends previously found in third-party data.

First-party data is frequently considered to be the best data due to its quality and specificity. 92 percent of leading marketers believe it’s critical to growth. As logically follows, there are several benefits to utilizing this kind of data for PPC campaigns.

The Benefits of Using First-Party Data

Supercharged Campaign Relevance, Reach, and Performance

While the initial reach of the data gathered is reduced compared to other data sources, its specificity enables you to accurately tailor campaigns. You can ensure they’re relevant to your audience, perform well, and ultimately increase your customer base.

Access to Better Data

As already identified, first-party is often considered the best source of data. That’s because:

We won’t deny there are benefits to other types of data, but when it comes to PPC in particular, specificity is essential to success and extracting maximum value from your ad spend.

Maximum Opportunity for Personalization

With such nuanced and detailed data, you can also begin to really personalize your marketing efforts. This is incredibly important, as 91 percent of customers want the content to be personalized and aimed directly at them, even though the majority of marketers do not provide this.

The Challenges of First-Party Data

As with anything in life, it’s rarely simple. While first-party data is undeniably useful, it can still bring challenges. We address some of these below.

Building a First-Party Data Strategy

One of the complications with first-party data comes from combining large amounts of information from different sources - data that can often be siloed and difficult to integrate. As a result, you need to strategize.

This involves taking into consideration the source of your data. Think about the data you want to harvest – what information do you wish to gain from this to put it into action and make it useful?

When considering PPC, this might be understanding why clicks aren’t leading to conversions. Also, how are you going to map this data strategy throughout the customer journey?

By considering these issues when building your strategy, you can ensure your first-party data is working for you rather than simply causing a heavier workload.

Competitive Analysis and Decision-Making Needs to Be Real-Time

It’s undeniable that we live in a fast-paced world. This applies to business insights as well. Customer data can change incredibly quickly. By using tools like Google Analytics you can see your data in real-time and make changes accordingly.

For example, changing the copy on a PPC ad that’s not delivering as successfully as expected.

Maintaining Data Privacy

Maintaining data privacy is extremely important in this day and age. There are regulations in place to help – for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – which function to keep those harvesting and using data accountable and protect customers from bad actors.

Learn the policies in place for your location and put them into practice. For example, GDPR requires you to gain consent before collecting third-party cookies. Use a pop-up when new people visit your site so they can decide how they want their data to be used before continuing.

First-Party Data Tactics for Your PPC Campaign

Onto the good stuff! Now you understand the role of first-party data, its pros, and its cons, you need to start making use of certain actionable strategies that allow you to leverage first-party data as part of your PPC efforts.

We’ve covered a few of these below.

Integrate Data into Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an extremely helpful tool when it comes to first-party data and making PPC decisions. Important data points include lead scoring, lead-to-sale conversion rates, and the total sale value of generated leads. By accessing this data in real-time, you can make fast-paced decisions and changes to your PPC adverts.

Control Budget Efficiency

With PPC strategies, you want to ensure your money is being used wisely. You can create an optimized remarketing list for search ads (RLSA) based on your first-party data, which targets leads who have a high likelihood of converting.

Simply put, it would be a waste of time to show PPC ads to people who wouldn’t be interested in your products or service. These lists can find potential leads and ensure the ad is going to the person it was intended for — your future customer.

Achieve Higher Target and Bidding Accuracy

First-party data can provide information for employing more accurate bidding techniques. While this can be done manually, it might be worth utilizing Smart Bidding strategies. This is the process of automating your bids with Google Ads to maximize a specific conversion goal.

First-party data comes into this by providing post-campaign, pre-Smart Bidding strategy analysis. Though you may feel apprehensive handing over control to an automated process, knowledge is power. This data will provide in-depth insight to inform and improve your strategy.

Turn Out Better, Expanded Audience Targeting

As we know, first-party data can provide crucial information on customer trends, behavior, and engagement. Through this, you can better understand your customer base and begin to expand and reach out to potential new leads.

You can use features such as Google’s Similar Audiences to generate new lists based on those you’ve already created.

This data enables you to target customers regardless of what part of the funnel they’re in. Once you understand the people you’re trying to interact with, it’s easier to find ways to appeal to them.

Boost Smart Bidding with Offline Conversion Data

As previously mentioned, not all data comes from your website. For example, data gathered via SMS or phone call isn’t tracked or gathered by Google. From experience, we know phone calls, in particular, can lead to high-value sales, but this data isn’t always captured.

Offline data might include information such as lead quality, sales generated via phone calls, and the value of sales earned. You can use call tracking tools to prevent missing this crucial data and optimize your Smart Bidding by working from the full picture.

Maximize Campaign Personalization

First-party data enables businesses to tailor their campaigns to their customers. The detailed insights into who your customer base is – demographically and behaviorally speaking – mean you can personalize your campaign in a way that speaks to your audience.

For example, if you’re a software as a service (SaaS) company, there will likely be certain links between the people using your software. Your software helps them to reach a common goal, and this can be used to tailor your campaign. Use this information alongside SEO for SaaS to create a fully developed and functional marketing strategy.

Easier Feed Management

Feeds enable campaign services, such as Google Smart Shopping, to run efficiently. Through first-party data, you can easily see which keywords are most impactful and learn other important pieces of information that enable you to manually optimize your product feed.

In today’s market, personalization is key to making sure your company stands out and stays ahead of the competition.

First-Party Data and PPC Efforts Can (and Should) Go Hand-in-Hand

It’s undeniable that PPC campaigns and first-party data should work together. As third-party data moves out of the picture, you must learn how to rely on your own data instead.

If you were to solely turn to second-party data, you would run the risk of gathering less relevant information. The more insights you have into your customer base (and the more specific these are), the better your PPC ads will be.

Use first-party data to your advantage today!

This is a guest post. The views and opinions expressed by the author are solely their own and do not represent that of Optmyzr.

About the author_
Nick Brown is the founder & CEO of accelerate, a SaaS marketing agency that exclusively partners with enterprise tech companies to scale their SEO and content marketing. Nick has launched several successful online businesses, written and published a book, and grown accelerate from a UK-based agency that now operates across the US, APAC, and EMEA. He has written for sites like BigCommerce and SmallBizDaily.

How to Improve ROAS in Your PPC Campaigns

Search advertising is typically easier when you have deep pockets. But even small and growing businesses can and do compete by making smart, calculated decisions that give them the most value from their ad spend.

One of the easiest ways to measure whether your decisions are providing the desired financial outcomes is ROAS – return on ad spend. This metric is calculated by ad platforms as your total Conversion Value divided by how much you spent on Ads.

The Best Way to Improve Your ROAS

You can improve your ROAS in two ways:

But it’s not really an either/or situation. Here’s why: Increasing conversion value without any real reason just creates an artificially high ROAS. And while you can do things to decrease costs – like spend most of your budget on profitable campaigns – lowering your ad spend or CPC bids too much leads to your ads being seen less frequently.

So the best practice in optimizing to improve ROAS is a combination of keeping costs in check while also making sure your ad is seen as often as possible by the right audiences. And it starts with the profit margin on the products being advertised.

Trying to unearth and piece together different data sets to identify key problem areas can be a long and tedious process. But you can find out why your ROAS is trending in the wrong direction in just a few minutes using the Optmyzr PPC Investigator. The tool displays a ‘Cause Chart’ indicating exact areas of wasted spend, overinvestment, and other underlying causes of lower-than-ideal ROAS.

Calculating your breakeven ROAS

Once you have a number for your profit margin, the next step is to figure out your break-even ROAS.

This is usually calculated as 1 divided by the profit margin in percentage form. So a 50% profit margin would yield a break-even ROAS of 200%:

As you spend less per conversion and your ROAS goes up, more of your margin stays in the bank instead of going to Google or Facebook. In the same example, a ROAS of 400% means only $25 of your margin goes to ad spend.

So while a 200% ROAS might look profitable on paper, it doesn’t necessarily mean your business is making money.

Maximizing Profits with Optimal ROAS Target

Finding the optimal ROAS target to maximize profits involves a series of cost-reduction optimizations including:

Remember, there’s usually a tradeoff between ROAS and volumes. Generally, it’s difficult to achieve high numbers for both, so high-volume conversions tend to have a lower ROAS and vice versa.

Tracking Your ROAS Improvement

As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making.

We recommend tracking the following metrics at different stages of your ROAS-improving effort.

Beginner Stage

Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift. At this stage, you want to track Conversions, Click-through Rate, Conversion Rate, and Quality Score.

These beginner metrics give you an idea of whether your conversions are growing as you optimize at a stage where reducing ad spend is rarely an option.

Intermediate Stage

These are the metrics you want to start tracking after achieving some degree of growth: Cost, Views, Clicks, Impressions, Cost Per Acquisition, Cost Per Click, Cost Per View.

Tracking these intermediate metrics is ideal for when you start to look at your account performance at a more granular level and begin the process of reducing how much you spend on each user.

Advanced Stage

Finally, when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine you want to track Lifetime Value, Conversion Rate by Channel, Absolute TopImpression Share.

The advanced metrics help you better understand PPC’s contribution to the business on a level that goes beyond advertising, and help you optimize when factors like brand awareness and loyalty are relevant.

More on Managing ROAS

When your PPC account is performing well and receives a significant financial boost, it can be difficult to maintain returns. Here’s what you can do.

We at Optmyzr also have various tools including our pre-built Rule Engine strategy to manage bids to a target ROAS. Get in touch with our customer support team and we’d be happy to help!

Going beyond ROAS

ROAS is an important metric, but at the end of the day it is a metric set by Google and it might not always correspond with your bigger business goals. Take a look at what industry experts have to say about this here.

Optmyzr Spend Projection vs. Google Budget Reports: More Than Just Visualization

The behavior of your PPC budget is crucial to getting your strategy right, and the new Budget Report in Google Ads helps. With it, you can view daily spend, monthly spend limit for your campaigns, monthly spend forecast, cost to date, and any changes you may have made in between.

Optmyzr goes a step ahead with our Spend Projection Tool by analyzing your spend data, historical seasonality, and recent performance to predict how much an account is likely to spend by the end of a selected time period.

Here are some of the advantages our tool provides over Google’s Budget Report.

Adjust Target Budgets Based on Performance Insights

With Optmyzr, you can set up an account-level target through the Pro Dashboard, and then analyze and update daily budgets for campaigns. You can then select one or more campaigns in the Spend Projection tool to see how much more you need to spend in order to reach that target.

Being able to set target budgets based on these insights is advantageous because the projection is not limited by the budget you set for a campaign on Google. You can set any target and then push your daily budget to achieve it.

Optmyzr users also put performance insights to good use in other ways, like excluding individual placements on Google Search Partners – something you can’t do in the Google Ads interface or via AdWords Editor.

Reach a Target Budget with the Optimize Budgets Tool

Spend Projection isn’t just the only tool we have that helps users get their budgets working exactly how they want. The Optimize Budgets Tool, which helps you actually achieve targets, identifies campaigns that are losing out on Impression Share due to budget constraints. With that information, you can choose how aggressively you wish to spend. You can also reallocate your budget to high-performing campaigns, allowing you to get the most value out of your PPC dollars.

Spend Projection and Optimize Budgets together allow you to not just view spend behavior, but set target budgets and also meet them to maximize your performance. All very handy when budgets will be significantly impacted due to prevailing issues with the global supply chain.

Get Insights Based on Historical Performance

Spend Projection uses both trends and historical data. These are the factors that are included:

1. Day of the Week

Optmyzr studies day-by-day spend behavior when calculating your spend projection. So if you have a pattern of not showing ads on Saturdays or Sundays, the tool takes that into consideration.

2. Weekly and Yearly Seasonality

3. Seasonality and Spend Patterns

Spend Projection doesn’t consider ad schedules, or bids by demographics and devices, except seasonality and spend patterns.

If there is no correlation or if your account has insufficient data, we will consider data from the past several weeks to predict spend.

All this information can help run better Campaign Experiments – also the name of our latest tool that now makes it possible for PPC managers to keep track of experimental campaigns as they’re being tested.

Get More Control of Budgets & Spending

Spend Projection and Optimize Budgets help thousands of PPC agencies and end advertisers understand how their budgets impact account- and campaign-level spend behavior, and then give them the tools to put money in the right places at the right pace.

Start a 2-week free trial of Optmyzr and you’ll also get the tools you need to bring in better traffic by optimizing keywords, ad text, display placements, and more.

Campaign Experiments by Optmyzr: Google Ads Experiments Made Easy

Google Ads experiments are a great way to test ideas, hypotheses, and changes before applying them to existing Search and Display campaigns. But there are some issues with managing campaign experiments via the Google Ads interface:

For now, Optmyzr serves to fix things from an MCC perspective. So if you’re an agency, you can see all the experiments you’re running for multiple accounts in one place. The tool gives you better insights into the experiments you’re running, what’s complete and what’s not.

What our Campaign Experiments tool does

With the Campaign Experiments tool, you can view and analyze the performance of your Google Ads experiments across all your Google Ads accounts and use the comparative information to decide between either keeping the campaign experiment(s) or ending them.

Campaign Experiments Capabilities

1. Sorting

Once you’ve selected the accounts and experiments you want to see, you can see if your Campaign Experiment is trending in the right direction. You can also sort the table to view the highest performing experiment or check out which experiments are getting you the highest lift in CTR.

2. Expand the Experiment Row for More Details

You can expand the experiment row for more details by clicking on the account name. You’ll see the original campaign on which the experiment is running, check out all the performance metrics, and see the confidence level regarding how successful the experiment is, if at all.

Performance Details

The metrics show you how they are performing as compared to the original campaign. The value under a metric is the current performance of the experiment for the given date range, and below it is the difference between the original campaign performance and the experiment’s performance in number and percentage.

Confidence Level Based on Performance

The confidence levels in green suggest a positive trend, in red as negative and no color being neutral, which means there is no clear indication of the experiment being successful yet.

The confidence level is calculated by comparing experiments against their original campaigns. Based on statistically significant data, it is determined if the experiment has a better chance of being a successful campaign, based on the metrics like CTR, Conversion Rate, Conversion Impression, Revenue Impression, Revenue Cost, or CPA.

3. Applying Changes to Google Ads

With the “Apply to Google Ads” button, you’ll have three options:

Run Winning Experiments with Optmyzr Processes

With Google rolling out new automations every other week, getting experiments to run smoothly has become paramount. Instead of monitoring individual performance metrics, you can manage all the experiments across accounts in one place.

An iterative process like the Campaign Experiments tool helps you set the process in place and run things smoothly.

See for yourself how easy it is to track your Google Ads experiments. Get access to Campaign Experiments and all our other tools by starting your 14-day free trial now!

Optmyzr's Q4 2021 Holiday Season Guide to Search & Shopping PPC

Q4 2021 is upon us and it’s shaping up to be one of retail’s biggest ever holiday seasons.

According to the Google-commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 tracker, as of June 2021, 58% of US shoppers said they were planning to buy more online this season than in previous years. And 59% said they’d shop earlier to avoid an item being out of stock.

Global conditions have people buying online more than ever, and while it at first seemed to be a temporary shift, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Consumers have grown accustomed to the convenience of online shopping over the past 2 years and look set to stick with it, even after the worst is over.

But if you thought Q4 of 2020 was a mess for PPC and eCommerce, you might want to buckle up for this year. While we can use last year’s experiences as a yardstick and be more prepared, 2021 comes with its own set of challenges.

Global Conditions Behind Increased Unpredictability

1. Everyone’s Handling Health Regulations Differently

Last year, two things happened:

  1. Most physical stores were closed, so there was no option to shop offline
  2. Many people weren’t hosting gatherings because there was no vaccine yet

This year, parts of the world like Australia and Malaysia are still shut down either fully or partially. Others, like Norway and Iceland, have gone back to normal (or some kind of new normal).

Some people are vaccinated; many aren’t. Some people are traveling and vacationing again; others still haven’t seen their loved ones since 2019. Some people still aren’t comfortable with large gatherings; others don’t mind them so long as the necessary precautions are taken.

The bottom line is that every little corner of the world is handling health regulations in their own way, and that makes it difficult to predict what consumer habits might be like this holiday season.

2. The People Want Travel

Travel demand has risen, with more people planning to either head home for the holidays or take a much-needed vacation.

But it’s complicated because of the travel restrictions still in place. In many places, travel demand is not as high as 2019 and before, and might continue to stay where they are for longer.

Travel-related gifts are likely to see greater demand this year, and electronic gift cards might prove to be a safer alternative given shipping restrictions and delays.

3. Supply and Demand Aren’t In Sync

Travel restrictions and smaller gatherings don’t always mean lower demand. If anything, 2021 has seen more moments of shopping and gifting, and that will likely increase during the holiday season.

Another factor to keep in mind is the earlier purchase period. Given the shipping delays they faced in 2020, many customers began their holiday shopping way ahead of time this year.

Source: https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/post/august-2021/6-moments-that-will-mean-more-this-2021-holiday-retail-season

Having faced shipping-related issues last year, some customers will turn to local suppliers and stores this year. It’s not a bad opportunity to source products and raw materials locally, or to build relationships with local vendors and partners.

4. ‘Shippageddon’ Is Worse This Year

Retailers are seeing an exorbitant rise in the price of shipping containers as well as an increase in transit times. CEO of Simple Modern, Mike Beckham, pulled together some numbers that show exactly how drastic this rise has been.

The implications range from not receiving goods on time to your customers not receiving their orders in time for the holidays. And then there’s the increased costs impacting your profit margins and freedom to discount.

With containers costing way more and taking longer to arrive, shoppers are likely to encounter lower or different stock than usual, fewer discounts on what’s available, longer delivery times, and higher shipping charges.

5. Last-Mile Fulfilment Is Suffering

Rising demand via online shopping impacted last-mile fulfilment last year. Adding to the pressure this year is the risk faced by people on the ground – those actually making the deliveries.

UPS has projected that they will receive about 5 million more packages than they can deliver per day during the peak holiday season. That’s a surplus of hundreds of millions of parcels over the entire season, and the difficulty in finding enough people to counter that is not likely to make the situation any better.

Shopping and eCommerce PPC: How to Prepare

1. Track Your Inventory

Given the high demand volume and shipping issues this year, it’s not a bad idea to make sure that you track your account’s inventory more closely than usual. Work with other teams to make sure high-demand products are restocked quickly or ahead of time. And keep your available inventory up-to-date to avoid overselling or disappointing users.

2. Automate What You Can

The usual holiday season rush is accompanied this year by other uncertainties like shipping delays and last-mile delivery constraints, so you need to be able to focus on hitting KPIs without added stress. Enabling and pausing campaigns, adjusting bids, and keeping track of anomalies are just some of the things our Rule Engine can automate for you.

3. Use Messaging To Your Favor

If you think it’s too late to place additional stock orders or that customers might order from you too close to the holidays, you need to make sure to tell them about any potential delays. Give your customers all the information – clear product images and descriptions, expected delivery time and charges, and anything else that might be relevant.

You could also add incentives like a freebie or discounts for people who get their orders late, or a free delivery option for people who opt in right away to post-holiday delivery. Remember, it’s the little things that go a long way in wooing customers back to your brand next year.

Search PPC: How to Prepare

1. Attract Customers Using Promotions and Deals

Who doesn’t like a good offer during the holidays? Use your ad text and extensions to highlight the incentives that are likely to attract a given segment of users. Even if you absolutely can’t offer discounts due to margin issues, consider throwing in a sweetener that can be redeemed in early 2022 when things settle down.

2. Pay Attention to Your Messaging

This year, the situation demands that you be especially mindful of how you word your ads in order to build and sustain relationships.

PPC teams advertising items where crowds are implied (concert tickets, amusement parks, resorts, etc.) should be mindful of their messaging. Not everyone is comfortable being around people again, so focus on the experience rather than the scale of the event to avoid subconsciously putting fence-sitters off.

Make sure you let your audience know what kind of precautions you’re taking, and how you’re making the event or venue safer for those attending. If your event requires proof of vaccination for admission or a cap on the number of people allowed, state it in the ad/landing page as relevant.

3. Experiment with New Ways of Advertising

Recycling your Q4 ad strategies from past years might get you so far, but to really stand out requires that you explore new ideas. Similarly, it’s not a bad idea to test a new channel or format that you haven’t prioritized in the past.

Carving out a small experimental budget – one that won’t bankrupt your main campaigns but still help achieve statistical significance – may uncover a lucrative channel that you never knew existed.

YouTube, video, social, shopping, and native advertising can all prove worthwhile if you have traditionally stuck to search and display. And vice versa!

It’s Not All Bad… Here’s What You Can Look Forward To

Last year, PPC managers had absolutely no clue what to expect. This year is better in that we know that chaos is impending.

Use the data from last year to prepare for issues related to your supply chain and last-mile delivery, demand fluctuations, availability of crews/supplies, and preferences or regulations related to gatherings. Of course, this requires you to pay close attention to backend services, performance data, and consumer habits.

While a lot has changed since 2020, some strategies from last year still apply, and you can always go back and see what worked for you before modifying them to the current situation.

But there are definitely things to look forward to this year. Linda Shi from Microsoft listed out 6 moments that will mean more in the holiday season 2021 – all great places to begin planning what you need to do to succeed this year!

5 Optimizations to Boost Amazon PPC Profitability

$15.73 billion – that’s billion with a big ol’ B – is how much Amazon made from PPC advertising through its online marketplace in 2020. With that, it is currently the third-largest ad platform in the US. So if you’re advertising for retail goods, digital content, or some other line of work that sells on Amazon, ignore it at your own financial peril.

Setting Amazon Advertising’s growth aside, there’s another reason you should consider advertising on the platform: transactional search intent. Users searching for a product on Amazon are more likely to be close to a purchase, while searches on engines like Google are more likely to be informational.

Understanding user intent on Amazon is more straightforward than Google or Microsoft; people are there to buy products. There may be customers who go straight to Amazon for product-related queries, and you don’t want to miss out on those potential conversions.

Despite many advertisers relying on Amazon Advertising, resources to help with optimization can be hard to come by. So we’ve put together a list of five optimizations that can power up your Amazon ad campaigns.

1. Optimize Bids for Placements

Optimizing for placements gives you more control over where your ads appear and how much you’re willing to pay for them. Placements for which you can set bids include Top of Search, Rest of Search, and Product Pages.

After setting your base bid on Amazon Advertising, you can improve your products’ visibility by setting bid adjustments for Top of Search and Product Pages. There is no bid adjustment for Rest of Search, so this placement will operate with the base bid you set.

You can view the product placement report for every campaign you run on Amazon. You can see which placements worked best for you, and based on these insights, set the appropriate placement bid multiplier between 0-900% to improve your odds of increasing conversions and improving awareness.

Here’s an example of the placement report you can download from the Reporting Center on the Amazon Ads Console:

Identify which placements worked best for you based on your advertising goals and bid higher for those positions.

You can find the performance-by-placement data by opening a campaign and clicking on the “Placements” tab. You’ll be taken to a page that looks like this, where you can adjust your bids.

2. Increase Budgets for Special Events Using Budget Rules

The newly launched Budget Rules feature allows you to set schedule-based rules. You can increase daily budgets for your campaigns for special events recommended by Amazon (like Prime Day or Black Friday) or for custom periods (like the Christmas holiday season). For recommended events, Amazon also suggests a suitable percentage increase to your daily campaign budgets.

It also allows you to set performance-based rules to increase your Sponsored Product campaign budget based on performance metrics such as ACoS, CTR, and CVR.

The tool helps reduce the manual effort that goes into adjusting your campaign budgets for special events or custom periods. Budget Rules are still relatively new and are being rolled out gradually, so they might not be available to advertisers in all marketplaces at the moment.

3. Use Product Targeting to Show Off Your Product Next to Competitors

Product Targeting lets you refine the placement of your ads. It allows you to identify products similar to yours, and to display your Sponsored Product ads on those ASIN pages and in category search results.

Positive product targeting boosts your visibility by putting your product in line with related items in the marketplace. Negative product targeting can be used in cases where you do not want your product to appear along with other products, ASIN pages, or category search results. It’s like adding negative keywords to your search campaign.

To see a quick way to implement this strategy, check out how to do it in Optmyzr further below.

4. Optimizing your ACoS

As far as Amazon Advertising is concerned, your Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS) is the measure of your success. It is a measure of campaign effectiveness based on sales generated and amount spent on advertising.

If you’re familiar with Google Ads and the concept of ROAS, ACoS is easy to understand as the inverse of ROAS.

ACOS = Total Ad Spend / Total Sales

ACoS lets you know how much you can spend on your ads and helps you plan your campaign budgets. If you have great ACoS, you don’t want to budget too little and miss out on the exposure required to push the product, or if your ACoS is bad, it can tell you to lower bids so you don’t spend too much and lower your profit margin.

If a product that costs you $75 to make (manufacturing costs, shipping costs, Amazon fees, etc.) is sold at a price of $100, the profit margin is $25 or 25% in this case. This is your profit margin before ad spend and therefore also your breakeven ACoS. If you spend all of the $25 on ads you’re left with no profits, and if you end up spending more than that, then you’re running a loss.

Target ACoS (TACoS) is a portion of ACoS that you would actually spend on advertising. In the example above, if your target profit is $10 or 10% in this case, then you’re left with $15 or 15% to spend on ads. TACoS tells you how much you should be spending on your ads to stay profitable. What you consider a good TACoS depends on your goal: increasing profits or visibility.

Several tools allow you to automate bidding calculations based on TACoS. We even have some prebuilt Rule Engine strategies in Optmyzr if you’re looking for an easy way to get started with this optimization technique.

5. Harvest Keywords

According to a 2019 report, almost 45% of shoppers only scroll through the first two pages of search results while searching for a product on Amazon. Getting visibility on those first few pages requires strong and high-performing campaigns made of the right keywords.

Having keywords that are closely related to search queries is more important on Amazon than it is on Google. Google has evolved beyond keywords to intent and topic and is better at matching keywords with relevant queries. Amazon still lays a lot of emphasis on keywords. They are still a key factor in determining product ranking on the platform.

Another reason you want to spend more time choosing and monitoring keywords on Amazon is that although Amazon also uses close variants for exact match keywords, Google’s linguistic AI is far more developed. Google’s clear definition of a close variant also makes matching query intent to a keyword more accurate. So, you want to be more thorough with picking out relevant keywords and adding negative ones on Amazon.

Keyword Harvesting involves transferring search terms, keywords, or ASIN targets from one ad group or campaign to another. The end goal of harvesting keywords is to identify converting search terms and bid more on those keywords that will improve your performance.

You can harvest keywords manually by looking at your Search Terms Report, which gives you actual customer data. It tells you exactly what customers have been typing in to find your products.

Manually identifying profitable keywords can be tough and time-consuming. By using automated keyword harvesting tools you no longer need to spend time looking for keywords by manually combing through search terms.

Optmyzr Express helps you manage search terms and keywords on Amazon through three optimizations - Add Negative Keywords, Add New Keywords and Pause Non-Converting Keywords.

Optmyzr Solutions For Your Amazon PPC

Optimizing your Amazon campaigns keeps them fresh and relevant, and also gives you a clear picture of their performance over time.

Implementing these optimizations can help you create and maintain a successful Amazon business. And Optmyzr capabilities can be helpful building blocks to get you started.

1. Product Targeting Using Optmyzr Rule Engine

At Optmyzr, we support optimizations and automation based on product targeting using Rule Engine.

2. Bid to Target ACoS

Optmyzr’s prebuilt Rule Engine strategy, ‘Bid to Target ACoS’, allows you to use your target ACoS to set the CPC bid using historical sales data for a keyword.

Using Bid to Target ACoS, you can increase or decrease your bid based on the TACoS you put in.

Latest Google Ads Updates: Updated Keyword Matching Processes and Attribution Model Changes

Google Ads dropped two big announcements recently, including an update to how keywords match queries and a change to the default attribution model. Here’s what advertisers need to know about these updates.

Keyword prioritization rules are changing

Let’s break down Google’s latest announcement about keyword match types and see what it says:

With BERT, Google’s pre-training for natural language processing, getting more advanced, understanding search intent is now easier. Even broad match can now help you find relevant traffic with fewer keywords.

Google supported this with the example, “a highly specific query like ‘1995 5 speed transmission seal input shaft’ is now able to match with the broad match keyword ‘auto parts’ because we can tell they’re related, even though none of the words in the query and in the keyword actually match.”

A phrase match or broad match keyword identical to a query will now be preferred, as long as it is eligible to match.

Google has extended what it did with exact match earlier this year to broad and phrase match. Here’s Google’s example to explain this: “let’s say someone searches for ‘sushi delivery near me,’ and you have the broad match keywords ‘sushi delivery’ and ‘sushi delivery near me’. Before this update, both of these keywords would be eligible to serve. Now, the keyword ‘sushi delivery near me’ is preferred because it is identical to the search term.”

Rest easy though. Google goes on to say “that if you have an eligible exact match keyword that is identical to the query, it will still be preferred over the phrase and broad match keyword.”

Relevancy and Ad Rank will be the deciding factors when a search isn’t identical to any of your keywords.

In addition to Ad Rank, Google will now consider relevancy signals when determining which keyword will be selected. Explaining what these relevancy signals are, Google said, “Relevance is determined by looking at the meaning of the search term, the meaning of all the keywords in the ad group, and the landing pages within the ad group.” The different scenarios were broken down in the following table.

As with most significant announcements by Google, this one was also met with mixed responses from the PPC industry.

Julie Bacchini wrote: “So what exactly have you been doing up until now? Seriously. Was it foolish as an advertiser to think that was what you’d always done?" Read her thoughts on this change on her blog.

Others like Amy Bishop and Greg Finn argued that there is still value in maintaining multiple match types for the same keyword despite Google’s push to get advertisers to switch to a combo of smart bidding + broad match.

Data-Driven is now the default attribution model

In a move away from last-click attribution, Google announced that data-driven attribution (DDA) will be the default attribution model for all new conversion actions, starting October 2021.

Google acknowledged that the last-click attribution model falls short of advertisers’ needs because it ignores all but the final search before a user converts. Until now, advertisers without enough conversion volume to qualify for data-driven attribution were advised to switch to a position based or a time-decay model.

Google addressed the minimum data requirements for using DDA and said, “we’re removing the data requirements and adding support for additional types of conversions. With these improvements, we’re also making data-driven attribution the default attribution model for all new conversion actions in Google Ads.”

How is data-driven attribution better?

Let’s take an example of a user looking for running shoes. This user goes through several different searches before she converts. She might start with searches for ‘sneakers’ or ‘running shoes’, and after discovering Adidas’ line of running shoes, do another search for a specific model in her favorite color and size, and buy the shoes.

The problem with last-click attribution is that it gives all the credit to the last click. It’s going to ignore the fact that the user engaged with several of your ads; it’s going to ignore the fact that she got to the final keyword because she was exposed to upper-funnel keywords first. All these different keywords that the user searched for before converting are completely ignored.

Data-driven gives you a better picture of the entire purchase journey. Google now looks at the sequence of searches and sees how an individual query fits into that sequence. It estimates each keyword’s contribution to the eventual conversion. The following illustration from Google’s DDA methodology whitepaper shows how a particular query could be weighed.

Sequence of queries and how they are weighed by data-driven attribution

Ultimately, data-driven attribution helps you better understand the value of all your keywords. With that improved knowledge, your manual and automated optimizations can get better. For example, when you find a non-converting search term, you might add it as a negative keyword, decide not to bid on it at all, or bid less. If you did this based on incomplete conversion data, like with data you’d get from LCA, you could hurt the performance of an account. Thanks to DDA, you can make better optimizations.

No attribution model will give you 100% accurate information, but data-driven comes closest to giving you the information that’ll allow you to reduce wasteful spending.

Finally, encouraging advertisers to combine data-driven attribution with automated bidding, Google said, “ When combined with automated bidding strategies, data-driven attribution can drive additional conversions at the same cost-per-acquisition. This is because our systems can better predict the incremental impact a specific ad will have on driving a conversion and adjust bids accordingly to maximize your ROI.”

If you don’t already know the perils of combining Smart Bidding and last-click attribution, you can read about it here.

Image Copyright PixieMe - stock.adobe.com

Why container shipping delays are a big deal for eCommerce PPC in 2021

Last year, everything changed. Is this the “new normal”? Will things go back to the way they were? Or is there more change to come?

Change is, in fact, the only certainty. Since the world’s emergence from COVID-19 hasn’t gone nearly as smoothly as hoped, I’m betting that there are more rough waters ahead during the rapidly approaching holiday season for those of us in PPC.

Everyone used to know what was going to happen during the holidays. Q4 is when retailers make and surpass their sales targets. Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be huge. But since last year, such truths have been fraying at the edges.

What’s changed? Because of the greater unpredictability of supply chains, consumers are doing their holiday shopping earlier than ever, when more items will be in stock. But that’s not news since it happened last year. Discounts won’t be as sizable as they used to be, but that’s not news, either.

What is news? I believe that mathematically based predictions, grounded in solid figures such as manufacturing and shipping costs, are more likely to yield new information and insights than retrospective trend-watching.

I’ll walk you through an example below. While my numbers are based in reality, they will vary from one company to another so use them to understand the way a hypothetical retailer might think about how much they can spend on digital marketing.

Shipping Costs & The Retailer’s Dilemma

By now, retailers have long since placed orders for the holidays. Because of supply-chain disruptions, they’re probably spending more in manufacturing and raw material costs than before. An order that cost $40,000 last year may cost $50,000 now.

Then they’ve got to ship those goods in a container from their point of origin, probably China, across the ocean to wherever their warehouses are located.

Here’s where retailers are really feeling the pinch.

Shipping costs are calculated per container rather than by container weight. You may have shipped your $40,000 worth of goods for $4000 last year. This year the shipping cost per container has more than quintupled to over $20,000.

I personally know someone who’s paying closer to $25,000 per container as of late September. Ouch!

Shipping costs have gone through the roof for a number of reasons, including COVID-related port closures and such macroeconomic factors as ongoing supply and demand imbalances. Industry analysts see no relief in sight before 2023.

What’s a retailer to do? Should they:

Let’s go back to the math. If the goods are marked up a typical 200%, what retailed for $80,000 last year cost $44,000 ($40,000 for the goods; $4000 for shipping), leaving a profit of $36,000.

This year, retailers could raise prices, for example 10%, so the goods now retail for $88,000, but costs have gone up even more to $75,000 ($50,000 for goods and as high as $25,000 for shipping), leaving a profit of only $13,000.

The cost of doing business is threatening to put retailers out of business.

There’s another option for raising margins. Unfortunately, it’s to spend less on advertising, particularly PPC advertising. It’s likely that retailers will attempt to pass some of their losses on to their agencies. That means you.

Let’s look at this more closely.

Bending Over Backwards

One of the things that makes PPC advertising so amazing is its flexibility. You choose a budget, write a message, select keywords, and pick a bid or target. All this can be changed easily and as often as you like.

But especially when the world is in upheaval, certain advantages can become disadvantages. With other options off the table, your client might ask you to dial down bids or set a more aggressive tROAS.

The simple formula for calculating breakeven tROAS is 1 divided by the margin expressed as a percentage. Based on my example from before, last year, there was $36,000 of profit—a 45 percent margin—to work with when buying ads. Dividing 1/45% yields a breakeven ROAS of 222 percent.

In other words, you can spend $1 on ads for goods that cost $1.22 to manufacture and ship, sell those goods for $2.22, and break even.

This year is very different. Your $13,000 margin is only 26 percent, which means you need a ROAS of 385 percent (1/26%) to break even. In other words, to break even you can only spend $1 on ads to sell $3.85 worth of goods that cost you $2.85 to manufacture and ship.

Going from a tROAS of 222% to 385% may cause low-ball auction bids that will probably assure that your ads will no longer appear on the first—or even the second— page of results.

This will be a challenge, especially if your brand competes with a better known brand that is able to raise its prices more or that has better pricing power with freight lines.

But while I can’t predict what your retailer clients will do, it seems wise to be ready for when they ask that their PPC campaigns bear at least some of the new cost of doing business.

Product Mix

At Optmyzr, we have always advocated multiple PPC campaigns, each with their own targets based on the profitability of different product categories. Not all products are created equal. It looks like the product mix will be quite different this year, and our usual advice is more pertinent than ever.

Shipping costs, again, are calculated on a per container basis, not on how much the container weighs. This year shipping a 40-foot container may cost $25,000, whether that container holds artificial Christmas trees or decorative string lights.

But you can fit a lot more string lights than Christmas trees into the same-sized container.

Let’s say 200 artificial trees are the same volume as 48,000 boxes of lights (based on me measuring the size of my own holiday decor). If a Christmas tree retails for $195, sales of the 200 trees will yield $39,000. If a box of ornaments retails for $10, sales of the 48,000 boxes will yield $480,000.

Let’s look at shipping costs again. The $21,000 in additional shipping costs is about 54 percent of the $39,000 of revenue from the sale of trees. For the ornaments, the increase is 4% of revenue, which is clearly much easier to absorb when setting the new tROAS bids your clients will probably be demanding.

Retailers will de-prioritize items with a low potential revenue per volume and vice versa, So, there will be more lights but fewer trees to hang them on.

Those string lights can still be marketed through PPC more easily because the tROAS doesn’t need to change drastically to preserve profits. Whereas for trees, the change in tROAS required to stay even might be too drastic, shocking the Google Ads system and tanking your sales volume.

The important point to take away here is not about trees or lights, but rather that a metric like ‘price per volume’ — something we typically don’t think about in PPC — may actually have a big impact on what we’re tasked with advertising this year.

Acquiring New Customers

It’s likely that the downstream effects on conquesting, or acquiring new customers, will be significant. I may prefer Target to Walmart. But if Walmart has artificial Christmas trees and Target doesn’t, and I need a tree, I’ll overcome my prejudice and start shopping at Walmart.

If Walmart has a product others don’t, there’s far less need to discount it. Availability will be the key to sales. Guaranteed home delivery and Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS) services, rather than pricing, are the value-adds that will help win the game.

The holidays this year are going to be even more different than last year. The effects of much higher shipping costs are going to be significant and ripple throughout the retail ecosystem.

Forewarned, however, is forearmed. Taking account of these factors will help PPC agencies and professionals mitigate the effects of increasingly unpredictable markets.

Google to Sunset Expanded Text Ads: Here’s How to Build Good Responsive Search Ads

Updated: May 4, 2022

Moving a step closer to near-total PPC automation, Google Ads announced that starting from July 2022, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) will be the only search ad type in standard search campaigns.

Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) are comfortable and offer more control over what ad text you want to show to your audience. But Responsive Search Ads do improve ad performance when combined with human optimization and creativity.

Since none of us can force Google to roll back their announcement, the best thing to do is adapt to RSAs.

Here’s how Optmyzr can help you build good Responsive Search Ads.

How Optmyzr helps you craft high-quality Responsive Search Ads

We’ve been handing PPC experts control of their advertising destiny for a while, so it’s no surprise that the Optmyzr platform comes with several tools to manage and optimize Responsive Search Ads. Here are some of the things you can do.

1. Find winning components in the Ad Text Optimization tool

The Ad Text Optimization tool lets you find the best-performing headlines, descriptions, and other components from your current text ads. Use these winning components in the next step to craft RSAs using ad text that’s been proven to win you clicks and conversions.

We’re working on adding Responsive Search Ad support for the Ad Text Optimization tool so you can start tracking the performance of your RSAs more closely.

2. Create new RSAs in the Responsive Search Ads Utility

Our Responsive Search Ads Utility is an easy solution to create RSAs in your ad groups that don’t currently have any. It offers suggestions for headlines and descriptions, making the process faster and easier.

Use the winning ad text components from your ETAs here, but be sure to account for the RSA behavior of mixing and matching headlines and descriptions. You’ll want to tweak your ad text so that each component can stand on its own as well as be part of a larger message.

If your advertising vertical demands that you pin certain messages, now’s the time to do that. Even otherwise, you can pin minimally if something really demands to be seen in a certain position. Just don’t go overboard.

Watch our latest walkthrough of the Responsive Search Ads Utility:

And learn more about how to create RSAs using Optmyzr here.

3. Find and fix underperforming Responsive Search Ads

Most search ads that run on Google are poorly crafted, which is why even a basic copywriting effort will usually lead to good performance. But when you have up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, a Responsive Search Ad containing weak ad text tends to underperform on an even larger scale.

Fortunately, we created a handy RSA guide a while back. In it, you’ll find information on how to create a good Responsive Search Ad, how to improve your RSA ad strength, and how to audit and fix underperforming RSAs using Optmyzr.

The audit section, which is usually one of the more challenging parts, is easier thanks to our rule-based (if x, then y) strategy that you can run and automate using our powerful Rule Engine.

So what now for PPC pros who rely on Expanded Text Ads?

Expanded Text Ads are comfortable, reliable, and offer you more control over what messages get shown when. Responsive Search Ads can improve performance when combined with human optimization and creativity.

The best solution is to use both, but since we can’t force Google to roll back their announcement, the next best thing is to use the 10-month runway ahead of us to adapt.

Building good RSAs takes time and patience, so don’t give up. Test, test, and then test some more. All great campaigns are built on exhaustive experimentation!

Start a 2-week free trial of Optmyzr and see for yourself how much easier it is to create solid RSAs – among other things!

So Google Ads is hiding your PPC data. What now?

Every few months, advertisers hear about the latest change or update from Google Ads, and it usually means parting ways with a degree of control: goodbye Broad Match Modifier, hidden data in the search terms report, phasing out third-party cookies, etc.

Each new update takes the PPC world a step closer to completely automated ad platforms. But a step closer towards automation can also mean reduced control over advertising and fewer insights.

It’s been almost a year since Google Ads announced to advertisers that the search terms report would only include terms that are searched for by a “significant” number of users.

In an article published soon after Google’s announcement, Matthew Umbro of Brainlabs included findings that indicated the extent to which clicks were omitted after the revision. The percentages have been much higher for other accounts since, driving up costs significantly.

Clicks from unknown Search Terms - August 2020 vs. September 2020

Like many other Google decisions to hide data in the past, the notice was backed by reasons of improving privacy standards and protecting user data. But how hiding low-volume queries serve that purpose is not an answer we have yet.

While many PPC agencies and account managers have expressed concerns over the effect of this change, it’s also important that we look for possible solutions. At this point, Google’s tendency to increase automation and reduce data access shouldn’t be a surprise.

Solutions to work around hidden data on Google Ads

Not being able to identify all the search terms that your ads showed on – and not knowing how Google is matching queries to keywords – makes for a bit of a “black box” situation. You might see changes to your budget or impression share, but have limited insight into how to fix it.

While there are no foolproof, permanent solutions to the problems that stem from restricted performance data, there are a few things that might help lessen their effects.

1. See search terms data in Google Analytics

For now, Google Analytics provides somewhat of a temporary workaround to potentially view hidden search terms data. To find that information, visit this path:

Acquisitions > Google Ads > Campaigns > Secondary Dimension: Search Query

Google Analytics Search Query report

What you’ll see is all of your search query data for a campaign, excluding the (not provided) tag. For now, you’ll need to manually compare this list against the ones in your Search Terms Report, in order to identify anything not visible in Google Ads.

2. Optmyzr Solutions

Third-party tools like Optmyzr can help you not just identify sources of new traffic that Google Ads might not show you, but take steps to reduce or amplify their impact once you know whether they’re good or bad. Some of the things you can do are:

What increased automation means for PPC managers

It’s not news that Google Ads is moving towards a more automated way of doing things. Over the past few years, Google’s machine learning algorithms have improved significantly and taken over several manual PPC tasks. While this means reduced control over some parts of PPC, it also reduces the amount of time that marketers need to spend on manual optimizations.

It’s important to look at the big picture; the long-term benefits that automation can bring (when done right) increase efficiency, save time, and lead to more profitable advertising.

And apart from tackling the day-to-day issues involved with campaign management, PPC automation also seeks to reinvent how we approach the larger marketing picture.

While some advertisers look primarily for a lift in indicative metrics, the future will demand a more audience-centric approach in order to succeed. Advertisers would do well to pay more attention to things like account structure, lead quality, and stronger creative/copy to build a better customer experience.

Conclusion

Automation in paid search is inevitable, and this trend has only been accelerated by the challenges presented by prevailing global conditions. Advertisers and PPC managers would do well to start determining what this means for their teams and strategize accordingly.

Fortunately for PPC advertisers, there may be some hope on the horizon if this message from Google Ads community liaison Ginny Marvin pans out soon:

In the meantime, remember that performance metrics are important to learn whether your optimizations are working. But building a more holistic approach alongside that effort will put you ahead of your competitors. Some key points to remember are:

Succeeding as an agency in an automated PPC world: PPC Town Hall 33

A common theme that we’ve all been talking about is how Google keeps automating more and more of the things that we as PPC practitioners tended to do. For an in-house team, this shift to automation might just be a godsend. They can do more work with less effort due to access to so many Google tools. But for an agency, this poses a completely different question. PPC agencies have to constantly evolve their strategies to provide value to their clients. But what processes will they need to deploy to remain competitive? And what can they really expect from automation tools in the market today?

So in this episode on PPC Town Hall, we asked some of the influential agency leaders to share their tips and tactics on growing a PPC business while making use of automation.

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are 5 insights on how leading agencies succeed in an automated PPC world.

1. Marketing strategy and older marketing resources

Wil: I have been lucky a few times where I’ve come up with a concept that has affected a good chunk of the industry. And these concepts came to me when I read things that usually the industry doesn’t read. So for a while, I decided to read books about marketing pre-1940. Because people back then had to go door to door, connecting to people and understanding their problems. So when you start reading books from that far back, you start finding ways of looking at the same marketing problems today. It’s just that we are so entrenched in PPC perspectives that we forget that we are still solving problems that were there for people 100 years ago.

The way that our world is going everyone is trying to find an algorithmic solution. So when everybody’s running one way (what keywords do I have to use in the title to please the algorithm), I’ve been studying the different types of ads and how they’ve connected to people in a meaningful way before the internet existed. And then I try to incorporate that into the way we do on a daily basis.

My favorite books on advertising are by Claude Hopkins called ‘My Life in Advertising’ and ‘Scientific Advertising’. Claude was literally talking about doing A/B testing, by going door-to-door conversing face-to-face, which was super inspiring to me.

2. Focus on getting loyal customers than clicks

Anu: We’ve got to be really careful about not just being all about ‘technology’ or ‘automation’. After all, it’s people who are at the end of all these clicks and reading our ads. It’s really important to try to think like a customer. When we look at an ad, what attracts us to click? What attracts us to click on a brand or get affiliated with a brand? All these decisions stem from who they are. Branding is important and knowing what that brand stands for, what they believe in, diversity, environmental consciousness, etc., are ultimately things that get loyal customers. I feel that we’re moving away from trying to build loyal customers and becoming too much about getting that ‘click’.

Wil: We don’t interact with our customers anymore. We don’t. We sit behind our tools. We’ve no idea what’s going on with them. One of the things that we started doing, and are slowly scaling in, is videoing our clients that are going through our search results and have them talk to us and understand their concerns. You become a very different level of a consultant when you talk to somebody. So often we look at these keywords and automation but don’t try to understand these people on a deeper level. But if go that one level deeper and find the right things, it could completely change the way you go to a market for a client. It’s because that ‘why’ will never show up on Google Ads.

3. Business of implementation

Max: Price premiums for implementation, doing these things with Google Ads, are going away.

If you want to build a job for yourself then you do what everyone else knows how to do and do it a little bit better. If you want to build profit, want people to seek you out, then you better invest in having the knowledge no one has. This all comes down to fundamentals: focus on a particular customer segment, understand who they are, what they want, and where they hang out. If you do this, people are bound to pay you a premium.

4. An automation ‘reformed skeptic’

Tim: I guess you can say that I am a reformed skeptic and that’s due to a lot of reading about when automation works and when it doesn’t. So I won’t say that I am a total believer in automation, but I’ve definitely eased up a little bit and gotten used to using it in my daily life.

I’ve been doing PPC for the last 10 years. And there wasn’t a lot of automation in the industry back in the 2012s or 2014s. I think when we got ‘lookalikes’ on Facebook by the end of 2015, which wasn’t working great at that time. But in 2017, everyone loved it. It had so many data inputs and it was working really well. Then they pulled back all the third-party data and the ‘lookalikes’ stopped working again. So it’s been pretty chaotic to go back and forth. Sometimes machine learning and automation work really well, and then they don’t, and then then they force it upon you. You have to find ways around it. So yeah, it’s a complex relationship for me.

5. In-house technology and funding good ideas

I am still learning about scripts. But my perspective as a business owner is ‘where can I fund good ideas?’ I tend to start from a place where I don’t want my team members to do ‘X’ task, or I don’t want them to have to worry when they have to check something. So, I’m constantly focused on being a vessel for really good ideas to come in really quickly, direct to the CEO or owner of the business, because I control what we do with our profits. So it’s very easy for me to direct resources and funds to people who solve problems. I want people’s jobs to be as enjoyable as possible. A part of my job is to understand what brings people down and take away their creativity. And I try my best to automate or outsource those to points in some way so that the team is efficient and increasing the quality of the work.

Conclusion

Only a week back, Google announced that it will soon phase our Broad Match Modified keywords and change how Phrase Match functions. Changes like this only mean one thing: the shift to automation is an inevitable one. While you don’t necessarily need to fear automation, making use of its capabilities can actually help you ease a lot of processes.

As an agency, it is important that you take a look at your strategies and talk to your clients to understand them on a deeper level. After all, no one can diminish the ‘human’ in this equation of a more automated PPC world. We just have to work around, get creative, and find solutions. Google might keep changing the playing field, but have to construct it using our own techniques to make it work for our clients.

Expectations for PPC in 2021: PPC Town Hall 31

It’s 2021, and whether you’re a marketer or an agency, you would be preparing for yet another thrilling year of PPC. Right from the start, you need to be aware of the newest trends and features in paid marketing to leverage your PPC game. And that means you need to know of any curveballs that might come your way. In 2020, we saw experts deep-diving into topics like automation, privacy issues, and keywords, which we might be discussing more of the same this year as well.

To get a better perspective of what to expect in the coming months, we invited over some of the smartest minds of PPC and asked for their insights. Our panelists this week are some of your favorite experts from conferences like SMX, shedding light on what they expect from PPC in 2021.

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are 5 insights on what to expect from PPC in 2021.

1. RSAs vs ETAs

Brad: According to our data, we’ve seen more people trying out RSAs than Optmyzr users. We also see that a lot of people who still have them, have shrunk their usage. I’ve done a little bit of segmentation (since we did our session at SMX) on spending and account size versus declining RSA usage. And it’s definitely the smaller accounts that have declined their usage much less than the larger ones. We have seen that those who spend half a million to a million, plus have decreased usage more than those who spent 10-20 thousand dollars a month.

For a lot of these people, it’s more about results than getting that control. They don’t care if you’re a lead gen company. You may spend 10 million a month but in the end, you care about results.

Ginny: My question on it comes back to what are ‘results’? If we’re strictly looking at conversion rate or cost per conversion, then I can see where ETAs are often going to win. I’m wondering if advertisers might be looking at RSAs to open themselves up for more impression inventory. So is that a factor where people are considering more exposure than focusing on conversion rate?

Matt: In a lot of cases, you actually don’t have enough data for RSA to really even get their wheels spinning. It’s a multivariate type of testing and so often times we see that decisions are being made too quickly on winners and losers.

2. Identifying your business signals

Ginny: Having your own business signals mixed in with data you provide to the machine is becoming really critical now. This is where the real leverage can come, particularly the competitive leverage over your competitive sets. In order for people and businesses to identify their own business signals, they need to do some real analysis and investment, which takes a lot of digging. And then being able to present this in a way that can actually be used.

So the real question is, do advertisers keep pushing businesses to give more inputs even when some might want to keep that data to themselves rather than sharing it with Google? If yes, can we anonymize it and ensure that those inputs work within the algorithms.

3. Giving Google the right data and goals

Matt: Instead of fighting Google, let’s focus on giving them the right goals. One of our focuses will be feeding the data to the machine. And I think we’re actually going back to really seminal work in the whole web UX and web design area. If you look at Google Analytics, it’s moving away from discrete real things to events and connections that sort of represent proxies like scroll time or time on page. What I’d like to see is combinatorial data that would allow us to combine scroll depth and time on page, multimodally. How do we build up signals from the site we’ve got and trigger events that we can feed back to our bidding?

Our goal this year is to take a look at how we can understand what behaviors on the site represent good proxies to the next sort of actions. We also want to give those signals a little bit more attention, feed them, and try to develop audiences out of them.

4. Importance of setting up clean conversion

Brad: This is more important now than in the past because with all the privacy things happening, you doing your own data or attribution modeling is going to be essential. Even from a basic standpoint of modeling, you need to get it right because the privacy changes are going to mess up the data inside some of your platforms. Just to do some basic analysis, you actually need to have it yourself now and can’t rely on the platforms to give it to you because they’re not gonna have all the data they had previously.

5. 2021 Predictions

Brad: I will argue that as soon as Google removes keywords, their revenues decline significantly. Out of every advertising method out there, the intent of a search for someone saying ‘I want this’ is the strongest signal in advertising. It’s better than any programmatic, any audience or any other advertising methods. If people don’t get to use keywords for targeting, they might think of going programmatic.

Matt: I think that while Google may never take away keywords, they’ll definitely stop paying attention to what we’re actually telling them with our match-types. And I think that if you look at the loss of search query data may be Google feeding its AI and learning on all of our dimes! And they’re saying we don’t care what we [advertisers] know, they’re going to let their machines run wild, and decide for themselves what’s working or not!

Ginny: We still have some agency in all of this. I think we need to start using the machines in ways that they were meant to help us. And while they aren’t going to get it right all the time, we should be present to guide it. This is where your own data is going to be helpful. If you come in with a campaign that has been a disaster, all that data is not useful. For example, if you’ve set your campaign on broad match and end up reaching attorneys in Palm Beach when you actually run a hair salon, that data is useless. All of this can be avoided if you educate yourself and be an invested marketer. So much about this year is still going to be based on fundamentals.

Conclusion

Let’s face it - doing PPC in any year is tricky.

What with Google introducing changes, paid marketers need to leverage on every new trend that comes their way. Working along with the machine, feeding it good usable data, and relying on automation to boost your business goals might go a long way for PPC pros in 2021. To set yourselves apart from your competitors, consistently optimize your campaigns, utilize new tools, and look to expert strategies by industry leaders to pave your way to success.

Revamping Outdated PPC Strategies: PPC Town Hall 29

Note: Smart Shopping campaigns have been upgraded to Performance Max in September 2022. We suggest you refer to these links below to know more about Performance Max.

Performance Max Campaigns Guide for 2023

Performance Max Guide: How to Diagnose Your Ecommerce Campaign Performance in 2023

Performance Max Campaign Tips for Retail and Ecommerce

How to Manage and Optimize Your Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max: 5 Effective Ways to Safeguard Your Campaigns in 2023

One thing that we’ve learned about search in the past year is that we all need solid PPC strategies that account for all sorts of change. With all the automation that’s coming from Google, whether it’s smart shopping, smart bidding, or seasonality bid adjustments, it’s important to automate, optimize, and intervene our way to success. And what better way to understand the way forward than to ask some of the smartest minds of PPC.

Our panelists this week are among PPC Hero’s most influential paid search experts of 2020. And they shared their tips and experiences on working around outdated PPC strategies.

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are 7 insights on revamping outdated PPC strategies.

1. Thoughts on Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Aaron: On our side, we saw that Black Friday was bigger than usual while Cyber Monday was slower than usual. It logically makes sense as on Balck Friday, everybody has a need to go bargain hunting, and that pent-up demand has shifted to online this year. Everyone thought Cyber Monday was kind of quiet because it’s the same as it has always been.

Kirk: We saw the same thing as Aaron [in a higher volume Black Friday than Cyber Monday this year, but we’ve heard others saying things a bit differently. It makes a lot of sense that the past weekend was a bit quiet as a lot of people were running sales earlier than normal. They had a Black Friday week-long or even month-long sale in November. Because of the earlier sale season, we saw consumers buying earlier than usual. So in some way what we saw in our numbers was that Black Friday was the main event, and Cyber Monday less so.

One of the reasons for this earlier shopping season is concern over shipping and delays. Because of this earlier-extended shopping season, we saw more out-of-stock products, more sales that went quicker this year.

Joe: While Black Friday was definitely much bigger than Cyber Monday and much earlier. For us in general, Black Friday was lower than expected but the entire month of November was higher than expected. Some stuff was reactionary to competitors starting early which was in the first-second week of November.

2. An unusual year for PPC

Aaron: At Tinuiti, we tend to work with larger data sets to focus on larger enterprise clients. So Smart Bidding in general tended to work pretty well for us. But one of the things that I always pick on Smart Bidding for is that it has too short of a memory. This Holiday season was one of those scenarios where that’s really valuable because it didn’t try to base itself off of what happened last year. We used seasonality adjustments pretty religiously for most of our clients. For example, if noon was a really popular time, we’d start tweaking our seasonality adjustments leading up to it and down after.

3. Using different shopping strategies

Kirk: We try to use a combination of both Standard and Smart. We constantly test them, see what’s working and what’s not. I’m always trying to figure out a better strategy to work for both Standard and Smart. With Standard, you get more of that control where you can give the system-specific search terms, which we’re focused on (even if they’re not always converting) as valuable information for brands.

Sometimes, we’d duplicate products or try something with the feed to get stuff in the upper funnel queries that might not be specific to one product. Smart shopping is not just on search but display, Youtube, and all that, so rather than be frustrated that we can’t control the search terms, we’re trying to figure out a way to group products around the ad content itself to emphasize specific call-outs in those Smart Shopping Ads for that specific group of products.

Joe: As I said earlier, our Black Friday started earlier than normal and our seasonality bidding was kind of thrown out of the window of what we expected to do. Since I work with smaller clients with very niche products (sometimes higher-ticket type item products). We understand that those really aren’t necessarily impulse-buys. So, we’re looking at the time of day, understanding that it’s gonna take multiple touchpoints for a user to buy this product. If we hit them enough with discovery, Google, and social initially, then we’re seeing that they later go back (late night hours) to purchase. We’re seeing a better performance as we’re adjusting the different schedules and updating how we want to boost our bidding and performance.

4. Converting digital newbies & feeding data to the system

Aaron: Something we’ve seen in the last six or so months, I’ve somewhat abandoned call to action. But giving turn-by-turn directions to these people who aren’t digitally native seems to work. You can tell them where to click, enter their details, make the purchase and know when it’s gonna get delivered or opt to come and pick-up yourself.

When you have data like shipping or pick-up preferences, you’ve to use it sensibly. It varies a lot depending on clients because it partially depends on cost and revenue centres as well. So maybe the digital team isn’t incentivized to drive people to the store and so we want to discourage it. But for those clients who are a bit more holistic, we’d look into the feeds and coach the bid tools to do what we want. For example, we see that for a certain demographic, this particular set of terms or ads tends to convert better as in-store pick-ups rather than a standard e-com shipping. Then we’d take that group, pivot it, and tell Smart Bidding that we want more store visits to set that group. The rest can be taken towards the more conventional way.

5. Get your messaging right in Responsive Search Ads

Joe: We utilize the pin option just to make sure that certain elements of the messaging show. It’s something that we definitely consider when we’re mapping it out. We will show it in front of clients too. We ask them if it really helps to add all these variations if four of them pretty much say the same thing. Google’s definitely gonna flag it, prompting you to add more keywords into your headlines.

Honestly, we’ve played around with what actually makes sense and that’s where we kind of focus on value prop. Maybe I’ll pin the first keyword which made more sense to the product type and then look at testing the other ones. Slowly, I’ve come to like RSAs. While they didn’t really work for me that well in the beginning, the more I see them working they are getting better. We’ve seen RSAs work pretty well with grants accounts by boosting impressions quickly.

6. Looking towards automation

Kirk: We’re looking more and more into automation to solve our problems. The whole idea of Google leaning hard into automation can be quite frustrating for PPC marketers like us who have been running things for a while. I may have practiced and learned something for over a decade, and then due to a specific change, I can find myself at the same level as an intern in my knowledge of the thing that changed. But the flip side of this frustration is – there’s an evolution that needs to happen in PPCers, too. We need to adapt to the system. And with automation at ZATO, we’re trying to think of reinventing the way we think about campaign structure and other things.

Specifically in thinking about broad match keywords, we’ve started testing things giving Google control over Target ROAS bidding, few very tightly controlled broad match keywords where everything else is excluded. We’re treating this less in terms of ‘what we want to get from this campaign in specific tracked ROAS’ and more of giving Google guidelines and then freedom for reaching the upper-funnel.

7. How do we structure our campaigns?

Aaron: When we think of structuring our campaigns in the present scenario, we’ve to look at conversion runways. If you think about Smart Bidding on its most practical level, it largely looks at the expected conversion rate. The way forward should start with the question – what do we expect from this group of people to do.

Talking about Skags and keywords, if the intent is fundamentally different then we’ll split it out. If not we’ll compress. We all know how Google is pushing towards consolidation and we’re establishing runways for the automation to make the right decisions. So we essentially split the groups out based on audience, demographic, keyword, or interaction. You don’t want to shrink data to the point where you’re making bad assumptions.

Conclusion

While automation has helped PPCers focus more on the strategic part of marketing, it has left us with little to control. With Google constantly introducing changes in 2020, it might be time to recondition the earlier approaches to get an edge over the competition. This is where all the expert advice and recommendations come into play by supporting marketers to operate in the periphery of the system and still manage it for better results.

Now more than ever, PPC marketers and strategists need to come together to figure out how to advance in the paid search industry. It might not be a bad idea to make use of efficient software systems, like Optmyzr, to track, manage, and optimize your campaigns. Try and experience our capabilities yourself by signing up for our 14-day free trial. You get full access to all our features – credit card free!

Digital Marketing in an Unpredictable VUCA World: PPC Town Hall 27

If you’ve been watching the news over the last couple of years, you could be forgiven for thinking we live in a weird timeline where dreary writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Ray Bradbury reigned supreme.

Between climate change, terrorism, economic struggle, and the health crisis of 2020, this year has embodied the term VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Yet this is the world we live in, and if digital marketers want to continue to have a place in it, we have to learn how to adapt our tactics and messaging to this reality.

So this week on Episode 27 of PPC Town Hall, I wanted to bring in the authors of the report “Digital Marketing in a VUCA World” to share some of their insights from the research they conducted and to discuss what the roadmap for the future could look like.

Our panelists for the week:

• Anders Hjorth, Digital Marketing Strategist at Innovell
• Lukas Adamec, Freelance PPC/SEM Specialist

As always, you can view this week’s episode of PPC Town Hall embedded below, or click here to browse all our episodes. In the meantime, here are some of the insights from this week’s PPC Town Hall on how to do digital marketing in an unpredictable VUCA world.

1. What happens when agencies lose large amounts of revenue overnight

Anders: We asked 20 agencies that participated in the survey, “How bad were you hit?” About 15% said ‘no change’; a huge chunk — about 50% of respondents — said between 10-40% reduction in media spend; and a fairly large percentage saying 40-60% reduction.

When we’re looking at agencies having 40% of their media spend disappear, and as we know, a lot of the economic models are tied in some way to spend. Very few are on a retainer or consultancy basis. So this means they lose a lot of money and activity, and the rest of the activity had to be changed. Everybody’s panicking, so what do you do?

Lukas: It’s actually been the case in some instances that the agency-client relationship has ended because of volatility. Bearing in mind that the vast majority of agencies — particularly the bigger ones in the UK — have very diverse clients in their portfolios, so that’s why the impact was mostly in the 40-60% range.

But I definitely know of instances where clients have stopped their relationship with an agency because they were the most hit — tourism, hotels, and some retail as well. But other parts of retail, especially direct-to-consumer, actually thrived during this time.

2. If you put the wrong data in, the wrong prediction comes out

Anders: When we talk about volatility and VUCA, yes there’s health crises and lockdowns; but there’s also terrorism and the end of cookies. The direct impact is more easily measurable on this year’s health crisis because it’s such an abrupt change.

Over the past 2 years, we saw people adopt automated or machine-based bidding massively. We also observed that agencies used dedicated data analysts in fewer cases than they did before. This surprised us.

Lukas: It feels like the outcome was two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, there is less involvement from data analysts because there’s more reliance on AI. On the other hand, it’s not about the position of the analyst but the insight into performance is placed on marketers’ shoulders.

So where you’d previously have a data analyst to support you with looking at trends and performance, it’s almost a standard part of the marketer’s job instead of focusing on platform and creatives.

3. Data is the new oil

Anders: Can you extract more value from your data than if you give it to a platform? It’s a question of who controls it and whether you should give it away to a third party like Google or Amazon.

We think it’s very important to start controlling and protecting your own data. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make it flow; flowing data across platforms is extremely important to get better insights. But you need to consider each time you do that: what are you using, what are you giving away, and is there anything you can keep instead of letting someone else monetize it?

4. The connection between automation and who’s deploying it

Lukas: For me, the whole idea of paid search until now is its transparency. You can track everything down to each penny you spend and be able to show results. This is now changing the fundamentals of what paid search is for me, because I can’t explain everything (with less data).

5. How people can use automated bidding more effectively

Lukas: I personally see a huge degree of complacency when it comes to automated bidding, especially, in a lot of agencies. You’ll find that 90% of the time, you can set the AI to do your bidding for you and it’ll deliver decent performance.

But it’s that 10% of the time where something goes wrong, or when you have a promotion that suddenly skews the data — and suddenly, you have an impulse that the tool cannot account for and everything falls apart.

I even feel with some of the ways platforms sell automated bidding, like recommending not to touch things for 2 weeks to let the machines learn, you should never be in a position where you can’t change settings.

6. Preparing for the end of cookies

Anders: Will remarketing be in trouble as we see fewer and fewer cookies? Yes. Hopefully, the bad practices will die off and there’ll be some intelligent use of user data.

So start building direct relationships with your users, like email or another channel where you own that user data. If you only have access to your customers and clients via platforms or audiences, you’re probably going to lose a lot of that access. So start building that proprietary database today.

Conclusion

As I mentioned this week on PPC Town Hall, the role of the PPC manager is changing from being in the middle of account performance to managing the periphery (read my full thoughts on the topic in my post for Search Engine Journal).

But as we look to evolve our roles, we also have to remain aware of what’s happening in the wider world. From the geopolitical to the ecological, events transpire daily that impact the health of the digital marketing space… paid search included.

That’s why spaces of learning (like PPC Town Hall) will only become more important in the coming months and years. So sign up for our mailing list (and tell your PPC peers) to get notified of all our events in advance and early access to some of our upcoming resources!

Is there something on your mind? Do you have a topic you’d like us to cover on PPC Town Hall? Write to support@optmyzr.com and tell us about it, and we’ll try our best to address your concerns.

Futureproof your business with PPC automation: PPC Town Hall 26

Ever since Google introduced a whole bunch of changes, things have been changing very fast in PPC. Taking away search query data, making it harder to create expanded text ads, doing more and more automated bidding, etc., is only making us unsure of the future of search marketing.

With the rising number of roadblocks that Google is putting in front of us, marketers need to be ready to overcome anything that the search giant throws at us. The question of the hour is: How much more can Google automate and change the way that we as PPC professionals go about business?

So this week on Episode 26 of PPC Town Hall, I wanted to talk to two industry specialists who have worked with a lot of accounts and have faced the implications of the changes in search marketing and automation.

Our panelists for the week:

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are the top 6 insights from this week’s PPC Town Hall on navigating the future of PPC automation.

1. How to optimize Google’s tax?

Martin: Some countries have started to raise the Digital Services Tax from Google. Now, Google intends to pass that on to advertisers. For example, for ads being shown in Austria and Turkey Google will add 5% to your invoice. This is tricky because it won’t show up in any of your regular KPI’s. Your costs and CPC’s in the interface will seem unaffected. This makes it easy to miss – which is probably the intention.

There’s a reason why you’ve decided on a certain bid or budget. In order to account for the new tax, you’ll have to lower your bids or budget by about 5%. Then you’ll end up paying the same as before. Of course, Google would rather have you pay the same amount to them and then the additional 5% in taxes, which is probably why they have little incentive to help us with this.

2. Taxes and Geo locations

Martin: Digital services taxes depend on where the advertising cost occurs. For example, if someone in the UK clicks an ad, a 2% tax charge will be added to the cost of that click. The problem here is that there’s a difference between the location of interest and user location. If you target the U.S. then that can include people elsewhere if Google somehow identifies the U.S. as their location of interest.

There used to be an easy way to evaluate physical user locations. That has been removed. Standard location reports no longer include physical location. In fact, Google got rid of any mention that there might be a difference between physical location and location of interest.

You can still get the data, though – it’s just less convenient. Google also removed the pre-defined report from its report editor, but you can still create your own from scratch. So while the data is no longer present front-and-center, you can still get it.

Brady: Let’s take the example of businesses dealing with ‘New York Pizza’. This is a specific style of pizza that practically anyone can search about. While the local pizza shops of New York have been capturing people around the world looking up for New York Pizza, the location settings in the user interface don’t show this happening. As a result, a lot of these small pizza places now could gain a UK tax or something without any idea why.

To find this specific information about locations, go to

Reports → Custom and build your own report.

If you search ‘user locations’ in your report, you’ll find all of the user location option that you can place within the rows of your report.

3. Managing accounts with less search data

Brady: We’re seeing a struggle for low volume accounts. So for accounts where you can spend every day digging into the search term reports, read them, and make decisions based on your finding, we are seeing a lot of frustration.

When it comes to high-volume accounts, I think it makes things like n-grams even more relevant. With access to less data, n-gram reports can help you find trends within the data set you have and make decisions accordingly.

4. Functioning with Google ‘roadblocks’

Brady: I’m not fully against these changes. In a handful of our campaigns, we do full broad keyword targeting paired with Target CPA, and it does fairly well. Looking at our search terms, we see that some of them are non-branded solution-based terms, while some are comparing our solution vs other competitors, and some are comparing between other competitors altogether. But, at the end of the day, the cost per conversion, and MQL, are pretty good.

When it comes to B2B software marketing, we’re really looking at an LTV/ CAC model. So modeling that out for both Google Ads and other channels, and helping the clients on that level is something we’re moving towards. With a higher level of automation, we would have time to focus on stuff like landing pages optimization, A/B testing, new offers, and analyzing the competition.

5. Shifting agencies and business goals while working with the same black box by Google

Martin: With Google doing everything with these black box campaigns like smart shopping, discovery, or local campaigns, it becomes more and more important to make sure that their systems have the right data to go on. This is also an important field for agencies and advertisers to set themselves apart from the crowd.

One way to do that is to further evolve conversion tracking. For the last ten or so years, everyone has focused on revenue. Before that, it was about conversions. The future is about margins and profit instead of revenue. Beyond that, there’s customer lifetime value. And just as important is incrementality – although that is something that you probably can’t expect much help from the platforms.

Brady: When everyone is competing armed with the same black boxes and no levers like before, you should:

6. Future of Google

Brady: If we think of what to expect from Google in 2021, I think we’re going back ourselves into something like DSA campaigns. While we will see some new features, it seems like we’re getting back to something that’s already existed – Google having control over the search terms, the ads, and the pages.

I think that the future of Google already exists. While I don’t think the changes will be extreme, we’ll be moving towards something that existed previously.

Conclusion

It’s no doubt that the world of PPC is going through some changes. With Google introducing new features every now and then, we marketers must be flexible with our strategies. One thing is clear: it’s going to be extremely tough to stand out when every PPC professional relies on the same black box by Google. To be on par with the search giants evolving practices, we need to rely on automation to some level.

Automation is a great way to handle daily mundane tasks, but PPC professionals shouldn’t confuse it with ‘autopilot’. Though machines might be able to perform a high number of actions quickly and efficiently, they will still rely on us for timely inputs and tweaks.

So whether it’s now, or 5 years into the future, marketers will always have something to do for there is no replacement for human intellect, ingenuity, improvisation, and intuition.

Burning PPC budgets, new Microsoft Ads features & more: PPC Town Hall 24

There’s no doubt that marketing is one of the most expensive aspects of running any business. And while advertisers might race ahead in the hopes of getting more clicks and profit, they can still end up making mistakes! 

A classic PPC horror story is when marketers mix up traffic with solid leads and forget about optimizing their accounts. Not supervising the system and failing to make effective improvements can turn into wasting tons on bad clicks and setting that yield no returns!

So this week on Episode 24 of PPC Town Hall, we talked to two brilliant PPC pros and discussed actionable tips on how to stop burning budgets. We even got to learn about PPC community initiatives like PSA and new Microsoft Ad capabilities that can benefit marketers. 

Our panelists for the week:

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are the top insights from this week’s PPC Town Hall to help you identify budget-burning areas, know Microsoft’s newest features, and understand the thought behind creating a successful PPC community.

1. What role does the Paid Search Association play in the industry?

David: Initially, I was attracted by the notion that there really wasn’t one consolidated source of credible and curated information/ resources for PPC managers. You basically had to pick and choose from among homogenous resources. There really wasn’t a one-stop-shop for people who wanted to train themselves and be updated with the developments. 

So our core mission is to serve as a curated source of learning and news resources. 

John: One of the things that we’ve talked about as a collective is about mentoring. It surely is a complex thing to figure out with variables like timings and schedules. But there are a lot of bright men and women on the board who have been eager to share what they’ve learned within the industry and their peers. 

2. Microsoft’s Audits network

John: Not just us, but practically everybody is working on something related to customer privacy and a ‘cookie-less world’. In this industry, where all the platforms rely on cookie data presently, what would the future look like? Envisioning for this future, Microsoft just launched a partnership for brand safety. It’s neither an ad-on nor does it cost anything extra. If you run ads on the Microsoft Advertising network, you’re automatically opted into this brand safety application. 

3. The 4 Google money grabs

David: These are the four key areas where marketers waste their spend:

  1. Location targeting settings: When you look at the User Locations report, you would find that your ads are being shown either nation-wide or worldwide, even when you’re geo-targeting a smaller area. I’ve seen accounts spending thousands of dollars per year on clicks that are outside the geo-targetted area.

  1. Targeting expansion: By default, Google turns on ‘Targetting expansion’ which generally would mean helping advertisers widen the reach of their display ad group. Extending the reach, in this case, means showcasing your ads on sites where people might convert.

    Now, when you’re doing audience targeting, you shouldn’t be placing ads on sites based on just any criteria, but following your audience dedicatedly to any site. To avoid this, just disable that option altogether. 

  2. Ads showing up on mobile apps by default: When you go to placements to see where your ads are appearing, you will definitely see that your apps are showing up on mobile apps. You might even find a considerable amount of clicks coming from them, likely clicking by mistake. There might be a lot of kid’s apps and games that might not be relevant to your business.

I’m gonna let you in on a technique that Kirk Williams (from Zato Marketing) wrote about, which you can only do with Google Ads Editor.

Go to Display Campaigns → Keywords and Targetting → Mobile app categories Negative → Add two negative categories for both Google and Apple apps. And that’s it. From then on you’ll not see mobile apps in your list of placements.

  1. Enhanced CPC vs Max CPC: I don’t like the fact that when you create a new campaign, by default the bidding model is Enhanced CPC. And my feeling is based out of a general distrust of the bidding algorithm to know anything about the conversion behavior of people as it relates to the offer.

    In order to use target CPA bidding, Google says that you need to have 15 or more conversions over the course of 30 days. Which I think makes sense as you’ve got some behavior to fuel the algorithm. Whereas when a campaign starts out with CPC bidding, there is no pre-recorded data or behavior. This might contribute to the higher CPC values at the beginning of the campaign, which might be due to Google’s automation thrashing to attenuate the signal.

4. New Microsoft Ad Features for the win

John: Some new features in Microsoft Advertising are:

  1. Use LinkedIn data to target ads: The LinkedIn Profile Targeting has been live for all for over a month. This is the first time when data sets from both Microsoft and LinkedIn are coming together. You can now layer in information from a LinkedIn profile like company name, job function, and industry to target highly relevant audiences in-text ads, DSAs, and Shopping Campaigns.
  2. Multi-image extensions: Microsoft recently added to their Image Extensions capabilities so that users can now add multi images, effectively a carousel with your search ads in SERP.
  3. Availability of Stock photos: Microsoft Advertising has partnered with Shutterstock to provide an access to 300 million commercially licensed images to advertisers.
  4. Microsoft Audience Network: It’s a native ad platform where you can showcase search campaigns. You also get an opportunity to bid on placements on MSN.com, the Edge browser, Outlook.com, and a host of other publishing partner sites. In order to save marketers from double work, our new functionality can help you replicate information from Google Display Ads (which are truly working) to Microsoft Advertising.

5. Be mindful of your bid adjustments

John: Everyone needs to be really mindful when you’re applying bid adjustments. If you have bid adjustments at every layer, that can get out of control in a hurry. So things like age, gender, location, in however many audience groups you’ve stacked in a particular group or campaign need to be strategically placed.

Conclusion

PPC campaigns can prove to be of immense importance in paving way for your organization or business. With the ever-changing dynamics of search marketing, marketers need to be on alert about how they handle their accounts. Giving up complete control to default settings might hurt your accounts more than you can comprehend. 

To make informed decisions, keep discussing strategies and tactics with the community and your peers. Look to industry leaders for actionable solutions that actually bring you results. 

Next week on PPC Town Hall, we are jumping back in discussing best practices for Holiday shopping with prominent e-commerce and shopping experts. Join us in the session to ask your questions!

Google limits search terms data, the demise of cookies & more: PPC Town Hall 22

No matter how many updates or changes happen in search marketing, some things remain constant, like the importance of data. It’s no secret that PPC marketers rely heavily on good data to influence their automation and build powerful strategies. 

With all the changes taking place, we need to stay vigilant for anything Google throws at us. Setting up intelligent measurement systems to assess your PPC account success is a necessity, now more than ever.

So this week on episode 22 of PPC Town Hall, we decided to dive deep into all things data and analytics that give search marketers nightmares. Our expert panel, featuring some of the most experienced minds in the community, shared their tips and tactics to build solid PPC strategies.

Our panelists for the week:

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are 5 insights to help you understand how to utilize data and analytics to encourage your PPC authority.

1. Living with Google’s limits to search terms reports

Kirk: So basically Google rolled out a change where they would no longer be showing search terms that are over a certain traffic level to advertisers. This is significant. Now in your search term reports, you don’t have access to around 30% of the data for the terms that are incurring costs. Marketers have been wondering what this means or whether it’s ok to make such a deduction.

Aaron: We haven’t put out a piece about it yet. But a lot of our clients have asked us questions like whether 50% of the data or so will become inaccessible. The thing to remember about search term reports is that a lot of it normalizes over time.

My theory is that it’s all one impression one-click searches, so if/when they’re searched a second time, they’ll start to show in SQR’s. There’s a lot of controversy around it but we need to see what happens. We are still trying to unpack what it is and what is the necessary criteria, but want to see the dust settle as the report fills out.

I actually predicted the end of keywords two years ago. For me, search is looking more and more like a DSP, like it’s a pragmatic land now. So if you think about an earlier time, a lot of this data was hidden or you’d have to pay more for full visibility. It kind of looks like how things were in the early 2000s.

2. Figuring out advertisers’ rights

Kirk: I truly don’t think that the advertisers own the data (that fight is between the user and platform). But the question is what is an advertiser paying for? Is it just strictly access to the platform? Or is access to the platform and the data that allows you to advertise well?

On another philosophical note around Google and advertisers, the constantly changing landscape from what was originally agreed upon to the system in which we are reliant on them. And Google pretty much has most market share. So they have created all this and now they keep shifting the goalposts.

Basically, this is all about search, the keyword, communication, or intent. And now all of this is starting to change. A lot of the advertisers’ frustration is not just around figuring out the shift, but also that the reforms keep getting worse for us.

Is it becoming more and more difficult to communicate to Google on what advertisers would like to see happen? Yes. Basically, Google is pursuing a strategy that pushes to kind of monopolize the whole dynamic. As Google pushes to wall off the data and turn to a more audience-focused programmatic type approach, they are behaving less and less like a paid search advertising platform and more like a traditional media platform.

3. Building runways for automation

Aaron: A lot of our philosophies are around building runways for automation. We know the automation is going to make mistakes, it will have its good days and bad days. So we make sure that these runways are appropriate to give enough room to help the automation succeed. Runways are basically more of how we structure things by intent, forecasted outcome, and conversion rate.

Talking specifically about Google’s automation and Smart Bidding, Google optimizes based on expected revenue and expected conversion rate. So it has to learn and figure out those points – if we can put things in runways, where we have different groups for different goals that get different optimizations.

This way the automation has a runway within a target, a consistent marketing goal and doesn’t have to guess much. If we can control the inputs and make sure that the machine is optimizing based on what we know is right as a business, agency, or customer, it minimizes the downside and lets it do what it’s good at to improve outputs.

4. Strategizing for the right data

We are trying to purposefully have more strategic conversations. Currently, the human element is used to determine the bounds and objectives for automation. There have been times when I have deliberately pulled out of smart bidding to go full manual, and not because I think smart bidding or automation can’t get to that level, but that it still lacks in certain ways right now. 

Acknowledge the fact that at some point, some developers will write a code that will improve various forms of automation. We’re just not there in every way yet! And so you need to act accordingly. Understand the nature of the automation right now and build things around it and then adapt as automation evolves. Humans need to figure out how to utilize automation as it continually changes.

5. Accepting the demise of cookies

Aaron: It will be a lot more first-party data, the information you collect, and how you can use it. Privacy moves by Europe with GDPR will certainly be a lead-in to what the rest of the world is going to be. Just like we are seeing a rise in software companies just for Google Ads management, there will be a rise in data matching platforms that can operate best under GDPR regulations.

Figuring out how you can take out the important data, you do need to tie in all the information together. I am a bit encouraged by the concept of a cookie-less world as it will make us a little bit smarter and craftier in terms of branding and messaging.

Conclusion

One thing is clear: we’re never going to have everything perfect all at once. We can argue in favor of advertiser rights, automation, and bidding strategies all we want. But we need to be flexible and accommodating of any changes in order to keep doing better for our clients and businesses.

As for me, I’d like to see some updates to the Google API to make up for all the missing stuff. I hope in 2021, a lot of the things that we don’t have API access to (like competitor data in the auction) get fixed. At Optmyzr, we want to build out simpler automations that our customers can depend on to make smarter decisions.

What do you want to see from Google in 2021? Tweet us!

Omnisend’s 8 Best Practices for Shopify App Advertising in 2020

Among the main contributors to Shopify’s growth are the multitude of apps available on its platform. Indeed, some of the top Shopify apps make it easier to develop, grow, and maintain online businesses. But how do you use them to advertise your e-commerce store and grow your revenues in today’s business environment? Here are some of the best practices you should employ this year:

1. Prioritize personalization

Source: https://apps.shopify.com/omnisend

It’s critical for today’s consumer to feel a connection with the brands that they patronize. So, whenever you reach out to your customers, make sure that it’s with a highly relevant message.

There are apps that seamlessly plug into your Shopify store that give you incredible personalization options. Such software allow you to segment your subscriber base in great detail in order to reach out to them with highly converting messages. With the right tool, you’ll be able to target your customers not merely based on their profile data but also their specific activities or shopping behaviors.

2. Focus on customer retention

Source: https://apps.shopify.com/swell

Acquiring customers is much more expensive than retaining the ones you already have. Plus, it has a greater impact on your bottomline. In fact, even a 5% increase in your customer retention rate can boost your profits by up to 95%.

One of the best ways to cultivate customer loyalty is to maintain a compelling rewards program. By rewarding your customers for every interaction with your brand, you’ll easily boost repeat purchases and strengthen relationships with your customers. All it takes is finding the best Shopify app to integrate into your store.

3. Recover abandoned carts

Source: https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-top-7-reasons-for-shopping-cart-abandonment-tips-for-avoiding-them/

About 7 out of 10 of shoppers on your store will fill up their carts without checking out. Often, that happens either because of unexpected shipping costs or they’re simply not yet ready to purchase. But no matter the reason, it pays to lure these shoppers back in.

Some Shopify apps allow you to build automation workflows that identify cart abandoners and re-engage them through personalized and targeted messages. This allows you to revive what would have already been lost sales. You can also recover abandoned carts by setting up exit-intent pop-ups as well as retargeting ads.

4. Engage in retargeting

Source: https://www.business2community.com/marketing/17-retargeting-ad-statistics-will-make-retarget-right-now-2-infographics-01464774

Retargeting can be useful not just for cart abandoners but also for window shoppers, which are common even in e-commerce. The good news is that there are digital tools that allow you several chances to convert online window shoppers into actual paying customers. This makes a significant impact on your revenues, as window shoppers are 70% more likely to convert with retargeting.

With Shopify apps, you can easily run retargeting campaigns on sites like Facebook, Google, and their properties (e.g. Instagram, Youtube, and Gmail). These allow you to integrate your shop data and manage your entire marketing strategy on a single platform and drive traffic to your Shopify store.

Source: https://sixads.net/blog/shopify-traffic-channels-generating-sales/

5. Optimize for mobile

Source: https://apps.shopify.com/shopney-mobile-app

Transactions on mobile devices are expected to make up at least 50% of all ecommerce sales. So, it’s essential that you have a platform that’s optimized for the mobile audience. That means making sure you have an incredibly responsive website. Or, if it makes sense for your business, you can build your own native app.

Mobile app builders on Shopify make creating your own native mobile app remarkably easy. These software don’t just make it easy to develop your brand’s ecommerce app but also provides everything you need to offer a good mobile customer experience. Typically, that includes features like simplified checkout process, in-app messaging, and rich push notifications. When you are planning to improve your ecommerce business, mobile should be on priority list.

6. Make the most of social proof

Source: https://apps.shopify.com/loox

User reviews are valued by 88% of shoppers just as much as personal recommendations. Given this, it pays to use the reviews you already have not only on your social media pages but also everywhere else you can manage. These are especially valuable on your product pages.

Shopfiy apps allow you to easily integrate social proof like user photos and product reviews onto your product pages. By using these apps, you make your web visitors more likely to complete a purchase.

7. Produce interactive content

Source: https://apps.shopify.com/pickzen

Interactive content like quizzes and questionnaires is one of the most effective lead magnets for retail websites. This advertising tactic has an average lead capture rate of 31.6%.

Apart from engaging quizzes, among the best ways to use this tool is to produce questionnaires that lead to highly relevant product recommendations. Shopify apps don’t just make it easier for you to create these interactive content but also capture data and gather insights from your users.

8. Host engaging contests

Source: https://apps.shopify.com/gleam

A chance at winning enticing prizes can be an excellent motivation for your customer to help you grow your audience and boost your brand’s popularity. If planned correctly, hosting contests can also be a cost-effective advertising tactic.

Today, there are Shopify apps that allow you to easily create online competitions or giveaways. These tools provide everything you need not just to develop and run your contests but also to pick winners, verify entries, and capture data.

Conclusion

Shopify has enabled hundreds of thousands of businesses to reach online audiences. Its success as an ecommerce platform is undoubtedly driven by its versatility. It is simple enough for novices to navigate but also dynamic enough for experienced digital retailers to get exactly what they need.

But to really make the most out of the platform, you should learn to identify the best Shopify apps to support your business. Take advantage of them to advertise your shop, grow your audience, and nurture your customers. Consequently, you’ll enjoy incredible revenue growth as well as a stellar brand reputation.

How to Dominate e-Commerce in Q4 2020: PPC Town Hall 19

As we enter September, PPC marketers everywhere are gearing up for Q4 and the coming holiday season. Online retail will come alive, with businesses planning their strategies to woo consumers.

After a challenging year, and as many advertisers and agencies are regaining their footing, Black Friday and Christmas could be exactly what the PPC doctor ordered.

So as you start planning for your brands and clients, we thought you could use a hand.

This week on episode 19 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to some experts on the cutting edge of e-commerce and shopping campaigns:

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are the top insights from this week to help you navigate, plan for, and dominate e-commerce in Q4 2020:

1. How 2020 is different for e-commerce 

Katie: One thing that we know for sure is that this year, we are going to experience a different kind of holiday. At Google, we are preparing on all fronts to help our customers. We have been seeing a penetration of e-commerce on all fronts.

According to various studies, e-commerce has grown more in the last two months than in the last decade. There’s a potential that the level of demand starts increasing as early as October. Being prepared for this, for example on inventory and logistics, is going to be incredibly important as we enter the Holiday season.

This year, around 72 % of Holiday shoppers are going to shop online which is bound to create a huge demand. Brand loyalty is starting to become a thing of the past as people start discovering new brands through Google and social media.

So newer brands can take this time to get discovered more to drive their sales.

2. Getting ready for Q4

Katie: In 2020, we are already 27% above demand levels as compared to last year. Getting ready for that demand as we get close to November and December, or even as early as October is extremely important.

At present, we are at a planning stage with our clients where we are discussing their Q4 goals. Essential things like logistics, promotions, inventory, or even shipping criteria are super important to plan for right now. This way you are preparing for any possible scenarios (like delays) in the future.

From an advertising perspective, this is the time to get the fundamentals down. Do you have tracking set up correctly? Have you looked into automation solutions? Have you checked out your shopping feeds?

Polish everything to make sure you are ready to go and are up to date in the months prior to Q4.

3. Explore free product listing ads by Google

Katie: Free listings are a great way for people to dip their toes if they are curious about feeds. It is really important to be there and have your inventory aligned. We have found that both from the paid and unpaid standpoints, they work better together when you’re covering all bases.

Free listing is a very powerful tool for research and easy to set up with third-party apps. You also get an option of integrating if you have a physical store. So, there’s a lot of things one can do with feeds and that is going to be really important this year.

Elizabeth: Working with many channels like Amazon, Walmart, or Google, being able to understand inventory levels in real-time is very critical. For example, if you happen to over-sell in one or more marketplaces, they will penalize you heavily. If you cancel your orders, your cancellation rate goes up and you could lose the channel.

4. Account for changes and demand

Duane: All automations are correct but in the right context. When you see too much data being fed into the system and that not every system can handle it, shift to something else. We try to keep a last 7-day average as long as we are on track. Beyond that, it becomes a question of whether the systems can handle the changes.

We had certain accounts where smart bidding did amazing, while with others, it just spiked the CPA. When the CPA kept on rising, it made sense to shift to manual. So really it depends on a case to case basis, taking into account what happened in the last 7 or 30 days.

5. Accounting for customer lifetime value

Elizabeth: LTV (life time value) always depends on the brands and how they are set up as a business.

We’ve set up Amazon attribution for some brands that are unable to measure how consumers who begin at Google, convert at Amazon. Some clients are able to do things like LiveRamp and audience matching.

We are dependent on our clients to fill us in at some places since we don’t get to see the level of their financials and how they see their businesses.

6. Look at different platforms to gain more audience

Duane: A lot of people will spend all their money on just Google and Facebook which limits their audience scope. Apart from these two channels, people do spend a lot of time on TikTok, Snapchat, and even Pinterest. So if all your capital is directed to just a few channels, you are bound to lose this shopping season.

Look at different platforms to really make use of your spend. While it’s easier to manage one platform, if you can bring in a contractor or hire an agency, you can benefit from other channels as well.

Being successful in Google or Facebook is definitely not enough. For example, YouTube, which is owned by Google, is a whole other world. And you need to be there if your customers are there.

Elizabeth: It’s likely necessary to be on 3-4 different platforms this holiday season. Just so you can be where your customers are when they are ready to convert.

Conclusion

The coming months tend to form a large chunk of revenue for any retail-focused business.

Think holistically — this year more than ever — about what can actually attract customers to stores and drive them to purchase. Logistics like last-mile delivery, payment methods, and supply chains can make or break a successful plan.

Keep your eyes open for more shopping content from Optmyzr in the coming weeks, including another e-commerce PPC Town Hall on September 16.

How to look beyond ROAS for optimization: PPC Town Hall 17

Many marketers who live and breathe ad spend value ROAS as the holy grail of advertising. For many, it’s a way of calculating and formulating next steps to achieve high(er) revenue. While this metric does forecast quite well, one question that arises is how useful it is for long-term growth. 

With the use of retargeting as a way of fulfilling ROAS targets, PPC professionals might not consider incrementality as a way to get good results. Some sharp minds, however, have turned to customer lifetime value for better optimization with maximum profits.

So this week on episode 17 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to our panelists who are obsessed with driving better results for PPC campaigns:

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are 5 insights on how to look beyond ROAS to optimize PPC.

1. Understand the problem with ROAS

Andreas: In large retail organizations, Finance is responsible for both budgeting and setting performance targets. While finance has profitability KPIs and new customer acquisition goals in mind, they translate them into ROAS targets. Often they don’t understand profitability or CLV isn’t a random byproduct of some advertising campaign, but rather something which you can explicitly optimize for.

Once ROAS targets are set, the easiest way to achieve them is to sell products with low margins and high return rates…usually to their existing customers. However, at the end of the budgeting cycle, they usually find that even though they have achieved their ROAS targets, profitability is down.

In the subsequent budgeting cycle, the ROAS target is tightened based upon the weak profitability. This vicious cycle can only be broken by setting other targets than RAS.

2. Consider profit on ad spend

Frederik: You need to calculate the real gross profit on every single order, followed by doing the attribution and looking at customer LTV (lifetime value). You need to work on the profit on the first attribution.

We use POAS (profit on ad spend), which is richer in ad spend before sending out the data to the channels. We calculate all our orders, profits on them, cost price, shipping cost, and payment fees. Then we send these to the platform so that one can make transparent decisions.

3. Put the right information in the system

Andreas: There’s a fundamental difference between how we once did things and what we’re doing now. The levers once used to excel in digital marketing have changed dramatically. In the early days we optimized keywords, ad copies, and landing pages; things that weren’t fully automated.

But AI has made all of these activities redundant. To differentiate from the competition today you need to ensure you optimize for the right targets and that you can accurately measure the value of each single click…and feed your algorithm with first-party data. Putting the right information back into the system is key to optimizing beyond ROAS.

In order to activate your data you need to first assess the exact order margin, then deduct the expected returns. As a second step you need to know whether an order was done by a new customer or an existing one. If it was a new customer who purchased, future purchases are to be expected, so you add a (residual customer lifetime value on top of the first-order-margin.

Ultimately, you need to slice this entire value if there were several clicks involved. The end goal should be to attain the value of each and every click. This is a prerequisite for bidding systems to work for your specific business.

4. To retarget or not?

Andreas: Whoever is curious to see the impact of data activation should do one experiment. First off? Let tROAS run. Then, in one instance, you provide the first-click data. In the other, last-click data. Analyze the retargeting share of both settings and you’ll see only a small retargeting share through the first click; as all the credits get allocated to it.

What happens if you test for incrementality? You’ll see that the more likely a user is to buy, the better the results will look, albeit with lower incremental impact. Nobody today can answer this question: whether to bid up – or down – on your retargeting activity.

I believe that attribution systems have completely failed. They assume that advertising must be responsible for the sale…and so it allocates credits based on different parameters. The only thing of value is to run isolated incremental audience-based models. It’s here where you can truly find out the scope of impact.

5. Go beyond attribution

Frederik: We have a dashboard where we take away the attribution fully. We actually look at gross profits, usage on ad spend, and gross profit after ad spend by keeping their ratios the same. This way you can actually see whether your gross profit will increase or decrease if you don’t change the ratios. After this, you can try to allocate with some attribution. This way you can look at the financials rather than just the attribution.

Conclusion

While ROAS might have been the guiding light of the past, one can’t forget that what are essentially Google’s metrics might not accurately reflect your client’s or company’s goals.

The only way to sustain a ROAS-driven system is to layer different rules on product categories. Even geolocations seem to have an effect on ROAS targets; you might find, for example, that the customer acquisition rate is higher in New York than in San Francisco.

It’s hard to automate some things fully as you might not have the same targets across different locations and products. The only way to fix that right now is to move towards a conversion tracking and attribution system that takes smaller things into account, like locations and incrementality.

3 Questions to Ask Every PPC Software Provider

Almost every brand and business relies on PPC to help them reach and sell to the right audiences. The key to doing so at scale is choosing dynamic, multi-faceted software that can help you achieve your goals.

If you’re a PPC marketer, you’ve probably already come across several of these tools — and possibly even use one of them. But how do you know which one is right for your business?

• Which tool aligns best with your needs and targets?
• How do you know if an investment will yield dividends?
• And what should you be asking the different companies you talk to?

Optmyzr CEO Fred Vallaeys recently caught up with Aaron Levy, Tinuiti’s Group Director of SEM to discuss these topics — and more!

Here are some highlights from Aaron’s responses, including the three most important questions you should ask every PPC software provider you meet.

1. How does this tool make things better for me?

Marketers need to constantly evaluate what a particular tool can do for their clients and their own organizations. Does the tool allow you to provide better results so that you can spend more — and, in turn, charge more? How can you deploy it for your clients’ businesses?

Hear Aaron’s take on identifying tools that make you better

Some software costs quite a bit to set up, and if you end up not using it, then there’s that cost to absorb as well. Even when you sign up for a trial, setting up new tracking codes and restructuring your client’s campaign a certain way around the tool — getting out of that can be extremely difficult.

For example, some tool providers will give you a three- to four-month onboarding period where irrespective of you liking the tool or not, you have to stick with it.

2. What does it do that other tools can’t?

We know that Google, Microsoft, and even Facebook have pretty robust tool suites. So having a ‘proprietary bid algorithm’ is not much of a differentiating factor. Prospective providers should be able to tell you what their tool can do that your existing one can’t.

Ask your software providers how they’re different. If they can’t answer it, why should you switch?

Watch Aaron speak about identifying the unique value of a product

Check where you are in the PPC spectrum.

Are you a true expert, or are you doing the basics? An engine tends to do a good job for the average advertiser. But if you work for an experienced PPC agency and have time-consuming strategies, that’s when you want to start looking for the right tool.

More often than not, advertising engines fail to comprehend what you really want to do.

Aaron’s Take: We have a lot of clients who use a lot of offline data sources, and we’ll pass information back and forth. In these cases, we look to whichever tool is most powerful as clients don’t want Google to have access to that data. Or sometimes, even Google can’t really do what we (and clients) want to.

3. What’s my return on investment?

While search advertisers are very familiar with metrics like CPC or ROAS, buyers need to know what return on investment to expect. Returns can be driven by overheads, like when an agency buys software that lets them do more with a smaller workforce.

It can be in the form of time, like software that potentially saves your team hours each week to help you focus on other targets. And while this might not be a direct output, value more often than not justifies the use of new software.

Listen to Aaron discuss how to determine return on investment

Bonus Questions

1. How flexible is your tool provider? What kind of support will you get?

Aaron’s Take: A lot of times, especially when a software developer is trying to get their foot off the ground, they forget about customer service. It translates to: Sales guys done, have fun!

A very sales-driven organization won’t extend support in helping customers realize their tool’s features and services. There needs to be better communication between agencies and software providers to answer questions related to the software’s capabilities.

Watch Aaron discuss the pitfalls of disconnected customer support

2. What’s the road map?

As end-users, you need to check whether each tool is heading in the right direction. Find out what software providers are working towards. Irrespective of how much you plan to use the tool, it’s important to be aligned with their vision.

3. Are you looking for a piece of software? Or a back-end process?

Fred’s Take: When I was launching Optmyzr, I made sure to develop the product in a way that it didn’t rely heavily on back-end processes. It was really important for me to launch Optmyzr as software. It is a self-serving system where you can watch explainer videos and get started.

Relying heavily on back-end processes has many disadvantages, one of them being the changing employees who essentially perform all the basic search tasks. While it may look like a smooth-running system at the front, there’s always a person pushing all the buttons.

Conclusion

While the list of questions you could ask a PPC software provider is endless, these are some of the more critical ones to consider.

Focus on the needs and goals of your clients and your organization; keep your personal goals as a marketer in mind; and assess and analyze at length to make an informed purchase.

Most of all, be ready to ask some hard questions of software developers — and be ready to walk away from something that doesn’t fit your needs. Software is not just about cost, but the value it provides and whether the two of you are a good fit together.

5 Insights to Build a Personal PPC Brand: PPC Town Hall 16

While every marketer wants to leave their mark on the industry, very few become true experts. To be influential in the market today, you need to have credibility, and invest time and effort to hone your craft.

The reward: Not only do you get a chance to be a part of something bigger, but you get to shape others who’ll also make a difference to your industry.

Furthermore, having a strong personal brand helps win more business opportunities, both for yourself and your organization.

So this week on episode 16 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to the two most influential PPC experts of 2020, who brought their shared experience to the table:

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are 5 insights to help you start building your personal PPC brand.

1. Learn how to build a good pitch

Michelle: I’ve spent a lot of time writing pitches, submitting them, and getting rejected over and over again.

The thing that helped was to reach out to people who had spoken on similar panels to mine. I asked them how to make a good pitch. Their insights helped me understand what to write or which format to use. I also reached out to session moderators to get their take on the subject.

Purna: For anyone who wants to submit a pitch, I have two tips that have been helpful for me.

Ask yourself what the key takeaways are for your audience; make sure you’re sharing three or four actionable tips. And add more specificity to your content; discuss the angle you’re bringing to the topic.

2. Conquer your fear of speaking on stage

Purna: Look through the material delivered by your favorite speakers to see what actually resonates with you, and practice to remove the barriers in your head that are making you nervous.

Make sure your content is adding value to your audience. Keep an eye on the discussions happening in your industry, and keep up with different topics and themes. Then get feedback; reach out to other experts to get their opinion. 

Enjoy yourself and have fun!

3. Keep your audience engaged

Purna: Try to bring everyone onto the same page by asking your audience if they don’t understand something. I take 60 seconds to go over it and then take it from there. You want everyone to benefit from your content and not miss out due to a lack of background knowledge.

4. Start writing

Michelle: If you can’t speak at shows, write. Start writing and put your smarts out there. This way, you’ll always have something to refer to and it will show others that you know your business. Don’t be afraid to start sharing your thoughts within relevant communities.

You’ll never get better unless you do it, so don’t be afraid that you’re not as good as you’d like to be. Don’t let perfection get in the way. Just start.

5. Quantify your passion project to your employer

Michelle: I’m fortunate to have superiors that understand the value and importance of writing and speaking. Being visible helps you bring in clients who have seen you on different platforms and at events, but also helps convey the expertise you and your team have to companies who may not have seen you speak at those events.

Conclusion

Juggling your job, a personal life, and your passion project can definitely be a handful. But if you’re passionate about what you do and believe you can help your fellow marketers, start now.  

Be consistently active in discussions about your areas of interest. Look out for updates and news on new products or paradigms. Talk to established experts and get their feedback on your content. 

More importantly, be consistent — Rome wasn’t built in a day. Keep making the effort and you’ll soon be growing your brand and business.

Solving Agency Challenges During Times of Crisis: PPC Town Hall 15

Running a PPC agency is challenging enough. Clients have to be kept happy, your teams have to stay on top of hundreds of fluctuations, and ad platforms are constantly changing and adding features to their mix.

Throw in something as unexpected as a pandemic and it can be easy to feel like you’re drowning.

So this week on episode 15 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to two PPC experts with a track record of success in helping their agencies weather numerous storms over the years:

As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

Here are 6 tips to help you steer your team through these challenging times.

1. Be a partner, not a vendor

Matt: It’s important to work out an ideal solution for an effective strategy. We have to be compassionate and understand everyone’s circumstances.

During the early months of COVID, we saw a few clients who wanted to pause their accounts or significantly cut down on their budget due to a lot of restrictions. We had to work with those clients, figuring out a way to remain working with them; something that works for both parties.

As places have started to open up, we can see that some of clients are coming back to get into business again.

2. Educate your clients

Brittni: When we take over a new account from a previous agency, we ask for KPIs or benchmarks that the previous agency was asked to deliver. It can be a little difficult, especially when clients have unrealistic expectations.

ROAS can be one way, but if a client is looking for a 4x return on $100 a month ($400 in sales), that’s not going to be as beneficial as spending $2,000 a month and getting $4,000 in sales, and then incrementally increasing ROAS.

Trying to find a balance between what clients are looking for and attainable goals is really important.

3. Set expectations from the start

Matt: It’s really important to understand what clients want to do with their business. What do they want from agencies? A lot of it goes back to how clients want to be. Do they want you to help them formulate a strategy and work together as partners, or do they want you to just pull levers?

If the client works with you as a partner, it’s important to go back to expectations and make your client understand your apprehensions and ideas. This way they can make informed decisions to best manage their accounts and goals.

4. Inspire confidence through your history

Brittni: A lot of it comes down to partnership, time and patience. Once you start to show growth and success, a client is able to have trust and confidence in what you’re doing. With time, they’re going to give you those levels of referrals, and those partners are going to be able to trust you. And then you can guide them through their strategies.

If you’re capable of running a successful campaign on a very limited budget, especially dealing with unglamorous products like tires, it indicates a strong sense of strategy which helps build client confidence.

5. Understand a price-sensitive market

Matt: In the context of COVID, a client that doesn’t have a major sticking point when it comes to price, that’s where things like curbside pickup and contactless delivery will help gain consumers.

While additional platforms for selling products definitely work for users, it’s beyond price. It’s more about offering something unique, especially in the time of COVID.

6. Know how to come back from a lull in business

Brittni: There’s definitely been a change in the type of messaging and targeting for different clients. Earlier, a lot of our clients shifted from paid advertising to SEO or local ads.

But as things are opening, these same clients are coming back to paid advertising with a different approach. Many of the campaigns we see today promote COVID safety and precautions. These are the clients who want to maintain customer safety. We need to focus on building brand awareness through any type of display advertising.

Conclusion

Most contingencies can be planned, but sometimes life throws you a curveball that no one can predict. In times like these, trust in your track record of success.

When client business is suffering, they can often have multiple fires to fight: supply chain, hygiene, and delivery come to mind. So a great agency that can continue to create value on the advertising front is worth its weight in gold.

Join us next week for PPC Town Hall 16 where we’ll be speaking to two of the leading ladies of PPC: Michelle Morgan and Purna Virji.

How to Start Selling the Easy Way On Google Shopping

Note: Smart Shopping campaigns have been upgraded to Performance Max in September 2022. We suggest you refer to these links below to know more about Performance Max.

Performance Max Campaigns Guide for 2023

Performance Max Guide: How to Diagnose Your Ecommerce Campaign Performance in 2023

Performance Max Campaign Tips for Retail and Ecommerce

How to Manage and Optimize Your Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max: 5 Effective Ways to Safeguard Your Campaigns in 2023

Earlier this year, Google made an announcement that changed the way advertisers perceived Shopping campaigns. By making Google Shopping listings free, the world’s largest advertising network forced everyone selling tangible products to rethink their PPC strategies.

Suddenly, this component of the Google advertising network became much more attractive.

At first, brands and PPC marketers were captivated by the prospect of free ad space. Once the initial hype faded, it became clear that only a portion of Google Shopping listings would be made free and that certain conditions had to be met.

To take advantage of these free listings, advertisers need to have active Google Merchant Center accounts and enable their products to show on all surfaces including Google Images, the Google Shopping tab, Google Lens, and Google Search.

As of late May, our conversations with experts like Kirk Williams of Zato Marketing revealed that an average of 5-6% of Google Shopping listings were made complementary.

But that’s not the only reason it makes sense to give your products Google Shopping visibility.

If like many other brands, your business or client are just starting to get involved in building Google Shopping campaigns, this article will help you figure out how to sell on Google Shopping.

In this article, we’ll explore:

How to take advantage of Google Shopping listings

Google Shopping allows advertisers to promote physical, shippable products with a greater amount of visual appeal. Consumers searching for ‘blue shoes’ or ‘leather couch’ can view and explore a range of product listings that match closely with what they’re looking for.

Google Shopping campaigns come in two varieties: Standard and Smart.

Image sourced from versafeed.com

Standard campaigns are built manually to deliver on highly strategic goals. These require some understanding of product groups, campaign structures, and other campaign components in order to achieve a specific goal, such as a target ROAS.

Smart campaigns on Google Shopping reduce the entry barrier by using machine learning and automation to speed up the process. This makes them ideal for small businesses with limited budgets, or advertisers who don’t have the time to build out Standard campaigns.

While Standard campaigns afford greater control over location targeting, negative keywords, custom scheduling, and network placement; Smart campaigns require historical data but will determine placement and other parameters for you based on past performance of other campaigns.

Google Shopping: A proven channel for product visibility

Google Shopping campaigns have always been considered a core part of the PPC marketer’s toolbox. They carry a visual component, which has proven to be more attractive than plain text when products are involved.

Here are four more reasons why Google Shopping is a proven way to give your products the visibility they need, especially with the current economic landscape in mind.

How to sell on Google Shopping the easy way

Google Shopping campaigns can be highly valuable if your business calls for them. But it can be confusing and tricky to build them out if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. Moreover, creating splits (e.g. by brand or category) takes a significant amount of time when done manually — and leaves you prone to human error.

Optmyzr’s tools for Google Shopping cover the full life cycle, allowing you to create campaigns and set structures from scratch. Use us to do the heavy lifting and help you create the campaign structures you want, quickly and without error.

With Optmytzr guiding you step by step, you can create both Standard and Smart Google Shopping campaigns and ad groups in just a few clicks.

Campaign Builder 2.0

Campaign Builder 2.0 is Optmyzr’s tool to build Standard and Smart Google Shopping campaigns from scratch. Anyone can link a spreadsheet or Google Merchant Center feed to get started in minutes.

Product Group Refresher 2.0

Product Group Refresher 2.0 optimizes existing Google Shopping campaigns by adding new products and product groups based on existing campaign structures. It looks at your current campaign structures and syncs with the feed to accurately reflect your inventory.

Machine learning provides suggestions, and you can even automate the entire process. For example, when new products are added to the inventory feed, Optmyzr can automatically create new product groups for them.

Manage Shopping Bids

This optimization identifies high-performing product groups, allowing you to raise bids for product groups that are driving results. It also shows which product groups are underperforming or failing, letting you lower bids for them.

By nature, this tool only supports Standard Google Shopping campaigns.

Shopping Analysis

One of our most popular Insight tools, Shopping Analysis helps Optmyzr users understand how their products are performing irrespective of structure. Use it to aggregate data and determine performance based on a number of different attributes.

Aggregate data by price to see the performance and ROAS that products at different price points drive. Or if you’re selling shoes, easily see which sizes are more popular and sell more, or which ones aren’t in demand so you can fine-tune procurement.

Shopping Analysis works with both Standard and Smart Google Shopping campaigns. With the former, you can use this aggregate data to change bids using the Attribute Bidder. For Smart Shopping, you can see which products are selling better — an insight that’s not easy to obtain in Google Ads.

Conclusion

While it’s admirable that Google is thinking of advertisers and supporting them with some complementary Shopping listings, there’s greater value to be experienced than just a couple of freebies.

Unlike services, products have shape and form — and people love to see what they’re buying before they make a purchase. Google Shopping campaigns enable you to do this while expanding your reach, allowing small businesses to flourish and hobbyists to turn passion into profession.

To learn more about how we can help you build and optimize Google Shopping campaigns with minimal time sink, write to us at support@optymzr.com or sign up to try Optmyzr free of cost.

6 B2B Tips for PPC Marketers: PPC Town Hall 9

After a break last week, PPC Town Hall returned on May 27 with a revamped format. With the ‘doom and gloom’ phase of the pandemic behind us, PPC marketers are increasingly focused on solutions.

Going forward, PPC Town Halls will be more topical and focus on key areas of concern, with actionable advice to help PPC marketers and their teams overcome ongoing challenges. You’ll also be able to ask questions of panelists before and during each episode, and watch and listen to previous PPC Town Halls anytime you like.

Find everything you need right here.

Joining us for episode 9 to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by PPC marketers in the B2B space were:

Here are 6 key insights from our panelists on how PPC professionals can help B2B brands position themselves for post-COVID success.

1. Start building your pipeline now.

B2B as a space is notorious for having lengthy sales cycles, ranging from the challenging (30-60 days) to the laborious (12-18 months). Depending on the size of a lead’s company, conversions may not happen for multiple quarters or fiscal years.

AJ believes that now is a good time to get ahead of that curve, and he thinks LinkedIn is the place to do it.

“Because of the uncertainty right now, people are afraid to sign big deals and contracts. So these leads who were in the pipeline are not closing,” he shared. “I get that B2B marketers are scared, but now is the time to be advertising — ad costs are the lowest they will ever be across all networks, it’s the cheapest way to get in with an audience, and people are spending more time on LinkedIn. More people, more attention, and lower costs — take advantage of that to build your pipeline and have conversations to build those relationships on the longer sales cycles.

2. Be ready for the coming rise in demand.

At the start of the pandemic, it was difficult to extrapolate any meaningful stories from relevant data. Now that we’re a few months in, there’s something to work with.

“Around mid-March when the pandemic was taking hold, there was a huge spike in e-commerce traffic, conversion rates and revenue,” he said.

“This good write-up on this COVID-19 e-commerce bubble by Mike Ryan, product management lead for Smarter Ecommerce in Austria, shows what they observed in Europe. The bubble was mostly likely a result of panic-buying of essentials like food, and business items like headsets and cameras for work-from-home remote meetings. After that spike, it settled into a pattern and we’re now in a trough.”

He also provided some advice for businesses whose products and services are in high demand, which might drastically shorten a once-drawn out sales cycle.

“If you’re a company that sells something directly related to reopening safely, your biggest issue is when things open back up, purchasing managers are going to want to buy your product and they’re going to want it fast. So in terms of messaging, be clear about what you can deliver quickly — and don’t discount.”

3. Keep your ads dynamic.

From messaging to responsiveness to inventory, nothing during this pandemic has been static or predictable. Businesses need to stay flexible in order to occupy a positive space in the minds of those who will buy their products and services.

Frank believes that one good way to do that is by structuring your ad content to follow a prospect’s progress through your funnel.

“At Digitopia, we have a concept called ‘follow the funnel’. That means as your prospect engages with your brand digitally and moves through that experience, the ads on all networks should recognize where they’re at and change to offer the next thing in the relationship,” he told our audience.

“So if they visit a cornerstone piece of content but didn’t take advantage of your lead magnet, then the ad should change to (drive them to) the lead magnet.”

For more insights, check out Frank’s book “Building Your Digital Utopia”.

4. LinkedIn is an expensive but high-quality filter.

One question that came up during this week’s conversation focused on filtering out unwanted clicks from tire-kickers and businesses that can’t afford your product or service.

AJ’s advice is to leverage LinkedIn’s built-in filtering capabilities — without breaking the bank.

“LinkedIn is very good at getting the best quality of prospects to your offers and sites. What it requires is that you have a great content offer, because their CPCs are too high to treat it as a true top-of-funnel channel; you’re paying bottom-of-funnel prices for a top-of-funnel visitor,” he said.

His advice?

“Get people to an offer that is gated — some kind of lead magnet — where it’s valuable enough that people will drop down past the top of the funnel into the middle.”

5. Evaluate. Communicate. Re-evaluate.

At the start of this crisis, many agencies shifted priorities from performance to strategy. While the needle is slowly moving back, Matt feels that it’s more vital than ever to truly understand what clients are going through.

“What’s really important now is staying on top of relationships with clients, and we’re talking to them about what they’re seeing — is the phone ringing, are RFQ numbers going up, is lead gen going up?”

He even provided an example of when communication can overcome a roadblock that might have otherwise been overlooked.

“In B2B, summertime tends to get a bit quieter. Things might be reopening but we still see a flat revenue line, and it may be due to that seasonal trend. So constant communication and re-evaluation is important.”

6. Consistency leads to revenue

Few things are more harmful to B2B marketing than irregularity — except perhaps consistently making communication sound like a pitch. Combine the two, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Frank reminded our audience that messaging is everything, and how you structure that messaging can make or break your success in the current environment.

“When a company is trying to engage their audience but hasn’t been consistent with it, there’s a ramp up period of 12-24 months before you see it become a consistent process,” he cautioned.

“Now add in what’s going on, and we see a lot of companies immediately jump ship. They say ‘We’re not going to do anything because now’s a bad time to be marketing’. Well, if your approach to marketing was product pitch-focused to begin with, you were doing B2B marketing wrong all along.”

Conclusion

It became apparent to us a couple of weeks ago that the PPC community was done feeling sorry for ourselves. As always, our resilience and analytical minds meant that we now needed to focus on fixing what we have the power to fix.

Now that we’ve moved to a topical format with discussions revolving around solutions, we hope the time you spend engaging with us on PPC Town Hall yields even greater returns. So be sure to bookmark this page to stay on top of everything.

In the meantime, we’re still here to provide all the support we can with new content, product features and more!

Customer Journey Mapping: The Real PPC Marketing Funnel

In paid search marketing, we consistently see marketers talk about the different levels of the marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, decision, or, top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and the bottom of the funnel.

Unfortunately, this way of thinking is most of the time inaccurate.

The issue with the process is that the consumer’s buyer journey is not linear. If anything, people bounce back-and-forth from awareness to consideration multiple times before coming close to a final decision, especially as we enter uncharted waters during the changes in our world.

To better grasp customer journeys, map out the actions, motivations, emotions, and thoughts of the user. What key messages need to be given to the user to get them to take action?

What PPC insights can we use to help them get there?

This thought process has further implications for how we create ads and how we nurture potential advocates of our brands and products. Let’s dive in.

Why are linear funnels wrong?

Can you think about a time when you were looking to solve a problem and you took a route like the one in the image above? I sure can’t.

Decision-making is a roller coaster of decisions and emotions.

• You have to understand your unique problem.
• You have to perform research on multiple brands.
• You have to align your problem with those brands.
• You have to go back and make sure this is the most cost-effective way to solve your problem.
• You go back, look at the brands, and see if you missed any big players you should’ve considered before.
• You walk away from your laptop frustrated and confused.
• You go back and make a brash decision and hope for the best (or maybe that’s just me?).

For marketers to fully connect with users at scale and sell them their products at the right point in time, it’s critical to understand these decisions at every stage of the customer journey.

How are marketers getting it wrong?

It is less about how marketers are getting it wrong, but more about how marketers may be missing a necessary step in their advertising efforts.

If you do not comprehend your target audience’s journey, then you will miss out on potential customers down the road.

So, what is a customer journey map?

A customer journey map is a visualization of every step a potential customer takes in completing a desired action with your company.

Customer journey maps allow you to pinpoint exactly where you need to interact with potential customers to ensure that they are aware of your brand — at every step of the marketing funnel.

Why is this critical?

Customer journey mapping allows the full understanding of customer interactions with a business. Take important events, actions, motivations, emotions, thoughts, messages, and pain points, and create a comprehensive visual that connects all of them together rather than one standard method, as shown above.

Think of customer journey mapping as a relationship development tool: how do you learn about your target customer and ensure that you know everything about them to make them feel safe by choosing your business?

Understanding your customer journey

To fully grasp your customers’ journeys through the buyer cycle, especially in these times of unforeseen crisis, you must understand specific interests and qualities about them.

There are various ways to work through these questions and identify all gaps in the necessary information to effectively market to the right audience at the right time.

Let’s lay some groundwork

Before you begin, get organized, and set your objectives. What are you trying to accomplish?

These objectives should take into account several different things:

• What are you trying to learn about your customers?
• What do their buying decisions show?
• What kinds of answers do they need?
• What does your customer know/not know?
• How long does it typically take for a customer to make an informed decision?
• Are decisions made through an informed, based on a hunch, or impulsive process?
• What personality traits does your target audience typically have?
• What demographic is your customer typically in?

Once you have gathered these lists of questions, create goals shaped around them.

Ultimately, you will take these questions and apply them to the next step: creating the target audience personas.

By gathering deep insights into your objectives, you can better understand goal setting in the future.

Target persona set-up

Target personas are outlines or breakdowns of realistic versions of your ideal customers.

To successfully create target personas, understand the basics of what drives that target audience to your website, including:

• Job title
• Age & other demographic information
• Industry
• Decision maker
• Biggest pain point
• Biggest need
• Position in the sales funnel
• Trigger points

Get creative with obtaining this kind of information through various analytics platforms such as Instagram Analytics or Google Analytics. There are surveying tools you can use to send basic informational surveys to your current customer base such as SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics.

You can find more information about personas in this article.

For a basic example, if you run a cloud operations company whose target audience is chief technology officers for enterprise businesses, your target persona may be as follows:

Breaking down potential next steps

Once you identify a few target personas, break down each step, based on their actions and motivations, emotions and thoughts, key messages, and funnel conversions.

Actions and motivations

As we previously discussed in creating target personas, the actions and motivations are what make up every step of the customer journey.

Once you have compiled a group of potential actions and motivations for a customer to take different steps with your company, list them out in the order of least to most likely to make a purchasing decision.

For example, if you sell software and determine that your audience is motivated by price and ease of integration into their current operations, mark those as most likely.

If you have also found that some customers learn about your brand through education revolving around your software’s functionality, then you would mark that as least likely.

Emotions and thoughts

Next, place-specific emotions and thoughts that could influence one to hop from one action to another. This is our first step at trying to place specific emotions to specific actions.

For example, someone who is frustrated with the lack of a comprehensive solution (emotion/thought) may take action to learn more about your company’s solution that fits their needs (actions and motivations).

Key messages

Next, determine what key messages you need to place that align with your potential customer’s emotions and thoughts.

These messages need to be action-inducing! Even further, incorporate your business’s unique value propositions and stand out in comparison to your competitors.

For example, a call-to-action supporting our target persona’s actions and emotions is “Learn for free how our comprehensive solution will improve operational efficiency”. Make it specific. Help them solve a problem.

Funnel steps and conversion points

Next, identify different points of the sales funnel where your audience can take action (either on your website or as a part of your sales and marketing efforts).

How are you going to get them to convert?

Take this opportunity to identify your most effective conversion points. For example, if you only use sales-heavy language, you may miss out on nurturing leads who may be weary to commit to a sale at that current moment.

Create gated content or even an email subscription sign up that gathers their information and keeps them engaged with your brand.

See below:

How do marketers react to the current environment

Right now, especially during the economic downturn, users might have different reasons they are buying — or not buying at all.

With economic uncertainty, the buying process is more thought out and conservative. By matching your advertising intent with that knowledge and being aware of specific user motivations, you can build deeper connections and improve sales.

With that being said, be empathetic and remember you’re speaking to humans. The messages you portray to your audience should match real feelings and hardships that they may be facing.

Even further, the content that you serve them needs to be aligned with the shift in the buyer’s journey.

For example, if you are a restaurant accounting software company, you may not be able to generate sales right now. However, you may be able to build your pipeline through relationship marketing and creating experiential content around “how to survive the economic downturn in the restaurant industry”.

Find ways to support your audience and you’ll find success.

Building it out

Creating your customer journey map example helps you identify potential places where you can create specific content and ad campaigns.

Create a visualization

There are four different types of customer journey map examples: current state, day in the life, future state, and blueprint. We’ve got options!

“Current state” visualizations illustrate what your customers do, think, and feel as they interact with your business. “Day in the life” visualizations illustrate what people do, think, and feel today, as well as how they internalize those feelings.

“Future state” illustrates what people WILL do, think, and feel down the road. “Blueprint” illustrates a current or forthcoming customer journey map but includes systems of people and technologies.

Depending on what journey map you create, ensure that it covers specifics that your business needs to cover.

For example, if you are creating a visualization that is based on the “current state”, ensure that each action, thought, and feeling the customer has as they interact with your business is matched with a step in your customer journey map. Once you have made your decision, add this information to your journey map to present a creative visualization.

Source: https://kerrybodine.com/the-4-types-of-customer-journey-maps/

Time for takeoff

Your customer base is constantly changing, and their needs, actions, motivations, and emotions change continuously. For example, if you target mainly B2B businesses for the past several years, and you are shifting into general software businesses, you may need to remap your customer journey to get in front of the right crowd.

Review this journey monthly and anticipate change, and it will change. Keep in mind, you’re building relationships, and they take time, effort, and a little empathy along the way.

Time to pivot?

Have you noticed a shift in your buyer journey? Are you noticing different user habits?

It may be time to pivot your targeting strategy.

Referring back to the previous example of restaurant accounting software — are there really many buyers in that industry during the shutdown? Probably not.

That doesn’t mean you cannot still market to them.

But for productivity companies like Slack and Zoom – how do you pivot?

It is all about maximizing your ability to target your total addressable market. Reach as many people that are looking for the solution your product provides, at the lowest possible cost.

The key, however, is to remain empathetic. For example, Zoom switched their messaging to “In this together.” They add clean messaging, that is empathetic, and right to the point.

Customer journey map examples

Source: NGDATA
Source: Columbia Road
Source: Edrawsoft

The path toward ROI

Customer journey mapping can take some time, yes, but pinpointing exactly what type of advertisements will reach and resonate with your customer can influence your ability to generate leads, improve sales, and advance brand equity.

Especially with the change in the current environment, it is important to maximize your ability to effectively market to your customers. You want to ensure that your message is met at the right place and time, or else it can negatively impact your brand equity.

Having that deep of an understanding of your potential customers is invaluable.

What other organizational & research tactics do you use to improve your understanding of your target audience? Share your favorite PPC methods, or let us know if you have any questions.

This article is a guest post by a representative from one of Optmyzr’s customers. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Optmyzr and its employees.

7 Digital Marketing Lessons from PPC Australia: PPC Town Hall 8

One of the most rewarding things about PPC Town Hall is how support and demand for our webinar isn’t just restricted to a few markets. And recently, we found out that the PPC community in Australia was missing out on joining us live.

That’s all the reason we needed to move this week’s webinar to accommodate our friends down under. Joining us for this week’s episode were three of Australia’s most seasoned digital marketers:

As always, you can view and listen to previous PPC Town Hall episodes here.

So let’s take a look at our panelists’ 7 digital marketing lessons from their experiences managing local and global accounts from Australia.

1. How long can the ‘new normal’ last?

“I’ve been amazed with how quickly everyone has adapted. Two months ago, working from home full time was ‘impossible’ for many organizations,” Mike observed.

“The knock-on effects — less pollution, less time in the car, property prices — will be pretty interesting to see. I don’t know yet what cultural changes will stick, but I feel like we might roll back some things if we don’t consciously design differences into our lives. And it would be a shame to lose this opportunity to make our supply chains more local or improve food security. In terms of consumer buying behavior, Amazon is an example of a company that comes out of this stronger than before.”

With that said, Mike also urged marketers to remain empathetic by remembering that we’re not all equally fortunate.

“We have to remember this is a pandemic of two halves. We and our teams are very fortunate to be able to work from home. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of jobs and businesses are just gone.”

2. Small businesses need all the support they can get.

Hit hardest during this crisis are small businesses, irrespective of industry. Many operate on low margins and don’t have the cash reserves to continue meeting expenses without regular revenue.

“Google My Business has done a lot for companies during COVID. One example is the ability to list that you’re not open to walk-ins, but are offering delivery or pickups. So for cafés and restaurants, GMB has done some very positive things,” Monte noted.

“That said, knowing a lot of people in restaurants and catering, they’re trying to move a bit away from services like UberEats and Deliveroo because of the huge margins (up to 30%). Most restaurants don’t operate on a 20% or 30% gross margin in normal times. So now they have their wait staff doing deliveries, and they’re finding new services that charge them a flat fee to place the order and have their own employees fulfill it. This needs to pick up, because the bigger services aren’t sustainable for small businesses.”

If you can, we recommend you buy local to support small businesses and give your economy the best shot at bouncing back quickly.

3. Hybrid business models are in.

While the situation is improving in many countries, there’s no clear and definitive end to the pandemic. Ben believes that businesses will need to look at combining different strategies to maximize profitability for some time.

“There are only two ways out of COVID: a vaccine or herd immunity. Every time lockdowns open up, there’s a spike in cases. So we’re probably indoors for a period of time, and this will change people’s buying psychology — it takes 30 days to form a habit and 60 days to break one.”

“Google is still the first thing people use to search for and find things. In April, we saw categories like restaurants go through the roof — and they’re still there. Earlier, restaurants used to have people walk down the street and pop in, but they will have to adopt a hybrid business model for a while yet. This might look like deliveries and takeout supported by limited dine-in capacity.”

4. Size does matter.

Every few decades, history throws us a curveball that creates winners and losers. Pandemics are one of these events, and the current one is drawing out the divide between the haves and the have-nots.

“It might not be common knowledge, but large organizations that have dedicated logistics and transport facilities have been able to maintain their supply lines,” Monte said.

“But for a lot of small businesses that might be importing from China for distribution in Australia, that product is usually in the belly of a commercial airliner carrying passengers. That all came to a halt and as a result, these companies found their supply chains had collapsed for a while. We actually had some clients who put their e-commerce stores on hold because of a lack of inventory.”

5. Work around the logistics.

There’s no doubt that the world’s supply chains are under stress. Businesses have two choices: crib about it or work around it. Ben has been helping clients achieve the latter.

“In March, stock was an issue. We had big online retailers who couldn’t get product, going from huge revenues to thinking about maybe closing the doors. So we pivoted to make sure they could do pre-orders and give attention to what was in stock. It’s amazing what little things like that and a bit of common sense can do for a business,” he shared.

“I think Display and remarketing are useful to make sure you’re getting in front of these changing business strategies, like curbside pickup. We believed we were seeing a lot of those trends here in Australia as well. We did some analysis of our MCCs and it looks like the data matches that.”

6. Pausing campaigns is unpreferred in both hemispheres.

During last week’s PPC Town Hall, Navah Hopkins made a passionate case for keeping campaigns on at minimal cost. This week, Mike echoed her sentiments.

“I’m reluctant to pause campaigns, having done that in the past with bad results. If we think a client will come back in a few weeks, we’ll wind stuff down to 1-cent budgets and leave it there. We’d rather spend a little bit than pause entirely,” he said.

“Interestingly enough, some European campaigns for one of our US clients have been on these 1-cent budgets. There was some trickle of clicks coming through. Every now and then you get a sale, so the ROAS was staggering at 500x. Of course, those outliers don’t make for very pleasant reporting!”

7. Truly great agencies are partnerships.

Led by people like Ben, PPC agencies and consultants are proving to be worth their weight in gold during this crisis.

“We have great clarity about our mission as a business — to serve and help SMBs succeed online. Many of our client managers see themselves as digital marketing business coaches, so they’re there not just to talk about Google Ads but what else we can do with client businesses,” he shared.

“When COVID hit, they needed our help more than ever. We immediately thought about all these industries that were going to be affected and how we can help them stop from shutting their doors. We developed some e-commerce packages, rolled them out at cost price, and built them out in two days. One thing we achieved was helping a coffee shop sell coffee beans online and survive that way.”

Conclusion

It’s always reassuring to learn that people doing the same work around the world share your mentality and vision. So it was refreshing to speak with not just one, but three champions of human and empathy-focused marketing (we heard plenty of support for local and small businesses).
Next week, we’re back to our usual time of 9 am PT / 12 pm ET / 18:00 CET and will be joined by two exciting panelists. Check out the details here!

From Phantom Menace to New Hope: PPC Town Hall 7

For the past six weeks, we’ve discussed how to adjust to this new normal and find hope in difficult situations. With signs of life starting to creep back into the digital advertising space, this week’s episode focused on solutions as we start to emerge from the sense of doom.

The panel for episode 6 included:

So without further delay, let’s dive into 9 insights that consultants, brands and agencies can use to guide the next phase of their PPC strategy.

And remember, you can watch or listen to past episodes of PPC Town Hall on our dedicated page.

1. People are starting to spend again.

“I saw something interesting with a furniture client who has both B2B and B2C e-retail,” David said. “Each one had a moment of total crisis where sales just stopped, and we were all trying to figure out why. In retrospect, consumer confidence had vanished — along with their money. But then it started to pick up around late March and early April.”

But that’s only half the story. While David’s client experienced slowdowns on both fronts at the same time, the recovery has been dramatically different.

“The interesting thing is the pickup for B2B has not yet brought them to parity with what they saw in January and February, while B2C is higher than they’ve ever experienced.”

2. Businesses are more flexible than ever.

During one of our first PPC Town Hall events, Julie Friedman Bacchini of Neptune Moon predicted that businesses can only succeed if they adapted to the prevailing situation.

Brandon has seen that play out firsthand.

“SMBs experienced a number of weeks with a lot of reluctance and trying to figure out what exactly was going on,” he said.

“I’ve been really impressed and surprised with our clients and the conversations we’ve had, and their attitude to getting back out there and maintaining their presence on digital. I’ve seen that more often than I expected.”

3. Courage is paying off.

According to Navah, “Clients who stayed the course throughout the flux are in an amazing position; the ones who pulled back their spend are experiencing a far more intense recovery. The former have been able to capitalize on cheaper CPCs and really own the ‘compassion conversation’ to stay top of mind.”

So what’s the final verdict: should you turn your campaigns off or keep them on?

“We can debate turning campaigns off versus keeping them on with a $5 budget, but leaving the campaign on can be worth the $400 or $500 you’d spend. It can help make sure you don’t face thousands of dollars in wasted time when you want to ramp things back up.”

4. There’s no formula for recovery.

Once again, another set of panelists confirmed that the absence of a playbook means they are handling each situation independently.

“I don’t have set times or dollar amounts [as benchmarks for the recovery phase], as the variables differ greatly from client to client,” David said. “When I sense that we’re going to have to adjust the budget significantly, I will often switch to manual bidding and try to steer the account in the right direction.”

5. Manual bidding might be necessary as advertising activity picks back up.

The lack of data to guide Google’s machine means that advertisers who paused campaigns will find it a challenge to jump right back into Automated Bidding.

“I’ve seen about a two-week period where campaigns coming back on benefit from manual bidding before re-transitioning to automated bidding,” Navah said. “What’s also been useful is target Impression Share with a bid cap just to protect the system. But for manual bidding, I don’t go more than two weeks provided we have conversion data.”

Read more of Navah’s thoughts on the subject in her latest blog post for Search Engine Journal.

6. Digital marketers can’t stay isolated.

With data scarce and attribution not so clear, the divide between digital and traditional media is narrower than ever.

“Bridging the gap between traditional and digital media has become a far more important conversation, and digital marketers need to be more comfortable interfacing with their traditional media counterparts,” Navah commented.

“Pre-COVID, we were comfortable living in our tower of data with perfect attribution, and this crisis has shaken the foundations of having a pure data approach.”

7. There is no ‘one channel to rule them all’.

Even hardcore specialist agencies that focused on one or two channels have been open to new things, like Brandon’s organization (un)Common Logic.

“One of the learnings of the last few months for me relates to diversification and having a few more channels at our disposal. We’re typically a direct response and PPC-heavy agency, and connected TV is one of the things I’ve been interested in,” he commented.

And speaking of exploring new things…

8. Now’s the time to experiment with creativity.

If you need an example of agency and brand teaming up to succeed by trying something unconventional, you’ll love this anecdote from David.

“We have a client who’s around the middle in terms of market share, and they noticed their competitors were drawing back in advertising. So we did a branding campaign of all Display Ads using no CTA,” he told us.

“We featured their name and logo, and something about the position they wanted to occupy in the minds of their consumers. We ran those ads on the sites of every major city’s media outlets and got many millions of impressions for almost nothing. It was surprising how much it affected sales — the numbers truly did shoot up.

“It’ll be another conversation whether that altered their position in the market, but a lot of those purchases were new.”

Talk about a curveball!

9. Years of pivoting have made agencies priceless.

Anyone who’s worked for an agency knows how agile and flexible they have to be. Turnaround times are short, deadlines are always looming, and agency pros have made a life out of pivoting at superhuman speed.

So who better to call when you need a partner who can change direction in a heartbeat?

“What we’re doing more of is double-checking and making sure things are working well. I think we’ve seen fairly consistent performance, but we’re spending a lot more time in the accounts making changes where necessary, and just providing that oversight where it’s needed,” Brandon shared.

“Our approach with clients has been highly consultative. The first thing we did was start having conversations not just about marketing needs, but what their businesses were going through. So we’re trying to adapt our strategy to that.

“We’re primarily a PPC shop, but we do have expertise in other areas, so we tailor our solutions to each client. Being able to pivot and stay flexible has been key for us.”

A glimmer of hope

It’s May, and while it feels like more than just a few months since the COVID crisis began, we’re starting to see some positive signs around consumer behavior and supply chains. With luck, we’ll start to see additional medical advances and a subsequent restart of the economy in earnest.

As we’ve said from the beginning, the only way out of this for the PPC community is by sharing all the information we have. One graph, one observation, one insight — any of these could spark an idea that leads to a solution we can all use.

Please continue to join us for our weekly PPC Town Hall sessions. You can add it on your calendar, subscribe to email notifications, access the podcast and videos from previous sessions, or catch the live Town Hall on ppctownhall.com. It’s one hour that might be the most valuable investment you make all week!

Google's 6 Practical Tips for PPC During a Pandemic

There’s no company that isn’t affected by COVID-19. Whether it’s lower than usual demand or a supply chain that’s unable to keep up, every business must adjust the way they advertise to the people who buy their products and services.

Customers understandably have high expectations that companies will provide value and act responsibly during this time. And with “the new normal” changing almost constantly, 71% of consumers say that they want to hear from businesses that can help them navigate this crisis, according to a joint study between Google and Ipsos.

We spoke to some friends at Google to get some actionable advice. If you experience changes in demand for your products and services, or volatility in your PPC data, here are some of the best practices they shared to manage your marketing campaigns through unusual times.

Phase I: Surveying the landscape

While you keep an eye on shifting trends, there are ways to alter your business plan, update your strategic approach, and adapt to the current situation so you can be there for your customers. Google has useful resources available to help you navigate this uncertain time.

Plan your way forward

To know where you need to get, you have to start by figuring out where you are. Google recommends answering a few basic questions about your business or client, and the impact of COVID-19 on operations and marketing.

Once you have the answers, you’ll be able to take steps to alter your strategic approach.

Use Google’s knowledge bank

There are a number of tools and resources developed by Google that can help you study the marketplace and understand consumer behavior.

And as you re-engage with your customers, you can also explore additional resources on Google My Business, Performance Planner, and Smart Shopping and YouTube campaigns.

Phase II: Assessing the situation

Once you’ve answered some core questions about the state of your business or your client’s, you’ll be able to start piecing together a strategic solution. What that entails will depend on multiple factors — demand, availability, visibility, geography, and more.

Here are four categories of situations that businesses find themselves in today.

A. Businesses at risk

These are companies in financial or operational trouble who need help staying afloat. Many are at risk of furloughs or layoffs, or likely to shut their doors.

B. Businesses facing some challenges

Some companies are experiencing threatening situations like supply chain shortages or decreased customer demand, and are unable to meet normal revenue targets.

C. Businesses that have pivoted

These companies have realized the need to adapt to the new normal, and are building awareness as they shift to producing something new.

D. Businesses in demand

Companies that are fortunate enough to be doing well are experiencing higher demand for their products. They want to discover newer ways to connect with and help customers.

Phase III: Building a new strategy

Depending on which category your business or client falls under, it might now be time to start putting together a paid search plan.

Keeping the current business situation and new marketing goals in mind, here are six common tactics you can use.

1. Keywords

Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Use the Keyword Lasso tool to discover new keyword suggestions, or the Negative Keyword Ideas tool to find keywords that are causing wasted spend. 

2. Creatives

Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: The Ad Text Optimization tool allows you to search for phrases or words across campaigns and instantly edit them. Use this to quickly and consistently make bulk changes as your messaging needs to reflect the rapidly changing conditions in the world.

3. Bids and Budgets

Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Conversion Grabber lets you increase Impression Share by raising bids for high-converting keywords that are missing out on traffic due to low ad rank. The Optimize Budgets tool can help you quickly re-allocate budgets based on how different campaigns are doing against your goals.

4. Target Constraints/Goals

Goals: Evaluate your new business strategies and confirm target goals. Set performance targets and customize settings to your unique business goals.

Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Use the Optimize Target CPA & ROAS on campaigns with automated bidding to increase conversions and Impression Share. You can also see converting ad groups that use other automated bidding strategies.

5. Account-Wide Best Practices

Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: The Rule Engine allows you to create data-based strategies, like removing non-converting keywords related to COVID-19. Or for a fun way to keep your account in shape, try the Workouts that combine multiple optimizations to achieve a specific objective.

6. Audiences

First-Party Audience Lists: Add all RSLA, Similar Audiences, and Customer Match lists to Smart Bidding campaigns.

Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Use the Customer Match List Updates tool (under Optimizations > Utilities) to keep your audiences in sync between your business data and Google’s audience repository.

Phase IV: Measuring the impact of your new investments

Once you have a new strategy in place, it’s important to keep a close eye on your campaigns to make sure they’re doing what you want them to. Even with automation, human context is critical to regular adjustments and optimization.

Here’s what you can do.

We hope these insights from Google enable you to make the right decisions for your businesses and clients. For any additional support, our friends at Google recommend that you visit the Think with Google hub or contact your Google Ads representative.

The 6 Weeks That Changed PPC (Maybe Forever)

The past six weeks or so have been transformational in so many ways. Businesses, agencies, and individuals face uncertainties and challenges, unlike anything we’ve experienced in the modern era.

Tough times always present monumental burdens for marketers. Knee-jerk reactions often include rapid reductions or eliminations of spend. Agencies worry about staying in business. Marketers worry about their livelihoods. 

For the past six weeks, though, Optmyzr has hosted our weekly online PPC Town Hall events. We initially launched the concept to simply get PPC pros together to commiserate, dust off, share some fears and optimism, and maybe get a few ideas about what to do next. 

The result has far exceeded what we hoped to achieve. 

To date, nearly 1,000 viewers have logged on, with the vast majority staying for the duration. We’ve had stellar panelists – marketing leaders who graciously share their insight and wisdom. Typically, these are the folks keynoting and leading sessions at those now-canceled industry conferences. 

PPC pros prove they are a solutions-focused bunch

Interestingly, starting about halfway through our inaugural Town Hall, questions started coming in about “what can we do now?” It was as if the PPC community knew it had a responsibility to the brands we serve as a higher calling. Rather than wallowing in dread, our community wanted to move forward and do great work. 

But how? There’s no roadmap for what we’re experiencing. 

Maybe we have a few things working in our favor. Many PPC pros are used to working in relative isolation. Whether agency or at-home consultant or in-house marketer, many PPC pros had unknowingly pioneered the concept of social distancing! We spend our time in the data, detecting anomalies, solving problems, coming up with strategies, and figuring out how to connect those searching with the brands that solve needs. 

The evolution of discussion from Episode 1 to Episode 6 last week has been amazing. Our community has done the very things noted above. Panelists have figured out ways to get up-to-the-minute data. We’ve examined, analyzed, opined, and theorized. Viewers have asked probing questions. 

Sharing the opportunities and potential pitfalls on a weekly basis has provided hundreds of PPC pros with the information they’ve needed to go beyond surviving the times to thriving in the times. 

One Hour Each Week Can Change Your Life

Okay, we all may be a little fatigued spending our days meeting via webcam and sometimes struggling to hear what someone is saying through a cheap laptop microphone. Folks are a little “Zoom Meeting’d” out right now. Understandable, since that’s how we’re forced to meet. 

We’ve been sourcing and testing different options and tech to make sure we have good audio, useful graphical information to share, and crisp messaging to make the one-hour Town Hall as valuable as it can be. Feedback tells us it’s getting better by the week.

I invite you to join us for next week’s Town Hall on Wednesday, May 6 at noon ET. Our guests will be Navah Hopkins, and David Szetela, both on the list of 2019’s Top 25 PPC Influencers. They’ll be joined by Brandon Jones who has a unique perspective on how SMBs are reacting to COVID-10 through his role at agency un(Common) Logic. 

Now that we’re into May, many states are actively easing business restrictions and slowly reopening commerce, creating big questions for PPC pros:

The next few weeks are critical. We want to help you navigate the times and be the leader that is needed.  

Our next Town Hall will be available live on our site this coming Wednesday. If you’d like to stay in the loop about upcoming topics and panelists, consider registering for the PPC Town Hall reminders or subscribing to our shared calendar. 

It might very well be the most valuable hour of your week.

Each Week of the Pandemic Era Brings New Insight: PPC Town Hall 6

When brilliant marketers share insights, we can get a sense of clarity in troubling times. This week Optmyzr hosted the sixth episode of our weekly PPC Town Hall gatherings. To date, we’ve had nearly 1,000 attendees participating in these timely, essential discussions about search marketing in the COVID-19 era. 

The response to our Town Hall concept has been terrific. We deeply appreciate the involvement of amazing panelists and the hundreds of attendees who watch, submit questions, and follow up with us.

You can see all of our episodes to date on our PPC Town Hall page. 

Week-6 brought another stellar panel of search marketing all-stars, including 

This week’s event focused heavily on the tools, data, and creative thinking that is helping PPC pros navigate the strange times we’re in. 

Innovative Insight Tools

There are some great new tools to help us make sense of search behaviors and underlying dynamics that may be flummoxing marketers. 

Aaron showcased the really cool COVID dashboard from the data and analytics experts at Tinuiti. We’ve referenced this dashboard in a few venues ourselves. The dashboard provides visualizations of month-over-month and week-over-week spend trends as well as indexed spend trends covering a wide range of sectors. 

Explore the dashboard. It’s free. All you need to do is provide your email address. 

Christi also showed some powerful insight tools that Microsoft is generating to provide intelligence into weekly trends in automotive, financial services, health & wellness, retail, tech & telcos, and travel. The Microsoft resources analyze marketplace impacts and provide meaningful context into indicators of recovery by sector. 

I encourage you to watch the replay of the session for deeper analysis, but some key takeaways from our panel:

Seeing clarity in the data

Is it even possible to trust the data that is out there? The brilliant AI machines and smart automations are, in many cases, confused.  The machines know it’s a weird time, but they don’t know we’re in a crisis. The machines understand data from the past to predict the future. But the past doesn’t factor in massive global shifts in how people are living their lives. 

Christi, Aaron, Jim, and I talked specifically about the use of RSAs and applying data to decision making. Aaron talked about moving from being data-driven to being data-informed. Look at data and best practices as very relevant, but we all need to view this information through very different lenses than we did two months ago. 

Christi encouraged search marketers to take a much more manual mindset with RSAs. The days of set-and-forget are gone (for now). The challenge for marketers today will be to apply critical thinking, creativity, assessment of messaging, geo differences, and other factors to make decisions better than the machines can do right now.

Jim echoed the same RSA points, and said he is heavily annotating analytics right now, due to the wildy dynamic environment marketers are in. We simply cannot compare anything from 12 months ago to make decisions now. He noted that like-for-like may never exist again, or at least not for quite some time. 

Panelists also encouraged marketers to allow themselves to be wrong on occasion. In many cases, hindsight will be the only indicator of the decisions being made right now. 

Amazon, Ecommerce, and “Black Friday” thinking

As panelists have discussed in earlier episodes, Amazon’s impact on the market is far different today than it was two months ago. Still the ecommerce behemoth, shifting priorities and temporary shipping extensions create opportunities for other providers to step in the ecom gap. 

Aaron and Jim both credited Amazon’s quick move to communicate extended shipping timeframes as a means of protecting the Prime brand. People associate Prime with same-day and two-day shipping more than they may associate it with the other services like Prime Video. Noting it’s better to underpromise and overdeliver on shipping. Cart abandonment that happens when people see shipping dates weeks out can help other providers – assuming their supply chains, inventory, and distribution can fill the void.

Christi added that for those doing Amazon sponsored ads, it’s essential to be sure the ads, promotions, and messaging actually align with what people are purchasing now. Careful consideration of how sponsored ads are being applied now is essential to prevent needless spend or to capitalize on filling near-term needs for things people will actually purchase. 

The ecommerce discussion also covered “Black Friday” thinking by many retailers. Balancing the potential perception that a provider is desperate against the perception of being viewed as opportunistic, the panel advised retailers to avoid keeping Black Friday type discounts from going on too long. 

Aaron summed up the panel’s thoughts when he noted, “The people who market well are doing well. The people who market poorly are doing poorly. With the Black Friday concept, some can look a little desperate and it can seem like some are addicted to focusing on month-over-month or ROAS on last click. Longer term marketers are looking at the edge of the funnel – seeing the whole funnel as opposed to just the bottom.” 

Light at the End of the Tunnel? 

Nobody knows a timeline for returning to something resembling normal, but the week-6 panel expressed optimism with discussions beginning to shift to recovery versus managing through the crisis. 

The tools shared above and all other data points can help search marketers have a better understanding of immediate factors, but also are now setting the stage for longer term thinking and decision making. Clearly we have a long way to go, but with each subsequent Town Hall, discussions are morphing and adjusting. Week-1 was more about being together and commiserating and trying to gauge “what the heck is happening?” Five weeks later, discussions are dramatically different. 

Invest an hour of your time and watch the replay of episode 6 on our Town Hall web page or listen to it as a podcast. Then sign up for next week’s live session, which will feature Navah Hopkins and David Szetela, both on the list of top 25 most influential PPC experts in 2019, and Brandon Jones from un(Common) Logic, an Austin-based agency.

Register today and we will see you Wednesday for PPC Town Hall #7.

10 Digital Marketing Truths to Remember: PPC Town Hall 5

As PPC Town Hall turns a month old, we wanted to take a moment to thank all our guest speakers, attendees, and everyone who has embraced the idea. From the beginning, you’ve expressed your support and helped share news of the Town Hall with new parts of the global PPC community.

Thank you for being part of the journey so far!

We created a new page for PPC Town Hall to make it easy to sign up for the next one and find old episodes.

Joining Optmyzr CEO Fred Vallaeys this week for episode 5 in an all-new panel were:

Let’s take a look at some of the core takeaways from this week’s edition.

1. No business remains unaffected by the pandemic.

“It’s almost a ‘feast or famine’ situation across commerce and service, and there are challenges with both scenarios,” Ginny observed.

Whichever side your business or clients fall on, there’s plenty to do.

“You’re either trying to drum up interest where demand has sunk through the floor, or figuring out how to deal with a surge in demand when the supply chain isn’t ready or you don’t have the resources to manage that surge.”

Joe observed similar trends in the context of site traffic.

“In many instances, brands are changing spending habits and adapting messaging. But some are simply getting so much traffic that they either can’t keep up with inventory, or because people are looking for anything even slightly related to their product, a lot of that traffic is unqualified.”

2. People want brands to add value to their lives.

Our panelists also provided some advice on how PPC pros can provide added value to businesses and clients by shaping conversations that their brands are part of.

“Don’t sound like a used car salesman; be your customers’ partner in solving a problem,” Joe recommended. “People are nervous, bored, and anxious; reminding people of that doesn’t inspire them to fall in love with a brand. Shift that messaging to talk about how you’re going to help consumers come out of this.”

Andrew believes brands should continue to talk about more than just pandemic-related topics.

“No one wants to hear about you supplying hand sanitizer; we want to be reassured. We want someone to talk about the things that mattered to us before, because it matters even more now. We should still care about climate change, talk about sustainability, and promote and support local businesses.”

3. Google is looking out for its loyal advertisers.

It’s no surprise that small and medium businesses have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of them, online advertising budgets have either dropped sharply or stopped altogether.

Google took notice and announced $340 million in ad credits to help keep these SMBs active on the  Google Ads network.

“We’re going to start seeing these credits for SMBs in late May, which will be the first phase followed by a continuous rollout,” said Ginny. “These are designed to help SMBs and smaller accounts sustain ad spend in the future. The credit amount will vary based on your historical spend.”

“To be eligible, you need to have been advertising (had active campaigns) for 10 out of 12 months in 2019, and also have been advertising in January or February of this year.”

It’s worth noting that Google is not extending these ad credits to franchise businesses, even if they meet the SMB criteria.

4. Now’s the time to try new things.

The hallmark of COVID-19 for marketing professionals is the absence of a playbook or historical data that shows you how to solve current problems. Instead, two of this week’s guests recommend a more experimental, open-minded approach.

“With the exponential intelligence of what Google can do every quarter, we go back and often find out that what didn’t work so well six months ago is doing better now,” Andrew observed. “Go back and look at some of your Google Ads audiences; they may be capable of delivering things your Google Analytics audiences can’t, and vice versa.”

Joe, meanwhile, favors experimenting with channels you didn’t get to play around with earlier.

“Test those Instagram story ads, do some brand-building, build out new targeting options, stretch your budget with more affordable media like Facebook CPMs, and use YouTube to generate awareness. In time, when inventory stabilizes, you can double down on search and shopping ads to capitalize on that new intent.”

5. Google Shopping ads will soon be free (yes, free).

The announcement that advertisers can list Google Shopping ads at no cost is a game-changer, and Ginny explained how it will work in greater detail.

“Google is going to start showing free listings for shopping ads. It’s a really big change going from all-paid for the last eight years to primarily free, with paid ads at the top and bottom, just like a regular SERP.”

It’s a big shift for the Shopping tab of the search results pages, but it’s also part of a larger evolution over the past year.

“Google first opened up the Merchant Center to anyone to upload their feeds without needing to be an advertiser, and then opt in to services across Google,” Ginny elaborated. “The other thing Google announced is a new integration with PayPal so that you can connect that account to the Merchant Center to speed up data flow and merchant verification.”

6. There’s an opportunity to beat Amazon at its own game.

With non-essential deliveries shut off and two-day shipping a pipe dream at this stage, Amazon suddenly finds itself unable to deliver what it’s conditioned the marketplace to expect.

Businesses that can help consumers get what they need and want with minimal delay have an opportunity to capitalize on that, and possibly retain a significant chunk of business even after the crisis abates.

“If I still need a new pair of running shoes, and I can’t walk into a store and get them, I’m going to wherever I can get them soon,” Joe explained. “I’ve got more time to go for a run or a walk, and I’m not waiting for Amazon. So it’s about diversifying your marketing and finding where your users are, because they still want those products now.”

7. There’s more than one way to stretch a budget.

Despite knowing that investing in advertising is paramount, smaller businesses are having a tough time finding marketing dollars. But even with lower-than-ever Facebook CPMs, media on leading platforms isn’t within reach for every business.

Joe provided some advice for restaurants looking to make their budgets go further.

“If you’ve lost budget and you still want to run ads, look at different channels than the ones you’re used to. Waze local and Quora can help take your budget further than Facebook, for example. It’s a good time to test new things and see what works.”

8. COVID-19 is creating a new breed of agile businesses.

With supply chains unsteady and normal processes interrupted, businesses have to stay on their feet to survive. The result is a great deal more creativity not just in PPC, but across the marketing spectrum.

Ginny spoke about one Amazon seller she knows. “Her products are made in the US, but she was worried the manufacturing plant might shut down for health reasons. So she ordered thousands of dollars in new inventory, but then Amazon shut off non-essential shipments.”

“She was stuck, so she explored her network and found a new way to fulfil those orders. We’re seeing businesses adapt and pivot quickly.”

More specific to PPC strategy, Andrew noted that changes further back than COVID-19 have compounded the challenges paid search pros face in the current environment.

“The ad-tech industry has gone through a lot in the last 6-9 months due to ITP and how cookies work now. Marketers need to realize that betting the house on last-click, bottom-of-funnel tactics is not a sustainable approach.”

9. The worst consumer is a disappointed one.

With the supply chain disrupted, consumers no longer know where exactly to go to make certain purchases. They’re relying more than ever on search to guide them to a marketplace that has what they need.

So what happens if a consumer finds it on your site, only to later discover that the product is actually unavailable? Andrew believes it’s a real problem that needs immediate attention.

“The big danger is advertising products that are out of stock or have low stock, and disappointing users when they land on the page. As an industry we need to do better because it’s a common complaint I keep seeing.”

“Low stock and a product feed’s ability to easily adjust to that remains a major area where things can fall down for SMBs. Either in-house teams lack the setup skills, or SMBs on low-cost PPC packages don’t get the attention they need to react to demand peaks,” he added.

The Optmyzr Rule Engine’s ability to integrate with business data, as well as the Optmyzr Campaign Automator can be used to address the issue of advertising only products that have adequate inventory or that have margins that support a profitable ad buy. Contact the Optmyzr team if you’d like to learn more.

10. Marketers miss connecting in person.

The ongoing crisis has made it difficult for people to see their loved ones and close friends, causing some of us to feel powerless and lonely.

A less impactful effect is that it’s also isolated professionals from their community networks.

While we still have the power of technology to stay connected and learn from one another, the PPC industry is still dealing with the absence of events. HeroConf Austin, for example, was canceled due to COVID-19, impacting the learning and development of hundreds of marketing teams.

Crushing his workout in the morning and building scripts in the evening! Get Fred’s COVID-19 script here!

“Events such as HeroConf provide genuine insight into what industry leaders are seeing and experiencing every day, and we all can learn from their insights,” Andrew noted. “So maintaining that is absolutely necessary from an education perspective. Virtual events can help, and I really hope they happen.”

Fortunately, the Paid Search Association is hosting their annual conference as a virtual event. You can learn more about PSAC 2020 and register for the conference here (seats are limited).

Conclusion

We love hearing from our attendees about the PPC Town Hall helping them see new ways of thinking, or reassuring them that they’re not the only ones experiencing challenges at this time. It’s why we do what we do!

We especially love this LinkedIn video recap from Moe McLeod of Digitopia, a PPC Town Hall regular and one of its most vocal supporters.

We hope you’ll join us again next week for another discussion on how we can overcome the present challenges together!

9 Insights on Bid Management, Paid Social & More: PPC Town Hall 4

Following last week’s successful PPC Town Hall, we returned with a 4th edition featuring some of the most knowledgeable minds in the PPC and paid search space.

If you happened to miss this week’s chat or any previous editions, check them all out on our YouTube channel or listen to them as podcasts over here.

This week, we focused on bid management in dynamic environments (such as the one created by COVID-19). Optmyzr CEO, Frederick Vallaeys, moderated a panel that included:

Let’s take a look at 9 key insights from this week’s conversation that every agency, advertiser, and consultant can act on.

We’re still in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be achieving any degree of ‘normal’ in the immediate future. With so much volatility across markets, it might be a good time to explore Google’s Performance Planner if you haven’t already.

To quote Google, “Performance Planner is a tool that lets you create plans for your advertising spend, and see how changes to campaigns might affect key metrics and overall performance.”

Google Ads Performance Planner. Image courtesy of Google.com.

Performance Planner works with the latest data at any given time, but the current climate means that said data is rarely predictable and stable from one week to the next.

Peter recommended checking in on Performance Planner every week to explore the impact of shifting CPA, ROAS goals, and manual bids.

“The market is changing so frequently that a target ROAS that gave you a great volume last week might not do the same this week.”

2. Not all businesses have been affected equally.

Just like in every crisis, certain businesses are doing well even as others struggle to stay afloat.

You might have a client whose product or service is experiencing incredibly low demand, or one that’s waiting on overseas shipments and can’t run more ads until they’re able to fulfill additional orders.

Martin has seen that spectrum play out for some of Bloofusion’s client base.

“With our e-commerce clients, we’ve seen a number of differing challenges in the current crisis. Some were overwhelmed by demand. In a few cases, supply is an issue. Others have problems to keep up with packing and shipping. They’ve scaled back or turned off their campaigns to gain a little breathing room.”

3. Products that make isolation less boring are in demand.

With most states in the US (and many geographies around the world) under ‘shelter in place’ orders, it’s no surprise that Google has observed a significant uptick in volume for search terms related to products that make the experience more tolerable.

“We’re seeing that as people are spending more time online, usage is increasing across multiple devices,” Emi said.

“Consumers are searching for many things including technology that helps them work from home (+750%) as well as connected televisions (+37%), streaming devices (+38%), and gaming consoles (+48%).”

4. Consumers want to stay healthy and informed.

But not everything is about work and recreation. Consumers are also looking to maintain their health — and that of their finances.

“In healthcare, consumers are looking to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy while at home. For example, searches related to ‘online workouts’ increased 12x in the past 90 days,” Emi revealed.

Alongside that, people are also preoccupied with what’s happening in their bank accounts. With unemployment hitting record levels and even those in secure jobs suddenly looking cash flow issues in the eye, there’s been a surge in search volume for many related topics.

She added, “Consumers are also looking for financial help, professional advice, and mobile apps to plan for the future with a 9x increase in ‘financial help’ queries e.g. rent/mortgage relief, loan relief, deferred payments.”

5. Hard-hit industries are starting to figure a way out.

It’s worth noting that Tinuiti has an insightful tracker that monitors Facebook spend performance segmented by vertical (signup required).

A quick glance shows that travel is down 79.5% month-on-month but has risen 13.5% week-on-week. Fred speculated that this could be a sign that some of the industries COVID forced to pump the brakes are starting to put new strategies in place.

“People still want to travel; we just can’t,” he said. “These companies could realistically be building desire and demand, identifying an audience searching for these things during this restrictive phase, so they can convert them when travel opens up again.”

Google Trends. Image courtesy of Google.com.

In the case of the automotive industry, which is also showing signs of resurgent spending, Susan speculated that it could be an effort to supplement TV commercials advertising never-before-seen offers like extended windows for no payments and 0% financing.

Either way, it’s evident that businesses that can’t convert at their usual pace are starting to acquire new users to fill the top of their funnel. Which means…

6. It’s a great time to use social media to build TOF.

You don’t have to be as hard-hit as travel or hospitality to consider taking advantage of low-priced social media.

Given that your clients have the budget to do so, now’s as strategic a time as ever to front-load your pipeline with consumers who are high on intent but limited in their capacity to act.

In other words, you can build desire and demand to a fever pitch — and do so with a fraction of the budget you’d normally need.

“We’re seeing some of the cheapest Facebook media with CPMs as low as $2-3. If you have the flexibility and the budget to focus on some top-of-funnel activity, it’s not a bad time to acquire users even if they’re not all going to convert right away,” Susan observed.

If you want to dive deeper into paid media performance during COVID-19, check out her article on Search Engine Journal.

7. Smart bidding offers more control than you realize.

While some advertisers and agencies might be hesitant to allow machines more than a modicum of control over their paid search strategies in the current environment, Smart Bidding might actually empower you more than you thought.

By using tens of millions of data signals, Smart Bidding pairs your inputs with similar auctions in the industry, so it works even if you’re short on first-party data.

“Smart bidding has the ability to pick up signals and compare it to other things going on in the market to make those adjustments. While it uses both aggregated and recent trends, it favors what’s been happening recently,” Peter noted.

Google Smart Bidding considers a multitude of signals to set the right bid for every query. Image courtesy of Google.com.

The key is to remember that as human operators, we’re capable of watching the news and observing the world around us, and then using those observations to provide context to your paid search programs.

You really can influence Smart Bidding to work for you as long as you don’t ‘set it and forget it’!

8. Hyper-segmentation might actually be a good idea.

Under normal circumstances, it’s not absurd to look at the US as a single market: largely the same regulations, similar opening hours, and common methods of fulfillment.

Today, that’s simply not the case. States are enforcing their own COVID-19 restrictions, and even individual counties and cities can impose their own limitations.

So while it’s not the best idea to hyper-segment under normal circumstances, it might be useful to at least try it out right now — and Smart Bidding could be of help.

“Smart Bidding lets you bid at the intersection of each bid adjustment you can manually set,” Fred shared. “One example is adjustments for a location like New York which has been hit hard, one for time of day, and then another for the audience. It can look at the actual scenario of that one auction and how that combination actually matters.”

Peter agreed that if you see significant discrepancies in a geography or other parameter, separating campaigns can afford you a greater degree of control by putting individual levers on your campaigns.

9. Experts are making it easy for PPC pros to stay informed.

As the PPC community continues to face a number of hardships with finding reliable data, some of the industry’s leading experts have developed scripts that enable marketers to make quick observations about the shift in behavior.

One example is this COVID-19 visualization script developed by Fred, which overlays government actions related to the pandemic on Google Ads performance metrics.

“The idea is to help you see if certain events, like store closures, the start of shelter in place, the closing of schools, or the introduction of social distancing correlates in any way with drop-offs or spikes in performance.”

Martin has also developed a script that compares pre- and post-COVID behavior.

Google Ads script by Bloofusion and Martin Röttgerding generates charts showing account performance before and during COVID-19. Image courtesy of Bloofusion.

“Overall trends may be a traffic shift from mobile devices to desktop computers, people searching later at night, and weekdays blurring,” he said.

“However, we’ve found that this is not true for every account. In many cases, these things have remained more or less stable. The script can give you some handy charts about the situation in your own accounts.”

Conclusion

We started the first PPC Town Hall with two objectives in mind: to provide a safe space for paid search pros to vent and share their thoughts on everything that’s been happening, and to steer clear of using it as an opportunity to promote any kind of software or services.

Since then, the PPC community has embraced these weekly conversations, and they’ve evolved into a source of insights on how to approach these new problems that none of us really have all the answers to.

We’re in this together, and we’ll get out of it together.

Please join our next PPC Town Hall on Wednesday, April 22.

5 Things PPC Agencies Need to Do to Survive Any Crisis

As a career creative, I’ve worked for and with virtually every type of agency — specialist, generalist, design, integrated, mainline, digital, creative, performance.

One thing that’s remained constant is the disproportionate relationship between value provided and revenue generated. All but the biggest network agencies are sorely under-compensated for the value they bring to the table — few clients truly recognize this.

This is the position agencies start from in a best-case scenario.

So whether performance marketing is your shop’s forte or just one of its many offerings, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has likely already impacted both your revenue and your operating plans for the near to distant future.

Clients are already notoriously difficult to impress, so what’s an agency to do when spends have been lowered or paused across multiple accounts with little to no notice?

The toughest part of running paid search and other performance marketing campaigns during a crisis isn’t the drop in spend itself; being asked to do more with less is something all agencies are accustomed to.

It’s the lack of a clear solution or roadmap to recovery.

No one knows exactly when shipping and logistics will return to normal, when flights will start operating again at full capacity, or when hotels will once more be so busy that they double-book guests over Christmas. None of us have ever been here before.

What’s evident is that the ‘normal’ way of doing business doesn’t work right now.

Agencies have to pivot while helping clients do the same — and they must do it quickly. This is one of the reasons Optmyzr is hosting weekly PPC Town Halls where the PPC community can come together, talk about the problems we’re facing, and learn from each other.

Let’s take a look at the value agencies provide and some of the things they can do to survive — maybe even thrive in — the coming months of this pandemic.

1. Shift focus from performance to strategy.

If your clients are slashing ad spends, there’s a strong chance your account managers and PPC specialists suddenly have a lot more time on their hands. Use those extra hours to shift from managing campaigns to devising new tactics to build awareness, increase engagement, influence brand perception, and increase conversions.

Are there unexplored (and cost-effective) channels you can use to promote your clients’ brands? Would partnerships give their products and services greater visibility? Is lower CPC actually making a client’s newly reduced budget viable?

Work closely with clients to ensure they can’t foresee a future without your agency

During our April 1 PPC Town Hall, Benu Aggarwal, president of Milestone Internet Marketing which services several hospitality and travel clients, shared her team’s approach to providing new value in the interim.

“Within a week of the pandemic, 80% of our clients told us to stop paid search,” she said. “We are omnichannel, so what was helpful was developing plans for ‘crisis, recovery, and growth’. As part of the crisis plan, we ensured proper messaging. We put a page on every site updating our clients’ responses and measures to COVID-19. We also did this for local channels, such as GMB.”

We believe Benu and her team are smart to have prioritized helping their clients for the long-term, even if there was uncertainty around their near-term ability to pay the bills. Everyone is feeling the pain from the crisis, and doing what you can to strengthen relationships with your clients will make them value their partnership with your agency once things return closer to normal.

Optmyzr Tip: Above all else, be defensive of your value and service. Make sure your client doesn’t get used to a ‘new normal’ that doesn’t include working with you. That may mean getting creative and helping them in new ways, or helping them even while they request grace periods on their invoices.

2. Adjust pricing models to create shared value.

Every agency knows the dangers of scope creep and overextending non-billable hours to unsustainable levels, but having too little to do is a new challenge for many shops.

If you’re at the point where client retention is a concern (or will be soon), it might be worth exploring a temporary change in the way your agency bills. Many shops already work with generous credit windows, so this shouldn’t be an entirely alien conversation.

Agencies that bill by percent of ad spend stand to gain the most by switching to hourly, retainer, and la carte pricing models for the foreseeable future. Independent consultants and small agencies should be especially careful about waiving any fees or costs.

In “4 Tips for Running a Small Digital Agency in Times of Crisis” for Search Engine Journal, ZATO founder Kirk Williams (who’s slowly becoming a regular on Optmyzr’s PPC Town Hall events) shares great insights on managing financials (among other solid advice).

Among his recommendations are providing pricing options that offer “tangible benefit to both parties” rather than “a fire sale of value”.

“Discount prices randomly for no reason without there being some reason or pull-back in scope… would only undervalue and undermine [agencies’] abilities to stay alive themselves as profit was decreased in ever difficult times, and would also set a new lower standard for accurate value once the crisis was inevitably over,” he writes.

3. Support clients with growing businesses.

If your agency is fortunate enough to see no change in business — or even growth — there are several ways you can support your clients.

For clients who are shifting from brick and mortar to e-commerce for the first time, the current climate can make routine tasks challenging.

Clients migrating to e-commerce for the first time need agile agency partners

Something as simple as establishing a digital presence might require a lot more thought than usual; setting up fulfillment methods could take significantly longer.

Your greatest asset is the speed that agencies are famous for. Stay nimble and help set up new accounts quickly for clients coming online for the first time — you’ve done this a thousand times before!

If a client is in a market that’s currently benefiting from lower than average CPCs, help them maximize that window of opportunity.

And last but not least, if you happen to find yourself with more than you can realistically handle, spread the joy. Recommend clients you can’t service to other agencies in your city or region who could benefit from the opportunity.

Optmyzr Tip: If you need to build out new accounts quickly as traditional brick and mortar retailers try their hand at e-commerce, use the Campaign Builder to quickly create shopping campaigns, ad groups, and product groups that are well-structured and will be well-positioned for successful management in the long run. Our standalone Campaign Automator can also help you create and manage inventory-driven keyword campaigns using business data like a Google Merchant feed.

4. Support clients with contracting budgets.

On the other hand, your shop might be fighting to convince clients to avoid or minimize cuts to their marketing budget — or, in some cases, to retain your services altogether. While the smart thing to do is keep marketing (even if it’s for top-of-mind recall), clients in some industries simply can’t afford it.

For those brands that can keep spending a certain amount, there’s a lot that agencies can do to help.

_Machines can’t provide context to what’s happening; agencies can — and must
_ (Photo by Helloquence on Unsplash)

After all, while consumer sentiment is cautious, people are spending up to 30% more shopping online according to this article “COVID-Consumers: Pessimistic, but spending more online” by Search Engine Land.

Performance marketing agencies have a role to play as PPC doctors. Market realities are changing daily — hourly, for some industries — and what ails the patient changes rapidly from day to day.

Unlike machines, humans can determine the context of data and steer campaigns in the right direction.

Check in more frequently. Adjust bids to be in line with prevailing CPC rates. Run hygiene checks on your automations to make sure they’re fine-tuned. Review your ad copy and extensions to eliminate tone-deaf or insensitive language.

Optmyzr Tip: Use the Rule Engine to weed out new search terms that are generating clicks but aren’t leading to conversions. The Ad Text Optimization tool lets you make bulk copy edits to existing and new ads, to weed out phrases like ‘Visit us today’ or ‘Open 24 hours’.

5. Stay adaptive to changing conditions.

Going outside of your domain expertise or primary offering will give your agency the adaptability it needs to pivot itself while helping clients do the same.

This might mean servicing a new vertical or industry that you have to quickly familiarize yourself with, entering a new segment or market, or bringing a service to the forefront that was earlier simply part of your marketing mix.

From adding new services to servicing new industries, be open to market demands

Whatever it is, you’ll likely retain the core strengths that made your agency valuable partners in the first place: a higher degree of expertise in SEO, local search, and performance marketing than your client (in most cases).

Neptune Moon founder and PPC Town Hall guest speaker Julie Friedman Bacchini is a vocal proponent of staying fluid and receptive to change.

“Flexibility is the best skill you can cultivate right now, if you don’t already have it. If nobody wants to buy what you do, you’re going to have a problem,” she noted during our April 8 webinar. 

“Agencies should be listening to clients — really, really listening — to discern what’s keeping them up at night, what they’re worried about, and what it is they feel they’re not going to be able to do,” Bacchini added. “Are you able to offer a solution in that area? Being able to shift around how you do things and offer things is critical to longevity.”

Optmyzr Tip: Watch our social media pages for the details of our PPC Town Halls to gain insights from PPC leaders and influencers. We finish up with a Q&A session, so bring any questions you might have!

What real agencies are doing

Some shops have already put contingency plans into practice, having made the switch from what they used to do to what they’re doing now.

Let’s take a quick look at what agencies around the world are doing in response to the financial and operational challenges posed by COVID-19.

• Global holding company WPP recently announced a $2.48 billion financial health plan that includes halting its buyback scheme, canceling its dividend, freezing hiring and raises, pausing discretionary spending, reducing capital expenditures, and instituting a 20% pay cut for the board and global executives.

• Minnesota-based Media Bridge Advertising noted that “some advertising agencies are taking advantage of their clients by charging them exorbitant rates to create ‘pivot plans’ to adjust”. In addition to waiving onboarding fees, CEO Tracy Call has decided to provide free media and marketing audits for new clients, and free development and execution of “pivot plans” for existing clients.

• Thrive, an internet marketing agency from Arlington, Texas, published a list of 10 approaches to strategic planning during COVID-19. “A grinding halt with your digital marketing efforts… would be a complete waste of the time and resources you’ve already poured into your business to gain traction in a crowded online marketplace,” the article quotes Thrive founder Matt Bowman as saying. “You would lose ground to your competitors and put your business in a position to fail in the second half of 2020.”

As always, Optmyzr is here to provide any help we can. Our team is working with customer agencies and the wider PPC community to provide new tools and scripts, quick and nimble support, and new features to more effectively manage ads and campaigns.

5 Things PPC Pros Can Do to Keep Commerce Moving in a Time of Volatility

We are living in strange times. 

Just a couple of short weeks ago, we had packed sports arenas, sold-out concerts, major industry conferences, crowded malls, and a secondary worry of “what is this Coronavirus thing all about?” Today, the best we can enjoy for TV sports are reruns of classic games on ESPN, restaurants (ones that are open) have a lot of open tables, and music & theater venues have gone dark. Above all, we can’t seem to escape the topic of Coronavirus on TV, social media, or in our dwindling person-to-person contact. 

Search marketing in the “Social Distancing” era

It’s impossible to tell at this point how long brands and social marketers will have to navigate these uncharted COVID-19 waters. PPC pros are trying to sift through a brand new set of challenges and questions, while still being expected to drive conversions and return on investment.

Perhaps more than ever, PPC pros must make sure brands and organizations are present when people are searching. And let’s face it…we’ll undoubtedly have a LOT more searching going on via Google and Bing” in the coming weeks as consumers adjust their lives. And as people go deeper into social distancing, we’ll see even more searching on Amazon to further replace brick-and-mortar shopping. 

It’s clear we are experiencing an unprecedented event in the internet age. But good management and solid automation layering tools can help you get through this in the best possible shape, and hopefully reduce some of the tremendous stress everyone’s dealing with. 

In this post I want to share a few techniques to deploy today to help your business or that of your clients make the most of an uncertain situation.

Near-term/Long-Term – The Impact is Not Clear

Online is the place to be with COVID-19 casting its shadow. Colleges and universities around the country are moving courses online. Even K-12 schools are closing and moving to virtual classes for at least a couple of weeks. Distance learning providers are benefiting from the crisis. Likewise, companies are quickly figuring out how to expand remote work opportunities through video conferencing providers like Zoom who are also seeing their stock value rise. The outbreak has also been driving huge demand for cleaning products, boosting companies with domestic manufacturing such as Clorox and Purel. 

Google Trends data from March 2020 shows a big increase in people searching for video conferencing solutions to address the need to work from home due to COVID-19

When consumer behavior shifts dramatically, in this case due to external events none of us can control, opportunities arise for nimble companies. With many people at home with little to do, it seems every streaming service should be making moves like Disney+. They quickly shifted gears and announced streaming of Frozen 2 will start a few months earlier than planned. 

Other industries are facing a crisis. Hospitality providers are scrambling to serve near-term needs with reduced staffing but they must also remain ready for the day people can and WANT to travel again. SAS airlines have cut 90% of capacity, American is grounding all its widebody aircraft, and if they survive this economic turmoil, they will need a game plan to capture customer demand when it returns.

Small business is also hard-hit. When local companies must close, or have no more foot traffic, they may not be ready or able to provide a digital alternative (think gyms for example). Despite evaporating sales, they still have to pay rent and possibly staff. When business reopens they may need to win back all the customers they once already had and digital marketing may become a make-or-break proposition for them.

Whether your business or that of your client (if you’re an agency) falls in the category of positively or negatively impacted, the good news is that as a digital marketer, you are in a position to help them. And even better news is that tried-and-true methods and best practices from non-crisis times also apply here.

Optmyzr Tip #1

Use the PPC Investigator to quickly see how external factors like changes in queries and changes due to what your competitors are doing are impacting your top line numbers for sales and conversions.

Use the PPC Investigator to monitor changes in year-over-year performance. Pay close attention to how query volume and Lost Impression Share are responsible for the overall change in account performance as these are driven by changes in consumer behavior and changes in competitor behavior. In uncertain times, these two factors can have a dramatic impact on account performance, even when you have made no changes to the account.

Managing PPC budgets in a time of crisis 

While businesses often knee-jerk their budgets down in times of uncertainty, now may very well be the best time to up the spend on PPC. Social distancing means more people will buy online. It’s essential and responsible to be sure to capture the surge in online shopping. 

Use the MCC dashboard to set a target budget for the month and get a quick overview of which accounts are falling behind or getting ahead of projections the most. You can then address these issues using the budget management tools or scripts in Optmyzr.

Optmyzr Tip #2

Set up a budget script. You may be spending money much faster than usual if you sell sanitizer online. You can use a script to set account-level monthly limits. Or if you see the opposite because you sell flights and fewer consumers are booking, a script can set more aggressive budgets to quickly capture consumers when they start to fly again – and they WILL fly again.

Automated Bidding algorithms have never seen this before

Automated bidding relies on historical patterns to predict future behavior. But just like it’s not great at figuring out what’s happening when you have a short weekend sale (because the duration is too short and too unexpected to learn from), what we’re seeing now is drastic and unexpected and not something we can fully trust the machines to understand.

Unlike machines, we have context about the situation and we can use judgment to steer things the right way. 

An example is that we may see a lot more search volume for toilet paper (not sure what it’s like in most of the world but it’s sold out everywhere in the US) and hand sanitizer. Machine learning may think it’s wise to boost bids a lot. But have you considered your margins and profitability goals for these products? At some point, the machine may increase bids so much that sales volume spikes but does so at the cost of profits. Or what if sales continue to be counted but your supply runs out and you have to cancel orders. Is machine learning looking at your REAL conversion data or making bad decisions because you gave it incomplete data?

Google Trends data for March 2020 show searches for toilet paper have inexplicably skyrocketed as a result of the COVID-19 situation in the US.

Optmyzr Tip #3

Learn how to add external data, like product margins, to Rule Engine to make sure your target ROAS is set correctly for every product based on its margin. This will help ensure profitable sales and only running ads when it makes financial sense.

Another example, we can expect even MORE time spent on mobile devices and less on desktops because that’s the trend we see on weekends when people are home. But now a lot of people are going to be home all week to work remotely. This can potentially impact behavior for devices and days of week. Those weekend-specific strategies you’ve used to capture heavier mobile time may well have to be deployed all week long for a while. And when things return to normal, you may need to guide the machines to understand we’re back to business-as-usual.

Optmyzr Tip #4

If you’re using automated bidding, use automation layering in the form of alerts and monitoring to ensure any changes in behavior are acted upon by machine learning algorithms. For example, with an expected change in device type usage on different days of the week, set up an automation that tells you if there are shifts and if those could be responsible for performance changes in automated bidding.

Rule Engine can be used to build device-specific rules. Rule Engine can be used for Microsoft Ads, Google Ads, and even Amazon Ads.

Don’t pay for news queries that don’t drive conversions

We’re seeing a lot of searches related to coronavirus updates for airline policies. If you don’t want to spend your PPC budget on those types of clicks you need to add negatives quickly. A simple automation that looks for high volume new queries with low conversion rates can automatically help you with this, now with coronavirus, but also for whatever unexpected disruptive event will happen in the future.

Optmyzr Tip #5

The Rule Engine lets you customize date ranges and compare the performance of several date ranges against one another. This lets you execute a strategy where you monitor for new queries that have significant volume in a more recent period of time (e.g. this week) compared to a previous period (e.g. last week). 

Add custom date ranges in Rule Engine so that you can check for things like queries that went from no impressions last week to lots of impressions this week. This can identify trending queries quickly before they eat up all your budget without driving conversions.

Don’t accidentally run ads for stuff you can’t provide

Toilet paper is sold out, yet shopping ads galore for toilet paper. With a tool like Campaign Automator you could automatically update keywords, ads and more to reflect that some products are sold out, or that others (like last minute flights to get back home before the borders close down) are more expensive.

In addition to our core PPC management and reporting software, Optmyzr sells a product called Campaign Automator that makes inventory driven ad automation easy to set up and automated to maintain.

Conclusion

The tips above are simply smart business practices that PPC pros can and must deploy quickly to help the brands they represent weather a really tough storm. Sure, there are charlatans out there seeking to profit unethically from a crisis. That’s the opposite of what we are talking about. 

Commerce can, and must, go on. In fact, it’s perhaps more important than ever that PPC pros lead the charge in facilitating commerce and being sure to help the brands we represent meet these extraordinary circumstances. 

The team at Optmyzr is proud to be working with you, side-by-side, with powerful PPC tools that can layer the automations you need to do great work and keep the economic engine running well until we find our new normal. 

Search Marketing Automation ProTips: How to Become a True PPC Hero

PPC Hero Summit is just around the corner, and I hope you take time to attend a webinar session I’m doing Feb. 12 with my good friend and fellow PPC veteran Jeff Baum of Hanapin Marketing. 

Jeff and I will help PPC pros decipher one of the most confusing (and sometimes feared) aspects of PPC in 2020: Automation and artificial intelligence. Our session is entitled “Beyond the Engines’ AI: Make Machine Learning Work for YOUR Brand.”  We will help PPC pros learn how they can outperform the competition as automation by Google and Bing threatens to make things easier – and more difficult at the same time. 

Pros and Cons of PPC Automation

Google and Bing know what they are doing. Billions upon billions of searches have provided unprecedented opportunity to understand the actual intent and needs of audiences in ways old school marketers could never dream. 

Over the last few years, in particular, the big engines have deployed powerful AI and machine learning to automate many core functions of PPC. On the upside, they’ve made it possible for pretty much anyone to set up and run good PPC. There are a lot of positives associated with automations now at search marketers’ collective fingertips – not the least of which is time savings. 

The automation of many aspects of core PPC is eliminating busy tasks that used to take up the lion’s share of time for even the most efficient marketers. 

However, with all of the greatness of automation, we see some big “cons” on the other side of the ledger, including a growing concern among search marketers that they may be automated into obsolescence. Let’s consider a few specific areas of concern, which we’ll cover in our PPC Hero Summit online session:

  1. Smart marketers are not 100% sold on the search engines’ machine learning features and settings. After all, the buck stops at the desk of the actual PPC pro when it comes to spending our own (or our clients’) budgets. Surrendering all control and decision making to Google and Bing automations isn’t wise. 
  2. If everyone uses the same automations in the same manner, PPC may well become overly commoditized. It could be akin to all teams in a sports league using the exact same playbook and strategy.
  3. Company A and Company B may be in the same industry selling similar products, but things that work well for one company or its customers may fail miserably for the other. 

Jeff and I will cover essentials of what’s working and what’s not when it comes to the big engines’ machine learning. More importantly, we’ll discuss many liberating and empowering reasons to use a third-party tool to help you leapfrog competitors, including:

Perhaps most valuable, we’ll help search marketers understand how to make a strong business case to their own bosses for a third-party resource. 

I encourage you to invest 30 minutes of time to participate in our February 12 session. Jeff and I know your time is valuable, so we’re planning a rapid-fire event that can make a tremendous difference in your future as a marketer – without a huge investment of your time. 

Register today and we look forward to this informative session.

How to Pick a Profitable ACOS or ROAS Target

Online advertising can get expensive but thankfully the ad engines like Google, Bing and Amazon all have controls that help advertisers keep costs at the right level for their business goals.

In this post I’ll share how to use your profit margin in conjunction with either target ROAS (tROAS) or target ACOS (tACOS) to achieve break-even on your ad spend. Once you know how to pick the right target so you don’t lose money on PPC, you can dial it up or down to find the right balance between profits and revenue.

The Difference Between Google ROAS and Amazon ACOS

First let’s take a look at what ROAS and ACOS mean and how they are calculated.

Google uses ROAS

When it comes to reporting columns, Google uses terms like ‘Conv. value / cost’ or ‘All conv. Value / cost’. ROAS (return on ad spend) isn’t a metric you can pick: 

But the good news is that ROAS is simply one of the ratios expressed as a percentage so it’s just multiplied by 100 and a ‘%’ sign is slapped on the back:

Google does use the term ROAS in one of its automated bid strategies: Target ROAS (tROAS).

Amazon uses ACOS

Amazon shows the ACOS (advertising cost of sales) metric in its interface more prominently so advertisers are immediately exposed to it when they start advertising on Amazon.

ACOS is based on two of the other metrics Amazon shows by default in its interface:

ACOS and ROAS both serve the same purpose of giving guidance on how to make online ads profitable but at first glance the two metrics seem very different:

While the formulas look quite different, that’s mostly due to the difference in nomenclature between the two ad platforms. Where Google calls it ‘cost’, Amazon calls it ‘Ad Spend’. 

Google cost = Amazon ad spend

Where Google calls it ‘Conversion Value’, ‘Conv. Value’, or ‘Value’, Amazon calls it ‘Sales’.

Google Conversion Value = Amazon Sales

So once we standardize the terminology and swap out all the synonyms, we see that ROAS is the inverse of ACOS:

We need to know product profit margin before ACOS and ROAS become useful.

So how are ACOS and ROAS helpful in bid management? How might we decide what a good target ROAS or target ACOS might be? To do that, we need to understand margins.

Product profit margin or gross profit margin is the ratio of profit over revenue for a single product. The simplest way to think of profit is as the value of the sale minus the cost of producing the thing that was sold:

Let’s look at an example where we sell 3 products for the same price but they all cost different amounts to make. Or for an Amazon reseller, they all cost a different amount to buy from the manufacturer:

Combine margin with ROAS or ACOS to find your break-even point

Now we have all the pieces needed to find how much we can spend on advertising to break even on each sale or conversion*. 

To make sure we don’t lose money by buying ads, our ad spend to get a sale should be no more than the profit we get from that sale.

We make a profit when:

profit on the item sold >advertising cost to get the sale

That’s simple logic to understand, but to communicate this goal to the ad engines, we need to translate it into the jargon they use. That means we need to bring it back to ROAS and ACOS.

What is a Break-Even ACOS

ACOS it’s very simple to equate to break-even if you know your margin. The numbers have to be the same.

What is a break-even ROAS?

Because ROAS and ACOS are the inverse of each other, our break-even point on Google is when is (product profit margin)-1 . That’s the product margin divided by 1.

Let’s see that in a different more visual way:

The bottom line

So there you have it, the perfect ACOS or ROAS to break-even on your ad spend on Google or Amazon. On Amazon, it’s the profit margin of the product you sell. On Google it’s the inverse of that same number.

*You don’t really break even by spending no more on ads to get a sale than what you gain from that sale as that doesn’t consider other costs to run the business of selling things. This is why knowing the break-even point is just the start and you should add a target profitability so you make money.

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon: Manage Them All with Optmyzr

Running PPC programs used to be relatively simple, with essentially one major platform to consider. Those who mastered what was then called “AdWords” could focus nearly all of their attention on Google – maybe showing occasional love to tier-2 search platforms. 

Seemingly overnight, others achieved “powerhouse” search marketing status, including Bing, Facebook, and now Amazon. 

Over the past 5-10 years, these major players have gained significant share of the universe of commerce-related searches. All are now locked in fierce battle to connect people with the information and products they are seeking through billions of searches every day.

The Optmyzr team has worked hard to provide a platform that allows PPC pros to optimize ads in each of the leading platforms with ease and confidence. Today we’re excited to launch Amazon Ads Management within our PPC Management Suite. This new capability will help PPC pros tap into the expansive growth of Amazon’s presence in the search marketing landscape.

Amazon now ranks as the third-largest platform for share of net digital advertising revenue, and it’s gaining ground on Google and Facebook. Amazon is masterful at capturing high-intent search traffic – or even casual browsing traffic – and then driving customers down the funnel. 

Optmyzr Rule Engine, which is a critical component of our full PPC Management Suite, sits at the heart of our foray into Amazon. Using Rule Engine, PPC pros can manage bids and keywords for Amazon Advertising campaigns, while being able to easily toggle ads on and off for rapid campaign response. Prebuilt recipes and one-click optimizations, which are inherent in our full system, are now able to be put to work against Amazon Ads, allowing PPC pros and agencies to broaden their portfolio of services, in-house and agency alike. 

We sought to make a system that would allow PPC pros to turn existing optimization processes into scalable, automated workflows. The recipes noted above make it easy to:

Try Optmyzr’s Amazon Functionality – NO RISK

We want to make it easy for you to try Optmyzr’s new Amazon functionality. All you need to do is link your Amazon Advertising account to Optmyzr.  We’ll enable access to our beta on a rolling basis. 

We’re confident PPC pros and agencies can find great value in managing campaigns across multiple platforms from a common system. We continually look for ways to remove complexity and create opportunities for you to run campaigns like a PPC rockstar. 

Amazon is clearly among the fastest-growing ad systems in the marketplace. The upcoming holiday shopping season (yes, it’s time to start thinking about the holidays) will be a make-or-break season as competition for online conversion will continue to escalate. Think of the depth and value you can bring to your stakeholders by optimizing all their digital marketing from a single workspace.

PPC in 2019: The Year YOU Reach Rockstar Status

As an industry, we made huge strides in pay-per-click automation during 2018. It really was a transformational year for PPC pros, agencies and the brands we serve.

There are tremendous opportunities on the horizon for PPC pros who are forward-thinking and eager to recalibrate their own role and value in the PPC value chain. Yet many PPC pros today are perhaps a bit flummoxed about what the future holds for them, as Google and Bing are seemingly automating the PPC pro out of existence.

The PPC pro’s rapidly shifting role will be a huge topic of discussion on this blog and other outlets as we move through 2019. Our team is in the trenches daily crafting functionality, scripts and concepts that will help you – the PPC pro – transform into a PPC rockstar due, in large part, to ongoing automation within the big engines.

Building on automation & innovation in 2018

Q1 of 2019 kicks off with amazing PPC automation momentum that welled up during 2018. A scan of 2018’s most-read Search Engine Land contributed posts shows extraordinary interest in automation and other new functionality designed to eliminate tasks associated with PPC.

Examples among the top posts include an interesting piece by Daniel Gilbert that showcases the power of scripts to automate ways to quickly fix low quality scores. (As you know, scripts are a key element of Optmyzr’s push to make the most out of automation.) While Google and Bing continue to automate so much of the upfront aspects of PPC, smart pros will take their script game to new heights in 2019. Scripts can be daunting if you haven’t dabbled in them before. But even for those versed in using scripts, they can almost certainly be used to an even greater degree to make the most of the daily advancements available natively in the engines as well as PPC management software like Optmyzr.

We love seeing innovative script ideas from our peers in the industry. It keeps our script artisans on our toes to continually craft new and innovative scripts to crush tasks and foster greater strategic thinking among PPC practitioners. In fact, subscribers to Optmyzr have long had access to a script just like Daniel’s and now we’ve added a tool for pausing low QS keywords as a One-Click Optimization™ so it’s easier than ever to use.

Optmyzr subscribers can easily create custom rules or copy one of the many we’ve already created as instant recipes. This one identifies and pauses low quality score keywords that are not driving any conversions.

Our team was pleased to see Optmyzr twice in the Top-10 SEL posts. We dove into some of the core things Google Ads can now do automatically and we examined close match variant changes that challenged and elevated capabilities for marketers and providers alike.

Core in all of the discussions, whether about automation or other industry advancements, those of us writing about critical topics focused a lot of energy and attention on helping PPC pros view new dynamics as opportunity versus a threat to your long-term viability.

Interestingly enough in 2018, some of the mainstream press started paying a little more attention and respect to the oft-misunderstood and underappreciated role of PPC. It was attention fueled, perhaps in part, by the significant role of buzzworthy concepts like AI and machine learning. Even Forbes included coverage this past year that started to unlock the mysteries of PPC and its potential to the broader business community. Writer Tom Chalmers took steps to help our business brethren connect dots between AI, automation and a more integrated view of marketing/content/PPC, in general. While not a deep piece, it was good to see PPC addressed in Forbes!

Of course, the old school marketing/advertising media outlets like Ad Age and others still seem to view PPC as an odd, distant step-relative to old school marketing. A search of “PPC” on the Ad Age site yields a couple of results from two years ago. Such apathy within “mainstream” marketing underscores opportunity for smart PPC pros to elevate to rockstar status in 2019.

Read on for a taste of what we’ll be talking about in the months ahead….

Automation, AI/Machine Learning – Buzz or Brave New World?

Some of the words we (our industry) use are perhaps beginning to take on very similar and sometimes diluted meanings in our space. To an extent, we’re all guilty of buzz-ifying our industry when we talk about concepts like AI and machine learning – and in the process, even the smartest of pros can struggle to figure out what these concepts really mean for our shared future.

The reality, though, artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation dovetail in many ways to create unprecedented opportunity for PPC innovators. Few other marketers can quantify their impact on the business as a PPC expert. Few others are at the center of the storm where purchase-intent consumers are stampeding toward the bottom of the funnel, ready to convert. Few others can connect the dots between the content, words, images that people see in different channels and search for every day.

As a result, the PPC rockstar in 2019 should earn a more commanding seat at the marketing leadership table!

PPC rockstars can and should influence broader marketing strategies from the very beginning of the process. As automation frees us from the tasks of PPC, you can unearth significant opportunity to put your knowledge and analytic abilities to work in much more strategic fashion – for your PPC initiatives and help foster true integration of marketing.

2019 might well be the breakout year for PPC pros to go from “yeah…she does that pay-per-click Google stuff” (uttered with a slightly confused tone) to “she really transformed our marketing integration in amazing ways.”

Sneak peek: Big News coming soon

Without giving away the farm, I’m looking forward to sharing news about a project that has been near and dear to my heart for the last several months. Look for an announcement soon about something I think will be really helpful for PPC pros to get your mindset in the right frame for 2019.

Automation will rule the day in PPC in the months ahead. But that doesn’t mean automation should rule the PPC pro. On the contrary, I look forward to unveiling our latest project that will help PPC pros elevate their game to rockstar status by taking control of what, how, and when automation is deployed in search marketing to help you drive increasingly powerful results for the clients and brands you serve.

In the meantime, keep studying. Keep reading. Keep learning. Embrace automation because it is your ticket to great things in 2019.

Ensure Your PPC Accounts Are Well Managed With Our PPC Audit Tool

End-of-year puts PPC audits top-of-mind. While PPC pros dissect performance and report campaign results daily, weekly or monthly, deeper audits can fall by the wayside. Regular reporting gives great insight into campaign metrics, but audits dig into critical structural elements, such as having enough ad variations in ad groups, consistent use of ad extensions across campaigns, and many other foundational issues.

Audits pop back up as a priority as PPC pros answer the myriad year-end questions from stakeholders and get immersed planning for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, infrequent audits means critical insight can be left unknown for too long.

Let’s face it – auditing PPC programs can be a colossal, time-consuming pain. Even the best pay-per-click pros can put off audits until they absolutely must allocate scarce time to dig through spreadsheets and hunt for anomalies and root causes. Compounding the challenge, PPC data interdependencies run deep and it can be nearly impossible to do effective auditing manually.

Our PPC Policy & Audits Builder turns processes that would take days to complete into fast, executable activities that can yield great value. Putting off audits until year-end can result in those dreaded “I wish we knew that back in August” moments.

Audits also foster essential policy compliance when managing external agencies. For example, if an agency says it always does ad testing, but the audit shows ad groups only had one ad, you now have an accountability trail. In addition, audits help defend accounts from being poached by competitors by ensuring accounts are following best practices, making it difficult for competitors to claim accounts are being mismanaged.

Point & Click Ease

Policy & Audit Builder is simple and intuitive. Clicking “Create New Audit” launches the step-by-step process in which you can choose to audit Ad Groups, Ads, Campaigns, Search Campaigns, and Keywords.

As seen in the image below, each audit type allows the user to adjust the essential parameters to begin auditing by segment. Auditing Ad Groups, for example, allows the user to readily uncover anomalies in quality score, spend, number of ads, or number of keywords. The PPC pro can run audits based on all parameters or disable individual ones to focus in on specific attributes.

Clicking “Run” executes the high level audit and immediately issues a report card that provides letter grades of A+, A, B, and C. Just as with school grades, the report card shows the areas that are running well and calls out ones requiring further attention.

Clicking into the report card gives deeper insight into specific areas of interest. From this view alone, the PPC pro can begin to take corrective action or dig deeper into the data to analyze foundational issues and then resolve problems or out-of-policy actions.

Powerful and easy-to-execute audit capabilities empowers the PPC pro to quickly uncover otherwise hidden spikes or valleys that could be driving increases or decreases in overall performance. In addition, PPC campaigns have countless data interdependencies (sometimes making cause/effect analysis nearly impossible), so our audit tool taps the power of machine learning and AI to dig into relationships between various attributes to get to root causes more efficiently and accurately.

Overall, PPC pros can gain a much deeper understanding of the potential impact of issues to help drive excellent performance across all activities.

Audit’s Role Moving Forward

Streamlined audit processes mean PPC pros can add audit to their activities with greater frequency. If you currently only audit quarterly, semi-annually or annually – consider a monthly audit run to help uncover potential issues faster.

Be sure to close out 2018 with a deep audit and analysis of your holistic PPC program. Give Policy & Audit Builder a try to see just how fast and effective it can be at mining for information beyond the KPIs. Then craft a plan for 2019 that better taps the power of audits and moves them from being a must-do hassle to an area of great opportunity to boost PPC’s effectiveness in what is sure to be an even more competitive year ahead.

Check out Policy & Audit Builder with a free audit today. Or if you are not yet an Optmyzr customer, try our 14-day free trial.

 

 

 

 

Building Better PPC Workflows in Optmyzr

Optimizing your accounts with Optmyzr is pretty simple and straightforward. You get to work with performance analysis and optimization tools, reporting features and task automation, among others, while still maintaining complete control.

We want you to make the most out of your experience with Optmyzr, and show you how you can reach your business goals through the use of our tools. And in the spirit of easing the process of getting started with your account, we’ve created a first-month checklist to guide you along all our tools and make sure you aren’t missing out on anything.

This checklist works as a referential guideline for the first five weeks from when you link your Google Ads accounts to Optmyzr. It has different tasks for each week, starting off with recommendations that cover a more general and broad aspect of your account management, and which get more specific and advanced along the way.

Week 0 & Week 1

For the first two weeks, Week 0 and Week 1, you’ll be setting up alerts, analyzing your overall account and doing some simple optimizations. This will give you a great baseline for further account management. During Week 2 we’ll cover performance on networks, and by Week 3 and 4, you’ll be analyzing performance by location, optimizing ads and analyzing search queries for new keywords and negatives.

In this checklist, the first week to be taken into consideration begins once you create your Optmyzr account, and link your existing Google Ads accounts to it. You’ll start off by setting performance alerts, to make sure you are always aware of how your money is being spent. This creates a great baseline for any further optimization, as any unwanted performance won’t go by unnoticed.

During this initial phase, we recommend setting up automation to monitor account performance and landing pages for ads, as well as budget-related monitoring. These alerts and automations only need to be set up once, and will then on continue to work in the background.

Week 2 & Week 3

Moving forward, and for the upcoming week you’ll get recommendations for account analysis, and a few simple optimizations to begin with. Tools like the PPC Investigator will help you figure out how the key performance metrics on the account have changed and based on this data you can determine the optimizations you should do first.

You can also use tools such as the Spend Projection to get insights on whether your budget is overspending or underspending, and you can then use that information through the Optimize Budgets optimizations to reallocate those budgets across campaigns.

Week 4 & Week 5

As the checklist moves forward, you’ll be getting recommendations that dive deeper into analyzing performances, such as by network and location. We’ll guide you along tools to optimize the search queries that drive traffic to campaigns, manage your keyword bids based on performance by the hour of the week, and set bid adjustments by device and location, among others.

All throughout this checklist, you’ll also see some recommendations for prebuilt Account Workouts. The Account Workouts are a series of tasks that are put together to achieve a specific goal. They combine the different tools from Optmyzr in a logical order to create the right combination for optimizing your accounts.

All in all, this 5-week checklist is a great way to get familiarized with practices you can follow with Optmyzr, and though the steps here are just our recommendations, we think it will be of great use for you and your team. If you would like a customized checklist for your team, feel free to write to support@optmyzr.com and we’ll be happy to help you.

Are your AdWords ads losing money on bad landing pages?

When it comes to functionality and performance of landing pages, some errors go beyond a non-working URL. Here are two common use cases that you should take care of.

Ads leading to out-of-stock landing pages

Ads leading to out of stock product pages or product not found pages can become a problem both for the user as well as for the advertiser. We know Google checks the landing page your ad leads to as part of the ad approval process, but it only checks if the URL leads to an active page. So when it comes to product availability, if your ad leads to an out of stock product, your ad won’t get disapproved and you won’t get notified. Ads that lead to out of stock pages result in a bad user experience and wasted spend. It can also affect Quality Score because users don’t spend enough time on the page which can be an indicator of how relevant they found the page.

Quality Score is made up of three components: Expected Clickthrough Rate, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience, this last one being a way of measuring just how well your website responds to what people searched for.

Now imagine you are looking for a digital camera. You’ve been looking all over for that model, and you see an ad that shows the specific one you wanted and at a great price, but once you click on the ad, you reach a site that reads “product not available”.

From the user’s point of view, this is a negative customer experience, and could affect the way the user views your site. From the advertiser’s point of view, it generates a wasted click and a poor landing experience that affects your overall score. When a user lands on a ‘product not available’ or ‘out of stock’ page, and because they couldn’t find what was offered in the ad, your landing page experience score will likely get affected.

The main problem with this, and as mentioned before, is that the landing pages are still considered to be ‘functional’ by Google AdWords, therefore you won’t be notified this is happening. The clicks that land on such pages are wasted but manually checking the landing page for every ad is not a feasible option. To help automate this task, we built an enhanced script called Check Destination URLs, which automatically checks the landing pages an ad leads to.

This enhanced script finds ads and keywords that lead to a 404 error, and can also check for text like ‘product not found’ or ‘out of stock’. The script generates a report with the URLs that generate this error and can also automatically pause corresponding ads and keywords. You can set it up to run for specific campaigns or for the whole account. The script has an advanced setting that lets you monitor specific text on a landing page. This helps you keep a better track of landing pages that are ‘functional’ but lead to ‘product not found’ pages. Read how this script works here.

Underperforming Landing Pages

Another great way of getting input on how the landing page for an ad is working, is by using the Landing Page Analysis tool. This tool gives you information on how landing pages are performing across the account and divides the results into three categories: High Performer, High Potential and Expensive.

The High Performer category shows landing pages with high conversion rate and high CTR. These are landing pages that are performing well.

The High Potential category shows landing pages with a high conversion rate, but a low CTR. This category shows you the landing pages where the keywords and ads that lead to them are not as relevant and can be improved. These landing pages are converting the clicks that they get quite well so directing more traffic to them is likely to result in more conversions. One way to do that is to make the keywords and ads more relevant to the landing page.

Finally, in the Expensive category you’ll find landing pages with a low conversion rate and high CTR. This usually indicates that the keyword, ad and landing page are relevant to each other but users don’t convert at a high rate after coming to the landing page. This could happen if the conversion process on the landing page is complex or is not user friendly. In such cases, it is a good idea to analyze the page and make changes to it. Read more about how the Landing Page Analysis tool works here.

 

Optmyzr Express: Finish top optimizations over your first cup of coffee

As marketers, we all know that running successful PPC campaigns requires agility and speed when making crucial optimizations. You’ve likely noticed a new option within the Optmyzr PPC Management System – Optmyzr Express. This is our latest automated offering that suggests the most important optimization opportunities across your campaigns. We created Optmyzr Express to bring one-click simplicity to help PPC pros take immediate action on top opportunities for campaign optimizations.

Available immediately to all users of the full Optmyzr PPC Campaign Management Suite, Optmyzr Express is designed to help simplify and automate the top up-to-the-minute opportunities. The user can simply click to accept an automated optimization suggestion or they can access an intuitive dashboard to customize or modify suggested changes from a single screen.

The Express offering augments the full Optmyzr software system. Designed to allow you to crank out the top optimizations fast – perhaps over your first cup of coffee in the morning – Optmyzr Express will allow you to blast through those “quick-hit” opportunities right away. It allows you to then allocate more of your valuable time digging deep into advanced functionality within the suite to be more strategic overall.

Think about those fast opportunities we all seek for rapid optimization: from pausing low performing ads or adding new keywords to quick fixes for Quality Score and high performing keywords and more. Optmyzr Express facilitates smart, on-the-go campaign adjustments and creates a workflow for continuous improvement.

Initial user feedback has been excellent and has validated that Optmyzr Express is a real time-saver. It delivers fast insight, agility and power, which encourages more frequent optimizations. PPC pros have told us they want a workflow that helps them make immediate changes for the most pressing opportunities, while retaining the full suite functionality for deep dives into campaign performance improvement. Through client feedback, we also know that a workflow that appears similar to a high value to-do list across multiple accounts allows for greater efficiency for in-house and agency teams alike.

Other key features:

We have more information available in a news release we just posted to announce Optmyzr Express. You can also see a quick overview in our new YouTube video.

Give Optmyzr Express a try and let us know your thoughts.

 

Managing AdWords & Microsoft Ads? New functionality streamlines both

Anyone who has worked with Optmyzr knows our innovative platform has greatly streamlined and automated Pay-Per-Click campaign management for Google AdWords. Many marketers who work with our innovative PPC Management Software have seen significant improvements in campaign performance and agency profitability.

We now offer much of that same automation to support Bing Ads management for agency and in-house marketers alike. PPC pros can tap the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to help make Bing Ads accounts more effective and profitable – much the same way they use Optmyzr for AdWords.

Specific features rolled out for Bing Ad management include an intuitive UI that brings together key PPC management tools in one package:

  • Budget and KPI monitoring: Marketers have access to powerful visualizations and alerts to track and manage against key metrics, such as conversions, return on ad spend (ROAS) and cost per conversion.

  • Ability to find new keywords and create single keyword ad groups (SKAGS): Optmyzr’s intuitive Keyword Lasso tool allows One-Click Optimization™, which automates analysis of search terms and identifies higher performing search queries. Previously only available to support AdWords accounts, the Keyword Lasso now allows the same ability to identify optimal keywords and create new ad groups that support SKAG ad group structures.
  • New ad creation in A/B testing: Optmyzr now extends ad creation and A/B testing for Bing Ads management. Marketers benefit from automated suggestions for ad content based on what has worked in campaigns.
  • Hour-of-week performance optimization: A new Hour of Week Bidder for Bing gives PPC pros recommended hourly bid adjustments, based on conversion and cost goals as well as other variables. Ad schedules can be changed in bulk, giving marketers greater ability to turn off ads when they are not needed.

  • Search term N-grams for Bing: This tool allows marketers to gain quick insight into long-tail search behaviors, helping to minimize wasted spend and improve results by unearthing words (N-grams) that lead to wasted spend.
  • Landing page analysis: PPC pros can now benefit from aggregated performance data for landing pages across Bing campaigns. This helps understand which pages perform well and gives insight into improvements that can be made to landing pages that have low conversion rates.
  • Geo HeatMap analysis: Optmyzr now brings powerful visualizations of Bing Ads geo data via an interactive heatmap. Marketers can tap this information to analyze traffic and conversions based on location, allowing more strategic budget allocation right down to the city level.

    • The above mentioned features are available to try out in Optmyzr. Use this link to access tools for Bing Ads accounts.

    Our developers have enhanced marketers’ abilities to optimize Google AdWords campaigns over the last several years. Of course, Google still dominates the PPC landscape, but Bing has gained market share for six consecutive years. As a result, many marketers now manage similar campaigns across both platforms. Our objective is to help marketers improve efficiency and profitability of their overall PPC initiatives.

    Stay tuned for additional Bing-specific functionality as we move through 2018. We are working on additional ways marketers can extend instant optimizations and gain quick insights into their PPC programs.

    Optmyzr's Introduction to PPC

    We know that when you are used to traditional-media advertising, taking a step into the digital world can be an overwhelming task. We seem to take for granted that the basics of digital marketing are something everyone is familiar with. And though creating advertisements on a digital platform is becoming easier and more accessible by the day, there are still some who believe that an online advertisement for your 24-hour plumbing service is simply typing in what you want your ad to say.

    The art of Marketing relies on interactions. Whether it’s through a digital platform or a traditional channel, the basic principle remains the same: target the right audience, at the right time and in the right place, and offer a solution to a problem.

    Some people believe that traditional marketing platforms have better results, because they target the people they want to target, instead of having their advertisements “all over the web”, but the reality is that every day, the digital marketing world becomes more and more customizable to tailor your advertising needs to appear where, when, how and towards who you want it to.

    Before we can help you tailor your advertising needs, it is important to define what we mean when we talk about “Digital Marketing”. By using such a generalized term, we tend to put all the different types of digital marketing in just one concept. And though the term successfully englobes the idea of online marketing strategies, the type you choose should depend on the product or service you want to advertise, your business goals and the type of advertising you want to create.

    There are several subcategories of digital marketing, which include Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). Although we’ll focus on Pay-Per-Click (PPC), we want to point out a few differences between SEO and PPC (some of the most common).

    Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses on getting increased search engine traffic to the business’s website by ranking higher in Google search results. In this case, the most commonly searched for terms are included in the content on a webpage. PPC, on the other hand, refers to paid advertisements and promoted search engine results. The way it works is you choose the keywords for which you want your ads to show, you write a relevant ad for each group of related keywords, and you set bids based on the expected value of each click. You then only pay when your ad is clicked.

    While PPC has much more to it than just bidding on keywords and defining how much you are willing to pay for a click on your ad, the goal is to always get more traffic with more accuracy and less time invested. By analyzing your strategies and keeping track of the structures that work out best, you’ll be able to create effective campaigns across networks and devices.

    The main platforms used for PPC Marketing are Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Google Adwords runs on Google and its Search Partner sites and Display Network sites, while Bing Ads shows ads on the Bing and Yahoo networks.

    With traditional-media advertising, it doesn’t matter whether you get 1 or 100 clients through your ad, you will still pay the same price simply for putting it out there. It’s harder to track the results and reach out exclusively to specific audiences and it’s more expensive to analyze how to improve your ad and/or service.

    With digital advertising and PPC, not only are you choosing what keywords are essential to your service, but you can also filter the traffic or searches that don’t apply to you by using negative keywords. This way you can avoid any unqualified traffic, and being placed in the wrong search results.

    Later on, we’ll go more into how keywords and negative keywords work.

    One of the best things you’ll find with PPC is having the possibility to visualize, analyze and determine which of your ads reach a larger audience. You can get real-time insights into your account, and take actions to continue improving your strategy.

    So whether you are covering a common necessity with your handyman business, or if you have a target-specific vintage fashion store, PPC marketing strategies can help you get the most out of your advertising campaigns. In the end, it all comes back to the basics: knowing when and where!

    PPC marketing will help you create a great new advertising strategy for your service or product, and help you place your brand name on multiple platforms for a wide range of people, but most importantly, it will give you the control you need to invest your money in the right place.

    On the upcoming articles, I’ll describe in depth the steps needed to tailor your online advertising, from the available platforms and the differences between them to the structure and components of your campaigns. I’ll be explaining how and when to target a specific audience, which bidding strategy is generally used for different types of advertising campaigns, and what to take into consideration when creating a budget.

    6 Tools, Tips & Resources to Never Miss a New AdWords Feature Again

    Hands down, Google AdWords is one of the most complete advertising platforms available today. From the day it was released (October 23, 2000) to this day, the Google team has worked remarkably hard to offer the perfect experience to both the user and the advertiser.

    But nothing is perfect, is it?

    Despite the effectiveness of the tool and its superior ROI, many of us still struggle to unleash the real potential of AdWords PPC. One of the primary culprits is the lack of understanding about the different features and tools available.

    In 2016 alone, Google added 56 new features to AdWords. Add to this the fact that many updates are not publicly announced, and you’ll understand why so many advertisers find it tough to take full advantage of the platform.

    But what if I tell you there’s a way to never miss on a new AdWords feature again? A simple process to find even the most obscure features and beat your competition as a result?

    Well, that’s what this post contains.

    1. Use Feedly to track major publications

    It’s not a big secret that major publications—like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, or PPC Hero—tend to be the first on publishing the latest news in the industry. Some of the most influential people in the PPC field (including former Google employees) write for such websites, so it’s to be expected.

    If you want to be up-to-date with the newest AdWords features and trends, keeping a close eye on this kind of websites is not a bad idea.

    The thing is, top-tier sites produce a lot of content. Search Engine Land alone publishes between 4 and 5 new articles per day, excluding weekends. That’s 80 to 100 new articles per month, from just one site.

    Sure, you don’t have to read all those articles, right? You are only interested in AdWords related news. But assume you’re tracking three or four of these sites. In this case, you’d have to search through hundreds and hundreds of articles per month to find the true gems. It doesn’t matter how efficient you are, you wouldn’t keep up.

    Here’s where Feedly comes in handy. In short, this tool helps you do three things:

    • Track and organize websites
    • Filter content based on popularity
    • Discover sites in your industry

    This means that you can find all the news, updates, trends and guides from your favorite websites in one single place. And since you can sort content based on popularity and date of publication, this is an excellent way to separate the wheat from the chaff and focus on the topic that really matters to you: Google AdWords.

    How to use Feedly to find relevant AdWords news

    Setting up Feedly is simple, first add some sources to follow:

    Feedly

    In the search bar, enter the URL of the website you want to track. If you’d like to follow Search Engine Journal, for example, you’d enter “www.searchenginejournal.com.”

    feedly search

    If the website you’re searching for covers more than one topic—say social media, paid marketing, and SEO—Feedly will display each topic separately, as if they were completely different websites. Make sure to follow all the categories that you’re interested in. To do it, click the “Follow” button located at the right side of each category.

    feedly follow

    Since this is a new account and you have no collections, Feedly will ask you to create one. Collections are an excellent way to stay organized and never miss on the important news from the websites you’re following.

    Name your first collection accordingly and then click “Create.”

    feedly collection

    Note: To add more websites to any of your collections, just click the “Follow” button and select your desired collection.

    Now, in case you don’t know what sites to follow, some examples of publications that post relevant AdWords news are:

    • Search Engine Land
    • Search Engine Journal
    • PPC Hero
    • Entrepreneur (Google AdWords News & Topics Section)
    • Search Engine Watch
    • Huffington Post (Google AdWords Section)
    • Marketing Land
    • The Search Herald
    • The SEM Post

    To find even more sites, visit sem.alltop.com.

    2. Use ContentGems to discover hidden treasures

    So now you’re following the cream of the crop of PPC blogs, and I’m sure you’ll find some gold nuggets. However, sometimes you need to dig a little bit deeper to find the entire gold mine.

    The fact that you are tracking top-tier websites doesn’t guarantee you won’t miss out on a relevant AdWords story. Over 2 million blog posts are published every day, some of which could be of great value to your business. Without the right tool, you couldn’t possibly find them.

    That’s the reason I want to introduce you to ContentGems, a content discovery tool I recently invested in.

    ContentGems works similarly to Feedly, but instead of tracking websites, you track keywords, and the tool shows you the most popular content related to such keywords. This ensures you never miss an important story.

    How to use ContentGems

    First, start a free ContentGems account and set up a new interest to help you organize your keywords based on topics.

    content gems new interest

    One of the things I love most about this tool is that you can filter your results with three different keyword filters:

    • Should Contain ANY — results can contain any of the keywords you enter in this filter

    • Must NOT Contain ANY — results can’t contain any of the keywords you enter in this filter

    • Must Contain ALL — results must contain all of the keywords you enter in this filter

    These filters will help ContentGems find the most accurate results for your search query. Take a look at this screenshot:

    contentgems

    In “Must contain” filter, I added the keyword “AdWords” because I’m only interested in content that’s directly related to AdWords marketing.

    Also, at this moment, I don’t want to find anything related to Bing advertising, so I added the word “Bing” in the negative keywords filter.

    Finally, in the “Should Contain” filter, I added six keywords that will give ContentGems a hint of the kind of content I’m looking for: “PPC”, “Features”, “Feature”,“News”, “New,” and “Search Engine Marketing.”

    Now, if you will, you can use the same keywords I used for this example, but I recommend that you play with the tool and experiment.

    Once you have filled each keyword filter, click “Create Interest,” and voila!… you’ve created an automated engine to discover AdWords news on demand. Now, ContentGems will process your query and will show you a bunch of articles that match your selected keywords:

    contentgems results

    3. Read these 4 Google official resource pages

    You may think this tip is obvious or simple, but it’s staggering how many of us overlook the marvelous information Google itself provides through its different resource pages and blogs, yet these are some of the few places online where you can find accurate, to-the-point, and up-to-date information about AdWords.

    Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced PPC advertiser, these four pages will put you on the right path to a more profitable AdWords campaign:

    1. AdWords Help (New AdWords Features Section)—in this page, you’ll find a timeline of all the new features added to AdWords in the last 12 months. You can also learn about upcoming updates and tools. It’s the fastest way to keep up with what’s new on the platform.

    2. AdWords API Blog—whether you want to increase the efficiency of your large campaigns or just integrate AdWords with other apps, this blog will unveil some of the “top secret” AdWords features and help you get the results that you want.

    3. AdWords Scripts Blog—practically speaking, this blog will show you how to automate AdWords; make tedious tasks simpler and quicker, which is super helpful if you manage many AdWords campaigns. They also have a “What’s New” section where you can find new scripts and tools.

    4. Inside AdWords—this is Google’s official blog for news, tips, and information on AdWords. It’s a must-read for anyone trying to take their AdWords skills to the next level.

    4. Embrace curiosity

    If you can adopt only one quality from any of the greatest marketers and entrepreneurs of all time — Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Seth Godin, or Mary Kay Ash, to name a few — it should be curiosity. But, sadly, most advertisers seem to be afraid of experimenting and trying out new things.

    The truth is until you embrace curiosity and start questioning stuff and exploring, you’ll never get ahead. That’s a fact in business, life, and AdWords PPC.

    You might be surprised by the number of features you probably have never used in any of your campaigns. Did you know that you can distribute video ads to blogs? Have you ever used the Display Ad Builder to design your ad creatives? How many ad-extensions have you tried? Have you ever checked your competition through the Auction Insights Report? There are so many things you can do to improve your ROI.

    Marketing writer Tania Hoque put it well on Brilliant AdWords Features You Didn’t Know Existed._ She adds, “In a bid to catch the #1 spot on Google, many advertisers are missing the brilliant AdWords features that provide incredible opportunities to target potential customers.”

    The bottom line? Explore the AdWords platform. Try to pinpoint features you haven’t yet used. Look for tools you may have overlooked in the past, and most importantly, don’t be afraid of experimenting with them.

    5. Attend #PPCchat Every Tuesday

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see inside the mind of some of the smartest people in the industry and “steal” their secrets?

    Well, that’s exactly what #PPCchat is all about. Every Tuesday at 9:00am PST, leaders and industry insiders meet on Twitter to discuss news and trends on PPC marketing. This is a unique opportunity to get your questions answered by people with tons of experience in the field.

    So next Tuesday, grab a pen and a notebook and get ready to learn from some of the world’s best.

    In the meantime, you can read guides and archives from previous chats here.

    6. Make friends with Optmyzr

    At Optmyzr, we’re advocates of all things PPC, and we want to see your results improve. That’s the reason we continually update our channels with some of the most relevant news, articles, guides, and videos in the industry.

    If you’re in a rush or simply want a quick and easy way to improve your advertising skills, this is a good place to start:

    • Follow us on Twitter (@Optmyzr) — we’re looking forward to having a good conversation. Whether you have a specific question or just want to say hello, Twitter is a great way to connect with us.

    • Read our Blog—every month, we publish new tutorials, guides or scripts to help you get the most out of your AdWords campaigns. So to make sure you never miss our content, I recommend that you subscribe to our blog.

    • Watch our videos— If you’re more into videos, our YouTube channel is full of interviews with industry insiders, advanced webinars, and detailed tutorials on everything PPC, AdWords, and Search Engine Marketing.

    • Check out the news we’re reading—we’ve put together a page to share all the news and trends we’re currently reading. Take a look through them and see what content we think is worth sharing.

    Over to You

    Did I leave out any of your own tricks to find secret AdWords features? If so, make sure to drop them in the comments.

    Geniads’ tips for better PPC ad performance

    I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the team at Geniads, a Premier Google Partner and an Optmyzr customer, to talk about how they built a successful PPC agency with many happy clients.

    They are a team of seven PPC geeks, headquartered in Denmark, and dedicated primarily to managing AdWords for 50 clients. I spoke with Ebbe Kjær Skau and Simon Raun Madsen who’ve both been doing PPC for three years.

    What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.

    Fred: Tell me a bit about what makes Geniads special.
    Geniads: We are 100% specialized in AdWords, and only touch on other PPC and marketing areas to understand AdWords in a broader context, to use its full potential. We’ve also really focused on being transparent and honest, something that is important because many advertisers have been burned by shady agencies in the past. Sometimes we take over an account from another agency, and we see that there have been no changes in the last six months!

    Fred: How do you grow your agency when you’re in a relatively small market, Denmark having a population of only about 5.7 million people.
    Geniads: We have employees from several countries, and like many Danish people, they are multilingual so we can write ads in Swedish, Norwegian, German, Danish, English, and French. That gives us a considerably larger market to address.

    Fred: How do you scale your agency?
    Geniads: We have clients from a wide variety of verticals so we can’t do cookie cutter account management. The way we scale is by being 100% focused on AdWords and by streamlining our operations by using tools like Optmyzr. We also spend a lot of time staying up-to-date on the industry so that we can advise our clients on interesting new opportunities within AdWords. When they are successful, they tell others, and that’s how we grow.

    Fred: What interesting trends do you see in PPC?
    Geniads: We’re very focused on ROPO (research online, purchase offline). According to Google, 80% of offline buyers research online before buying. For one client we were able to get store visit data from Google (which wasn’t obvious given the small size of the Danish market), and that helped us optimize that campaign by going beyond simple ROAS (return on ad spend). We increased the overall revenue of the company significantly by having more accurate data. For example, a general keyword like ‘sofa’ had a ROAS around 200% but when we added store data, that jumped to 2000%! So we were able to drive a lot more conversions on that keyword by investing more in it, something we wouldn’t have done if we thought the ROAS was only 200%.

    Despite all these offline purchases we see with ROPO, we also see a lot of growth in online purchases driven by Google Shopping Ads which have grown every year for us. Optmyzr’s been very effective to help us build our shopping ad groups in a way that we can granularly control bids and add negative keywords at the SKU level. We do this by using the tool to automate creating ad groups for every product in the feed.

    Another trend is the growing importance of demographic data and sharing it between channels like social and search. For example, we provide our clients with demographic data from AdWords which they then give to their Facebook reps to help with those campaigns. For us, the Holy Grail is to have a perfect push-pull system where social and search work together to deliver more conversions.

    Fred: Is there data from outside AdWords you leverage to make AdWords perform better?
    Geniads: We use sales data from Google Analytics, and Webmaster data from Google to identify new high volume keywords or high volume keywords that have too low a CTR in AdWords.

    Fred: How do you save time with Optmyzr
    Geniads: We used to spend five days per month on reports. Now even though we doubled our clients, we do all reports in one day. Even though reports are mostly automated, we still look at them because they provide valuable insights that can be applied to improve performance further. Time saved on reporting can then be spent doing more optimizations.

    Fred: How did you find Optmyzr?
    Geniads: We tested a few vendors like TenScores and Acquisio and found Optmyzr could cover more of the work we needed to do. In the two years we’ve been working with Optmyzr, the team has been great at implementing some of the new capabilities we’ve requested.

    Fred: What is your favorite tool in Optmyzr?
    Geniads: The difference between AW and Optmyzr is that Optmyzr lets you look back historically much better, and makes it easy to act on the insights you find. For example, in the Hour-of-week bid adjustment tool we use customizable time slots to find and implement dayparting bid adjustments. Doing the same in AdWords would consume far more time.

    We also like the Shopping Campaign Builder to split our shopping campaigns, and with our big e-commerce clients, we’ve been able to create different ad groups for every SKU, so we can bid and add negative keywords on product-level.

    With bidding, we like to make geo and device bid adjustments, and that is much easier in Optmyzr.

    [Geniads office](https://www.optmyzr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Geniads-office.png)
    The Geniads office in Lystrup, Denmark

    Fred: Do you think you’ll go beyond AdWords management soon?
    Geniads: We believe that we can get more people to search for our ads by doing more on Facebook. The whole push-pull effect. In that way, FB and AW can be great companions. Bing is pretty small in the Nordic countries, so Bing Ads is less important for us.

    Fred: What’s your favorite trick in AdWords?
    Geniads: We think there is a lot of potential around ROPO. Even without store visit data, you can still get data in AdWords about proximity. We see that the closer the user is to the business, the higher the conversion rate. It’s surprisingly easy to get this data when you have a Google My Business Account.

    In Shopping Campaigns there isn’t enough focus on negative keywords and too much focus on bidding. Although automated bid management is important, your impression share is likely to decrease dramatically if you keep reducing the bids due to poor performance. Rather than just having scripts that decrease the bid for products with a high CPA or low ROAS, you should also take a look at the queries on product-level and add negative keywords. Hence, your products will still trigger impressions on highly specific and relevant queries, so you can continue to capture conversions.

    Demographic data in search has allowed us to tweak the message based on the age of the user and that’s driven some impressive results for our clients. We can see which combinations of age and gender underperform and fix those. We’ve just put the age in the ad text, and that seems to appeal to users, e.g. “Are you 18 to 24 and looking for x?”.

    We use countdowns in ad customizers to simplify account structure and to make sure that when the ad changes, we still keep the historical data.

    Fred: Thanks so much for sharing some of your tips for managing AdWords and growing an agency! If any other Optmyzr users want to share their tips on our blog, let us know!

    9 Costly Google AdWords Mistakes to Avoid

    This is a guest post written by Phil Frost, Founder and COO of Main Street ROI. Phil will be presenting a webinar, “How to Improve Adwords Profits With Proper Conversion Tracking” on October, 5th at 12:00PM EST. Click here to register.

    Google AdWords is the sports car of online marketing. It’s fast, intuitive and draws a lot of attention. When firing on all cylinders, there’s really nothing like it.

    Neglect or disrespect it, though, and your campaigns can quickly lose traction.

    A number of issues can stall your AdWords efforts. Some issues are easily fixable, while others require a closer look under the hood. Here we’ll review nine common problems that keep advertisers’ campaigns out of the fast lane.

    Mistake #1: Targeting both networks at once

    AdWords is powered by Google’s massive search and display networks, connecting businesses with endless scores of potential customers. The Search Network includes Google.com and partners such as Ask.com and AOL.com. The Display Network encompasses websites such as YouTube, Gmail and Blogger as well as millions of other websites, blogs, and apps.

    Unfortunately, AdWords urges advertisers to run their campaigns on both networks. This is problematic because Web users on each network behave entirely different. People on the Search Network are usually shopping or doing research, while folks on the Display Network are often just surfing the Web. Different approaches are required to market toward each group.

    Don’t follow Google’s advice here. Instead, create separate campaigns for each network. You’ll see the payoff when optimizing for better results.

    Mistake #2: Using the wrong keyword settings

    Are you getting tons of clicks but few conversions? Or is your campaign getting a high volume of impressions with very low CTRs? If so, check to make sure you’re not using broad-match keywords.

    Broad-match keywords are undesirable because they’re far less likely to send relevant traffic to your website. Even if those uninterested users don’t click on your ad, you could still end up paying if low CTRs drag down your quality scores. You’ll get less traffic from phrase- and exact-match keywords, but you’ll also get better CTRs and landing page conversions, and your quality scores won’t suffer.

    Mistake #3: Ignoring negative keywords

    Negative keywords can stop your ads from being shown to completely irrelevant users, boosting your CTRs and conversions. However, many advertisers completely overlook them. Always, always, always set negative keywords when building your campaigns.

    An example of a negative keyword: If you owned a barber shop, then you’d want to set variations of “dog,” “cat” and “pet” as negative keywords. Otherwise, you’ll be inundated with traffic from people seeking haircuts for their four-legged friends.

    Mistake #4: Not using AdWords Conversion Tracking

    AdWords Conversion Tracking helps you understand what happens after Web users click on your ads. Do they respond to your landing page by calling your business, downloading apps or making online purchases? Do they click around your site or bounce without taking any meaningful actions? This information is absolutely essential when optimizing for better performance.

    Installing AdWords Conversion Tracking is fairly simple, though you might need help from a Web developer. You need to add a snippet of code to your website and/or mobile app. You can also use a Google forwarding number to track phone calls resulting from website visits.

    Mistake #5: Not linking your AdWords account to Google Analytics

    Google Analytics provides you with data you can’t get within AdWords alone. With Google Analytics, you can run various reports to get detailed information about your campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords and traffic sources. It’s free and easy to set up, although you’ll need to install code throughout your website.

    Mistake #6: No separation of mobile and desktop traffic

    More people view the Internet now using smartphones and tablets than desktop PCs. And while online shoppers share similar motivations, key differences in the mobile and desktop experiences mean people behave differently when using their smartphones. For advertisers, that means remembering that campaigns optimized for desktop users probably won’t appeal as much to smartphone users, and vice versa.

    The easy mistake here is setting up your campaigns to run across all devices. Instead, create separate campaigns for mobile and desktop users. Also, make sure your mobile campaigns are using responsive landing pages that display properly in smartphone Web browsers. Don’t even think about campaigns for mobile traffic if your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewing.

    Mistake #7: Ads lack important keywords

    Writing compelling ad copy is anything but an exact science. However, an easy way to attract eyeballs is to include your best keyword terms in your ads. People are more likely to click your ad if it literally contains what they’re looking for.

    As your campaigns pick up steam, you’ll eventually learn which of your keywords drive the most high-quality traffic to your ads and landing pages. Use this information to build new ads and ad groups around your top-performing keywords.

    Mistake #8: Incongruent landing pages

    Does your landing page deliver on the promises you make in your ad copy? If not, there’s a good chance people are bouncing as soon as they hit your landing page.

    Make sure that whatever you claim in your ad copy is clearly represented on your landing page. If your ad offers free shipping, then your landing page should have information about your free shipping policy.

    When advertising a sale, your landing page should prominently feature the sale event or items. Nothing sinks conversions faster than incongruent landing pages. And you definitely don’t want to draw complaints about using bait-and-switch tactics.

    Mistake #9: Refusal to seek help

    Anyone is capable of cultivating AdWords campaigns that help their bottom lines. However, it’s common for marketers and business owners to plateau or experience diminishing returns. Sometimes, seeking help from a knowledgeable third party is the key to further progress.

    That said, don’t be too quick to hand over the keys to your AdWords account. The more you learn about AdWords, the more you’ll know whether your account is in good hands with a third-party professional.

    Conclusion

    Google AdWords is as powerful a vehicle as you’ll find in online marketing, but you won’t get far without knowing which features can help your campaigns. It’s easy to get in the driver’s seat and launch a few campaigns, but there aren’t any shortcuts to long-term success.

    Fortunately, using AdWords is much less risky than driving a high-powered sports car. You just need to know the rules of the road.

    Want more tips to improve your AdWords performance? Click here to get your free copy of our Ultimate Google AdWords Checklist.

    Optmyzr PPC Forecast 2016: PPC Trends to Watch For

    As a new year starts, PPC industry experts predict the trends that shouldn’t be ignored in 2016. We’ve collected the most mentioned predictions according to what different experts believe will be the biggest trends in PPC for 2016 in pieces written by Momentology and Acquisio.

    From all the insights, one trend was clear: 2016 should be more about targeting consumers than targeting keywords. New technologies (like machine learning or artificial intelligence) are helping us understand the customer journey better. This will help us improve the way we communicate with customers, allowing us to focus better on the target audience by creating custom targeted campaigns. By creating a customized experience, we can deliver the right ad, with the right product at the right time.

    We’ve ranked the top predictions, and summed up some key areas that you should focus on, while preparing your PPC 2016 marketing strategy.

    Trend 1: Customers first

    As voted by Laura Collins, Zvika Goldstein, John Gagnon, Daniel Gilbert, Larry Kim, Zach Schroll, Katy Tonkin, Frederick Vallaeys, Justin Fried, Melissa Mackey, Christi Olson

  • Developing campaigns based on the insights you get from different first party data sources (like CRM databases) or tools (like Google’s Customer Match or RLSA) will allow you to create and better target your custom user audiences, improving the user experience.
  • Audience segmentation based on information like demographics or interests will help you deliver customized messages that will target the right audiences across all marketing channels. Leverage data (from social demographic data to search history) more strategically, to create high-value target audiences and customize messaging.

    • Trend 2: Personalized customer journey experience

    As voted by Jennifer Johnstone, Christi Olson, Diane Pease, Lisa Raehsler, Justin Fried, Daniel Morris

  • You should maximize your efforts on gathering insights to better understand the customer journey. It is not all about sales and leads, but also about the user’s micro-conversions and how these will lead up to a conversion. Instead of promoting your brand, give your customers a solution or an answer to their query. Mold your campaigns to provide a response towards what the individual is looking for.
  • It’s important to consider the overall customer journey experience. Learning from the journey will also help you understand how the user moves across multiple sessions and devices, online and offline activity, the links between these connections, and how you can benefit from them to improve your cross-device conversions. Focus on delivering targeted campaigns that are relevant to users.

    • Trend 3: Go mobile-friendly

    As voted by Tim Ash, Zvika Goldstein, Pauline Jakober, Larry Kim, David Szetela, Katy Tonkin, Brad Geddes

  • As the number of mobile phone users keeps increasing, your strategy should prioritize the mobile experience first. Don’t think about mobile optimized ads only, but also how to create a mobile experience (a mobile landing page, not a lite version of your desktop site). The customer experience should work across channels and platforms.
  • Mobile-friendly sites should always consider a structure that can help you maximize calls and leads. A mobile structure and strategy often requires different calls to action.

    • Trend 4: Custom automation

    As voted by Daniel Gilbert, Zvika Goldstein, Andrew Goodman, Brad Geddes

  • Automation tools can help you maximize resources, especially when the amount and complexity of your portfolios keeps on increasing (given the amount of data and different target audiences you want to approach).
  • Focusing on a hybrid approach (automation tools used along with a manager’s analysis and strategy) rather than relying only on third-party management technology, will help you decide when it’s appropriate to use different tools. This approach can help you accomplish more robust results depending on the complexity of your audience, and your marketing goals.

    • Trend 5: New technologies

    As voted for Bryan Eisenberg, John Gagnon, Mona Elesseily, Purna Virji, Brad Geddes, Bryan Minor

  • Technology can help you produce fresh and relevant insights at a level that no humans can do, specially when analyzing high volumes of data. Use new technologies (like machine learning or artificial intelligence) to improve your ads performance, landing page, and to funnel your communications.
  • Advertisers should also consider voice search as a trend, based on the growth of digital personal assistants. The increase in voice search queries could affect how advertisers approach mobile PPC.

    • Trend 6: Focus on social and video

    As voted by Katy Tonkin, Frederick Vallaeys, Pauline Jakober, Melissa Mackey, Zach Schroll, Lisa Raehsler, David Szetela

  • As consumer behavior shifts, brands must look for additional channels (like social media) to stay relevant. The arrival of custom audiences on Facebook and Twitter will allow advertisers to communicate with consumers and prospects across multiple online touchpoints. As social and display advertising is already outpacing search ads in audience targeting functionality and usability, you should consider them in your budget.
  • Google migrated TrueView ads to the AdWords interface, making video campaigns and budget management easier, so video ads could be the next major ad format to show on search results pages. Also, Google will likely introduce new ways to place ads alongside or inside videos, that will provide better targeting and improve conversion rates. Keeping this in mind, as a marketer, you should consider expanding your efforts towards video ads.

    •  

    Conclusion

    So here are the 5 key takeaways from what the PPC experts predict for 2016:

    Introducing Account Health Cues and Ask Optmyzr

    Figuring out whether an AdWords account is healthy or not can be a very time-consuming task, especially when managing multiple accounts. In the past, we added red and green arrows to show the directionality of key metrics to our MCC dashboard.

    Optmyzr’s MCC dashboard shows changes in account performance using red and green arrows.

    However, we found that this still didn’t help us quickly identify accounts that were in trouble because accounts with lots of green arrows could still be underperforming. So one of our engineers, Manu, got to work on figuring out how to roll up all the data into a single indicator of account health. Today we’re starting a whitelist preview of what we came up with: Account Cues.

    Each account gets a color coded dot that indicates how the account is performing for its key metrics when comparing a recent period to the last 6 months of data:

    Account Cues use a single color-coded dot to indicate whether an account is meeting or missing its main goals.

    By clicking on the dot, you can see more data about the metrics that Cues is evaluating:

    Account Cues analyzes the most important metrics for each account’s main goal.

    There are five types of cues available for every account and they are based on the main goal which can be sales (conversions), leads (converted clicks), traffic (clicks), branding (impressions), or meeting a target for one metric of your choice.

    For a goal like leads, we automatically analyze three related metrics: converted clicks, converted click rate, and cost per converted click. If any of these deviate more than 10% from the expected values based on six months of historical data, the account will be flagged with a red dot to draw attention to it.

    Once you see that an account is not performing well, the next step is to investigate why. This can also be quite time-consuming so we tried to simplify this too with a new Data Insight called “Ask Optmyzr”. When you start with this tool you can ask a question about why key metric is either up or down for a certain date range:

    Then we pull several reports in the background and present the results in an easy-to-read manner like with a cause tree:

    Quickly identify the main reasons why certain AdWords metrics are changing.

    The concept of this tool is that every metric depends on other underlying metrics and rather than randomly hunting in your account for things that are different we show potential causality. For example, if clicks are down like in the example above, we highlight that fact in red and show the underlying related metrics: impressions and CTR. In this case, CTR is not an issue (it’s green), so we look further down the tree to see that impressions are down because IS lost due to budget has increased dramatically. From this visualization, we can quickly determine that raising the budget and taking a look at the conversion rate of the landing pages should help restore conversions to this account.

    We provide additional aggregated reporting for campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and queries to help you find the specific elements with the biggest change in the account. Finally, we combine all this data with segments like devices and networks to help you discover if any of these are contributing to the problem.

    We’re excited to launch Account Health Cues and Ask Optmyzr in whitelist beta today and we can’t wait to hear your feedback about how we can improve this to make your lives easier when managing PPC accounts. If you want to try it out, just drop us a line through the support links.

    Make Better PPC Decisions With Analytics Data

    I recently hosted a Hangout On Air for Google Partners and wrote a post on Search Engine Land about how you can get better results in AdWords by using data from Analytics. In AdWords, you are usually limited to seeing only data about how many clicks turn into conversions and at what CPA. By adding Analytics data to the mix, it’s possible to gain insights into WHY some clicks turn into customers and others don’t. You can also use Google Analytics to do attribution modeling to better understand how PPC ads contribute to the success you may be seeing in other channels.

    Read the complete article about using Analytics and AdWords together on SearchEngineLand.com or watch the video from the session I hosted for Google Partners.

    Back to Basics: Naming Conventions for AdWords PPC

    Naming convention for campaigns and ad groups

    When creating a new AdWords account, we jump right into creating campaigns and ad groups, adding keywords, and writing ads. We don’t really put thought into the name we give campaigns and ad groups. What is in a name? Well, a lot. The way you name campaigns and ad groups doesn’t affect account performance but following a naming convention will definitely prevent your account from becoming a management nightmare.

    How to name campaigns and ad groups

    The campaigns in an AdWords account are usually the major product categories on the site. Name your campaigns after the name of the category and if a category has more than one campaign then use \[category name\] – \[number or names of sub-categories\]. For example, a shopping site that has categories like Men, Women and Kids can have campaign names like Men – Clothes, Men – Shoes etc. Similarly to name ad groups, append the sub-category name with the keyword theme. See example below:

    image

    For seasonal or holiday campaigns, that need to be created every year mention the year or date in the name. You won’t have to find a new name every time and will know which campaign ran when.

    Why follow a naming convention?

    1. Easy account analysis and management

    By just looking at the campaign and ad group name you know the keywords that are inside and if the categories on your site have good coverage.

    2. Performance analysis

    Campaign and ad group level statistics can help you analyze the performance of a category or sub-category of products. You don’t need to go to the keyword level. It makes it very easy to see which products are profitable and which aren’t.

    3. Quick transition

    If the management of your AdWords account changes hands, it is easy to transition. The new person taking over the account knows exactly what it contains and doesn’t have to spend time understanding the account structure.

    Next time you’re naming a campaign, follow a convention and make your life easy!

    Back to Basics: Theming Keywords in Ad Groups

    The relevance of a keyword to an ad text impacts the clickthrough rate (CTR) and indirectly the Quality Score. The ideal structure would be to have one keyword and one ad text per ad group as this would help achieve almost 100% relevance. However, this is not a feasible structure as it will result in an unmanageable number of ad groups. This is where theming of keywords comes in.

    Theming is essentially grouping together similar keywords in an ad group. It is a good idea to be granular when theming keywords. This improves the chances of a keyword being relevant to the ad text.

    How to theme keywords

    Theming can be subjective and depends on how granular you want to go. After you get a list of keywords, identify broad themes, and then look for sub-themes within that. You can create separate ad groups for sub-themes as well. You can also use the ad group suggestions the AdWords keyword tool offers. However, you’ll still need to go through these ad groups to weed out irrelevant keywords and maybe split them out further to theme them better.

    In the example below, all the keywords belong to the same broad theme – footwear. However, if you look closely, there are three sub-themes – Heels, Dress Shoes and Sneakers. In this case we’ll create a separate ad group for each sub-theme.

    image

    The best way to determine which keywords to put in an ad group is to see the number of words that are common in a set of keywords and whether they logically fall under the same theme. In the above example, if you only go by the matching similar words in keywords, colors like black and red emerge as themes. However, grouping keywords based on the type of shoes is more logical than grouping them based on color.

    Why theming is important

    1. Good Quality Score

    Well-themed ad groups make it possible to write ad text that will be relevant to all keywords in an ad group. Keyword to ad text relevance directly impacts clickthrough rate (CTR) which affects Quality Score. A high CTR is a good way to improve Quality Score.

    2. Performance comparison

    Well themed keywords make it is easy to compare performance across product categories. For example, if you put keywords for skirts and shoes in the same ad group then the only way you can compare the performance of the category skirts with shoes is at the keyword level. This can be quite tedious. If you follow a logical theming scheme, keywords for skirts and shoes will be in their individual ad groups and you can just compare performance at the ad group level. This same comparison can go up to the campaign level.

    3. Easy to expand

    When you have to add new keywords you know exactly which ad group to put them in because you built the foundation right.

    4. Ad group bids

    It is easier to set accurate ad group level bids because similar keywords usually have the same bid requirement.

    5. Specific ad text

    If all the keywords in an ad group belong to the same theme, it is easy to write relevant and specific ad text. This is because the USPs and descriptions will be the same. For example, in an ad group that has only keywords related to black heels, you can easily use a text like ‘Dress up your feet in stunning black heels’. It is relevant and specific to the product and one line does the trick for all keywords. However, if you had keywords for dresses in the same ad group, you would have to use something broader like – ‘Great collection of shoes & dresses.’ Which one would you click on as a user if you were searching for black heels?

    Back to Basics: How to Structure a PPC Account in Google AdWords

    Account structure is essentially how you organize your ads and keywords in your AdWords account. Keywords and ads are the working elements in your account as keywords are what users search on and ads are what they see. Think of campaigns and ad groups like boxes that hold keywords and ads. The question is what goes into which box.

    Creating campaigns and ad groups

    AdWords has a three-layer design: Campaigns → Ad groups → Keywords + Ads

    image

    The first step is deciding how many campaigns you want to have. A good way to build an AdWords account is to mirror the website structure. For example, take an online clothes store that has the categories – Men, Women, Kids with sub-categories like shoes and clothes under them. In this case, a good account structure would be to have three separate campaigns for the categories – Men, Women, Kids and ad groups for the sub-categories.

    Apart from creating separate campaigns at the category level, there are a few more instances when creating separate campaigns is required. In AdWords, some settings can be changed only at the campaign level so when you need more control over these settings, create separate campaigns. I’ve mentioned some instances when you’ll need to create separate campaigns below:

    • Budget: You can only set budgets (how much money you want to spend) at the campaign level. To control budgets for different product categories, sub-categories or networks (search, display) it is a good idea to create separate campaigns.

    • Location: The geographical locations you can target are also set at the campaign level. To implement different strategies for different locations, create separate campaigns. For example, you may want to have a locally targeted campaign and a nationally targeting campaign or, you may want to group together certain regions. This also gives the flexibility to allocate budgets based on location.

    • Too many ad groups: If the number of ad groups in a campaign is going above a manageable number (say 100 – 200) consider creating a separate campaign. There is absolutely no harm in creating extra campaigns to make account management easier.

    Earlier it made sense to create separate campaigns for different devices (desktops, mobiles, tablets) but with enhanced campaigns this practice has become redundant.

    How many ad groups to create in a campaign

    Technically you can have 20,000 ad groups in a campaign but as the number of ad groups increases, account management becomes difficult. The number of ad groups will depend on how granular you want your account structure to be and the categories you want to cover under the campaign. I personally prefer not to have more than 100 ad groups in a campaign.

    How many keywords to put in an ad group

    Limiting the number of keywords to 10 -15 is a good practice because beyond that number the theme of the ad group goes for a toss. Theming essentially means keeping the same type of keywords together in one ad group. Theming can be subjective and depends on how granular you want to go. In the example below, all the keywords belong to the same broad theme – footwear. However, if you look closely, there are three sub-themes – Heels, Dress Shoes and Sneakers. In this case we’ll create a separate ad group for each sub-theme. We’ll discuss the importance of theming in another post.

    image

    How many ads to create per ad group

    Try out at least 2-3 different ad variations per ad group to see which one works best for you. Highlight different USPs and features in each ad. After the ads have run for a while, you can pause the lowest performing ads.

    Why it’s important to have a good account structure

    • Easy to manage and optimize: In my experience so far, I’ve seen accounts of almost all shapes and sizes. The badly structured ones take double the time to analyze, are difficult to optimize and challenging to manage. Structuring an account in a logical manner (preferably mirroring the website) makes it very easy to manage. Even if you’re starting small, with just a few ad groups, it is good to create a good base structure as it is the foundation. After that, you can just keep building on top.

    • You can’t fix it later: Once ads start running, restructuring the account is difficult as moving keywords around impacts their performance and you lose historical data.

    • Easy to transition: If you need to transition your AdWords account management to another person, it is much easier and faster.

    In the next post we’ll discuss theming of keywords and why it is important!

    Regular Pages

    Run Great Campaigns With PPC Automation: The Whats, Whys and Hows

    If you aren’t using PPC automation tools in your Google Ads campaigns in 2023, you’re leaving money on the table.

    For years, we’ve been warning PPC campaign teams about the time-killers that limit revenue growth and eat into margins. Today, we have proof that these threats are more pronounced than ever before.

    Boston Consulting Group confirmed that PPC automation performs best with human input, leading to 15% better campaign performance. Brands that fail to pair machine efficiency with human oversight won’t perform as strongly as ones that do.

    Smart businesses run smart campaigns.

    The good news is small and big businesses alike can start using automation to their advantage today, whether it’s the capabilities within Google Ads or a robust third-party solution like Optmyzr.

    This article answers all the big questions including:

    How Google Ads Automation Has Redefined PPC Ads

    Google, Microsoft, Meta/Facebook, Amazon — virtually all PPC platforms are moving towards a single goal: automation solutions and automation features to make paid ads easier.

    The Shift in PPC Management

    Since 2020, Google has released more and newer capabilities to their PPC automation suite, each one taking less time to go from beta to default.

    Computers were already better than humans will ever be at math and processing large quantities of data. Now, and with access to your unique business data, they’re starting to learn what levers to pull to make PPC ad campaigns spend more efficiently and run more optimally.

    Will Automated Solutions Replace PPC Experts?

    Google Ads’ advanced algorithms are smart and getting smarter. The ugly truth is that Google’s AI and machine learning systems can now do a lot of the things that PPC specialists have been doing for the past decade, and more.

    Fortunately, PPC managers still have a crucial role — just not the one they’re used to. The future of humans in PPC will be about data quality and amplifying that which computers are unable to simulate, such as creativity and nuanced decision-making.

    Collaborating with Algorithms

    While PPC software and machine learning may provide actionable data, it’s up to you to combine data and business intuition. In the end, you will make the final call — not the algorithm.

    PPC Automation Layering Brings Security, Control, Visibility

    It’s not easy to let go of what you’re used to controlling. Letting Google handle much of the lever-pulling is a major adjustment, but it’s the hand search engine advertisers have been dealt.

    Keeping track of all that automation can be time-consuming and mentally exhausting — you’re human, and it’s impossible to keep an eye on everything all the time.

    This is especially true for marketers looking over multiple PPC campaigns at once across multiple ad platforms.

    With PPC automation layering, you deploy one or more automation workflows in conjunction with the automation used by ad platforms like Google.

    Marketers who use automation layering typically crave one or more of these benefits of PPC automation software.

    Benefits of PPC Automation Software

    Modern PPC management is no longer about pulling levers and pushing buttons in an ad interface. Today’s marketers need to prioritize providing high-quality inputs and vetting ad platform outputs.

    Automation layering makes that not only possible, but faster and more efficient.

    Here are some of the optimizations we recommend PPC marketers focus on.

    Optimization Recommendations for PPC Campaigns

    Automation Layering in Action: Smart Bidding Use Case

    Smart Bidding is one of the more widely accepted incarnations of automation from Google Ads, but it’s far from perfect. Let’s take a look at what happens when things go wrong and how automation layering can save the day.

    PPC marketers embrace Smart Bidding because by allowing Google to set and adjust bids in real time, they save considerable time and energy.

    However, Smart Bidding can also expose campaigns to risks such as algorithmic malfunctions.

    Proactively Avoid Potential Malfunctions in Automated Bidding

    One potential malfunction (which has happened multiple times) is a spike in bids, typically caused by machine error when reading seasonal or historical data.

    Without automation layering, it could be hours or even days before you notice that one of your accounts has been bidding 500% of its historic cost per click, exceeding the allocated budget and throwing profitability out the window.

    Now imagine you’ve set up an alert that sends you a Slack notification the moment your average CPC exceeds a given threshold, within a specified amount of time.

    Or perhaps you’ve created a rule-based workflow that automatically pauses any ad groups when spend exceeds a given value.

    Serve Your Own Goals with PPC

    Both of these are examples of automation layering — they require a third-party tool like Optmyzr — that creates layers of added security between Google’s automation and your campaigns.

    More importantly, it’s automation that you configure and control, so it serves your interests rather than those of the advertising platforms you advertise on.

    At the end of the day, Google is still a for-profit business that prioritizes the financial performance that comes with increased ad spend.

    3 Steps to Prepare for the Impact of PPC Automation

    In his presentation Beyond Click Metrics, Mike Ryan of Smarter Ecommerce draws an interesting parallel between PPC automation and the act of driving a car.

    “Google’s automation is often described as a black box – I’ve even described it as a black hole. But I’d like to take the heat out of that conversation and simply unpack the automation concept a bit, inspired by research in the field of automated driving.

    “In plain words, driving is the sum of monitoring and control activity at multiple levels. These range from navigation, event detection and response; to physical actions like braking. We could use this same framework to describe how campaigns are controlled as well.

    “Navigation could be thought of in terms of goals and budgets; steering in terms of keywords, schedules, and modifiers; and the gas and brake pedals in terms of CPC bidding. Automation seeks to overtake those different control loops, while humans occupy different states along a spectrum of awareness and control, from in the loop to out of the loop.

    “Not only are Google campaign actions being reduced, but observability and reporting have been limited as well. I see a two-fold challenge there. How can we best guide the platform toward our objectives with fewer tools at hand, and how can we differentiate from competitors using the same technology?”

    Advertisers in paid search and ads need to take three important steps to avoid “merely participating in Google channels, rather than controlling them”.

    1. Protect Yourself from Ad Platform Agendas

    Google and other ad platforms have the same primary goals as any other enterprise: profit and shareholder value. Helping advertisers reach the right target audience and improve business performance is only a way to achieve those goals.

    This makes automation layering an important tool to regain control.

    While some experts view PPC automation as disruptive, Google sees thousands of brands and businesses who don’t use Google Ads because they find it too complicated.

    Automation opens up a huge market and untold millions in revenue, but it also puts Google at conflict with PPC experts who’ve mastered more hands-on ad management over the years.

    Don’t Just Set It and Forget It

    Automated capabilities like Smart Bidding or responsive search ads can turn disruptive when you apply a “set it and forget it” mentality.

    We saw this last year when Smart Shopping CPCs went through the roof and advertisers remained unaware for hours. Rule-based automation could have notified the advertisers the moment those bid amounts spiked.

    2. Insulate Yourself From Economic Unpredictability and Volatility

    If global conditions since 2020 have taught us anything, it’s that every marketer should always expect the unexpected.

    From unconventional windows for holiday shopping to supply chain issues, the past few years have offered plenty of real-world situations that sent PPC strategies haywire.

    Who knows what will disrupt your bid management this year?

    Have Safeguards Ready to Go

    External events will always dramatically shift consumer behavior, so you should have safeguards ready to go. In PPC campaigns, automation layering can minimize losses and limit added expenditure.

    When your targeted audience shifts, find ways to keep data clean and minimize movement to potential negative keywords.

    While alerts, scripts, and automated workflows and rules can’t stop a health crisis from invalidating recent data and trends, they can help you limit any damage until the system corrects itself.

    3. Make the Right Choices for Your Business with PPC Automation Tools

    From paper-thin margins to creating a healthy runway, there are a number of motivating factors behind why businesses chase greater success with fewer resources. Of course, success means different things to different businesses.

    For an agency, it could mean doubling your managed ad spend or improving the quality of your service without hiring additional marketers.

    Third party automation tools can amplify the control of your campaign creation, planning, and monitoring.

    Stay in Control of Your Insights

    Giving your team a third-party automation solution like Optmyzr — rich enough in insights and flexible enough to let you apply them as you see fit — is a great way to stay in control of what Mike calls a “closed-loop system where you have only input and output”.

    “Measure the right things, measure them better, and offer smart inputs,” Mike adds. “This could mean offering Google first-party target audience data, optimizing on profit rather than revenue, bringing in more detailed product data — or any number of efforts to educate Google’s automation.

    “In a supply chain crisis, for example, it could be more important than ever that your ecommerce campaigns consider availability, sell-through rate, and on-order status.”

    Changing the Way We Think About PPC Automation

    Feeling like Google is replacing you is a tough pill to swallow, but the truth is that human PPC experts offer so much more than the ability to push the right buttons.

    Your real value is your ability to contextualize and think creatively, so look at Google’s automation features as a complement rather than as a competitor.

    1. Set up monitoring systems to keep an eye on performance
    2. Go hands-on to test for optimal solutions for messaging, structure, etc.
    3. Sharpen Google’s decision-making by sharing post-conversion data

    While Google’s automation tools feels like a blanket solution for PPC advertisers of no particular type, we know that one size never fits all.

    Shape Google’s Tools to Your Accounts and Business

    Automation layering is how you shape what Google does to suit your brands and accounts.

    “This is a digital marketing journey, and even a total business journey,” Mike adds. “You’ll need to align with finance teams, business intelligence teams, and use test-and-learn practices along the way. Those with the best hypotheses and the fastest speed of learning will out-compete.”

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

    What is PPC automation?

    PPC automation combines AI, machine learning, and logic-based automation to streamline the management of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.

    Digital marketing agencies, advertisers, direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, and online retailers use PPC automation tools to focus on marketing activities that impact business growth.

    What are the benefits of PPC automation tools?

    PPC automation has multiple benefits and outcomes including:

    What are some examples of PPC automation tools?

    PPC automation takes many shapes and forms, but the three most common ones are scripts, alerts, and automated rules.

    PPC Scripts

    Google Ads scripts are blocks of code that tell Google Ads to monitor for something and take action when it’s found. While effective, scripts are a roadblock to anyone unfamiliar with Javascript, making them inaccessible and time-consuming.

    Optmyzr offers what we call Enhanced Scripts — these can be set up through our UI and require zero coding expertise.

    They can be customized for a variety of purposes, including budget management and checking for broken landing pages.

    PPC Alerts

    Alerts are notifications that tell you something in your PPC account requires attention, such as anomalies or deviations in performance.

    They’re often the first line of defense for PPC marketers who have better things to do than stare at an interface all day.

    When ad spend is spiking out of control, your team will know at the very moment - not after the money is spent.

    Optmyzr customers can create alerts for budgets or any trackable KPI at the account, campaign, label, bid strategy, or campaign type level.

    Define your date range and values, and choose to be notified via email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or any other software (via Zapier) so that you know the moment something is wrong on one of the ad platforms.

    PPC marketing does not need to be stressful and worrisome. PPC tools can allow you to run multiple campaigns with ease and less anxiety.

    Automated PPC Rules

    Automated rules use simple “if x, then y” logic to take specific action when certain conditions are met.

    Advertisers determine what those conditions and actions are, but what you can control depends on where you build those rules.

    You have more options and greater control using an API-connected PPC automation tool solution like Optmyzr.

    That’s what makes the Rule Engine one of our most popular automation tools. It saves advertisers a tremendous amount of time, money, and hassle by automating rule-based workflows, such as applying bulk changes or pausing expensive keywords.

    In fact,the Rule Engine is so versatile that you can automate any routine tasks or process that you can write down.

    This article was originally published on February 21, 2022 and was last updated on January 16, 2023.

    How to Make Your Shopping Campaigns Profitable

    Everybody loves ecommerce.

    For buyers, it offers unparalleled convenience and control. And given prevailing world conditions, online shopping is by far the safest option. With everything from luxury apparel to essential groceries available online, ecommerce truly is here to stay.

    For retailers, it presents an opportunity to reach people in a much wider catchment area than a brick-and-mortar store ever could. Plus with no additional overheads other than the cost of advertising and shipping, it offers better margins on certain products like perishable goods.

    Direct-to-consumer brands benefit even further by cutting out retail middlemen whose share of the pie drives up the price end consumers pay.

    But when you advertise for products online, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a positive ROAS means you’re turning a profit.

    Why ROAS is not the best indicator of success

    To illustrate how misleading ROAS can be, let’s consider three hypothetical product groups in a shopping campaign. Each group contains a single product, and each product has a different price (conversion value) and profit margin (excluding ad costs).

    In scenario A, the ROAS makes it seem like you’re breaking even. But what’s actually happening is that you’re spending $100 on ads to sell a $100 product at a margin of $75. That covers only three-quarters of your advertising budget, so you’re actually losing $25 per sale.

    The ROAS for scenario B looks like you’re getting a 2x return. But you’re spending $100 on ads to sell a $200 product at a margin of $100 – that means all of your margin is spent on advertising. So while you aren’t making a loss like scenario A, you’re also not making any profit.

    Scenario C is what ecommerce advertisers want to aim for. You’re spending $100 on ads to sell $500 worth of products at a margin of $125. The margin here is the smallest of the three, but each conversion yields a true margin of $25 after ad costs. That makes it the only profitable scenario.

    Optimizing for profitable shopping campaigns is a combination of aligning operating costs, sale price, and advertising costs to find a ROAS target that will reflect well on your books, not just an end-of-month Google Ads report.

    As a result, shopping campaigns can embrace a variety of structures – grouping products by ROAS target, profit margin, and groups of individual products (GRIP) are all viable depending on what you want to do.

    To optimize these campaigns, some of the things you may wish to try are:

    Remember, the example we’ve provided is purely illustrative. In the real world, there’s usually a tradeoff between ROAS and volumes. It’s usually difficult to achieve high numbers for both, so high-volume conversions tend to have a lower ROAS and vice versa.

    Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Builder allows you to build new shopping campaigns. The tool uses your merchant feed to smartly group products based on your chosen split hierarchy.

    We include options to create campaigns by ROAS and price, which you can’t do directly in Google Ads. You can create standard shopping and Performance Max campaigns, restructure campaigns created outside of Optmyzr, and set bids.

    Tracking Your Progress

    As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making. Optmyzr recommends tracking the following metrics at different stages of your effort to optimize shopping campaigns for true profit.

    Beginner Stage

    Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift. At this stage, you want to track Impressions, Clicks, and Conversions.

    These beginner metrics give you an idea of whether your shopping ads are getting in front of the right people, whether those people are showing interest, and whether that interest is strong enough to generate a sale.

    Intermediate Stage

    You want to start tracking these intermediate metrics after achieving some degree of growth. At this stage, you should be tracking Conversions and Costs.

    These intermediate metrics are ideal for when you start to optimize your campaigns, filter out expensive and low-converting products, and restructure product groups based on profitability or ROAS target.

    Advanced Stage

    Advanced metrics like ROAS and True Profit Margin are for when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine.

    These metrics help you better understand at what ROAS target your product groups and campaigns become profitable, and whether that profitability is limited to the advertising ecosystem or extends to your actual ledger.

    Conclusion

    If used efficiently, Standard Shopping campaigns can bring you profitable results. So, if you are leaning towards Standard Shopping over Performance Max, here are some tips to run profitable Standard Shopping campaigns.

    Optmyzr 2021 Wrap

    2021 was an eventful year for Optmyzr. From launching new capabilities and tools to improving existing ones, we’ve been doing everything we can to help make advertisers’ lives easier.

    We’re thankful to everybody that has been a part of this journey, and we hope that you continue to choose us to improve your PPC management experience.

    Here are the major updates across 12 months.

    New tools/features -

    Segment Explorer

    In the Google Analytics interface, it is difficult to view performance data for multiple segments at a time - say number of sessions coming from California from Males using a mobile device.

    The Segment Explorer lets you view performance metrics for all your connected Google Analytics accounts for multiple dimensions combined at once.

    Learn more about Segment Explorer.

    Score segments to get Value Rules suggestions

    The new Segment Scorer allows you to score your segments based on how well they perform once you get a conversion from them. You can assign a number between 1 (lowest) and 5 (highest).

    Once we get enough scores from your team, we’ll use that data to suggest Conversion Value Rules that will help optimize your account’s performance by teaching Google’s automations (like those that handle bidding) more about what’s valuable to your business.

    View tool.

    Campaign Experiments tool

    With Campaign Experiments, you can analyze the performance of active experiments across all your Google Ads accounts in one place. Find winning and losing experiments, and apply or end them in a single click.

    Optmyzr compares your experiment and its original campaign based on statistically significant data to highlight whether the experiment is winning.

    Utility Tools: New Auctions Insights Visualizer

    The new Auction Insights Visualizer enables you to generate charts using the Google Ads auction insights data. As Auction Insights data is currently not available via the API, you can drop data files into the tool and use the data.

    We’ve also added a chart visualization of the auction insights to help users understand how their competitors are performing.

    Our senior Engineer, Shashank Tiwari, who built the tool, was also featured in a Search Engine Journal article highlighting the utility of the tool.

    Read more about the tool here.

    Create well-structured Shopping campaigns and get more control over how they re-sync.

    You can now create Standard or Smart shopping campaigns based on ROAS or Price points using the Shopping Builder. The system will also help you keep them up to date by moving the products from one campaign to another, depending on their ROAS/Price points, every time the Refresher is run. Read more about this feature here

    Here’s how to build a perfectly structured campaign and how the Shopping Campaign Refresher works.

    Facebook on MCC dashboard

    You will now be able to view Facebook data along with other platforms supported by Optmyzr. You can:

    1. See live data for all platforms in one place.

    2. Mark as favorite, add notes, tags, and calculated metrics to help you monitor the performance of your Facebook accounts on the MCC Dashboard.

    Campaign Projected Gain in AB Testing tool for Google & Microsoft

    The Campaign Projected Gain feature gives you the projected gain for a selected metric, using the ‘Find winners by’ filter. This is Optmyzr’s estimation if an ad copy is optimized as per the suggestions shown in the tool. For example, if you are searching for winner ads by CTR, Optmyzr will show you how many clicks you can gain by pausing the loser ads.

    Rule Engine updates

    Account Level Placement Exclusion in one click

    One-click optimization for Account Level Placement Exclusion is now available under the Placements section.

    If you’re running smart campaigns, this update is especially useful as these campaigns respect only account-level placement exclusions. You can identify non-converting placements and exclude them from your account in one click.

    You can also create your customized strategies in Rule Engine to get a report of or exclude placements at the account level.

    Bid adjustment changes - ad group and campaign level

    At the ad group level, users can create customized rules to analyze performance at the device, demographic, and audience level and change bid adjustments based on performance. Read on for more details.

    At the campaign level, you can apply bid adjustments by devices. Adjust Bids by Device.

    SA360 conversion data supported in the Rule Engine

    Search Ads 360 actions and transactions are available in the Rule Engine for linked Google Ads accounts. Use this to gain extra insight from SA360 actions/transactions to make informed decisions.

    Learn more about it here.

    Budgets

    More control to limit multi-platform overspending

    Optimize Budgets Across Platforms now pauses the campaigns of a budget group if their shared monthly target is reached, and re-enable them on the 1st of the next month.

    This helps make sure your accounts do not overspend across Facebook, Google, and Microsoft Ads.

    New Budget management Features for Microsoft Ads

    View tool.

    View tool.

    New UI

    New UI for Campaign Automator

    Campaign Automator is a standalone Optmyzr product that lets you build scalable, automated, and inventory-driven PPC campaigns.

    Watch this webinar to know more about Campaign Automator capabilities.

    Users can also create Responsive display ads for Display campaigns using Campaign Automator. Here’s how.

    New UI for Account Dashboard Google ads:

    Including new widgets and functionalities

    1. Easy access to Pre Built Templates
    2. View Quality Score data
    3. Analyze PPC Investigator Chart
    4. See your Audit Score and access full PPC audit report
    5. Review your tasks due and overdue

    Workflows

    More control over Account Blueprints

    We now support both scheduled (paused or active) and on-demand Account Blueprints. You can create a Blueprint without scheduling tasks and run them on demand. Also, now you can choose to pause a scheduled Blueprint to not create new task alerts.

    Zapier Integration: Send blueprint tasks or alerts to your project management system

    With Zapier you can integrate Optmyzr with almost anything. For example: You can now send tasks created by blueprints to your own CRM or project management system (like Salesforce, Asana, Basecamp, Trello, etc.).

    Learn how you can integrate Blueprints or Alerts with Zapier. You can also watch one of our YouTube tutorials.

    Alerts

    New alerts for Facebook, Amazon, Quality Score

    New alert types for additional platforms, functionalities, and metrics. These include:

    Learn how to connect Slack and Optmyzr.

    Support to get Rule Engine alerts on the Triggered alerts page on all platforms

    You can now get alerts on the Triggered Alerts page based on Rule Engine suggestions, allowing you to see all alerts in one place.

    Get alert notifications directly in Microsoft Teams

    Apart from Slack, your team can now be notified directly in their Microsoft team account. Whenever an alert is triggered, your team will be notified on Microsoft Teams as part of the chat for the Optmyzr app.

    Connect Optmyzr to Microsoft Teams

    Amazon Ads updates

    Product Targeting and Negative Product Targeting

    Search terms (specifically ASINs) can now be added as Product Targets or Negative Product Targets using the Search Terms scope of Rule Engine for Amazon.

    This new action allows for more granular filtering based on performance and lets you add ASIN search terms as positive or negative product targets accordingly.

    Optmyzr Express for Amazon

    Optmyzr Express is designed to work as a to-do list and lets you breeze through multiple optimization tasks in minutes! It shows you optimization suggestions across accounts based on predefined algorithms.

    For Amazon, users can see suggestions to:

    1. Add Negative Keywords

    2. Add New Keywords

    3. Pause Non-Converting Keywords

    View tool.

    Campaign placement optimization for Amazon Ads

    A new scope, Campaign Placements has been added in Rule Engine for Amazon Ads. It allows you to see your Amazon Ads performance based on campaign placements and adjust bids (by %) for the corresponding placements.

    This improvement helps you adjust bids by placements in a more granular way than the Amazon Ads interface, as our Rule Engine lets you filter by any condition that suits your needs.

    Yahoo! Japan

    We have added support for Yahoo! Japan Ads across multiple tools:

    1. Rule Engine (scopes - keywords, campaigns, ad groups, and device bid adjustments)
    2. Hour of Week Bid Adjustments
    3. Pause Non-Converting keywords
    4. Negative Keyword Finder
    5. Keyword lasso
    6. URL Checker

    Optmyzr also has its very own roadmap now, where users can view upcoming updates and suggest feature requests of their own.

    View the Optmyzr product roadmap & make feature requests

    Optmyzr now has our own Roadmap page where users can:

    Visit the Roadmap Page

    How to Reduce Costs on your PPC Ads

    Despite its many iterations, the nature of search advertising remains the same: spend money to get your ads seen by the people most likely to click on them and give you a sale. But what happens when you don’t target the right keywords or audiences, or when you get plenty of clicks but they don’t convert at a good rate?

    Budget bleeding is one of the most common PPC problems, affecting even the most seasoned account managers and strategists. While no account can realistically hit 100% efficiency, you can take steps to create as little wastage as possible.

    Best Practices to Reduce Costs

    Wastage in paid search can be broken down into two major categories:

    In either scenario, the advertiser is investing money that doesn’t generate the returns it should.

    Some of the common causes of overspending and low-converting ads include:

    Tracking Your Progress

    As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making.

    We recommend tracking the following metrics at different stages of your cost reduction effort.

    Beginner Metrics

    Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift. Use these as indicators of progress while you pause or reduce bids for keywords generating clicks without conversions, exclude placements leading to wasted spend, add negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic, and improve your landing pages.

    Intermediate Metrics

    Track these intermediate metrics after achieving some degree of growth. They will show you whether your efforts to optimize ad text/creatives and pause underperforming ads are working.

    Advanced Metrics

    Last but not least, our recommended advanced metrics help you better understand if your bid adjustments are resulting in more efficient overall spend. Track these metrics when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine.

    Here’s how Optmyzr can help reduce wasted spend on your ads. You can also get in touch with our support team for any further assistance.

    PPC in 2022: Predicting the Unpredictable

    If the last two years have taught me anything, it’s to expect the unexpected…and the unpredictable. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have some thoughts on where PPC is headed. Here’s what I think will matter in 2022.

    The Three Truths

    There are three ongoing trends that I expect will continue to shape our industry. These are the “three truths” of PPC advertising:

    1. Ad platforms will continue to automate.
    2. Advertisers will get less access to data.
    3. Control over targeting, bidding, and messaging will keep decreasing.

    We’ll Shift to Managing Goals Rather than Details

    As automation continues to improve, the need for granular controls will decline. Instead of managing PPC details inside the ad platforms, our roles will shift to managing higher-level goals at these systems’ periphery. Less managing search terms, more managing how we identify good leads and conversions.

    Even Facebook recently added “Lead Conversions” to their platform. Advertisers are getting smart to the fact that leads are meaningless if they don’t convert into customers.

    We’ll Rethink Old Assumptions

    In the good ol’ days, if you were selling something on the internet, you could assume that there was basically an unlimited supply of the thing you were selling. You could go full steam ahead, offering big discounts and special promotions, and aggressively pursue campaign expansion. You knew the limiting factor was how many buyers you could drum up and not how much stuff you had in inventory. The supply-chain disruptions of 2021 changed that. You can no longer assume unlimited supplies. That means a modern PPC marketer needs to be more nimble than ever.

    Here’s another assumption we’ve had to challenge. It used to be that, to get more traffic to an ad group, you had to add keywords or raise bids. That was true before RSAs, which are now the default and will soon replace ETAs. In our recent study of the RSA ad format, we found they can drive four times as many impressions as ETAs, simply because Google’s machine learning is able to boost the relevance of an ad by constructing it on the fly, based on a user’s query and circumstances.

    Our decades-old best practice of using the metric “conversions per impression” to find the best ad in an A/B ad test was based on an assumption that is no longer true. To do A/B ad testing right, you now also need to consider that each ad has a unique impact on the ad group’s impressions and hence its ability to drive incremental conversions.

    Here’s another false assumption: the higher the ROAS, the better. That was never really true, but advertisers are finally coming to realize this and are beginning to favor POAS (profit over ad spend) instead, since this metric better reflects actual business goals.

    We’ll Have to Continue Grappling with New Questions

    If you’re selling new cars, you’re faced with the question: do you actually need to advertise? You may already have a one-year backlog due to supply-chain disruptions. Why advertise just so that people can sign up on a waitlist? Is that really necessary? Or is tight supply your opportunity to reset the expectation that cars will be sold below MSRP into one that they will now command a premium over MSRP and you want to double down on ads while the margins are high?

    If you sell fitness bikes, and orders get canceled in droves when patience with shipping delays runs thin, do you allow your systems that adjust order values to Google to continue as before? Do you mark these conversions as bad? Or was the fault actually not with marketing finding low-quality buyers? The answer may seem obvious, but whatever you decide has implications on what the machine learns and therefore does next, so tread carefully.

    We’ll Need to Rely More on First-Party Data

    Before ads became personalized, they were just annoying. Personalized ads are much more useful and relevant. That advertisers are willing to pay a premium for better targeted ads is what’s been floating the rapid development of the web in the last couple decades.

    The most important method of personalization has been third-party cookies, which enable the system to draw a far more detailed demographic and psychographic picture of each individual user. But third-party cookies are now considered invasions of privacy and being eliminated. What happens when third-party cookies are gone?

    If we can no longer do some of the personalization that made the internet useful, many websites are going to lose considerable revenue. Google did a study and concluded that in the absence of personalization, 62 percent of revenue for online newspapers would go away.

    That is a real problem. As is so often the case, a major shift has unintended consequences. Privacy is a desirable goal that may well cause the web as a whole to decline in value. That could be catastrophic. But it’s a problem only if there’s no replacement for third-party-cookie technology. To prevent this, new ways to let advertisers continue to subsidize a free web need to be developed.

    Several initiatives to protect user data, while still enabling interest-based advertising and remarketing without third-party cookies, are in development. The most prominent has been Google’s now-discontinued FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts).

    While we can’t predict the exact solution, it is certain that it will involve machine learning, which draws inferences from masses of data. The more data a machine-learning system is trained on, the more accurate it will become at audience segmentation and personalization.

    One possibility is that audience segmentation will be based on devices surveyed, not individual users. I tend to use my laptop for business and my iPhone for personal matters. Under the new system, it’s possible that I’d fall into different cohorts depending on my device and that could actually be really helpful to advertisers who could then target cohorts of work personas or personal personas.

    All of us as individuals have many dimensions, which so far have been hard for advertisers to target. Our technical problem-solvers may be able to make a virtue of the necessity of restoring personalization by other means.

    The problem is so urgent that we can expect any number of solutions to be developed in the coming year. As always, there will be a competitive shake-out of the various approaches, with one or two eventually emerging as the favorites. We’re well-advised to keep an eye on this trend in 2022. Cliché though it is, it’s also true that every crisis brings new opportunities.

    And while waiting to see how things shake out, advertisers should work overtime to increase the first-party data they collect, so they can cut back their dependence on data from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and the other platforms.

    Happy New Year

    In a recent PPC Town Hall, Chris Moreno from Google said, “The only thing that we know is that we don’t know anything.” Basically, 2022 is going to be as full of surprises as the last two years were. We need to be ready to be nimble and able to respond to whatever may happen.

    Happy New Year and good luck to us all!

    Building Better PPC Display Campaigns: What, Why & How

    Display campaigns in pay-per-click advertising are some of the most eye-catching ads you can run (when they’re done right). The Google Display Network (GDN) is a series of placements across Google properties and the web that helps you promote your business by showing creatives as people browse, watch YouTube videos, check their Gmail, or use their mobile devices and apps.

    Google Display Network is designed to help you find the right audience, with targeting options that let you show your message to potential customers in the right place and at the right time. Use audience targeting or remarketing audience lists to find new prospects, or work with automated targeting.

    Some of the ad subtypes you can run on Google Display Network include:

    1. Responsive Display Ads: A combination of ad text, images, and logos. Google uses a machine learning model to determine the optimal combination of assets for each ad slot based on predictions built from your performance history.
    2. Uploaded Image Ads: You can upload ads as images in different sizes or HTML5, for more control.
    3. Engagement Ads: Run engaging image and video ads on YouTube and across the Display Network.
    4. Gmail Ads: Show expandable ads on the top tabs of people’s inboxes.

    Types of Display Campaigns

    Display campaigns are a great way to expand the reach of your Search ads to other parts of the web. They also allow you to follow up with remarketing ads to new and existing customers.

    1. Standard Display: You get full control over targeting the right audience, bids and budgets for your display campaigns, and ad creation. However, the time investment for setup and monitoring is significantly higher.
    2. Smart Display: You don’t have to set up targeting for Smart Display campaigns, which automatically optimize your targeting, based on the campaign goal. Automated targeting uses website visitors, landing page insights, and your search campaigns’ best performing keywords to automatically target customers across the web.

    Targeting for Standard Display Campaigns

    Google Display Network’s targeting helps show ads to your preferred audience types – people who you think will be interested in your business or products. You can set targeting for your ad groups to show your ads to a certain type of people e.g. US residents aged 21-30 or female residents of the European Union (read more).

    Different ways of targeting include:

    1. Audience Targeting is for when you want your ads to be seen by a particular audience. This can be achieved using remarketing or customer match lists, affinity audience, or demographic targeting.
    2. Contextual targeting is for when you wish to target a certain type of content. You can target keywords or topics in your ad groups.

    To increase the impact of a particular targeting setting, bid higher on them. For example, if you’d like to make sure that your ads are shown to females of age 25-34 more, you can bid higher on this targeting option.

    About Optimized Targeting

    Optimized Targeting helps your campaign explore customers who have the highest likelihood to convert based on your campaign goal – sales, leads, brand awareness, etc. If you set up targeting for your ad groups, these targets are used by Google to find similar criteria to serve your ads on.

    Read more about how optimized targeting is different from audience expansion.

    How to Create Successful Display Campaigns

    1. Set the right goal. Your goal will help you determine what topic or which audience you should target. Display campaigns can help you:

    2. Target the right audience (Standard Display). Connecting to customers at the right place and right time boosts visibility and the likelihood of getting conversions. Show relevant ads to customers by setting up contextual targets or using placements. Control the appearance of your ads by optimizing for demographics, locations, and schedules.

    3. Use both Responsive Display Ads and Image Ads. These get the best results, rather than Image Ads alone. Best practice recommends that advertisers follow these guidelines while creating:

    4. Set bids and budgets. Display campaigns can be set to run on manual bid adjustments or Smart Bidding strategies, depending on their goal. If you want to focus on impressions, consider Viewable CPM bidding. To get more clicks, consider Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks bidding. Aiming for conversions? Run your campaigns with Target CPA or Target ROAS. Display campaigns support custom bids for a particular target in each ad group.

    5. Adjust bids for targets (Standard Display). You can set bid adjustments when your campaigns are running the Manual/Enhanced CPC or Viewable CPM bidding strategies. Bid adjustments can be set at the campaign level (for devices, times, days, and locations) and can also be used to bid more competitively for specific targeting methods (keywords, audiences, demographics, topics, or placements) in your ad groups.

    13 Tips & A Checklist for Better Display Campaigns with Optmyzr

    1. Create Responsive Display Ads for Smart and standard display campaigns. You can create Display campaigns with responsive display ads in Google Ads account using Campaign Automator - a stand-alone tool by Optmyzr. Campaign Automator helps you to dynamically create, edit or pause ads based on your input source file. Check out this video about Campaign Automator.

    2. Tweak campaign-level targets for Smart and standard display campaigns. Rule Engine can help you increase, decrease or set targets at the campaign level, based on the performance of your campaigns. If your campaigns are running on Portfolio strategies then Rule Engine will not make any change to the campaign level tCPA or tROAS.

    3. Tweak ad group-level targets for Smart and standard display campaigns. You can set up Rule Engine strategies and automate them to run on fixed intervals and make changes to the ad group targets based on the performance. If the campaign is running on Target CPA or Target ROAS Portfolio strategy, you can still tweak the ad group targets using Rule Engine.

    4. Modify CPC and CPM bids at the ad group level for standard display campaigns. You can create Rule Engine strategies to make changes to the ad group level bids based on the performance data.

    5. Optimize your budgets. You can analyze how much the budgets linked to your display campaigns are going to spend by the end of a selected time period, using Spend Projection. At the same time, you can use Optimize Budgets to reallocate budgets across campaigns in order to meet the target budget. You can also set up a Flexible Budget script to make sure your display campaigns do not overspend, and at the same time use Reach Target Monthly Spend script to ensure you reach the target budget.

    6. Update dayparts and apply bid adjustments for standard display campaigns. You can use Hour of Week Analysis to analyze the performance of display campaigns for a given time period and find out which day of the week and hour of the day gets you the most conversions or highest traffic. You can then use this information to make bid adjustments and edit dayparts using Hour of Week Bid Adjustments

    7. Exclude locations and apply bid adjustments for standard display campaigns. Geo HeatMap offers a quick visualization of how much traffic do different cities, regions, countries drive for your campaigns. You can also choose to apply bid adjustments based on the bid modifier recommendations on Geo Bid Adjustments tool. You can also use Rule Engine to apply bid adjustments or exclude locations from the campaign.

    8. Adjust bids by audience and device for standard display campaigns. Audience bid adjustments can be applied to both targeted and observed audiences, using the bid modifier recommendations from the Audience Bid adjustment. And, device bid modifications can be applied using Device bid adjustment tool. You can also use Rule Engine to create a strategy and apply changes. In order to exclude a device, you can apply a bid adjustment of -100% using Rule Engine. These bid adjustments also apply only to standard display campaigns.

    9. Apply bid adjustment to age range and gender for standard display campaigns. You can create your strategy using Rule Engine to apply bid adjustments for gender and age range at the ad group level. We do not support the exclusion of demographics in the tool.

    10. Manage placements for Smart and standard display campaigns. Display Placement Exclusion is a simple and quick way to identify your non-performing placements and exclude them from standard display campaigns. We also have optimizations to help you exclude placements at the account level – essentially the only way you can manage placements for Smart Display campaigns. You can also create custom optimizations using Rule Engine.

    11. Set mobile app exclusions for display campaigns. You can quickly identify all mobile apps that are not converting for you and exclude them from the ad groups in standard display campaigns. You can even customize the Rule Engine strategy based on your requirements. You can create a similar strategy and run it at the account level to exclude mobile apps from all your campaigns; including smart display campaigns.

    12. Manage bids for placements in standard display campaigns. If you want to manage bids for your added placements, you can enable custom bid for the placements in an ad group (in Google Ads) and then add placements to the ad group with the required CPC bid using Rule Engine. This will update the bids for the existing placements, only if the campaign runs on the CPC bid.

    13. Manage bids for display keywords in standard display campaigns. Display campaigns support custom bid for targeting methods, users can choose to support custom bid for one type of targeting method in an ad group. If you choose to allow custom bids for keywords, you can then use Rule Engine to change the bids for your keywords based on the performance data. This is applicable for campaigns running on eCPC and vCPM.

    Manage Display Campaigns: A Handy Checklist

    Using our PPC project management tool Account Blueprints, you can create and save a plan to help manage display campaigns. You can see a sample approach below, and the Blueprint is available in our account as “Optimize Display Campaigns in Optmyzr”.

    Watch a brief walkthrough to build your own Blueprints for display campaign management (or anything else).

    How Can D2C Brands Leverage PPC Ads to Drive Customer Acquisition?

    D2C Ecommerce retail is skyrocketing. The global D2C sales have almost doubled in the last two years, and this uptrend is likely to continue. Brands like Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, Casper, and BarkBox are revolutionizing the D2C space.

    Consumers are also showing interest in shopping from D2C brands. Over 40% of customer spending is projected to go towards D2C retail. As a result, 78% of D2C brands have increased their marketing budgets.

    However, increasing your marketing budget isn’t enough. You need to implement the right marketing strategies to get more sales.

    Paid advertising has emerged as one of the most effective marketing strategies for D2C brands. Here is a comprehensive guide that will help you leverage PPC ads to drive customer acquisition.

    The D2C Business Landscape and Target Audience

    Ecommerce has grown exponentially in the past couple of years. Global retail Ecommerce sales have doubled from $2,982 billion in 2018 to $4,891 billion in 2021. Furthermore, they’re projected to reach $6,388 billion by 2024.

    One of the fastest-growing segments within Ecommerce is direct-to-consumer (D2C) retail. D2C Ecommerce sales in the US alone touched $129 billion in 2021 and are likely to reach $175 billion in 2025.

    Global Growth of D2C Ecommerce

    Several factors are fueling the growth of D2C Ecommerce, including:

    These intermediaries charge a commission on every sale, which reduces the brand’s profit margin. D2C eliminates such intermediaries, allowing brands to be more profitable.

    This first-party data also allows D2C brands to streamline their marketing campaigns and acquire new customers.

    Target Audience for D2C Brands

    If you want to run successful, high-performing marketing campaigns, you need to first understand your target audience.

    D2C brands primarily rely on digital channels to reach customers and drive sales. Thus, their target audience includes younger consumers that actively use online channels. Three-quarters of the D2C customer base is under the age of 55 years. Millennials and Gen Z readily shop from D2C brands.

    There are various reasons younger customers prefer shopping from D2C brands, including:

    D2C Sales Funnel and Acquisition Channels

    The D2C marketing and sales funnel are similar to the standard marketing funnel. It comprises three stages:

    D2C brands can use several channels to reach customers and drive sales. The channel you choose depends on your goals. If you’re looking for a marketing strategy to support your long-term goals, SEO and social media can be effective channels.

    If you have short-term goals and want to drive quick sales, paid advertising or PPC advertising is one of your best options. Since many D2C brands focus on getting quick, consistent sales, PPC advertising has emerged as the preferred marketing strategy for them.

    How Can Paid Advertising Campaigns Bolster D2C Customer Acquisition?

    One of the major reasons to use PPC ads is versatility. You can use them at every stage of the sales funnel. When your prospects are in the TOFU stage, PPC ads help you increase brand and product awareness.

    In the consideration stage, PPC ads enable you to filter customers based on their intent and drive engagement. PPC advertising in the BOFU stage is all about getting sales.

    Quick entry, versatility, and seamless optimization are some other reasons to use PPC marketing. Unlike SEO that takes months to show results, PPC ads start driving results sooner. This way, D2C brands can promote their products instantaneously and penetrate the market.

    PPC ads are highly versatile as you can run them for every awareness stage. You can tailor your content strategy and marketing messages based on customer awareness and positioning, and goals.

    Paid ads also offer versatility in terms of ad formats. There are so many paid advertising formats:

    Additionally, PPC ads are measurable and trackable. You can set and track key performance indicators (KPIs) of each ad campaign to determine how it’s performing. This also paves the way for A/B testing — running two versions of an ad simultaneously to determine which one performs better.

    This trackability and scope for experimentation make PPC ads an excellent alternative to print ads and physical advertisements that are usually not easy to measure.

    Note: There is a smart way to make your print ads, billboards, and other physical advertisements measurable — using QR codes. All you need to do is create a QR code, link it to the target URL, and place it on your ad. Users can scan the code from their smartphone to engage with it.

    QR codes are trackable, and you can see how many times your code has been scanned and from which location and device.

    Leveraging Google PPC Ads for D2C Customer Acquisition

    Paid advertising is beneficial for D2C brands, but it’s also competitive. Almost every D2C brand uses paid ads to increase awareness and boost customer acquisition.

    So how can you stand out in a saturated market?

    Here are four steps you can take to effectively use PPC ads for increasing customer acquisition, retention, and revenue.

    1. Planning Ad Campaigns Based on Your Marketing Strategy

    The first step in setting up a paid ad campaign is to formulate a marketing strategy that includes reaching prospects across awareness stages. Let’s look at how you can use paid ads for each awareness stage.

    Top of the Funnel

    In the TOFU stage, your aim should be to create brand awareness and educate people about your brand and the products you sell. Display ads enable broad interest targeting, and hence, they’re best suited for building awareness.

    You can also use social media ads and search ads to engage people at the top of the funnel.

    Middle of the Funnel

    Customers in the middle of the funnel are aware of your product but aren’t yet ready to buy. At this stage, your ads should focus on instilling confidence in their minds. You can do that by sharing case studies and testimonials. You can also promote the benefits you offer, like a “free 30-day money-back guarantee.”

    Remarketing is effective at this stage. In remarketing, you show ads to people who visited your website or a product page but didn’t complete a purchase. Retargeting ads can help nurture these prospects and push them further down the funnel. Besides, retargeting ads have a 10x higher CTR than traditional display ads.

    Targeting rivals is another useful approach in the MOFU stage. It’s an aggressive advertising strategy where you target potential customers searching for your competitors. The idea behind this strategy is to show the customers what you offer is better than what your competitors provide.

    Bottom of the Funnel

    The final stage is the bottom of the funnel, where your only objective is to convert a prospect into a customer. At this stage, you can leverage branded search campaigns, high-intent search ads, Google Shopping ads, and retargeting.

    2. Tracking Ad Campaign Performance

    In the previous section, we delved deep into developing a paid advertising strategy based on the awareness stage and your marketing goals. Now, let’s discuss the KPIs you can measure to track the performance of your ad campaigns.

    The KPIs are different for each awareness stage.

    TOFU

    MOFU

    BOFU

    By combining all these metrics, you can track the performance of your ad campaigns accurately.

    3. Optimizing Ad Campaigns to Boost Conversions

    Now that you know which metrics to track, let’s understand how you can optimize your ad campaigns using these KPIs to boost conversions. We’ll pick a use case from each funnel stage for better understanding.

    Let’s start with the TOFU stage. Suppose you run a display ad campaign that gets a lot of impressions but hardly any clicks (low CTR). It could be an indication that your ad isn’t catchy enough. Changing the image, headline, or description of the ad can help.

    When you show ads to prospects in the MOFU stage, your ads may get a lot of clicks but few conversions (low conversion rate). A low conversion rate indicates that your offer isn’t engaging enough to convince the prospect to take action. Changing your landing page and revamping your offer can help.

    You can also use A/B testing to test different landing pages, ad copies, keywords, audiences, etc., to find the best-performing options.

    In the BOFU stage, you may have a high conversion rate but low RoAS. This means your ads are getting conversions, but the revenue generated is low. You can resolve this issue by reducing your customer acquisition costs.

    4. Developing a Robust Lead Nurturing System and Sales Funnel

    Gone are the days when siloed marketing was effective. Even though paid advertising is the most useful marketing strategy for D2C brands, you must complement it with other marketing and customer experience strategies.

    For instance, you can support your paid ads by leveraging organic SEO. Ecommerce SEO has many benefits. It helps you rank higher on search engine results, drive brand awareness, expand remarketing audiences, and generate leads to fill your marketing funnel. Moreover, a solid SEO strategy can help you reduce your paid advertising costs.

    The next step is to boost the user experience at each touchpoint. D2C brands generally use various touchpoints to acquire customers. Some examples include paid ads, organic SEO, social media, and email. It’s essential to identify all these touchpoints and ensure a seamless onboarding process on all of them.

    Finally, invest in post-purchase engagement to elevate customers to the stage and loyalty and advocacy and increase their lifetime value (LTV). Asking for feedback, requesting referrals, and implementing cross-sell/upsell strategies are useful ways to engage your customers after a purchase.

    Conclusion

    The rise of D2C brands has been one of the major trends in the Ecommerce space in the last couple of years. Many customers prefer buying from D2C brands to enjoy authenticity, low prices, and convenience.

    If you are a D2C brand, you can leverage paid advertising to increase brand awareness, engage potential customers across awareness stages, and drive customer acquisition.

    This is a guest post. The views and opinions expressed by the author are solely their own and do not represent that of Optmyzr.

    About the author:

    Akshay is a digital marketer and a startup enthusiast exploring the myriad avenues of everything marketing. At Beaconstac, he enables companies to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds through the use of custom QR codes.

    How to Optimize Your Smart Shopping Campaigns

    Note: Smart Shopping campaigns have been upgraded to Performance Max in September 2022. We suggest you refer to these links below to know more about Performance Max.

    Performance Max Campaigns Guide for 2023

    Performance Max Guide: How to Diagnose Your Ecommerce Campaign Performance in 2023

    Performance Max Campaign Tips for Retail and Ecommerce

    How to Manage and Optimize Your Performance Max Campaigns

    Performance Max: 5 Effective Ways to Safeguard Your Campaigns in 2023

    Classic paid search was about controlling levers. New age PPC is about monitoring automation.

    Google Ads is increasingly moving to automate many parts of its complex machine. Bidding, targeting, and even parts of the ad text experience are either fully or partly automated.

    Smart Shopping is one of the more popular automations Google currently offers, and takes the bidding and micromanagement out of shopping ads. On the flip side, advertisers who think they can hand things over to Google once and get the results they want will be in for a shock.

    While you may not control the bid strategy and adjustments with Smart Shopping, you can (and should) optimize many other parts of it: your campaign structure, merchant feed, and budgets are all still within your control.

    Let’s take a look at how to work with Smart Shopping to drive the results you need while enjoying the convenience you want.

    Best Practices to Optimize Smart Shopping

    From our experience working with hundreds of advertisers as well as expert teams from the ad platforms, we’ve compiled a list of 14 recommendations for account managers and strategists new to Smart Shopping:

    1. Get 20-30 manual conversions over the past 45 days across existing shopping campaigns and an audience list of at least 100 users before deploying Smart Shopping. The more historical conversion data you start with, the easier it will be to work with this automation.
    2. Enable dynamic remarketing on your website.
    3. Enable conversion tracking and assign values for transactions.
    4. Try to regain as much control as possible with the tools that are available.
    5. Never adopt a ‘set-and-forget’ approach to Smart Shopping campaigns. Use alerts to know when intervention is needed and optimize periodically as you acquire new data.
    6. Make sure your feed is in good shape. Polish your product titles, make sure product descriptions are robust, and carefully select images. Google uses this information to build your ads.
    7. Use multiple campaigns to club together products of similar characteristics or performance. For instance, create separate Smart Shopping campaigns for different:
      • prices or ROAS targets to avoid Google from exhausting the campaign budget on easy, low-value conversions
      • stages of the product life-cycle
      • product margins to include real business goals in planning
    8. Alternately, follow Google’s recommendation to include all products in one campaign and keep tracking their performance to understand which products are being advertised on. As always, testing and close observation are highly recommended.
    9. Be cautious about advertising the same products in multiple campaigns, as Smart Shopping will be prioritized over standard ones.
    10. Keep an eye on the campaign-level Target ROAS and the actual ROAS. If you’re new to shopping campaigns altogether, consider defining a Target ROAS after 30-45 days at the earliest to avoid limiting initial data collection. Setting up a target that cannot be reached, results in your ads not being shown in the first place.
    11. Exclude low-performing, high-cost product groups to steer resources towards better-performing product groups.
    12. Be hawkish with budgets. This is one of the few things you can actually fully control on Smart Shopping, so take advantage.
    13. Test, tweak targets, and compare performance to previously run standard shopping campaigns (if you have any).
    14. Make seasonality adjustments to avoid sudden spikes in cost.

    Tracking Your Progress

    As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making. Optmyzr recommends tracking the following metrics at different stages of your efforts to optimize Smart Shopping.

    Beginner metrics

    Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift.

    1. Impression, Impression Share & Total Eligible Impressions: Know whether your ads are showing.
    2. Conversions & Conversion Tracking: Make sure you’re feeding the algorithm the most accurate data possible. Beware of tracking multiple conversion actions as separate conversions e.g., ‘add to cart’ and ‘purchase.’
    3. Click Share: Know how many clicks your campaign received out of all the clicks it was eligible to receive.
    4. Click-through Rate: A low CTR may be an indicator of an unoptimized feed. Actual ROAS/Conversion Value: Understand how your products are performing and set a realistic Target ROAS.

    Intermediate Metrics

    You want to start tracking these intermediate metrics after achieving some degree of growth.

    1. Daily Ad Spend vs. Target ROAS: Make sure scaling happens in a sustainable way.
      • Make sure your campaigns aren’t underspending and settling for achieving the set target.
      • Reinvest some of the ROAS in your campaigns at the scaling stage. As your campaign reaches its Target ROAS, simply increasing your budget doesn’t lead to scale.
    2. Actual ROAS/Conversion Value: View these numbers by campaign, product group, or product to identify low-ROAS products.
    3. Product-Specific Clicks, Conversions & ROAS: Identify high-performing products.

    Advanced Metrics

    Advanced metrics are for when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine.

    1. Cost Per Acquisition: Determine whether the cost of your conversions is within an acceptable range.
    2. Target ROAS & Actual ROAS: Keep your target and actual figures close to each other and scale them bit by bit for sustained growth, rather than bursts of performance.
    3. Click-through Rate & Conversion Rate: Monitor these during remarketing to pursue website visitors. Both numbers should increase.

    Conclusion

    In August 2021, Google Ads introduced Value Rules, giving advertisers better control over their Smart Shopping campaigns. While this isn’t and should not be used as a complete replacement of bid adjustments, it still allows for more control by allowing you to adjust conversion values. You can read all about Value Rules and how to use it here.

    If you’re still not convinced about using Smart Shopping over Standard Shopping, you can read about different use cases to help you better understand which campaign type works best for your needs.

    If you lean towards Smart Shopping after your research, you can try these 6 optimizations to gain more control over your campaigns and improve profitability.

    How to Use First-Party Data for PPC Campaigns

    Data is increasingly becoming an asset to companies. It provides insights that would otherwise be impossible to access, and this is essential to marketers and PPC campaigns.

    We take a look at it - specifically, at first-party data - below.

    What Is First-Party Data?

    First-party data is any form of data a company gathers from its audience. This could mean customers or even just website visitors.

    First-party data isn’t only harvested from a company’s website. It can be sourced from mobile applications, email and SMS marketing, Google Analytics, phone calls, and more.

    Marketers and PPC experts can use this data to inform their campaigns and ensure they’re appropriate for their audience.

    How Does First-Party Data Differ from Second and Third-Party?

    The type of data you use - whether first-party, second, or third - is ultimately a trade-off. You must compromise on something, and this is usually either the quality of the data or its reach.

    Third party data

    Second-party data is gathered by another company in a related industry about its customers. This means it’s less specific to you but still helpful. Third-party data, on the other hand, is collated from many sources - it spreads its net wide but isn’t necessarily as focused. It’s often collected through tools like cookies.

    Data of any kind is essential for marketing. It enables you to see how successful a campaign is and how customers behave, allowing you to alter and improve your efforts. In March, however, it was confirmed that Google was removing support for third-party cookies, effectively putting an end to third-party data.

    This means it’s more important than ever to know how to use customer-provided data rather than relying on the trends previously found in third-party data.

    First-party data is frequently considered to be the best data due to its quality and specificity. 92 percent of leading marketers believe it’s critical to growth. As logically follows, there are several benefits to utilizing this kind of data for PPC campaigns.

    The Benefits of Using First-Party Data

    Supercharged Campaign Relevance, Reach, and Performance

    While the initial reach of the data gathered is reduced compared to other data sources, its specificity enables you to accurately tailor campaigns. You can ensure they’re relevant to your audience, perform well, and ultimately increase your customer base.

    Access to Better Data

    As already identified, first-party is often considered the best source of data. That’s because:

    We won’t deny there are benefits to other types of data, but when it comes to PPC in particular, specificity is essential to success and extracting maximum value from your ad spend.

    Maximum Opportunity for Personalization

    With such nuanced and detailed data, you can also begin to really personalize your marketing efforts. This is incredibly important, as 91 percent of customers want the content to be personalized and aimed directly at them, even though the majority of marketers do not provide this.

    The Challenges of First-Party Data

    As with anything in life, it’s rarely simple. While first-party data is undeniably useful, it can still bring challenges. We address some of these below.

    Building a First-Party Data Strategy

    One of the complications with first-party data comes from combining large amounts of information from different sources - data that can often be siloed and difficult to integrate. As a result, you need to strategize.

    This involves taking into consideration the source of your data. Think about the data you want to harvest – what information do you wish to gain from this to put it into action and make it useful?

    When considering PPC, this might be understanding why clicks aren’t leading to conversions. Also, how are you going to map this data strategy throughout the customer journey?

    By considering these issues when building your strategy, you can ensure your first-party data is working for you rather than simply causing a heavier workload.

    Competitive Analysis and Decision-Making Needs to Be Real-Time

    It’s undeniable that we live in a fast-paced world. This applies to business insights as well. Customer data can change incredibly quickly. By using tools like Google Analytics you can see your data in real-time and make changes accordingly.

    For example, changing the copy on a PPC ad that’s not delivering as successfully as expected.

    Maintaining Data Privacy

    Maintaining data privacy is extremely important in this day and age. There are regulations in place to help – for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – which function to keep those harvesting and using data accountable and protect customers from bad actors.

    Learn the policies in place for your location and put them into practice. For example, GDPR requires you to gain consent before collecting third-party cookies. Use a pop-up when new people visit your site so they can decide how they want their data to be used before continuing.

    First-Party Data Tactics for Your PPC Campaign

    Onto the good stuff! Now you understand the role of first-party data, its pros, and its cons, you need to start making use of certain actionable strategies that allow you to leverage first-party data as part of your PPC efforts.

    We’ve covered a few of these below.

    Integrate Data into Google Analytics

    Google Analytics is an extremely helpful tool when it comes to first-party data and making PPC decisions. Important data points include lead scoring, lead-to-sale conversion rates, and the total sale value of generated leads. By accessing this data in real-time, you can make fast-paced decisions and changes to your PPC adverts.

    Control Budget Efficiency

    With PPC strategies, you want to ensure your money is being used wisely. You can create an optimized remarketing list for search ads (RLSA) based on your first-party data, which targets leads who have a high likelihood of converting.

    Simply put, it would be a waste of time to show PPC ads to people who wouldn’t be interested in your products or service. These lists can find potential leads and ensure the ad is going to the person it was intended for — your future customer.

    Achieve Higher Target and Bidding Accuracy

    First-party data can provide information for employing more accurate bidding techniques. While this can be done manually, it might be worth utilizing Smart Bidding strategies. This is the process of automating your bids with Google Ads to maximize a specific conversion goal.

    First-party data comes into this by providing post-campaign, pre-Smart Bidding strategy analysis. Though you may feel apprehensive handing over control to an automated process, knowledge is power. This data will provide in-depth insight to inform and improve your strategy.

    Turn Out Better, Expanded Audience Targeting

    As we know, first-party data can provide crucial information on customer trends, behavior, and engagement. Through this, you can better understand your customer base and begin to expand and reach out to potential new leads.

    You can use features such as Google’s Similar Audiences to generate new lists based on those you’ve already created.

    This data enables you to target customers regardless of what part of the funnel they’re in. Once you understand the people you’re trying to interact with, it’s easier to find ways to appeal to them.

    Boost Smart Bidding with Offline Conversion Data

    As previously mentioned, not all data comes from your website. For example, data gathered via SMS or phone call isn’t tracked or gathered by Google. From experience, we know phone calls, in particular, can lead to high-value sales, but this data isn’t always captured.

    Offline data might include information such as lead quality, sales generated via phone calls, and the value of sales earned. You can use call tracking tools to prevent missing this crucial data and optimize your Smart Bidding by working from the full picture.

    Maximize Campaign Personalization

    First-party data enables businesses to tailor their campaigns to their customers. The detailed insights into who your customer base is – demographically and behaviorally speaking – mean you can personalize your campaign in a way that speaks to your audience.

    For example, if you’re a software as a service (SaaS) company, there will likely be certain links between the people using your software. Your software helps them to reach a common goal, and this can be used to tailor your campaign. Use this information alongside SEO for SaaS to create a fully developed and functional marketing strategy.

    Easier Feed Management

    Feeds enable campaign services, such as Google Smart Shopping, to run efficiently. Through first-party data, you can easily see which keywords are most impactful and learn other important pieces of information that enable you to manually optimize your product feed.

    In today’s market, personalization is key to making sure your company stands out and stays ahead of the competition.

    First-Party Data and PPC Efforts Can (and Should) Go Hand-in-Hand

    It’s undeniable that PPC campaigns and first-party data should work together. As third-party data moves out of the picture, you must learn how to rely on your own data instead.

    If you were to solely turn to second-party data, you would run the risk of gathering less relevant information. The more insights you have into your customer base (and the more specific these are), the better your PPC ads will be.

    Use first-party data to your advantage today!

    This is a guest post. The views and opinions expressed by the author are solely their own and do not represent that of Optmyzr.

    About the author_
    Nick Brown is the founder & CEO of accelerate, a SaaS marketing agency that exclusively partners with enterprise tech companies to scale their SEO and content marketing. Nick has launched several successful online businesses, written and published a book, and grown accelerate from a UK-based agency that now operates across the US, APAC, and EMEA. He has written for sites like BigCommerce and SmallBizDaily.

    How to Improve ROAS in Your PPC Campaigns

    Search advertising is typically easier when you have deep pockets. But even small and growing businesses can and do compete by making smart, calculated decisions that give them the most value from their ad spend.

    One of the easiest ways to measure whether your decisions are providing the desired financial outcomes is ROAS – return on ad spend. This metric is calculated by ad platforms as your total Conversion Value divided by how much you spent on Ads.

    The Best Way to Improve Your ROAS

    You can improve your ROAS in two ways:

    But it’s not really an either/or situation. Here’s why: Increasing conversion value without any real reason just creates an artificially high ROAS. And while you can do things to decrease costs – like spend most of your budget on profitable campaigns – lowering your ad spend or CPC bids too much leads to your ads being seen less frequently.

    So the best practice in optimizing to improve ROAS is a combination of keeping costs in check while also making sure your ad is seen as often as possible by the right audiences. And it starts with the profit margin on the products being advertised.

    Trying to unearth and piece together different data sets to identify key problem areas can be a long and tedious process. But you can find out why your ROAS is trending in the wrong direction in just a few minutes using the Optmyzr PPC Investigator. The tool displays a ‘Cause Chart’ indicating exact areas of wasted spend, overinvestment, and other underlying causes of lower-than-ideal ROAS.

    Calculating your breakeven ROAS

    Once you have a number for your profit margin, the next step is to figure out your break-even ROAS.

    This is usually calculated as 1 divided by the profit margin in percentage form. So a 50% profit margin would yield a break-even ROAS of 200%:

    As you spend less per conversion and your ROAS goes up, more of your margin stays in the bank instead of going to Google or Facebook. In the same example, a ROAS of 400% means only $25 of your margin goes to ad spend.

    So while a 200% ROAS might look profitable on paper, it doesn’t necessarily mean your business is making money.

    Maximizing Profits with Optimal ROAS Target

    Finding the optimal ROAS target to maximize profits involves a series of cost-reduction optimizations including:

    Remember, there’s usually a tradeoff between ROAS and volumes. Generally, it’s difficult to achieve high numbers for both, so high-volume conversions tend to have a lower ROAS and vice versa.

    Tracking Your ROAS Improvement

    As with any outcome, it’s important to use performance indicators both in and beyond the ad platforms to see how much progress you’re making.

    We recommend tracking the following metrics at different stages of your ROAS-improving effort.

    Beginner Stage

    Beginner metrics are for when you want an initial lift. At this stage, you want to track Conversions, Click-through Rate, Conversion Rate, and Quality Score.

    These beginner metrics give you an idea of whether your conversions are growing as you optimize at a stage where reducing ad spend is rarely an option.

    Intermediate Stage

    These are the metrics you want to start tracking after achieving some degree of growth: Cost, Views, Clicks, Impressions, Cost Per Acquisition, Cost Per Click, Cost Per View.

    Tracking these intermediate metrics is ideal for when you start to look at your account performance at a more granular level and begin the process of reducing how much you spend on each user.

    Advanced Stage

    Finally, when your campaign is running like a well-oiled machine you want to track Lifetime Value, Conversion Rate by Channel, Absolute TopImpression Share.

    The advanced metrics help you better understand PPC’s contribution to the business on a level that goes beyond advertising, and help you optimize when factors like brand awareness and loyalty are relevant.

    More on Managing ROAS

    When your PPC account is performing well and receives a significant financial boost, it can be difficult to maintain returns. Here’s what you can do.

    We at Optmyzr also have various tools including our pre-built Rule Engine strategy to manage bids to a target ROAS. Get in touch with our customer support team and we’d be happy to help!

    Going beyond ROAS

    ROAS is an important metric, but at the end of the day it is a metric set by Google and it might not always correspond with your bigger business goals. Take a look at what industry experts have to say about this here.

    Optmyzr Spend Projection vs. Google Budget Reports: More Than Just Visualization

    The behavior of your PPC budget is crucial to getting your strategy right, and the new Budget Report in Google Ads helps. With it, you can view daily spend, monthly spend limit for your campaigns, monthly spend forecast, cost to date, and any changes you may have made in between.

    Optmyzr goes a step ahead with our Spend Projection Tool by analyzing your spend data, historical seasonality, and recent performance to predict how much an account is likely to spend by the end of a selected time period.

    Here are some of the advantages our tool provides over Google’s Budget Report.

    Adjust Target Budgets Based on Performance Insights

    With Optmyzr, you can set up an account-level target through the Pro Dashboard, and then analyze and update daily budgets for campaigns. You can then select one or more campaigns in the Spend Projection tool to see how much more you need to spend in order to reach that target.

    Being able to set target budgets based on these insights is advantageous because the projection is not limited by the budget you set for a campaign on Google. You can set any target and then push your daily budget to achieve it.

    Optmyzr users also put performance insights to good use in other ways, like excluding individual placements on Google Search Partners – something you can’t do in the Google Ads interface or via AdWords Editor.

    Reach a Target Budget with the Optimize Budgets Tool

    Spend Projection isn’t just the only tool we have that helps users get their budgets working exactly how they want. The Optimize Budgets Tool, which helps you actually achieve targets, identifies campaigns that are losing out on Impression Share due to budget constraints. With that information, you can choose how aggressively you wish to spend. You can also reallocate your budget to high-performing campaigns, allowing you to get the most value out of your PPC dollars.

    Spend Projection and Optimize Budgets together allow you to not just view spend behavior, but set target budgets and also meet them to maximize your performance. All very handy when budgets will be significantly impacted due to prevailing issues with the global supply chain.

    Get Insights Based on Historical Performance

    Spend Projection uses both trends and historical data. These are the factors that are included:

    1. Day of the Week

    Optmyzr studies day-by-day spend behavior when calculating your spend projection. So if you have a pattern of not showing ads on Saturdays or Sundays, the tool takes that into consideration.

    2. Weekly and Yearly Seasonality

    3. Seasonality and Spend Patterns

    Spend Projection doesn’t consider ad schedules, or bids by demographics and devices, except seasonality and spend patterns.

    If there is no correlation or if your account has insufficient data, we will consider data from the past several weeks to predict spend.

    All this information can help run better Campaign Experiments – also the name of our latest tool that now makes it possible for PPC managers to keep track of experimental campaigns as they’re being tested.

    Get More Control of Budgets & Spending

    Spend Projection and Optimize Budgets help thousands of PPC agencies and end advertisers understand how their budgets impact account- and campaign-level spend behavior, and then give them the tools to put money in the right places at the right pace.

    Start a 2-week free trial of Optmyzr and you’ll also get the tools you need to bring in better traffic by optimizing keywords, ad text, display placements, and more.

    Campaign Experiments by Optmyzr: Google Ads Experiments Made Easy

    Google Ads experiments are a great way to test ideas, hypotheses, and changes before applying them to existing Search and Display campaigns. But there are some issues with managing campaign experiments via the Google Ads interface:

    For now, Optmyzr serves to fix things from an MCC perspective. So if you’re an agency, you can see all the experiments you’re running for multiple accounts in one place. The tool gives you better insights into the experiments you’re running, what’s complete and what’s not.

    What our Campaign Experiments tool does

    With the Campaign Experiments tool, you can view and analyze the performance of your Google Ads experiments across all your Google Ads accounts and use the comparative information to decide between either keeping the campaign experiment(s) or ending them.

    Campaign Experiments Capabilities

    1. Sorting

    Once you’ve selected the accounts and experiments you want to see, you can see if your Campaign Experiment is trending in the right direction. You can also sort the table to view the highest performing experiment or check out which experiments are getting you the highest lift in CTR.

    2. Expand the Experiment Row for More Details

    You can expand the experiment row for more details by clicking on the account name. You’ll see the original campaign on which the experiment is running, check out all the performance metrics, and see the confidence level regarding how successful the experiment is, if at all.

    Performance Details

    The metrics show you how they are performing as compared to the original campaign. The value under a metric is the current performance of the experiment for the given date range, and below it is the difference between the original campaign performance and the experiment’s performance in number and percentage.

    Confidence Level Based on Performance

    The confidence levels in green suggest a positive trend, in red as negative and no color being neutral, which means there is no clear indication of the experiment being successful yet.

    The confidence level is calculated by comparing experiments against their original campaigns. Based on statistically significant data, it is determined if the experiment has a better chance of being a successful campaign, based on the metrics like CTR, Conversion Rate, Conversion Impression, Revenue Impression, Revenue Cost, or CPA.

    3. Applying Changes to Google Ads

    With the “Apply to Google Ads” button, you’ll have three options:

    Run Winning Experiments with Optmyzr Processes

    With Google rolling out new automations every other week, getting experiments to run smoothly has become paramount. Instead of monitoring individual performance metrics, you can manage all the experiments across accounts in one place.

    An iterative process like the Campaign Experiments tool helps you set the process in place and run things smoothly.

    See for yourself how easy it is to track your Google Ads experiments. Get access to Campaign Experiments and all our other tools by starting your 14-day free trial now!

    Optmyzr's Q4 2021 Holiday Season Guide to Search & Shopping PPC

    Q4 2021 is upon us and it’s shaping up to be one of retail’s biggest ever holiday seasons.

    According to the Google-commissioned Ipsos COVID-19 tracker, as of June 2021, 58% of US shoppers said they were planning to buy more online this season than in previous years. And 59% said they’d shop earlier to avoid an item being out of stock.

    Global conditions have people buying online more than ever, and while it at first seemed to be a temporary shift, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Consumers have grown accustomed to the convenience of online shopping over the past 2 years and look set to stick with it, even after the worst is over.

    But if you thought Q4 of 2020 was a mess for PPC and eCommerce, you might want to buckle up for this year. While we can use last year’s experiences as a yardstick and be more prepared, 2021 comes with its own set of challenges.

    Global Conditions Behind Increased Unpredictability

    1. Everyone’s Handling Health Regulations Differently

    Last year, two things happened:

    1. Most physical stores were closed, so there was no option to shop offline
    2. Many people weren’t hosting gatherings because there was no vaccine yet

    This year, parts of the world like Australia and Malaysia are still shut down either fully or partially. Others, like Norway and Iceland, have gone back to normal (or some kind of new normal).

    Some people are vaccinated; many aren’t. Some people are traveling and vacationing again; others still haven’t seen their loved ones since 2019. Some people still aren’t comfortable with large gatherings; others don’t mind them so long as the necessary precautions are taken.

    The bottom line is that every little corner of the world is handling health regulations in their own way, and that makes it difficult to predict what consumer habits might be like this holiday season.

    2. The People Want Travel

    Travel demand has risen, with more people planning to either head home for the holidays or take a much-needed vacation.

    But it’s complicated because of the travel restrictions still in place. In many places, travel demand is not as high as 2019 and before, and might continue to stay where they are for longer.

    Travel-related gifts are likely to see greater demand this year, and electronic gift cards might prove to be a safer alternative given shipping restrictions and delays.

    3. Supply and Demand Aren’t In Sync

    Travel restrictions and smaller gatherings don’t always mean lower demand. If anything, 2021 has seen more moments of shopping and gifting, and that will likely increase during the holiday season.

    Another factor to keep in mind is the earlier purchase period. Given the shipping delays they faced in 2020, many customers began their holiday shopping way ahead of time this year.

    Source: https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/post/august-2021/6-moments-that-will-mean-more-this-2021-holiday-retail-season

    Having faced shipping-related issues last year, some customers will turn to local suppliers and stores this year. It’s not a bad opportunity to source products and raw materials locally, or to build relationships with local vendors and partners.

    4. ‘Shippageddon’ Is Worse This Year

    Retailers are seeing an exorbitant rise in the price of shipping containers as well as an increase in transit times. CEO of Simple Modern, Mike Beckham, pulled together some numbers that show exactly how drastic this rise has been.

    The implications range from not receiving goods on time to your customers not receiving their orders in time for the holidays. And then there’s the increased costs impacting your profit margins and freedom to discount.

    With containers costing way more and taking longer to arrive, shoppers are likely to encounter lower or different stock than usual, fewer discounts on what’s available, longer delivery times, and higher shipping charges.

    5. Last-Mile Fulfilment Is Suffering

    Rising demand via online shopping impacted last-mile fulfilment last year. Adding to the pressure this year is the risk faced by people on the ground – those actually making the deliveries.

    UPS has projected that they will receive about 5 million more packages than they can deliver per day during the peak holiday season. That’s a surplus of hundreds of millions of parcels over the entire season, and the difficulty in finding enough people to counter that is not likely to make the situation any better.

    Shopping and eCommerce PPC: How to Prepare

    1. Track Your Inventory

    Given the high demand volume and shipping issues this year, it’s not a bad idea to make sure that you track your account’s inventory more closely than usual. Work with other teams to make sure high-demand products are restocked quickly or ahead of time. And keep your available inventory up-to-date to avoid overselling or disappointing users.

    2. Automate What You Can

    The usual holiday season rush is accompanied this year by other uncertainties like shipping delays and last-mile delivery constraints, so you need to be able to focus on hitting KPIs without added stress. Enabling and pausing campaigns, adjusting bids, and keeping track of anomalies are just some of the things our Rule Engine can automate for you.

    3. Use Messaging To Your Favor

    If you think it’s too late to place additional stock orders or that customers might order from you too close to the holidays, you need to make sure to tell them about any potential delays. Give your customers all the information – clear product images and descriptions, expected delivery time and charges, and anything else that might be relevant.

    You could also add incentives like a freebie or discounts for people who get their orders late, or a free delivery option for people who opt in right away to post-holiday delivery. Remember, it’s the little things that go a long way in wooing customers back to your brand next year.

    Search PPC: How to Prepare

    1. Attract Customers Using Promotions and Deals

    Who doesn’t like a good offer during the holidays? Use your ad text and extensions to highlight the incentives that are likely to attract a given segment of users. Even if you absolutely can’t offer discounts due to margin issues, consider throwing in a sweetener that can be redeemed in early 2022 when things settle down.

    2. Pay Attention to Your Messaging

    This year, the situation demands that you be especially mindful of how you word your ads in order to build and sustain relationships.

    PPC teams advertising items where crowds are implied (concert tickets, amusement parks, resorts, etc.) should be mindful of their messaging. Not everyone is comfortable being around people again, so focus on the experience rather than the scale of the event to avoid subconsciously putting fence-sitters off.

    Make sure you let your audience know what kind of precautions you’re taking, and how you’re making the event or venue safer for those attending. If your event requires proof of vaccination for admission or a cap on the number of people allowed, state it in the ad/landing page as relevant.

    3. Experiment with New Ways of Advertising

    Recycling your Q4 ad strategies from past years might get you so far, but to really stand out requires that you explore new ideas. Similarly, it’s not a bad idea to test a new channel or format that you haven’t prioritized in the past.

    Carving out a small experimental budget – one that won’t bankrupt your main campaigns but still help achieve statistical significance – may uncover a lucrative channel that you never knew existed.

    YouTube, video, social, shopping, and native advertising can all prove worthwhile if you have traditionally stuck to search and display. And vice versa!

    It’s Not All Bad… Here’s What You Can Look Forward To

    Last year, PPC managers had absolutely no clue what to expect. This year is better in that we know that chaos is impending.

    Use the data from last year to prepare for issues related to your supply chain and last-mile delivery, demand fluctuations, availability of crews/supplies, and preferences or regulations related to gatherings. Of course, this requires you to pay close attention to backend services, performance data, and consumer habits.

    While a lot has changed since 2020, some strategies from last year still apply, and you can always go back and see what worked for you before modifying them to the current situation.

    But there are definitely things to look forward to this year. Linda Shi from Microsoft listed out 6 moments that will mean more in the holiday season 2021 – all great places to begin planning what you need to do to succeed this year!

    5 Optimizations to Boost Amazon PPC Profitability

    $15.73 billion – that’s billion with a big ol’ B – is how much Amazon made from PPC advertising through its online marketplace in 2020. With that, it is currently the third-largest ad platform in the US. So if you’re advertising for retail goods, digital content, or some other line of work that sells on Amazon, ignore it at your own financial peril.

    Setting Amazon Advertising’s growth aside, there’s another reason you should consider advertising on the platform: transactional search intent. Users searching for a product on Amazon are more likely to be close to a purchase, while searches on engines like Google are more likely to be informational.

    Understanding user intent on Amazon is more straightforward than Google or Microsoft; people are there to buy products. There may be customers who go straight to Amazon for product-related queries, and you don’t want to miss out on those potential conversions.

    Despite many advertisers relying on Amazon Advertising, resources to help with optimization can be hard to come by. So we’ve put together a list of five optimizations that can power up your Amazon ad campaigns.

    1. Optimize Bids for Placements

    Optimizing for placements gives you more control over where your ads appear and how much you’re willing to pay for them. Placements for which you can set bids include Top of Search, Rest of Search, and Product Pages.

    After setting your base bid on Amazon Advertising, you can improve your products’ visibility by setting bid adjustments for Top of Search and Product Pages. There is no bid adjustment for Rest of Search, so this placement will operate with the base bid you set.

    You can view the product placement report for every campaign you run on Amazon. You can see which placements worked best for you, and based on these insights, set the appropriate placement bid multiplier between 0-900% to improve your odds of increasing conversions and improving awareness.

    Here’s an example of the placement report you can download from the Reporting Center on the Amazon Ads Console:

    Identify which placements worked best for you based on your advertising goals and bid higher for those positions.

    You can find the performance-by-placement data by opening a campaign and clicking on the “Placements” tab. You’ll be taken to a page that looks like this, where you can adjust your bids.

    2. Increase Budgets for Special Events Using Budget Rules

    The newly launched Budget Rules feature allows you to set schedule-based rules. You can increase daily budgets for your campaigns for special events recommended by Amazon (like Prime Day or Black Friday) or for custom periods (like the Christmas holiday season). For recommended events, Amazon also suggests a suitable percentage increase to your daily campaign budgets.

    It also allows you to set performance-based rules to increase your Sponsored Product campaign budget based on performance metrics such as ACoS, CTR, and CVR.

    The tool helps reduce the manual effort that goes into adjusting your campaign budgets for special events or custom periods. Budget Rules are still relatively new and are being rolled out gradually, so they might not be available to advertisers in all marketplaces at the moment.

    3. Use Product Targeting to Show Off Your Product Next to Competitors

    Product Targeting lets you refine the placement of your ads. It allows you to identify products similar to yours, and to display your Sponsored Product ads on those ASIN pages and in category search results.

    Positive product targeting boosts your visibility by putting your product in line with related items in the marketplace. Negative product targeting can be used in cases where you do not want your product to appear along with other products, ASIN pages, or category search results. It’s like adding negative keywords to your search campaign.

    To see a quick way to implement this strategy, check out how to do it in Optmyzr further below.

    4. Optimizing your ACoS

    As far as Amazon Advertising is concerned, your Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS) is the measure of your success. It is a measure of campaign effectiveness based on sales generated and amount spent on advertising.

    If you’re familiar with Google Ads and the concept of ROAS, ACoS is easy to understand as the inverse of ROAS.

    ACOS = Total Ad Spend / Total Sales

    ACoS lets you know how much you can spend on your ads and helps you plan your campaign budgets. If you have great ACoS, you don’t want to budget too little and miss out on the exposure required to push the product, or if your ACoS is bad, it can tell you to lower bids so you don’t spend too much and lower your profit margin.

    If a product that costs you $75 to make (manufacturing costs, shipping costs, Amazon fees, etc.) is sold at a price of $100, the profit margin is $25 or 25% in this case. This is your profit margin before ad spend and therefore also your breakeven ACoS. If you spend all of the $25 on ads you’re left with no profits, and if you end up spending more than that, then you’re running a loss.

    Target ACoS (TACoS) is a portion of ACoS that you would actually spend on advertising. In the example above, if your target profit is $10 or 10% in this case, then you’re left with $15 or 15% to spend on ads. TACoS tells you how much you should be spending on your ads to stay profitable. What you consider a good TACoS depends on your goal: increasing profits or visibility.

    Several tools allow you to automate bidding calculations based on TACoS. We even have some prebuilt Rule Engine strategies in Optmyzr if you’re looking for an easy way to get started with this optimization technique.

    5. Harvest Keywords

    According to a 2019 report, almost 45% of shoppers only scroll through the first two pages of search results while searching for a product on Amazon. Getting visibility on those first few pages requires strong and high-performing campaigns made of the right keywords.

    Having keywords that are closely related to search queries is more important on Amazon than it is on Google. Google has evolved beyond keywords to intent and topic and is better at matching keywords with relevant queries. Amazon still lays a lot of emphasis on keywords. They are still a key factor in determining product ranking on the platform.

    Another reason you want to spend more time choosing and monitoring keywords on Amazon is that although Amazon also uses close variants for exact match keywords, Google’s linguistic AI is far more developed. Google’s clear definition of a close variant also makes matching query intent to a keyword more accurate. So, you want to be more thorough with picking out relevant keywords and adding negative ones on Amazon.

    Keyword Harvesting involves transferring search terms, keywords, or ASIN targets from one ad group or campaign to another. The end goal of harvesting keywords is to identify converting search terms and bid more on those keywords that will improve your performance.

    You can harvest keywords manually by looking at your Search Terms Report, which gives you actual customer data. It tells you exactly what customers have been typing in to find your products.

    Manually identifying profitable keywords can be tough and time-consuming. By using automated keyword harvesting tools you no longer need to spend time looking for keywords by manually combing through search terms.

    Optmyzr Express helps you manage search terms and keywords on Amazon through three optimizations - Add Negative Keywords, Add New Keywords and Pause Non-Converting Keywords.

    Optmyzr Solutions For Your Amazon PPC

    Optimizing your Amazon campaigns keeps them fresh and relevant, and also gives you a clear picture of their performance over time.

    Implementing these optimizations can help you create and maintain a successful Amazon business. And Optmyzr capabilities can be helpful building blocks to get you started.

    1. Product Targeting Using Optmyzr Rule Engine

    At Optmyzr, we support optimizations and automation based on product targeting using Rule Engine.

    2. Bid to Target ACoS

    Optmyzr’s prebuilt Rule Engine strategy, ‘Bid to Target ACoS’, allows you to use your target ACoS to set the CPC bid using historical sales data for a keyword.

    Using Bid to Target ACoS, you can increase or decrease your bid based on the TACoS you put in.

    Latest Google Ads Updates: Updated Keyword Matching Processes and Attribution Model Changes

    Google Ads dropped two big announcements recently, including an update to how keywords match queries and a change to the default attribution model. Here’s what advertisers need to know about these updates.

    Keyword prioritization rules are changing

    Let’s break down Google’s latest announcement about keyword match types and see what it says:

    With BERT, Google’s pre-training for natural language processing, getting more advanced, understanding search intent is now easier. Even broad match can now help you find relevant traffic with fewer keywords.

    Google supported this with the example, “a highly specific query like ‘1995 5 speed transmission seal input shaft’ is now able to match with the broad match keyword ‘auto parts’ because we can tell they’re related, even though none of the words in the query and in the keyword actually match.”

    A phrase match or broad match keyword identical to a query will now be preferred, as long as it is eligible to match.

    Google has extended what it did with exact match earlier this year to broad and phrase match. Here’s Google’s example to explain this: “let’s say someone searches for ‘sushi delivery near me,’ and you have the broad match keywords ‘sushi delivery’ and ‘sushi delivery near me’. Before this update, both of these keywords would be eligible to serve. Now, the keyword ‘sushi delivery near me’ is preferred because it is identical to the search term.”

    Rest easy though. Google goes on to say “that if you have an eligible exact match keyword that is identical to the query, it will still be preferred over the phrase and broad match keyword.”

    Relevancy and Ad Rank will be the deciding factors when a search isn’t identical to any of your keywords.

    In addition to Ad Rank, Google will now consider relevancy signals when determining which keyword will be selected. Explaining what these relevancy signals are, Google said, “Relevance is determined by looking at the meaning of the search term, the meaning of all the keywords in the ad group, and the landing pages within the ad group.” The different scenarios were broken down in the following table.

    As with most significant announcements by Google, this one was also met with mixed responses from the PPC industry.

    Julie Bacchini wrote: “So what exactly have you been doing up until now? Seriously. Was it foolish as an advertiser to think that was what you’d always done?" Read her thoughts on this change on her blog.

    Others like Amy Bishop and Greg Finn argued that there is still value in maintaining multiple match types for the same keyword despite Google’s push to get advertisers to switch to a combo of smart bidding + broad match.

    Data-Driven is now the default attribution model

    In a move away from last-click attribution, Google announced that data-driven attribution (DDA) will be the default attribution model for all new conversion actions, starting October 2021.

    Google acknowledged that the last-click attribution model falls short of advertisers’ needs because it ignores all but the final search before a user converts. Until now, advertisers without enough conversion volume to qualify for data-driven attribution were advised to switch to a position based or a time-decay model.

    Google addressed the minimum data requirements for using DDA and said, “we’re removing the data requirements and adding support for additional types of conversions. With these improvements, we’re also making data-driven attribution the default attribution model for all new conversion actions in Google Ads.”

    How is data-driven attribution better?

    Let’s take an example of a user looking for running shoes. This user goes through several different searches before she converts. She might start with searches for ‘sneakers’ or ‘running shoes’, and after discovering Adidas’ line of running shoes, do another search for a specific model in her favorite color and size, and buy the shoes.

    The problem with last-click attribution is that it gives all the credit to the last click. It’s going to ignore the fact that the user engaged with several of your ads; it’s going to ignore the fact that she got to the final keyword because she was exposed to upper-funnel keywords first. All these different keywords that the user searched for before converting are completely ignored.

    Data-driven gives you a better picture of the entire purchase journey. Google now looks at the sequence of searches and sees how an individual query fits into that sequence. It estimates each keyword’s contribution to the eventual conversion. The following illustration from Google’s DDA methodology whitepaper shows how a particular query could be weighed.

    Sequence of queries and how they are weighed by data-driven attribution

    Ultimately, data-driven attribution helps you better understand the value of all your keywords. With that improved knowledge, your manual and automated optimizations can get better. For example, when you find a non-converting search term, you might add it as a negative keyword, decide not to bid on it at all, or bid less. If you did this based on incomplete conversion data, like with data you’d get from LCA, you could hurt the performance of an account. Thanks to DDA, you can make better optimizations.

    No attribution model will give you 100% accurate information, but data-driven comes closest to giving you the information that’ll allow you to reduce wasteful spending.

    Finally, encouraging advertisers to combine data-driven attribution with automated bidding, Google said, “ When combined with automated bidding strategies, data-driven attribution can drive additional conversions at the same cost-per-acquisition. This is because our systems can better predict the incremental impact a specific ad will have on driving a conversion and adjust bids accordingly to maximize your ROI.”

    If you don’t already know the perils of combining Smart Bidding and last-click attribution, you can read about it here.

    Image Copyright PixieMe - stock.adobe.com

    Why container shipping delays are a big deal for eCommerce PPC in 2021

    Last year, everything changed. Is this the “new normal”? Will things go back to the way they were? Or is there more change to come?

    Change is, in fact, the only certainty. Since the world’s emergence from COVID-19 hasn’t gone nearly as smoothly as hoped, I’m betting that there are more rough waters ahead during the rapidly approaching holiday season for those of us in PPC.

    Everyone used to know what was going to happen during the holidays. Q4 is when retailers make and surpass their sales targets. Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be huge. But since last year, such truths have been fraying at the edges.

    What’s changed? Because of the greater unpredictability of supply chains, consumers are doing their holiday shopping earlier than ever, when more items will be in stock. But that’s not news since it happened last year. Discounts won’t be as sizable as they used to be, but that’s not news, either.

    What is news? I believe that mathematically based predictions, grounded in solid figures such as manufacturing and shipping costs, are more likely to yield new information and insights than retrospective trend-watching.

    I’ll walk you through an example below. While my numbers are based in reality, they will vary from one company to another so use them to understand the way a hypothetical retailer might think about how much they can spend on digital marketing.

    Shipping Costs & The Retailer’s Dilemma

    By now, retailers have long since placed orders for the holidays. Because of supply-chain disruptions, they’re probably spending more in manufacturing and raw material costs than before. An order that cost $40,000 last year may cost $50,000 now.

    Then they’ve got to ship those goods in a container from their point of origin, probably China, across the ocean to wherever their warehouses are located.

    Here’s where retailers are really feeling the pinch.

    Shipping costs are calculated per container rather than by container weight. You may have shipped your $40,000 worth of goods for $4000 last year. This year the shipping cost per container has more than quintupled to over $20,000.

    I personally know someone who’s paying closer to $25,000 per container as of late September. Ouch!

    Shipping costs have gone through the roof for a number of reasons, including COVID-related port closures and such macroeconomic factors as ongoing supply and demand imbalances. Industry analysts see no relief in sight before 2023.

    What’s a retailer to do? Should they:

    Let’s go back to the math. If the goods are marked up a typical 200%, what retailed for $80,000 last year cost $44,000 ($40,000 for the goods; $4000 for shipping), leaving a profit of $36,000.

    This year, retailers could raise prices, for example 10%, so the goods now retail for $88,000, but costs have gone up even more to $75,000 ($50,000 for goods and as high as $25,000 for shipping), leaving a profit of only $13,000.

    The cost of doing business is threatening to put retailers out of business.

    There’s another option for raising margins. Unfortunately, it’s to spend less on advertising, particularly PPC advertising. It’s likely that retailers will attempt to pass some of their losses on to their agencies. That means you.

    Let’s look at this more closely.

    Bending Over Backwards

    One of the things that makes PPC advertising so amazing is its flexibility. You choose a budget, write a message, select keywords, and pick a bid or target. All this can be changed easily and as often as you like.

    But especially when the world is in upheaval, certain advantages can become disadvantages. With other options off the table, your client might ask you to dial down bids or set a more aggressive tROAS.

    The simple formula for calculating breakeven tROAS is 1 divided by the margin expressed as a percentage. Based on my example from before, last year, there was $36,000 of profit—a 45 percent margin—to work with when buying ads. Dividing 1/45% yields a breakeven ROAS of 222 percent.

    In other words, you can spend $1 on ads for goods that cost $1.22 to manufacture and ship, sell those goods for $2.22, and break even.

    This year is very different. Your $13,000 margin is only 26 percent, which means you need a ROAS of 385 percent (1/26%) to break even. In other words, to break even you can only spend $1 on ads to sell $3.85 worth of goods that cost you $2.85 to manufacture and ship.

    Going from a tROAS of 222% to 385% may cause low-ball auction bids that will probably assure that your ads will no longer appear on the first—or even the second— page of results.

    This will be a challenge, especially if your brand competes with a better known brand that is able to raise its prices more or that has better pricing power with freight lines.

    But while I can’t predict what your retailer clients will do, it seems wise to be ready for when they ask that their PPC campaigns bear at least some of the new cost of doing business.

    Product Mix

    At Optmyzr, we have always advocated multiple PPC campaigns, each with their own targets based on the profitability of different product categories. Not all products are created equal. It looks like the product mix will be quite different this year, and our usual advice is more pertinent than ever.

    Shipping costs, again, are calculated on a per container basis, not on how much the container weighs. This year shipping a 40-foot container may cost $25,000, whether that container holds artificial Christmas trees or decorative string lights.

    But you can fit a lot more string lights than Christmas trees into the same-sized container.

    Let’s say 200 artificial trees are the same volume as 48,000 boxes of lights (based on me measuring the size of my own holiday decor). If a Christmas tree retails for $195, sales of the 200 trees will yield $39,000. If a box of ornaments retails for $10, sales of the 48,000 boxes will yield $480,000.

    Let’s look at shipping costs again. The $21,000 in additional shipping costs is about 54 percent of the $39,000 of revenue from the sale of trees. For the ornaments, the increase is 4% of revenue, which is clearly much easier to absorb when setting the new tROAS bids your clients will probably be demanding.

    Retailers will de-prioritize items with a low potential revenue per volume and vice versa, So, there will be more lights but fewer trees to hang them on.

    Those string lights can still be marketed through PPC more easily because the tROAS doesn’t need to change drastically to preserve profits. Whereas for trees, the change in tROAS required to stay even might be too drastic, shocking the Google Ads system and tanking your sales volume.

    The important point to take away here is not about trees or lights, but rather that a metric like ‘price per volume’ — something we typically don’t think about in PPC — may actually have a big impact on what we’re tasked with advertising this year.

    Acquiring New Customers

    It’s likely that the downstream effects on conquesting, or acquiring new customers, will be significant. I may prefer Target to Walmart. But if Walmart has artificial Christmas trees and Target doesn’t, and I need a tree, I’ll overcome my prejudice and start shopping at Walmart.

    If Walmart has a product others don’t, there’s far less need to discount it. Availability will be the key to sales. Guaranteed home delivery and Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS) services, rather than pricing, are the value-adds that will help win the game.

    The holidays this year are going to be even more different than last year. The effects of much higher shipping costs are going to be significant and ripple throughout the retail ecosystem.

    Forewarned, however, is forearmed. Taking account of these factors will help PPC agencies and professionals mitigate the effects of increasingly unpredictable markets.

    Google to Sunset Expanded Text Ads: Here’s How to Build Good Responsive Search Ads

    Updated: May 4, 2022

    Moving a step closer to near-total PPC automation, Google Ads announced that starting from July 2022, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) will be the only search ad type in standard search campaigns.

    Expanded Text Ads (ETAs) are comfortable and offer more control over what ad text you want to show to your audience. But Responsive Search Ads do improve ad performance when combined with human optimization and creativity.

    Since none of us can force Google to roll back their announcement, the best thing to do is adapt to RSAs.

    Here’s how Optmyzr can help you build good Responsive Search Ads.

    How Optmyzr helps you craft high-quality Responsive Search Ads

    We’ve been handing PPC experts control of their advertising destiny for a while, so it’s no surprise that the Optmyzr platform comes with several tools to manage and optimize Responsive Search Ads. Here are some of the things you can do.

    1. Find winning components in the Ad Text Optimization tool

    The Ad Text Optimization tool lets you find the best-performing headlines, descriptions, and other components from your current text ads. Use these winning components in the next step to craft RSAs using ad text that’s been proven to win you clicks and conversions.

    We’re working on adding Responsive Search Ad support for the Ad Text Optimization tool so you can start tracking the performance of your RSAs more closely.

    2. Create new RSAs in the Responsive Search Ads Utility

    Our Responsive Search Ads Utility is an easy solution to create RSAs in your ad groups that don’t currently have any. It offers suggestions for headlines and descriptions, making the process faster and easier.

    Use the winning ad text components from your ETAs here, but be sure to account for the RSA behavior of mixing and matching headlines and descriptions. You’ll want to tweak your ad text so that each component can stand on its own as well as be part of a larger message.

    If your advertising vertical demands that you pin certain messages, now’s the time to do that. Even otherwise, you can pin minimally if something really demands to be seen in a certain position. Just don’t go overboard.

    Watch our latest walkthrough of the Responsive Search Ads Utility:

    And learn more about how to create RSAs using Optmyzr here.

    3. Find and fix underperforming Responsive Search Ads

    Most search ads that run on Google are poorly crafted, which is why even a basic copywriting effort will usually lead to good performance. But when you have up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, a Responsive Search Ad containing weak ad text tends to underperform on an even larger scale.

    Fortunately, we created a handy RSA guide a while back. In it, you’ll find information on how to create a good Responsive Search Ad, how to improve your RSA ad strength, and how to audit and fix underperforming RSAs using Optmyzr.

    The audit section, which is usually one of the more challenging parts, is easier thanks to our rule-based (if x, then y) strategy that you can run and automate using our powerful Rule Engine.

    So what now for PPC pros who rely on Expanded Text Ads?

    Expanded Text Ads are comfortable, reliable, and offer you more control over what messages get shown when. Responsive Search Ads can improve performance when combined with human optimization and creativity.

    The best solution is to use both, but since we can’t force Google to roll back their announcement, the next best thing is to use the 10-month runway ahead of us to adapt.

    Building good RSAs takes time and patience, so don’t give up. Test, test, and then test some more. All great campaigns are built on exhaustive experimentation!

    Start a 2-week free trial of Optmyzr and see for yourself how much easier it is to create solid RSAs – among other things!

    So Google Ads is hiding your PPC data. What now?

    Every few months, advertisers hear about the latest change or update from Google Ads, and it usually means parting ways with a degree of control: goodbye Broad Match Modifier, hidden data in the search terms report, phasing out third-party cookies, etc.

    Each new update takes the PPC world a step closer to completely automated ad platforms. But a step closer towards automation can also mean reduced control over advertising and fewer insights.

    It’s been almost a year since Google Ads announced to advertisers that the search terms report would only include terms that are searched for by a “significant” number of users.

    In an article published soon after Google’s announcement, Matthew Umbro of Brainlabs included findings that indicated the extent to which clicks were omitted after the revision. The percentages have been much higher for other accounts since, driving up costs significantly.

    Clicks from unknown Search Terms - August 2020 vs. September 2020

    Like many other Google decisions to hide data in the past, the notice was backed by reasons of improving privacy standards and protecting user data. But how hiding low-volume queries serve that purpose is not an answer we have yet.

    While many PPC agencies and account managers have expressed concerns over the effect of this change, it’s also important that we look for possible solutions. At this point, Google’s tendency to increase automation and reduce data access shouldn’t be a surprise.

    Solutions to work around hidden data on Google Ads

    Not being able to identify all the search terms that your ads showed on – and not knowing how Google is matching queries to keywords – makes for a bit of a “black box” situation. You might see changes to your budget or impression share, but have limited insight into how to fix it.

    While there are no foolproof, permanent solutions to the problems that stem from restricted performance data, there are a few things that might help lessen their effects.

    1. See search terms data in Google Analytics

    For now, Google Analytics provides somewhat of a temporary workaround to potentially view hidden search terms data. To find that information, visit this path:

    Acquisitions > Google Ads > Campaigns > Secondary Dimension: Search Query

    Google Analytics Search Query report

    What you’ll see is all of your search query data for a campaign, excluding the (not provided) tag. For now, you’ll need to manually compare this list against the ones in your Search Terms Report, in order to identify anything not visible in Google Ads.

    2. Optmyzr Solutions

    Third-party tools like Optmyzr can help you not just identify sources of new traffic that Google Ads might not show you, but take steps to reduce or amplify their impact once you know whether they’re good or bad. Some of the things you can do are:

    What increased automation means for PPC managers

    It’s not news that Google Ads is moving towards a more automated way of doing things. Over the past few years, Google’s machine learning algorithms have improved significantly and taken over several manual PPC tasks. While this means reduced control over some parts of PPC, it also reduces the amount of time that marketers need to spend on manual optimizations.

    It’s important to look at the big picture; the long-term benefits that automation can bring (when done right) increase efficiency, save time, and lead to more profitable advertising.

    And apart from tackling the day-to-day issues involved with campaign management, PPC automation also seeks to reinvent how we approach the larger marketing picture.

    While some advertisers look primarily for a lift in indicative metrics, the future will demand a more audience-centric approach in order to succeed. Advertisers would do well to pay more attention to things like account structure, lead quality, and stronger creative/copy to build a better customer experience.

    Conclusion

    Automation in paid search is inevitable, and this trend has only been accelerated by the challenges presented by prevailing global conditions. Advertisers and PPC managers would do well to start determining what this means for their teams and strategize accordingly.

    Fortunately for PPC advertisers, there may be some hope on the horizon if this message from Google Ads community liaison Ginny Marvin pans out soon:

    In the meantime, remember that performance metrics are important to learn whether your optimizations are working. But building a more holistic approach alongside that effort will put you ahead of your competitors. Some key points to remember are:

    Succeeding as an agency in an automated PPC world: PPC Town Hall 33

    A common theme that we’ve all been talking about is how Google keeps automating more and more of the things that we as PPC practitioners tended to do. For an in-house team, this shift to automation might just be a godsend. They can do more work with less effort due to access to so many Google tools. But for an agency, this poses a completely different question. PPC agencies have to constantly evolve their strategies to provide value to their clients. But what processes will they need to deploy to remain competitive? And what can they really expect from automation tools in the market today?

    So in this episode on PPC Town Hall, we asked some of the influential agency leaders to share their tips and tactics on growing a PPC business while making use of automation.

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are 5 insights on how leading agencies succeed in an automated PPC world.

    1. Marketing strategy and older marketing resources

    Wil: I have been lucky a few times where I’ve come up with a concept that has affected a good chunk of the industry. And these concepts came to me when I read things that usually the industry doesn’t read. So for a while, I decided to read books about marketing pre-1940. Because people back then had to go door to door, connecting to people and understanding their problems. So when you start reading books from that far back, you start finding ways of looking at the same marketing problems today. It’s just that we are so entrenched in PPC perspectives that we forget that we are still solving problems that were there for people 100 years ago.

    The way that our world is going everyone is trying to find an algorithmic solution. So when everybody’s running one way (what keywords do I have to use in the title to please the algorithm), I’ve been studying the different types of ads and how they’ve connected to people in a meaningful way before the internet existed. And then I try to incorporate that into the way we do on a daily basis.

    My favorite books on advertising are by Claude Hopkins called ‘My Life in Advertising’ and ‘Scientific Advertising’. Claude was literally talking about doing A/B testing, by going door-to-door conversing face-to-face, which was super inspiring to me.

    2. Focus on getting loyal customers than clicks

    Anu: We’ve got to be really careful about not just being all about ‘technology’ or ‘automation’. After all, it’s people who are at the end of all these clicks and reading our ads. It’s really important to try to think like a customer. When we look at an ad, what attracts us to click? What attracts us to click on a brand or get affiliated with a brand? All these decisions stem from who they are. Branding is important and knowing what that brand stands for, what they believe in, diversity, environmental consciousness, etc., are ultimately things that get loyal customers. I feel that we’re moving away from trying to build loyal customers and becoming too much about getting that ‘click’.

    Wil: We don’t interact with our customers anymore. We don’t. We sit behind our tools. We’ve no idea what’s going on with them. One of the things that we started doing, and are slowly scaling in, is videoing our clients that are going through our search results and have them talk to us and understand their concerns. You become a very different level of a consultant when you talk to somebody. So often we look at these keywords and automation but don’t try to understand these people on a deeper level. But if go that one level deeper and find the right things, it could completely change the way you go to a market for a client. It’s because that ‘why’ will never show up on Google Ads.

    3. Business of implementation

    Max: Price premiums for implementation, doing these things with Google Ads, are going away.

    If you want to build a job for yourself then you do what everyone else knows how to do and do it a little bit better. If you want to build profit, want people to seek you out, then you better invest in having the knowledge no one has. This all comes down to fundamentals: focus on a particular customer segment, understand who they are, what they want, and where they hang out. If you do this, people are bound to pay you a premium.

    4. An automation ‘reformed skeptic’

    Tim: I guess you can say that I am a reformed skeptic and that’s due to a lot of reading about when automation works and when it doesn’t. So I won’t say that I am a total believer in automation, but I’ve definitely eased up a little bit and gotten used to using it in my daily life.

    I’ve been doing PPC for the last 10 years. And there wasn’t a lot of automation in the industry back in the 2012s or 2014s. I think when we got ‘lookalikes’ on Facebook by the end of 2015, which wasn’t working great at that time. But in 2017, everyone loved it. It had so many data inputs and it was working really well. Then they pulled back all the third-party data and the ‘lookalikes’ stopped working again. So it’s been pretty chaotic to go back and forth. Sometimes machine learning and automation work really well, and then they don’t, and then then they force it upon you. You have to find ways around it. So yeah, it’s a complex relationship for me.

    5. In-house technology and funding good ideas

    I am still learning about scripts. But my perspective as a business owner is ‘where can I fund good ideas?’ I tend to start from a place where I don’t want my team members to do ‘X’ task, or I don’t want them to have to worry when they have to check something. So, I’m constantly focused on being a vessel for really good ideas to come in really quickly, direct to the CEO or owner of the business, because I control what we do with our profits. So it’s very easy for me to direct resources and funds to people who solve problems. I want people’s jobs to be as enjoyable as possible. A part of my job is to understand what brings people down and take away their creativity. And I try my best to automate or outsource those to points in some way so that the team is efficient and increasing the quality of the work.

    Conclusion

    Only a week back, Google announced that it will soon phase our Broad Match Modified keywords and change how Phrase Match functions. Changes like this only mean one thing: the shift to automation is an inevitable one. While you don’t necessarily need to fear automation, making use of its capabilities can actually help you ease a lot of processes.

    As an agency, it is important that you take a look at your strategies and talk to your clients to understand them on a deeper level. After all, no one can diminish the ‘human’ in this equation of a more automated PPC world. We just have to work around, get creative, and find solutions. Google might keep changing the playing field, but have to construct it using our own techniques to make it work for our clients.

    Expectations for PPC in 2021: PPC Town Hall 31

    It’s 2021, and whether you’re a marketer or an agency, you would be preparing for yet another thrilling year of PPC. Right from the start, you need to be aware of the newest trends and features in paid marketing to leverage your PPC game. And that means you need to know of any curveballs that might come your way. In 2020, we saw experts deep-diving into topics like automation, privacy issues, and keywords, which we might be discussing more of the same this year as well.

    To get a better perspective of what to expect in the coming months, we invited over some of the smartest minds of PPC and asked for their insights. Our panelists this week are some of your favorite experts from conferences like SMX, shedding light on what they expect from PPC in 2021.

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are 5 insights on what to expect from PPC in 2021.

    1. RSAs vs ETAs

    Brad: According to our data, we’ve seen more people trying out RSAs than Optmyzr users. We also see that a lot of people who still have them, have shrunk their usage. I’ve done a little bit of segmentation (since we did our session at SMX) on spending and account size versus declining RSA usage. And it’s definitely the smaller accounts that have declined their usage much less than the larger ones. We have seen that those who spend half a million to a million, plus have decreased usage more than those who spent 10-20 thousand dollars a month.

    For a lot of these people, it’s more about results than getting that control. They don’t care if you’re a lead gen company. You may spend 10 million a month but in the end, you care about results.

    Ginny: My question on it comes back to what are ‘results’? If we’re strictly looking at conversion rate or cost per conversion, then I can see where ETAs are often going to win. I’m wondering if advertisers might be looking at RSAs to open themselves up for more impression inventory. So is that a factor where people are considering more exposure than focusing on conversion rate?

    Matt: In a lot of cases, you actually don’t have enough data for RSA to really even get their wheels spinning. It’s a multivariate type of testing and so often times we see that decisions are being made too quickly on winners and losers.

    2. Identifying your business signals

    Ginny: Having your own business signals mixed in with data you provide to the machine is becoming really critical now. This is where the real leverage can come, particularly the competitive leverage over your competitive sets. In order for people and businesses to identify their own business signals, they need to do some real analysis and investment, which takes a lot of digging. And then being able to present this in a way that can actually be used.

    So the real question is, do advertisers keep pushing businesses to give more inputs even when some might want to keep that data to themselves rather than sharing it with Google? If yes, can we anonymize it and ensure that those inputs work within the algorithms.

    3. Giving Google the right data and goals

    Matt: Instead of fighting Google, let’s focus on giving them the right goals. One of our focuses will be feeding the data to the machine. And I think we’re actually going back to really seminal work in the whole web UX and web design area. If you look at Google Analytics, it’s moving away from discrete real things to events and connections that sort of represent proxies like scroll time or time on page. What I’d like to see is combinatorial data that would allow us to combine scroll depth and time on page, multimodally. How do we build up signals from the site we’ve got and trigger events that we can feed back to our bidding?

    Our goal this year is to take a look at how we can understand what behaviors on the site represent good proxies to the next sort of actions. We also want to give those signals a little bit more attention, feed them, and try to develop audiences out of them.

    4. Importance of setting up clean conversion

    Brad: This is more important now than in the past because with all the privacy things happening, you doing your own data or attribution modeling is going to be essential. Even from a basic standpoint of modeling, you need to get it right because the privacy changes are going to mess up the data inside some of your platforms. Just to do some basic analysis, you actually need to have it yourself now and can’t rely on the platforms to give it to you because they’re not gonna have all the data they had previously.

    5. 2021 Predictions

    Brad: I will argue that as soon as Google removes keywords, their revenues decline significantly. Out of every advertising method out there, the intent of a search for someone saying ‘I want this’ is the strongest signal in advertising. It’s better than any programmatic, any audience or any other advertising methods. If people don’t get to use keywords for targeting, they might think of going programmatic.

    Matt: I think that while Google may never take away keywords, they’ll definitely stop paying attention to what we’re actually telling them with our match-types. And I think that if you look at the loss of search query data may be Google feeding its AI and learning on all of our dimes! And they’re saying we don’t care what we [advertisers] know, they’re going to let their machines run wild, and decide for themselves what’s working or not!

    Ginny: We still have some agency in all of this. I think we need to start using the machines in ways that they were meant to help us. And while they aren’t going to get it right all the time, we should be present to guide it. This is where your own data is going to be helpful. If you come in with a campaign that has been a disaster, all that data is not useful. For example, if you’ve set your campaign on broad match and end up reaching attorneys in Palm Beach when you actually run a hair salon, that data is useless. All of this can be avoided if you educate yourself and be an invested marketer. So much about this year is still going to be based on fundamentals.

    Conclusion

    Let’s face it - doing PPC in any year is tricky.

    What with Google introducing changes, paid marketers need to leverage on every new trend that comes their way. Working along with the machine, feeding it good usable data, and relying on automation to boost your business goals might go a long way for PPC pros in 2021. To set yourselves apart from your competitors, consistently optimize your campaigns, utilize new tools, and look to expert strategies by industry leaders to pave your way to success.

    Revamping Outdated PPC Strategies: PPC Town Hall 29

    Note: Smart Shopping campaigns have been upgraded to Performance Max in September 2022. We suggest you refer to these links below to know more about Performance Max.

    Performance Max Campaigns Guide for 2023

    Performance Max Guide: How to Diagnose Your Ecommerce Campaign Performance in 2023

    Performance Max Campaign Tips for Retail and Ecommerce

    How to Manage and Optimize Your Performance Max Campaigns

    Performance Max: 5 Effective Ways to Safeguard Your Campaigns in 2023

    One thing that we’ve learned about search in the past year is that we all need solid PPC strategies that account for all sorts of change. With all the automation that’s coming from Google, whether it’s smart shopping, smart bidding, or seasonality bid adjustments, it’s important to automate, optimize, and intervene our way to success. And what better way to understand the way forward than to ask some of the smartest minds of PPC.

    Our panelists this week are among PPC Hero’s most influential paid search experts of 2020. And they shared their tips and experiences on working around outdated PPC strategies.

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are 7 insights on revamping outdated PPC strategies.

    1. Thoughts on Black Friday & Cyber Monday

    Aaron: On our side, we saw that Black Friday was bigger than usual while Cyber Monday was slower than usual. It logically makes sense as on Balck Friday, everybody has a need to go bargain hunting, and that pent-up demand has shifted to online this year. Everyone thought Cyber Monday was kind of quiet because it’s the same as it has always been.

    Kirk: We saw the same thing as Aaron [in a higher volume Black Friday than Cyber Monday this year, but we’ve heard others saying things a bit differently. It makes a lot of sense that the past weekend was a bit quiet as a lot of people were running sales earlier than normal. They had a Black Friday week-long or even month-long sale in November. Because of the earlier sale season, we saw consumers buying earlier than usual. So in some way what we saw in our numbers was that Black Friday was the main event, and Cyber Monday less so.

    One of the reasons for this earlier shopping season is concern over shipping and delays. Because of this earlier-extended shopping season, we saw more out-of-stock products, more sales that went quicker this year.

    Joe: While Black Friday was definitely much bigger than Cyber Monday and much earlier. For us in general, Black Friday was lower than expected but the entire month of November was higher than expected. Some stuff was reactionary to competitors starting early which was in the first-second week of November.

    2. An unusual year for PPC

    Aaron: At Tinuiti, we tend to work with larger data sets to focus on larger enterprise clients. So Smart Bidding in general tended to work pretty well for us. But one of the things that I always pick on Smart Bidding for is that it has too short of a memory. This Holiday season was one of those scenarios where that’s really valuable because it didn’t try to base itself off of what happened last year. We used seasonality adjustments pretty religiously for most of our clients. For example, if noon was a really popular time, we’d start tweaking our seasonality adjustments leading up to it and down after.

    3. Using different shopping strategies

    Kirk: We try to use a combination of both Standard and Smart. We constantly test them, see what’s working and what’s not. I’m always trying to figure out a better strategy to work for both Standard and Smart. With Standard, you get more of that control where you can give the system-specific search terms, which we’re focused on (even if they’re not always converting) as valuable information for brands.

    Sometimes, we’d duplicate products or try something with the feed to get stuff in the upper funnel queries that might not be specific to one product. Smart shopping is not just on search but display, Youtube, and all that, so rather than be frustrated that we can’t control the search terms, we’re trying to figure out a way to group products around the ad content itself to emphasize specific call-outs in those Smart Shopping Ads for that specific group of products.

    Joe: As I said earlier, our Black Friday started earlier than normal and our seasonality bidding was kind of thrown out of the window of what we expected to do. Since I work with smaller clients with very niche products (sometimes higher-ticket type item products). We understand that those really aren’t necessarily impulse-buys. So, we’re looking at the time of day, understanding that it’s gonna take multiple touchpoints for a user to buy this product. If we hit them enough with discovery, Google, and social initially, then we’re seeing that they later go back (late night hours) to purchase. We’re seeing a better performance as we’re adjusting the different schedules and updating how we want to boost our bidding and performance.

    4. Converting digital newbies & feeding data to the system

    Aaron: Something we’ve seen in the last six or so months, I’ve somewhat abandoned call to action. But giving turn-by-turn directions to these people who aren’t digitally native seems to work. You can tell them where to click, enter their details, make the purchase and know when it’s gonna get delivered or opt to come and pick-up yourself.

    When you have data like shipping or pick-up preferences, you’ve to use it sensibly. It varies a lot depending on clients because it partially depends on cost and revenue centres as well. So maybe the digital team isn’t incentivized to drive people to the store and so we want to discourage it. But for those clients who are a bit more holistic, we’d look into the feeds and coach the bid tools to do what we want. For example, we see that for a certain demographic, this particular set of terms or ads tends to convert better as in-store pick-ups rather than a standard e-com shipping. Then we’d take that group, pivot it, and tell Smart Bidding that we want more store visits to set that group. The rest can be taken towards the more conventional way.

    5. Get your messaging right in Responsive Search Ads

    Joe: We utilize the pin option just to make sure that certain elements of the messaging show. It’s something that we definitely consider when we’re mapping it out. We will show it in front of clients too. We ask them if it really helps to add all these variations if four of them pretty much say the same thing. Google’s definitely gonna flag it, prompting you to add more keywords into your headlines.

    Honestly, we’ve played around with what actually makes sense and that’s where we kind of focus on value prop. Maybe I’ll pin the first keyword which made more sense to the product type and then look at testing the other ones. Slowly, I’ve come to like RSAs. While they didn’t really work for me that well in the beginning, the more I see them working they are getting better. We’ve seen RSAs work pretty well with grants accounts by boosting impressions quickly.

    6. Looking towards automation

    Kirk: We’re looking more and more into automation to solve our problems. The whole idea of Google leaning hard into automation can be quite frustrating for PPC marketers like us who have been running things for a while. I may have practiced and learned something for over a decade, and then due to a specific change, I can find myself at the same level as an intern in my knowledge of the thing that changed. But the flip side of this frustration is – there’s an evolution that needs to happen in PPCers, too. We need to adapt to the system. And with automation at ZATO, we’re trying to think of reinventing the way we think about campaign structure and other things.

    Specifically in thinking about broad match keywords, we’ve started testing things giving Google control over Target ROAS bidding, few very tightly controlled broad match keywords where everything else is excluded. We’re treating this less in terms of ‘what we want to get from this campaign in specific tracked ROAS’ and more of giving Google guidelines and then freedom for reaching the upper-funnel.

    7. How do we structure our campaigns?

    Aaron: When we think of structuring our campaigns in the present scenario, we’ve to look at conversion runways. If you think about Smart Bidding on its most practical level, it largely looks at the expected conversion rate. The way forward should start with the question – what do we expect from this group of people to do.

    Talking about Skags and keywords, if the intent is fundamentally different then we’ll split it out. If not we’ll compress. We all know how Google is pushing towards consolidation and we’re establishing runways for the automation to make the right decisions. So we essentially split the groups out based on audience, demographic, keyword, or interaction. You don’t want to shrink data to the point where you’re making bad assumptions.

    Conclusion

    While automation has helped PPCers focus more on the strategic part of marketing, it has left us with little to control. With Google constantly introducing changes in 2020, it might be time to recondition the earlier approaches to get an edge over the competition. This is where all the expert advice and recommendations come into play by supporting marketers to operate in the periphery of the system and still manage it for better results.

    Now more than ever, PPC marketers and strategists need to come together to figure out how to advance in the paid search industry. It might not be a bad idea to make use of efficient software systems, like Optmyzr, to track, manage, and optimize your campaigns. Try and experience our capabilities yourself by signing up for our 14-day free trial. You get full access to all our features – credit card free!

    Digital Marketing in an Unpredictable VUCA World: PPC Town Hall 27

    If you’ve been watching the news over the last couple of years, you could be forgiven for thinking we live in a weird timeline where dreary writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Ray Bradbury reigned supreme.

    Between climate change, terrorism, economic struggle, and the health crisis of 2020, this year has embodied the term VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Yet this is the world we live in, and if digital marketers want to continue to have a place in it, we have to learn how to adapt our tactics and messaging to this reality.

    So this week on Episode 27 of PPC Town Hall, I wanted to bring in the authors of the report “Digital Marketing in a VUCA World” to share some of their insights from the research they conducted and to discuss what the roadmap for the future could look like.

    Our panelists for the week:

    • Anders Hjorth, Digital Marketing Strategist at Innovell
    • Lukas Adamec, Freelance PPC/SEM Specialist

    As always, you can view this week’s episode of PPC Town Hall embedded below, or click here to browse all our episodes. In the meantime, here are some of the insights from this week’s PPC Town Hall on how to do digital marketing in an unpredictable VUCA world.

    1. What happens when agencies lose large amounts of revenue overnight

    Anders: We asked 20 agencies that participated in the survey, “How bad were you hit?” About 15% said ‘no change’; a huge chunk — about 50% of respondents — said between 10-40% reduction in media spend; and a fairly large percentage saying 40-60% reduction.

    When we’re looking at agencies having 40% of their media spend disappear, and as we know, a lot of the economic models are tied in some way to spend. Very few are on a retainer or consultancy basis. So this means they lose a lot of money and activity, and the rest of the activity had to be changed. Everybody’s panicking, so what do you do?

    Lukas: It’s actually been the case in some instances that the agency-client relationship has ended because of volatility. Bearing in mind that the vast majority of agencies — particularly the bigger ones in the UK — have very diverse clients in their portfolios, so that’s why the impact was mostly in the 40-60% range.

    But I definitely know of instances where clients have stopped their relationship with an agency because they were the most hit — tourism, hotels, and some retail as well. But other parts of retail, especially direct-to-consumer, actually thrived during this time.

    2. If you put the wrong data in, the wrong prediction comes out

    Anders: When we talk about volatility and VUCA, yes there’s health crises and lockdowns; but there’s also terrorism and the end of cookies. The direct impact is more easily measurable on this year’s health crisis because it’s such an abrupt change.

    Over the past 2 years, we saw people adopt automated or machine-based bidding massively. We also observed that agencies used dedicated data analysts in fewer cases than they did before. This surprised us.

    Lukas: It feels like the outcome was two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, there is less involvement from data analysts because there’s more reliance on AI. On the other hand, it’s not about the position of the analyst but the insight into performance is placed on marketers’ shoulders.

    So where you’d previously have a data analyst to support you with looking at trends and performance, it’s almost a standard part of the marketer’s job instead of focusing on platform and creatives.

    3. Data is the new oil

    Anders: Can you extract more value from your data than if you give it to a platform? It’s a question of who controls it and whether you should give it away to a third party like Google or Amazon.

    We think it’s very important to start controlling and protecting your own data. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make it flow; flowing data across platforms is extremely important to get better insights. But you need to consider each time you do that: what are you using, what are you giving away, and is there anything you can keep instead of letting someone else monetize it?

    4. The connection between automation and who’s deploying it

    Lukas: For me, the whole idea of paid search until now is its transparency. You can track everything down to each penny you spend and be able to show results. This is now changing the fundamentals of what paid search is for me, because I can’t explain everything (with less data).

    5. How people can use automated bidding more effectively

    Lukas: I personally see a huge degree of complacency when it comes to automated bidding, especially, in a lot of agencies. You’ll find that 90% of the time, you can set the AI to do your bidding for you and it’ll deliver decent performance.

    But it’s that 10% of the time where something goes wrong, or when you have a promotion that suddenly skews the data — and suddenly, you have an impulse that the tool cannot account for and everything falls apart.

    I even feel with some of the ways platforms sell automated bidding, like recommending not to touch things for 2 weeks to let the machines learn, you should never be in a position where you can’t change settings.

    6. Preparing for the end of cookies

    Anders: Will remarketing be in trouble as we see fewer and fewer cookies? Yes. Hopefully, the bad practices will die off and there’ll be some intelligent use of user data.

    So start building direct relationships with your users, like email or another channel where you own that user data. If you only have access to your customers and clients via platforms or audiences, you’re probably going to lose a lot of that access. So start building that proprietary database today.

    Conclusion

    As I mentioned this week on PPC Town Hall, the role of the PPC manager is changing from being in the middle of account performance to managing the periphery (read my full thoughts on the topic in my post for Search Engine Journal).

    But as we look to evolve our roles, we also have to remain aware of what’s happening in the wider world. From the geopolitical to the ecological, events transpire daily that impact the health of the digital marketing space… paid search included.

    That’s why spaces of learning (like PPC Town Hall) will only become more important in the coming months and years. So sign up for our mailing list (and tell your PPC peers) to get notified of all our events in advance and early access to some of our upcoming resources!

    Is there something on your mind? Do you have a topic you’d like us to cover on PPC Town Hall? Write to support@optmyzr.com and tell us about it, and we’ll try our best to address your concerns.

    Futureproof your business with PPC automation: PPC Town Hall 26

    Ever since Google introduced a whole bunch of changes, things have been changing very fast in PPC. Taking away search query data, making it harder to create expanded text ads, doing more and more automated bidding, etc., is only making us unsure of the future of search marketing.

    With the rising number of roadblocks that Google is putting in front of us, marketers need to be ready to overcome anything that the search giant throws at us. The question of the hour is: How much more can Google automate and change the way that we as PPC professionals go about business?

    So this week on Episode 26 of PPC Town Hall, I wanted to talk to two industry specialists who have worked with a lot of accounts and have faced the implications of the changes in search marketing and automation.

    Our panelists for the week:

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are the top 6 insights from this week’s PPC Town Hall on navigating the future of PPC automation.

    1. How to optimize Google’s tax?

    Martin: Some countries have started to raise the Digital Services Tax from Google. Now, Google intends to pass that on to advertisers. For example, for ads being shown in Austria and Turkey Google will add 5% to your invoice. This is tricky because it won’t show up in any of your regular KPI’s. Your costs and CPC’s in the interface will seem unaffected. This makes it easy to miss – which is probably the intention.

    There’s a reason why you’ve decided on a certain bid or budget. In order to account for the new tax, you’ll have to lower your bids or budget by about 5%. Then you’ll end up paying the same as before. Of course, Google would rather have you pay the same amount to them and then the additional 5% in taxes, which is probably why they have little incentive to help us with this.

    2. Taxes and Geo locations

    Martin: Digital services taxes depend on where the advertising cost occurs. For example, if someone in the UK clicks an ad, a 2% tax charge will be added to the cost of that click. The problem here is that there’s a difference between the location of interest and user location. If you target the U.S. then that can include people elsewhere if Google somehow identifies the U.S. as their location of interest.

    There used to be an easy way to evaluate physical user locations. That has been removed. Standard location reports no longer include physical location. In fact, Google got rid of any mention that there might be a difference between physical location and location of interest.

    You can still get the data, though – it’s just less convenient. Google also removed the pre-defined report from its report editor, but you can still create your own from scratch. So while the data is no longer present front-and-center, you can still get it.

    Brady: Let’s take the example of businesses dealing with ‘New York Pizza’. This is a specific style of pizza that practically anyone can search about. While the local pizza shops of New York have been capturing people around the world looking up for New York Pizza, the location settings in the user interface don’t show this happening. As a result, a lot of these small pizza places now could gain a UK tax or something without any idea why.

    To find this specific information about locations, go to

    Reports → Custom and build your own report.

    If you search ‘user locations’ in your report, you’ll find all of the user location option that you can place within the rows of your report.

    3. Managing accounts with less search data

    Brady: We’re seeing a struggle for low volume accounts. So for accounts where you can spend every day digging into the search term reports, read them, and make decisions based on your finding, we are seeing a lot of frustration.

    When it comes to high-volume accounts, I think it makes things like n-grams even more relevant. With access to less data, n-gram reports can help you find trends within the data set you have and make decisions accordingly.

    4. Functioning with Google ‘roadblocks’

    Brady: I’m not fully against these changes. In a handful of our campaigns, we do full broad keyword targeting paired with Target CPA, and it does fairly well. Looking at our search terms, we see that some of them are non-branded solution-based terms, while some are comparing our solution vs other competitors, and some are comparing between other competitors altogether. But, at the end of the day, the cost per conversion, and MQL, are pretty good.

    When it comes to B2B software marketing, we’re really looking at an LTV/ CAC model. So modeling that out for both Google Ads and other channels, and helping the clients on that level is something we’re moving towards. With a higher level of automation, we would have time to focus on stuff like landing pages optimization, A/B testing, new offers, and analyzing the competition.

    5. Shifting agencies and business goals while working with the same black box by Google

    Martin: With Google doing everything with these black box campaigns like smart shopping, discovery, or local campaigns, it becomes more and more important to make sure that their systems have the right data to go on. This is also an important field for agencies and advertisers to set themselves apart from the crowd.

    One way to do that is to further evolve conversion tracking. For the last ten or so years, everyone has focused on revenue. Before that, it was about conversions. The future is about margins and profit instead of revenue. Beyond that, there’s customer lifetime value. And just as important is incrementality – although that is something that you probably can’t expect much help from the platforms.

    Brady: When everyone is competing armed with the same black boxes and no levers like before, you should:

    6. Future of Google

    Brady: If we think of what to expect from Google in 2021, I think we’re going back ourselves into something like DSA campaigns. While we will see some new features, it seems like we’re getting back to something that’s already existed – Google having control over the search terms, the ads, and the pages.

    I think that the future of Google already exists. While I don’t think the changes will be extreme, we’ll be moving towards something that existed previously.

    Conclusion

    It’s no doubt that the world of PPC is going through some changes. With Google introducing new features every now and then, we marketers must be flexible with our strategies. One thing is clear: it’s going to be extremely tough to stand out when every PPC professional relies on the same black box by Google. To be on par with the search giants evolving practices, we need to rely on automation to some level.

    Automation is a great way to handle daily mundane tasks, but PPC professionals shouldn’t confuse it with ‘autopilot’. Though machines might be able to perform a high number of actions quickly and efficiently, they will still rely on us for timely inputs and tweaks.

    So whether it’s now, or 5 years into the future, marketers will always have something to do for there is no replacement for human intellect, ingenuity, improvisation, and intuition.

    Burning PPC budgets, new Microsoft Ads features & more: PPC Town Hall 24

    There’s no doubt that marketing is one of the most expensive aspects of running any business. And while advertisers might race ahead in the hopes of getting more clicks and profit, they can still end up making mistakes! 

    A classic PPC horror story is when marketers mix up traffic with solid leads and forget about optimizing their accounts. Not supervising the system and failing to make effective improvements can turn into wasting tons on bad clicks and setting that yield no returns!

    So this week on Episode 24 of PPC Town Hall, we talked to two brilliant PPC pros and discussed actionable tips on how to stop burning budgets. We even got to learn about PPC community initiatives like PSA and new Microsoft Ad capabilities that can benefit marketers. 

    Our panelists for the week:

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are the top insights from this week’s PPC Town Hall to help you identify budget-burning areas, know Microsoft’s newest features, and understand the thought behind creating a successful PPC community.

    1. What role does the Paid Search Association play in the industry?

    David: Initially, I was attracted by the notion that there really wasn’t one consolidated source of credible and curated information/ resources for PPC managers. You basically had to pick and choose from among homogenous resources. There really wasn’t a one-stop-shop for people who wanted to train themselves and be updated with the developments. 

    So our core mission is to serve as a curated source of learning and news resources. 

    John: One of the things that we’ve talked about as a collective is about mentoring. It surely is a complex thing to figure out with variables like timings and schedules. But there are a lot of bright men and women on the board who have been eager to share what they’ve learned within the industry and their peers. 

    2. Microsoft’s Audits network

    John: Not just us, but practically everybody is working on something related to customer privacy and a ‘cookie-less world’. In this industry, where all the platforms rely on cookie data presently, what would the future look like? Envisioning for this future, Microsoft just launched a partnership for brand safety. It’s neither an ad-on nor does it cost anything extra. If you run ads on the Microsoft Advertising network, you’re automatically opted into this brand safety application. 

    3. The 4 Google money grabs

    David: These are the four key areas where marketers waste their spend:

    1. Location targeting settings: When you look at the User Locations report, you would find that your ads are being shown either nation-wide or worldwide, even when you’re geo-targeting a smaller area. I’ve seen accounts spending thousands of dollars per year on clicks that are outside the geo-targetted area.

    1. Targeting expansion: By default, Google turns on ‘Targetting expansion’ which generally would mean helping advertisers widen the reach of their display ad group. Extending the reach, in this case, means showcasing your ads on sites where people might convert.

      Now, when you’re doing audience targeting, you shouldn’t be placing ads on sites based on just any criteria, but following your audience dedicatedly to any site. To avoid this, just disable that option altogether. 

    2. Ads showing up on mobile apps by default: When you go to placements to see where your ads are appearing, you will definitely see that your apps are showing up on mobile apps. You might even find a considerable amount of clicks coming from them, likely clicking by mistake. There might be a lot of kid’s apps and games that might not be relevant to your business.

    I’m gonna let you in on a technique that Kirk Williams (from Zato Marketing) wrote about, which you can only do with Google Ads Editor.

    Go to Display Campaigns → Keywords and Targetting → Mobile app categories Negative → Add two negative categories for both Google and Apple apps. And that’s it. From then on you’ll not see mobile apps in your list of placements.

    1. Enhanced CPC vs Max CPC: I don’t like the fact that when you create a new campaign, by default the bidding model is Enhanced CPC. And my feeling is based out of a general distrust of the bidding algorithm to know anything about the conversion behavior of people as it relates to the offer.

      In order to use target CPA bidding, Google says that you need to have 15 or more conversions over the course of 30 days. Which I think makes sense as you’ve got some behavior to fuel the algorithm. Whereas when a campaign starts out with CPC bidding, there is no pre-recorded data or behavior. This might contribute to the higher CPC values at the beginning of the campaign, which might be due to Google’s automation thrashing to attenuate the signal.

    4. New Microsoft Ad Features for the win

    John: Some new features in Microsoft Advertising are:

    1. Use LinkedIn data to target ads: The LinkedIn Profile Targeting has been live for all for over a month. This is the first time when data sets from both Microsoft and LinkedIn are coming together. You can now layer in information from a LinkedIn profile like company name, job function, and industry to target highly relevant audiences in-text ads, DSAs, and Shopping Campaigns.
    2. Multi-image extensions: Microsoft recently added to their Image Extensions capabilities so that users can now add multi images, effectively a carousel with your search ads in SERP.
    3. Availability of Stock photos: Microsoft Advertising has partnered with Shutterstock to provide an access to 300 million commercially licensed images to advertisers.
    4. Microsoft Audience Network: It’s a native ad platform where you can showcase search campaigns. You also get an opportunity to bid on placements on MSN.com, the Edge browser, Outlook.com, and a host of other publishing partner sites. In order to save marketers from double work, our new functionality can help you replicate information from Google Display Ads (which are truly working) to Microsoft Advertising.

    5. Be mindful of your bid adjustments

    John: Everyone needs to be really mindful when you’re applying bid adjustments. If you have bid adjustments at every layer, that can get out of control in a hurry. So things like age, gender, location, in however many audience groups you’ve stacked in a particular group or campaign need to be strategically placed.

    Conclusion

    PPC campaigns can prove to be of immense importance in paving way for your organization or business. With the ever-changing dynamics of search marketing, marketers need to be on alert about how they handle their accounts. Giving up complete control to default settings might hurt your accounts more than you can comprehend. 

    To make informed decisions, keep discussing strategies and tactics with the community and your peers. Look to industry leaders for actionable solutions that actually bring you results. 

    Next week on PPC Town Hall, we are jumping back in discussing best practices for Holiday shopping with prominent e-commerce and shopping experts. Join us in the session to ask your questions!

    Google limits search terms data, the demise of cookies & more: PPC Town Hall 22

    No matter how many updates or changes happen in search marketing, some things remain constant, like the importance of data. It’s no secret that PPC marketers rely heavily on good data to influence their automation and build powerful strategies. 

    With all the changes taking place, we need to stay vigilant for anything Google throws at us. Setting up intelligent measurement systems to assess your PPC account success is a necessity, now more than ever.

    So this week on episode 22 of PPC Town Hall, we decided to dive deep into all things data and analytics that give search marketers nightmares. Our expert panel, featuring some of the most experienced minds in the community, shared their tips and tactics to build solid PPC strategies.

    Our panelists for the week:

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are 5 insights to help you understand how to utilize data and analytics to encourage your PPC authority.

    1. Living with Google’s limits to search terms reports

    Kirk: So basically Google rolled out a change where they would no longer be showing search terms that are over a certain traffic level to advertisers. This is significant. Now in your search term reports, you don’t have access to around 30% of the data for the terms that are incurring costs. Marketers have been wondering what this means or whether it’s ok to make such a deduction.

    Aaron: We haven’t put out a piece about it yet. But a lot of our clients have asked us questions like whether 50% of the data or so will become inaccessible. The thing to remember about search term reports is that a lot of it normalizes over time.

    My theory is that it’s all one impression one-click searches, so if/when they’re searched a second time, they’ll start to show in SQR’s. There’s a lot of controversy around it but we need to see what happens. We are still trying to unpack what it is and what is the necessary criteria, but want to see the dust settle as the report fills out.

    I actually predicted the end of keywords two years ago. For me, search is looking more and more like a DSP, like it’s a pragmatic land now. So if you think about an earlier time, a lot of this data was hidden or you’d have to pay more for full visibility. It kind of looks like how things were in the early 2000s.

    2. Figuring out advertisers’ rights

    Kirk: I truly don’t think that the advertisers own the data (that fight is between the user and platform). But the question is what is an advertiser paying for? Is it just strictly access to the platform? Or is access to the platform and the data that allows you to advertise well?

    On another philosophical note around Google and advertisers, the constantly changing landscape from what was originally agreed upon to the system in which we are reliant on them. And Google pretty much has most market share. So they have created all this and now they keep shifting the goalposts.

    Basically, this is all about search, the keyword, communication, or intent. And now all of this is starting to change. A lot of the advertisers’ frustration is not just around figuring out the shift, but also that the reforms keep getting worse for us.

    Is it becoming more and more difficult to communicate to Google on what advertisers would like to see happen? Yes. Basically, Google is pursuing a strategy that pushes to kind of monopolize the whole dynamic. As Google pushes to wall off the data and turn to a more audience-focused programmatic type approach, they are behaving less and less like a paid search advertising platform and more like a traditional media platform.

    3. Building runways for automation

    Aaron: A lot of our philosophies are around building runways for automation. We know the automation is going to make mistakes, it will have its good days and bad days. So we make sure that these runways are appropriate to give enough room to help the automation succeed. Runways are basically more of how we structure things by intent, forecasted outcome, and conversion rate.

    Talking specifically about Google’s automation and Smart Bidding, Google optimizes based on expected revenue and expected conversion rate. So it has to learn and figure out those points – if we can put things in runways, where we have different groups for different goals that get different optimizations.

    This way the automation has a runway within a target, a consistent marketing goal and doesn’t have to guess much. If we can control the inputs and make sure that the machine is optimizing based on what we know is right as a business, agency, or customer, it minimizes the downside and lets it do what it’s good at to improve outputs.

    4. Strategizing for the right data

    We are trying to purposefully have more strategic conversations. Currently, the human element is used to determine the bounds and objectives for automation. There have been times when I have deliberately pulled out of smart bidding to go full manual, and not because I think smart bidding or automation can’t get to that level, but that it still lacks in certain ways right now. 

    Acknowledge the fact that at some point, some developers will write a code that will improve various forms of automation. We’re just not there in every way yet! And so you need to act accordingly. Understand the nature of the automation right now and build things around it and then adapt as automation evolves. Humans need to figure out how to utilize automation as it continually changes.

    5. Accepting the demise of cookies

    Aaron: It will be a lot more first-party data, the information you collect, and how you can use it. Privacy moves by Europe with GDPR will certainly be a lead-in to what the rest of the world is going to be. Just like we are seeing a rise in software companies just for Google Ads management, there will be a rise in data matching platforms that can operate best under GDPR regulations.

    Figuring out how you can take out the important data, you do need to tie in all the information together. I am a bit encouraged by the concept of a cookie-less world as it will make us a little bit smarter and craftier in terms of branding and messaging.

    Conclusion

    One thing is clear: we’re never going to have everything perfect all at once. We can argue in favor of advertiser rights, automation, and bidding strategies all we want. But we need to be flexible and accommodating of any changes in order to keep doing better for our clients and businesses.

    As for me, I’d like to see some updates to the Google API to make up for all the missing stuff. I hope in 2021, a lot of the things that we don’t have API access to (like competitor data in the auction) get fixed. At Optmyzr, we want to build out simpler automations that our customers can depend on to make smarter decisions.

    What do you want to see from Google in 2021? Tweet us!

    Omnisend’s 8 Best Practices for Shopify App Advertising in 2020

    Among the main contributors to Shopify’s growth are the multitude of apps available on its platform. Indeed, some of the top Shopify apps make it easier to develop, grow, and maintain online businesses. But how do you use them to advertise your e-commerce store and grow your revenues in today’s business environment? Here are some of the best practices you should employ this year:

    1. Prioritize personalization

    Source: https://apps.shopify.com/omnisend

    It’s critical for today’s consumer to feel a connection with the brands that they patronize. So, whenever you reach out to your customers, make sure that it’s with a highly relevant message.

    There are apps that seamlessly plug into your Shopify store that give you incredible personalization options. Such software allow you to segment your subscriber base in great detail in order to reach out to them with highly converting messages. With the right tool, you’ll be able to target your customers not merely based on their profile data but also their specific activities or shopping behaviors.

    2. Focus on customer retention

    Source: https://apps.shopify.com/swell

    Acquiring customers is much more expensive than retaining the ones you already have. Plus, it has a greater impact on your bottomline. In fact, even a 5% increase in your customer retention rate can boost your profits by up to 95%.

    One of the best ways to cultivate customer loyalty is to maintain a compelling rewards program. By rewarding your customers for every interaction with your brand, you’ll easily boost repeat purchases and strengthen relationships with your customers. All it takes is finding the best Shopify app to integrate into your store.

    3. Recover abandoned carts

    Source: https://www.invespcro.com/blog/the-top-7-reasons-for-shopping-cart-abandonment-tips-for-avoiding-them/

    About 7 out of 10 of shoppers on your store will fill up their carts without checking out. Often, that happens either because of unexpected shipping costs or they’re simply not yet ready to purchase. But no matter the reason, it pays to lure these shoppers back in.

    Some Shopify apps allow you to build automation workflows that identify cart abandoners and re-engage them through personalized and targeted messages. This allows you to revive what would have already been lost sales. You can also recover abandoned carts by setting up exit-intent pop-ups as well as retargeting ads.

    4. Engage in retargeting

    Source: https://www.business2community.com/marketing/17-retargeting-ad-statistics-will-make-retarget-right-now-2-infographics-01464774

    Retargeting can be useful not just for cart abandoners but also for window shoppers, which are common even in e-commerce. The good news is that there are digital tools that allow you several chances to convert online window shoppers into actual paying customers. This makes a significant impact on your revenues, as window shoppers are 70% more likely to convert with retargeting.

    With Shopify apps, you can easily run retargeting campaigns on sites like Facebook, Google, and their properties (e.g. Instagram, Youtube, and Gmail). These allow you to integrate your shop data and manage your entire marketing strategy on a single platform and drive traffic to your Shopify store.

    Source: https://sixads.net/blog/shopify-traffic-channels-generating-sales/

    5. Optimize for mobile

    Source: https://apps.shopify.com/shopney-mobile-app

    Transactions on mobile devices are expected to make up at least 50% of all ecommerce sales. So, it’s essential that you have a platform that’s optimized for the mobile audience. That means making sure you have an incredibly responsive website. Or, if it makes sense for your business, you can build your own native app.

    Mobile app builders on Shopify make creating your own native mobile app remarkably easy. These software don’t just make it easy to develop your brand’s ecommerce app but also provides everything you need to offer a good mobile customer experience. Typically, that includes features like simplified checkout process, in-app messaging, and rich push notifications. When you are planning to improve your ecommerce business, mobile should be on priority list.

    6. Make the most of social proof

    Source: https://apps.shopify.com/loox

    User reviews are valued by 88% of shoppers just as much as personal recommendations. Given this, it pays to use the reviews you already have not only on your social media pages but also everywhere else you can manage. These are especially valuable on your product pages.

    Shopfiy apps allow you to easily integrate social proof like user photos and product reviews onto your product pages. By using these apps, you make your web visitors more likely to complete a purchase.

    7. Produce interactive content

    Source: https://apps.shopify.com/pickzen

    Interactive content like quizzes and questionnaires is one of the most effective lead magnets for retail websites. This advertising tactic has an average lead capture rate of 31.6%.

    Apart from engaging quizzes, among the best ways to use this tool is to produce questionnaires that lead to highly relevant product recommendations. Shopify apps don’t just make it easier for you to create these interactive content but also capture data and gather insights from your users.

    8. Host engaging contests

    Source: https://apps.shopify.com/gleam

    A chance at winning enticing prizes can be an excellent motivation for your customer to help you grow your audience and boost your brand’s popularity. If planned correctly, hosting contests can also be a cost-effective advertising tactic.

    Today, there are Shopify apps that allow you to easily create online competitions or giveaways. These tools provide everything you need not just to develop and run your contests but also to pick winners, verify entries, and capture data.

    Conclusion

    Shopify has enabled hundreds of thousands of businesses to reach online audiences. Its success as an ecommerce platform is undoubtedly driven by its versatility. It is simple enough for novices to navigate but also dynamic enough for experienced digital retailers to get exactly what they need.

    But to really make the most out of the platform, you should learn to identify the best Shopify apps to support your business. Take advantage of them to advertise your shop, grow your audience, and nurture your customers. Consequently, you’ll enjoy incredible revenue growth as well as a stellar brand reputation.

    How to Dominate e-Commerce in Q4 2020: PPC Town Hall 19

    As we enter September, PPC marketers everywhere are gearing up for Q4 and the coming holiday season. Online retail will come alive, with businesses planning their strategies to woo consumers.

    After a challenging year, and as many advertisers and agencies are regaining their footing, Black Friday and Christmas could be exactly what the PPC doctor ordered.

    So as you start planning for your brands and clients, we thought you could use a hand.

    This week on episode 19 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to some experts on the cutting edge of e-commerce and shopping campaigns:

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are the top insights from this week to help you navigate, plan for, and dominate e-commerce in Q4 2020:

    1. How 2020 is different for e-commerce 

    Katie: One thing that we know for sure is that this year, we are going to experience a different kind of holiday. At Google, we are preparing on all fronts to help our customers. We have been seeing a penetration of e-commerce on all fronts.

    According to various studies, e-commerce has grown more in the last two months than in the last decade. There’s a potential that the level of demand starts increasing as early as October. Being prepared for this, for example on inventory and logistics, is going to be incredibly important as we enter the Holiday season.

    This year, around 72 % of Holiday shoppers are going to shop online which is bound to create a huge demand. Brand loyalty is starting to become a thing of the past as people start discovering new brands through Google and social media.

    So newer brands can take this time to get discovered more to drive their sales.

    2. Getting ready for Q4

    Katie: In 2020, we are already 27% above demand levels as compared to last year. Getting ready for that demand as we get close to November and December, or even as early as October is extremely important.

    At present, we are at a planning stage with our clients where we are discussing their Q4 goals. Essential things like logistics, promotions, inventory, or even shipping criteria are super important to plan for right now. This way you are preparing for any possible scenarios (like delays) in the future.

    From an advertising perspective, this is the time to get the fundamentals down. Do you have tracking set up correctly? Have you looked into automation solutions? Have you checked out your shopping feeds?

    Polish everything to make sure you are ready to go and are up to date in the months prior to Q4.

    3. Explore free product listing ads by Google

    Katie: Free listings are a great way for people to dip their toes if they are curious about feeds. It is really important to be there and have your inventory aligned. We have found that both from the paid and unpaid standpoints, they work better together when you’re covering all bases.

    Free listing is a very powerful tool for research and easy to set up with third-party apps. You also get an option of integrating if you have a physical store. So, there’s a lot of things one can do with feeds and that is going to be really important this year.

    Elizabeth: Working with many channels like Amazon, Walmart, or Google, being able to understand inventory levels in real-time is very critical. For example, if you happen to over-sell in one or more marketplaces, they will penalize you heavily. If you cancel your orders, your cancellation rate goes up and you could lose the channel.

    4. Account for changes and demand

    Duane: All automations are correct but in the right context. When you see too much data being fed into the system and that not every system can handle it, shift to something else. We try to keep a last 7-day average as long as we are on track. Beyond that, it becomes a question of whether the systems can handle the changes.

    We had certain accounts where smart bidding did amazing, while with others, it just spiked the CPA. When the CPA kept on rising, it made sense to shift to manual. So really it depends on a case to case basis, taking into account what happened in the last 7 or 30 days.

    5. Accounting for customer lifetime value

    Elizabeth: LTV (life time value) always depends on the brands and how they are set up as a business.

    We’ve set up Amazon attribution for some brands that are unable to measure how consumers who begin at Google, convert at Amazon. Some clients are able to do things like LiveRamp and audience matching.

    We are dependent on our clients to fill us in at some places since we don’t get to see the level of their financials and how they see their businesses.

    6. Look at different platforms to gain more audience

    Duane: A lot of people will spend all their money on just Google and Facebook which limits their audience scope. Apart from these two channels, people do spend a lot of time on TikTok, Snapchat, and even Pinterest. So if all your capital is directed to just a few channels, you are bound to lose this shopping season.

    Look at different platforms to really make use of your spend. While it’s easier to manage one platform, if you can bring in a contractor or hire an agency, you can benefit from other channels as well.

    Being successful in Google or Facebook is definitely not enough. For example, YouTube, which is owned by Google, is a whole other world. And you need to be there if your customers are there.

    Elizabeth: It’s likely necessary to be on 3-4 different platforms this holiday season. Just so you can be where your customers are when they are ready to convert.

    Conclusion

    The coming months tend to form a large chunk of revenue for any retail-focused business.

    Think holistically — this year more than ever — about what can actually attract customers to stores and drive them to purchase. Logistics like last-mile delivery, payment methods, and supply chains can make or break a successful plan.

    Keep your eyes open for more shopping content from Optmyzr in the coming weeks, including another e-commerce PPC Town Hall on September 16.

    How to look beyond ROAS for optimization: PPC Town Hall 17

    Many marketers who live and breathe ad spend value ROAS as the holy grail of advertising. For many, it’s a way of calculating and formulating next steps to achieve high(er) revenue. While this metric does forecast quite well, one question that arises is how useful it is for long-term growth. 

    With the use of retargeting as a way of fulfilling ROAS targets, PPC professionals might not consider incrementality as a way to get good results. Some sharp minds, however, have turned to customer lifetime value for better optimization with maximum profits.

    So this week on episode 17 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to our panelists who are obsessed with driving better results for PPC campaigns:

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are 5 insights on how to look beyond ROAS to optimize PPC.

    1. Understand the problem with ROAS

    Andreas: In large retail organizations, Finance is responsible for both budgeting and setting performance targets. While finance has profitability KPIs and new customer acquisition goals in mind, they translate them into ROAS targets. Often they don’t understand profitability or CLV isn’t a random byproduct of some advertising campaign, but rather something which you can explicitly optimize for.

    Once ROAS targets are set, the easiest way to achieve them is to sell products with low margins and high return rates…usually to their existing customers. However, at the end of the budgeting cycle, they usually find that even though they have achieved their ROAS targets, profitability is down.

    In the subsequent budgeting cycle, the ROAS target is tightened based upon the weak profitability. This vicious cycle can only be broken by setting other targets than RAS.

    2. Consider profit on ad spend

    Frederik: You need to calculate the real gross profit on every single order, followed by doing the attribution and looking at customer LTV (lifetime value). You need to work on the profit on the first attribution.

    We use POAS (profit on ad spend), which is richer in ad spend before sending out the data to the channels. We calculate all our orders, profits on them, cost price, shipping cost, and payment fees. Then we send these to the platform so that one can make transparent decisions.

    3. Put the right information in the system

    Andreas: There’s a fundamental difference between how we once did things and what we’re doing now. The levers once used to excel in digital marketing have changed dramatically. In the early days we optimized keywords, ad copies, and landing pages; things that weren’t fully automated.

    But AI has made all of these activities redundant. To differentiate from the competition today you need to ensure you optimize for the right targets and that you can accurately measure the value of each single click…and feed your algorithm with first-party data. Putting the right information back into the system is key to optimizing beyond ROAS.

    In order to activate your data you need to first assess the exact order margin, then deduct the expected returns. As a second step you need to know whether an order was done by a new customer or an existing one. If it was a new customer who purchased, future purchases are to be expected, so you add a (residual customer lifetime value on top of the first-order-margin.

    Ultimately, you need to slice this entire value if there were several clicks involved. The end goal should be to attain the value of each and every click. This is a prerequisite for bidding systems to work for your specific business.

    4. To retarget or not?

    Andreas: Whoever is curious to see the impact of data activation should do one experiment. First off? Let tROAS run. Then, in one instance, you provide the first-click data. In the other, last-click data. Analyze the retargeting share of both settings and you’ll see only a small retargeting share through the first click; as all the credits get allocated to it.

    What happens if you test for incrementality? You’ll see that the more likely a user is to buy, the better the results will look, albeit with lower incremental impact. Nobody today can answer this question: whether to bid up – or down – on your retargeting activity.

    I believe that attribution systems have completely failed. They assume that advertising must be responsible for the sale…and so it allocates credits based on different parameters. The only thing of value is to run isolated incremental audience-based models. It’s here where you can truly find out the scope of impact.

    5. Go beyond attribution

    Frederik: We have a dashboard where we take away the attribution fully. We actually look at gross profits, usage on ad spend, and gross profit after ad spend by keeping their ratios the same. This way you can actually see whether your gross profit will increase or decrease if you don’t change the ratios. After this, you can try to allocate with some attribution. This way you can look at the financials rather than just the attribution.

    Conclusion

    While ROAS might have been the guiding light of the past, one can’t forget that what are essentially Google’s metrics might not accurately reflect your client’s or company’s goals.

    The only way to sustain a ROAS-driven system is to layer different rules on product categories. Even geolocations seem to have an effect on ROAS targets; you might find, for example, that the customer acquisition rate is higher in New York than in San Francisco.

    It’s hard to automate some things fully as you might not have the same targets across different locations and products. The only way to fix that right now is to move towards a conversion tracking and attribution system that takes smaller things into account, like locations and incrementality.

    3 Questions to Ask Every PPC Software Provider

    Almost every brand and business relies on PPC to help them reach and sell to the right audiences. The key to doing so at scale is choosing dynamic, multi-faceted software that can help you achieve your goals.

    If you’re a PPC marketer, you’ve probably already come across several of these tools — and possibly even use one of them. But how do you know which one is right for your business?

    • Which tool aligns best with your needs and targets?
    • How do you know if an investment will yield dividends?
    • And what should you be asking the different companies you talk to?

    Optmyzr CEO Fred Vallaeys recently caught up with Aaron Levy, Tinuiti’s Group Director of SEM to discuss these topics — and more!

    Here are some highlights from Aaron’s responses, including the three most important questions you should ask every PPC software provider you meet.

    1. How does this tool make things better for me?

    Marketers need to constantly evaluate what a particular tool can do for their clients and their own organizations. Does the tool allow you to provide better results so that you can spend more — and, in turn, charge more? How can you deploy it for your clients’ businesses?

    Hear Aaron’s take on identifying tools that make you better

    Some software costs quite a bit to set up, and if you end up not using it, then there’s that cost to absorb as well. Even when you sign up for a trial, setting up new tracking codes and restructuring your client’s campaign a certain way around the tool — getting out of that can be extremely difficult.

    For example, some tool providers will give you a three- to four-month onboarding period where irrespective of you liking the tool or not, you have to stick with it.

    2. What does it do that other tools can’t?

    We know that Google, Microsoft, and even Facebook have pretty robust tool suites. So having a ‘proprietary bid algorithm’ is not much of a differentiating factor. Prospective providers should be able to tell you what their tool can do that your existing one can’t.

    Ask your software providers how they’re different. If they can’t answer it, why should you switch?

    Watch Aaron speak about identifying the unique value of a product

    Check where you are in the PPC spectrum.

    Are you a true expert, or are you doing the basics? An engine tends to do a good job for the average advertiser. But if you work for an experienced PPC agency and have time-consuming strategies, that’s when you want to start looking for the right tool.

    More often than not, advertising engines fail to comprehend what you really want to do.

    Aaron’s Take: We have a lot of clients who use a lot of offline data sources, and we’ll pass information back and forth. In these cases, we look to whichever tool is most powerful as clients don’t want Google to have access to that data. Or sometimes, even Google can’t really do what we (and clients) want to.

    3. What’s my return on investment?

    While search advertisers are very familiar with metrics like CPC or ROAS, buyers need to know what return on investment to expect. Returns can be driven by overheads, like when an agency buys software that lets them do more with a smaller workforce.

    It can be in the form of time, like software that potentially saves your team hours each week to help you focus on other targets. And while this might not be a direct output, value more often than not justifies the use of new software.

    Listen to Aaron discuss how to determine return on investment

    Bonus Questions

    1. How flexible is your tool provider? What kind of support will you get?

    Aaron’s Take: A lot of times, especially when a software developer is trying to get their foot off the ground, they forget about customer service. It translates to: Sales guys done, have fun!

    A very sales-driven organization won’t extend support in helping customers realize their tool’s features and services. There needs to be better communication between agencies and software providers to answer questions related to the software’s capabilities.

    Watch Aaron discuss the pitfalls of disconnected customer support

    2. What’s the road map?

    As end-users, you need to check whether each tool is heading in the right direction. Find out what software providers are working towards. Irrespective of how much you plan to use the tool, it’s important to be aligned with their vision.

    3. Are you looking for a piece of software? Or a back-end process?

    Fred’s Take: When I was launching Optmyzr, I made sure to develop the product in a way that it didn’t rely heavily on back-end processes. It was really important for me to launch Optmyzr as software. It is a self-serving system where you can watch explainer videos and get started.

    Relying heavily on back-end processes has many disadvantages, one of them being the changing employees who essentially perform all the basic search tasks. While it may look like a smooth-running system at the front, there’s always a person pushing all the buttons.

    Conclusion

    While the list of questions you could ask a PPC software provider is endless, these are some of the more critical ones to consider.

    Focus on the needs and goals of your clients and your organization; keep your personal goals as a marketer in mind; and assess and analyze at length to make an informed purchase.

    Most of all, be ready to ask some hard questions of software developers — and be ready to walk away from something that doesn’t fit your needs. Software is not just about cost, but the value it provides and whether the two of you are a good fit together.

    5 Insights to Build a Personal PPC Brand: PPC Town Hall 16

    While every marketer wants to leave their mark on the industry, very few become true experts. To be influential in the market today, you need to have credibility, and invest time and effort to hone your craft.

    The reward: Not only do you get a chance to be a part of something bigger, but you get to shape others who’ll also make a difference to your industry.

    Furthermore, having a strong personal brand helps win more business opportunities, both for yourself and your organization.

    So this week on episode 16 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to the two most influential PPC experts of 2020, who brought their shared experience to the table:

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are 5 insights to help you start building your personal PPC brand.

    1. Learn how to build a good pitch

    Michelle: I’ve spent a lot of time writing pitches, submitting them, and getting rejected over and over again.

    The thing that helped was to reach out to people who had spoken on similar panels to mine. I asked them how to make a good pitch. Their insights helped me understand what to write or which format to use. I also reached out to session moderators to get their take on the subject.

    Purna: For anyone who wants to submit a pitch, I have two tips that have been helpful for me.

    Ask yourself what the key takeaways are for your audience; make sure you’re sharing three or four actionable tips. And add more specificity to your content; discuss the angle you’re bringing to the topic.

    2. Conquer your fear of speaking on stage

    Purna: Look through the material delivered by your favorite speakers to see what actually resonates with you, and practice to remove the barriers in your head that are making you nervous.

    Make sure your content is adding value to your audience. Keep an eye on the discussions happening in your industry, and keep up with different topics and themes. Then get feedback; reach out to other experts to get their opinion. 

    Enjoy yourself and have fun!

    3. Keep your audience engaged

    Purna: Try to bring everyone onto the same page by asking your audience if they don’t understand something. I take 60 seconds to go over it and then take it from there. You want everyone to benefit from your content and not miss out due to a lack of background knowledge.

    4. Start writing

    Michelle: If you can’t speak at shows, write. Start writing and put your smarts out there. This way, you’ll always have something to refer to and it will show others that you know your business. Don’t be afraid to start sharing your thoughts within relevant communities.

    You’ll never get better unless you do it, so don’t be afraid that you’re not as good as you’d like to be. Don’t let perfection get in the way. Just start.

    5. Quantify your passion project to your employer

    Michelle: I’m fortunate to have superiors that understand the value and importance of writing and speaking. Being visible helps you bring in clients who have seen you on different platforms and at events, but also helps convey the expertise you and your team have to companies who may not have seen you speak at those events.

    Conclusion

    Juggling your job, a personal life, and your passion project can definitely be a handful. But if you’re passionate about what you do and believe you can help your fellow marketers, start now.  

    Be consistently active in discussions about your areas of interest. Look out for updates and news on new products or paradigms. Talk to established experts and get their feedback on your content. 

    More importantly, be consistent — Rome wasn’t built in a day. Keep making the effort and you’ll soon be growing your brand and business.

    Solving Agency Challenges During Times of Crisis: PPC Town Hall 15

    Running a PPC agency is challenging enough. Clients have to be kept happy, your teams have to stay on top of hundreds of fluctuations, and ad platforms are constantly changing and adding features to their mix.

    Throw in something as unexpected as a pandemic and it can be easy to feel like you’re drowning.

    So this week on episode 15 of PPC Town Hall, we spoke to two PPC experts with a track record of success in helping their agencies weather numerous storms over the years:

    As always, you can view this week’s episode as well as previous editions of PPC Town Hall right here.

    Here are 6 tips to help you steer your team through these challenging times.

    1. Be a partner, not a vendor

    Matt: It’s important to work out an ideal solution for an effective strategy. We have to be compassionate and understand everyone’s circumstances.

    During the early months of COVID, we saw a few clients who wanted to pause their accounts or significantly cut down on their budget due to a lot of restrictions. We had to work with those clients, figuring out a way to remain working with them; something that works for both parties.

    As places have started to open up, we can see that some of clients are coming back to get into business again.

    2. Educate your clients

    Brittni: When we take over a new account from a previous agency, we ask for KPIs or benchmarks that the previous agency was asked to deliver. It can be a little difficult, especially when clients have unrealistic expectations.

    ROAS can be one way, but if a client is looking for a 4x return on $100 a month ($400 in sales), that’s not going to be as beneficial as spending $2,000 a month and getting $4,000 in sales, and then incrementally increasing ROAS.

    Trying to find a balance between what clients are looking for and attainable goals is really important.

    3. Set expectations from the start

    Matt: It’s really important to understand what clients want to do with their business. What do they want from agencies? A lot of it goes back to how clients want to be. Do they want you to help them formulate a strategy and work together as partners, or do they want you to just pull levers?

    If the client works with you as a partner, it’s important to go back to expectations and make your client understand your apprehensions and ideas. This way they can make informed decisions to best manage their accounts and goals.

    4. Inspire confidence through your history

    Brittni: A lot of it comes down to partnership, time and patience. Once you start to show growth and success, a client is able to have trust and confidence in what you’re doing. With time, they’re going to give you those levels of referrals, and those partners are going to be able to trust you. And then you can guide them through their strategies.

    If you’re capable of running a successful campaign on a very limited budget, especially dealing with unglamorous products like tires, it indicates a strong sense of strategy which helps build client confidence.

    5. Understand a price-sensitive market

    Matt: In the context of COVID, a client that doesn’t have a major sticking point when it comes to price, that’s where things like curbside pickup and contactless delivery will help gain consumers.

    While additional platforms for selling products definitely work for users, it’s beyond price. It’s more about offering something unique, especially in the time of COVID.

    6. Know how to come back from a lull in business

    Brittni: There’s definitely been a change in the type of messaging and targeting for different clients. Earlier, a lot of our clients shifted from paid advertising to SEO or local ads.

    But as things are opening, these same clients are coming back to paid advertising with a different approach. Many of the campaigns we see today promote COVID safety and precautions. These are the clients who want to maintain customer safety. We need to focus on building brand awareness through any type of display advertising.

    Conclusion

    Most contingencies can be planned, but sometimes life throws you a curveball that no one can predict. In times like these, trust in your track record of success.

    When client business is suffering, they can often have multiple fires to fight: supply chain, hygiene, and delivery come to mind. So a great agency that can continue to create value on the advertising front is worth its weight in gold.

    Join us next week for PPC Town Hall 16 where we’ll be speaking to two of the leading ladies of PPC: Michelle Morgan and Purna Virji.

    How to Start Selling the Easy Way On Google Shopping

    Note: Smart Shopping campaigns have been upgraded to Performance Max in September 2022. We suggest you refer to these links below to know more about Performance Max.

    Performance Max Campaigns Guide for 2023

    Performance Max Guide: How to Diagnose Your Ecommerce Campaign Performance in 2023

    Performance Max Campaign Tips for Retail and Ecommerce

    How to Manage and Optimize Your Performance Max Campaigns

    Performance Max: 5 Effective Ways to Safeguard Your Campaigns in 2023

    Earlier this year, Google made an announcement that changed the way advertisers perceived Shopping campaigns. By making Google Shopping listings free, the world’s largest advertising network forced everyone selling tangible products to rethink their PPC strategies.

    Suddenly, this component of the Google advertising network became much more attractive.

    At first, brands and PPC marketers were captivated by the prospect of free ad space. Once the initial hype faded, it became clear that only a portion of Google Shopping listings would be made free and that certain conditions had to be met.

    To take advantage of these free listings, advertisers need to have active Google Merchant Center accounts and enable their products to show on all surfaces including Google Images, the Google Shopping tab, Google Lens, and Google Search.

    As of late May, our conversations with experts like Kirk Williams of Zato Marketing revealed that an average of 5-6% of Google Shopping listings were made complementary.

    But that’s not the only reason it makes sense to give your products Google Shopping visibility.

    If like many other brands, your business or client are just starting to get involved in building Google Shopping campaigns, this article will help you figure out how to sell on Google Shopping.

    In this article, we’ll explore:

    How to take advantage of Google Shopping listings

    Google Shopping allows advertisers to promote physical, shippable products with a greater amount of visual appeal. Consumers searching for ‘blue shoes’ or ‘leather couch’ can view and explore a range of product listings that match closely with what they’re looking for.

    Google Shopping campaigns come in two varieties: Standard and Smart.

    Image sourced from versafeed.com

    Standard campaigns are built manually to deliver on highly strategic goals. These require some understanding of product groups, campaign structures, and other campaign components in order to achieve a specific goal, such as a target ROAS.

    Smart campaigns on Google Shopping reduce the entry barrier by using machine learning and automation to speed up the process. This makes them ideal for small businesses with limited budgets, or advertisers who don’t have the time to build out Standard campaigns.

    While Standard campaigns afford greater control over location targeting, negative keywords, custom scheduling, and network placement; Smart campaigns require historical data but will determine placement and other parameters for you based on past performance of other campaigns.

    Google Shopping: A proven channel for product visibility

    Google Shopping campaigns have always been considered a core part of the PPC marketer’s toolbox. They carry a visual component, which has proven to be more attractive than plain text when products are involved.

    Here are four more reasons why Google Shopping is a proven way to give your products the visibility they need, especially with the current economic landscape in mind.

    How to sell on Google Shopping the easy way

    Google Shopping campaigns can be highly valuable if your business calls for them. But it can be confusing and tricky to build them out if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. Moreover, creating splits (e.g. by brand or category) takes a significant amount of time when done manually — and leaves you prone to human error.

    Optmyzr’s tools for Google Shopping cover the full life cycle, allowing you to create campaigns and set structures from scratch. Use us to do the heavy lifting and help you create the campaign structures you want, quickly and without error.

    With Optmytzr guiding you step by step, you can create both Standard and Smart Google Shopping campaigns and ad groups in just a few clicks.

    Campaign Builder 2.0

    Campaign Builder 2.0 is Optmyzr’s tool to build Standard and Smart Google Shopping campaigns from scratch. Anyone can link a spreadsheet or Google Merchant Center feed to get started in minutes.

    Product Group Refresher 2.0

    Product Group Refresher 2.0 optimizes existing Google Shopping campaigns by adding new products and product groups based on existing campaign structures. It looks at your current campaign structures and syncs with the feed to accurately reflect your inventory.

    Machine learning provides suggestions, and you can even automate the entire process. For example, when new products are added to the inventory feed, Optmyzr can automatically create new product groups for them.

    Manage Shopping Bids

    This optimization identifies high-performing product groups, allowing you to raise bids for product groups that are driving results. It also shows which product groups are underperforming or failing, letting you lower bids for them.

    By nature, this tool only supports Standard Google Shopping campaigns.

    Shopping Analysis

    One of our most popular Insight tools, Shopping Analysis helps Optmyzr users understand how their products are performing irrespective of structure. Use it to aggregate data and determine performance based on a number of different attributes.

    Aggregate data by price to see the performance and ROAS that products at different price points drive. Or if you’re selling shoes, easily see which sizes are more popular and sell more, or which ones aren’t in demand so you can fine-tune procurement.

    Shopping Analysis works with both Standard and Smart Google Shopping campaigns. With the former, you can use this aggregate data to change bids using the Attribute Bidder. For Smart Shopping, you can see which products are selling better — an insight that’s not easy to obtain in Google Ads.

    Conclusion

    While it’s admirable that Google is thinking of advertisers and supporting them with some complementary Shopping listings, there’s greater value to be experienced than just a couple of freebies.

    Unlike services, products have shape and form — and people love to see what they’re buying before they make a purchase. Google Shopping campaigns enable you to do this while expanding your reach, allowing small businesses to flourish and hobbyists to turn passion into profession.

    To learn more about how we can help you build and optimize Google Shopping campaigns with minimal time sink, write to us at support@optymzr.com or sign up to try Optmyzr free of cost.

    6 B2B Tips for PPC Marketers: PPC Town Hall 9

    After a break last week, PPC Town Hall returned on May 27 with a revamped format. With the ‘doom and gloom’ phase of the pandemic behind us, PPC marketers are increasingly focused on solutions.

    Going forward, PPC Town Halls will be more topical and focus on key areas of concern, with actionable advice to help PPC marketers and their teams overcome ongoing challenges. You’ll also be able to ask questions of panelists before and during each episode, and watch and listen to previous PPC Town Halls anytime you like.

    Find everything you need right here.

    Joining us for episode 9 to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by PPC marketers in the B2B space were:

    Here are 6 key insights from our panelists on how PPC professionals can help B2B brands position themselves for post-COVID success.

    1. Start building your pipeline now.

    B2B as a space is notorious for having lengthy sales cycles, ranging from the challenging (30-60 days) to the laborious (12-18 months). Depending on the size of a lead’s company, conversions may not happen for multiple quarters or fiscal years.

    AJ believes that now is a good time to get ahead of that curve, and he thinks LinkedIn is the place to do it.

    “Because of the uncertainty right now, people are afraid to sign big deals and contracts. So these leads who were in the pipeline are not closing,” he shared. “I get that B2B marketers are scared, but now is the time to be advertising — ad costs are the lowest they will ever be across all networks, it’s the cheapest way to get in with an audience, and people are spending more time on LinkedIn. More people, more attention, and lower costs — take advantage of that to build your pipeline and have conversations to build those relationships on the longer sales cycles.

    2. Be ready for the coming rise in demand.

    At the start of the pandemic, it was difficult to extrapolate any meaningful stories from relevant data. Now that we’re a few months in, there’s something to work with.

    “Around mid-March when the pandemic was taking hold, there was a huge spike in e-commerce traffic, conversion rates and revenue,” he said.

    “This good write-up on this COVID-19 e-commerce bubble by Mike Ryan, product management lead for Smarter Ecommerce in Austria, shows what they observed in Europe. The bubble was mostly likely a result of panic-buying of essentials like food, and business items like headsets and cameras for work-from-home remote meetings. After that spike, it settled into a pattern and we’re now in a trough.”

    He also provided some advice for businesses whose products and services are in high demand, which might drastically shorten a once-drawn out sales cycle.

    “If you’re a company that sells something directly related to reopening safely, your biggest issue is when things open back up, purchasing managers are going to want to buy your product and they’re going to want it fast. So in terms of messaging, be clear about what you can deliver quickly — and don’t discount.”

    3. Keep your ads dynamic.

    From messaging to responsiveness to inventory, nothing during this pandemic has been static or predictable. Businesses need to stay flexible in order to occupy a positive space in the minds of those who will buy their products and services.

    Frank believes that one good way to do that is by structuring your ad content to follow a prospect’s progress through your funnel.

    “At Digitopia, we have a concept called ‘follow the funnel’. That means as your prospect engages with your brand digitally and moves through that experience, the ads on all networks should recognize where they’re at and change to offer the next thing in the relationship,” he told our audience.

    “So if they visit a cornerstone piece of content but didn’t take advantage of your lead magnet, then the ad should change to (drive them to) the lead magnet.”

    For more insights, check out Frank’s book “Building Your Digital Utopia”.

    4. LinkedIn is an expensive but high-quality filter.

    One question that came up during this week’s conversation focused on filtering out unwanted clicks from tire-kickers and businesses that can’t afford your product or service.

    AJ’s advice is to leverage LinkedIn’s built-in filtering capabilities — without breaking the bank.

    “LinkedIn is very good at getting the best quality of prospects to your offers and sites. What it requires is that you have a great content offer, because their CPCs are too high to treat it as a true top-of-funnel channel; you’re paying bottom-of-funnel prices for a top-of-funnel visitor,” he said.

    His advice?

    “Get people to an offer that is gated — some kind of lead magnet — where it’s valuable enough that people will drop down past the top of the funnel into the middle.”

    5. Evaluate. Communicate. Re-evaluate.

    At the start of this crisis, many agencies shifted priorities from performance to strategy. While the needle is slowly moving back, Matt feels that it’s more vital than ever to truly understand what clients are going through.

    “What’s really important now is staying on top of relationships with clients, and we’re talking to them about what they’re seeing — is the phone ringing, are RFQ numbers going up, is lead gen going up?”

    He even provided an example of when communication can overcome a roadblock that might have otherwise been overlooked.

    “In B2B, summertime tends to get a bit quieter. Things might be reopening but we still see a flat revenue line, and it may be due to that seasonal trend. So constant communication and re-evaluation is important.”

    6. Consistency leads to revenue

    Few things are more harmful to B2B marketing than irregularity — except perhaps consistently making communication sound like a pitch. Combine the two, and you have a recipe for disaster.

    Frank reminded our audience that messaging is everything, and how you structure that messaging can make or break your success in the current environment.

    “When a company is trying to engage their audience but hasn’t been consistent with it, there’s a ramp up period of 12-24 months before you see it become a consistent process,” he cautioned.

    “Now add in what’s going on, and we see a lot of companies immediately jump ship. They say ‘We’re not going to do anything because now’s a bad time to be marketing’. Well, if your approach to marketing was product pitch-focused to begin with, you were doing B2B marketing wrong all along.”

    Conclusion

    It became apparent to us a couple of weeks ago that the PPC community was done feeling sorry for ourselves. As always, our resilience and analytical minds meant that we now needed to focus on fixing what we have the power to fix.

    Now that we’ve moved to a topical format with discussions revolving around solutions, we hope the time you spend engaging with us on PPC Town Hall yields even greater returns. So be sure to bookmark this page to stay on top of everything.

    In the meantime, we’re still here to provide all the support we can with new content, product features and more!

    Customer Journey Mapping: The Real PPC Marketing Funnel

    In paid search marketing, we consistently see marketers talk about the different levels of the marketing funnel: awareness, consideration, decision, or, top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and the bottom of the funnel.

    Unfortunately, this way of thinking is most of the time inaccurate.

    The issue with the process is that the consumer’s buyer journey is not linear. If anything, people bounce back-and-forth from awareness to consideration multiple times before coming close to a final decision, especially as we enter uncharted waters during the changes in our world.

    To better grasp customer journeys, map out the actions, motivations, emotions, and thoughts of the user. What key messages need to be given to the user to get them to take action?

    What PPC insights can we use to help them get there?

    This thought process has further implications for how we create ads and how we nurture potential advocates of our brands and products. Let’s dive in.

    Why are linear funnels wrong?

    Can you think about a time when you were looking to solve a problem and you took a route like the one in the image above? I sure can’t.

    Decision-making is a roller coaster of decisions and emotions.

    • You have to understand your unique problem.
    • You have to perform research on multiple brands.
    • You have to align your problem with those brands.
    • You have to go back and make sure this is the most cost-effective way to solve your problem.
    • You go back, look at the brands, and see if you missed any big players you should’ve considered before.
    • You walk away from your laptop frustrated and confused.
    • You go back and make a brash decision and hope for the best (or maybe that’s just me?).

    For marketers to fully connect with users at scale and sell them their products at the right point in time, it’s critical to understand these decisions at every stage of the customer journey.

    How are marketers getting it wrong?

    It is less about how marketers are getting it wrong, but more about how marketers may be missing a necessary step in their advertising efforts.

    If you do not comprehend your target audience’s journey, then you will miss out on potential customers down the road.

    So, what is a customer journey map?

    A customer journey map is a visualization of every step a potential customer takes in completing a desired action with your company.

    Customer journey maps allow you to pinpoint exactly where you need to interact with potential customers to ensure that they are aware of your brand — at every step of the marketing funnel.

    Why is this critical?

    Customer journey mapping allows the full understanding of customer interactions with a business. Take important events, actions, motivations, emotions, thoughts, messages, and pain points, and create a comprehensive visual that connects all of them together rather than one standard method, as shown above.

    Think of customer journey mapping as a relationship development tool: how do you learn about your target customer and ensure that you know everything about them to make them feel safe by choosing your business?

    Understanding your customer journey

    To fully grasp your customers’ journeys through the buyer cycle, especially in these times of unforeseen crisis, you must understand specific interests and qualities about them.

    There are various ways to work through these questions and identify all gaps in the necessary information to effectively market to the right audience at the right time.

    Let’s lay some groundwork

    Before you begin, get organized, and set your objectives. What are you trying to accomplish?

    These objectives should take into account several different things:

    • What are you trying to learn about your customers?
    • What do their buying decisions show?
    • What kinds of answers do they need?
    • What does your customer know/not know?
    • How long does it typically take for a customer to make an informed decision?
    • Are decisions made through an informed, based on a hunch, or impulsive process?
    • What personality traits does your target audience typically have?
    • What demographic is your customer typically in?

    Once you have gathered these lists of questions, create goals shaped around them.

    Ultimately, you will take these questions and apply them to the next step: creating the target audience personas.

    By gathering deep insights into your objectives, you can better understand goal setting in the future.

    Target persona set-up

    Target personas are outlines or breakdowns of realistic versions of your ideal customers.

    To successfully create target personas, understand the basics of what drives that target audience to your website, including:

    • Job title
    • Age & other demographic information
    • Industry
    • Decision maker
    • Biggest pain point
    • Biggest need
    • Position in the sales funnel
    • Trigger points

    Get creative with obtaining this kind of information through various analytics platforms such as Instagram Analytics or Google Analytics. There are surveying tools you can use to send basic informational surveys to your current customer base such as SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics.

    You can find more information about personas in this article.

    For a basic example, if you run a cloud operations company whose target audience is chief technology officers for enterprise businesses, your target persona may be as follows:

    Breaking down potential next steps

    Once you identify a few target personas, break down each step, based on their actions and motivations, emotions and thoughts, key messages, and funnel conversions.

    Actions and motivations

    As we previously discussed in creating target personas, the actions and motivations are what make up every step of the customer journey.

    Once you have compiled a group of potential actions and motivations for a customer to take different steps with your company, list them out in the order of least to most likely to make a purchasing decision.

    For example, if you sell software and determine that your audience is motivated by price and ease of integration into their current operations, mark those as most likely.

    If you have also found that some customers learn about your brand through education revolving around your software’s functionality, then you would mark that as least likely.

    Emotions and thoughts

    Next, place-specific emotions and thoughts that could influence one to hop from one action to another. This is our first step at trying to place specific emotions to specific actions.

    For example, someone who is frustrated with the lack of a comprehensive solution (emotion/thought) may take action to learn more about your company’s solution that fits their needs (actions and motivations).

    Key messages

    Next, determine what key messages you need to place that align with your potential customer’s emotions and thoughts.

    These messages need to be action-inducing! Even further, incorporate your business’s unique value propositions and stand out in comparison to your competitors.

    For example, a call-to-action supporting our target persona’s actions and emotions is “Learn for free how our comprehensive solution will improve operational efficiency”. Make it specific. Help them solve a problem.

    Funnel steps and conversion points

    Next, identify different points of the sales funnel where your audience can take action (either on your website or as a part of your sales and marketing efforts).

    How are you going to get them to convert?

    Take this opportunity to identify your most effective conversion points. For example, if you only use sales-heavy language, you may miss out on nurturing leads who may be weary to commit to a sale at that current moment.

    Create gated content or even an email subscription sign up that gathers their information and keeps them engaged with your brand.

    See below:

    How do marketers react to the current environment

    Right now, especially during the economic downturn, users might have different reasons they are buying — or not buying at all.

    With economic uncertainty, the buying process is more thought out and conservative. By matching your advertising intent with that knowledge and being aware of specific user motivations, you can build deeper connections and improve sales.

    With that being said, be empathetic and remember you’re speaking to humans. The messages you portray to your audience should match real feelings and hardships that they may be facing.

    Even further, the content that you serve them needs to be aligned with the shift in the buyer’s journey.

    For example, if you are a restaurant accounting software company, you may not be able to generate sales right now. However, you may be able to build your pipeline through relationship marketing and creating experiential content around “how to survive the economic downturn in the restaurant industry”.

    Find ways to support your audience and you’ll find success.

    Building it out

    Creating your customer journey map example helps you identify potential places where you can create specific content and ad campaigns.

    Create a visualization

    There are four different types of customer journey map examples: current state, day in the life, future state, and blueprint. We’ve got options!

    “Current state” visualizations illustrate what your customers do, think, and feel as they interact with your business. “Day in the life” visualizations illustrate what people do, think, and feel today, as well as how they internalize those feelings.

    “Future state” illustrates what people WILL do, think, and feel down the road. “Blueprint” illustrates a current or forthcoming customer journey map but includes systems of people and technologies.

    Depending on what journey map you create, ensure that it covers specifics that your business needs to cover.

    For example, if you are creating a visualization that is based on the “current state”, ensure that each action, thought, and feeling the customer has as they interact with your business is matched with a step in your customer journey map. Once you have made your decision, add this information to your journey map to present a creative visualization.

    Source: https://kerrybodine.com/the-4-types-of-customer-journey-maps/

    Time for takeoff

    Your customer base is constantly changing, and their needs, actions, motivations, and emotions change continuously. For example, if you target mainly B2B businesses for the past several years, and you are shifting into general software businesses, you may need to remap your customer journey to get in front of the right crowd.

    Review this journey monthly and anticipate change, and it will change. Keep in mind, you’re building relationships, and they take time, effort, and a little empathy along the way.

    Time to pivot?

    Have you noticed a shift in your buyer journey? Are you noticing different user habits?

    It may be time to pivot your targeting strategy.

    Referring back to the previous example of restaurant accounting software — are there really many buyers in that industry during the shutdown? Probably not.

    That doesn’t mean you cannot still market to them.

    But for productivity companies like Slack and Zoom – how do you pivot?

    It is all about maximizing your ability to target your total addressable market. Reach as many people that are looking for the solution your product provides, at the lowest possible cost.

    The key, however, is to remain empathetic. For example, Zoom switched their messaging to “In this together.” They add clean messaging, that is empathetic, and right to the point.

    Customer journey map examples

    Source: NGDATA
    Source: Columbia Road
    Source: Edrawsoft

    The path toward ROI

    Customer journey mapping can take some time, yes, but pinpointing exactly what type of advertisements will reach and resonate with your customer can influence your ability to generate leads, improve sales, and advance brand equity.

    Especially with the change in the current environment, it is important to maximize your ability to effectively market to your customers. You want to ensure that your message is met at the right place and time, or else it can negatively impact your brand equity.

    Having that deep of an understanding of your potential customers is invaluable.

    What other organizational & research tactics do you use to improve your understanding of your target audience? Share your favorite PPC methods, or let us know if you have any questions.

    This article is a guest post by a representative from one of Optmyzr’s customers. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Optmyzr and its employees.

    7 Digital Marketing Lessons from PPC Australia: PPC Town Hall 8

    One of the most rewarding things about PPC Town Hall is how support and demand for our webinar isn’t just restricted to a few markets. And recently, we found out that the PPC community in Australia was missing out on joining us live.

    That’s all the reason we needed to move this week’s webinar to accommodate our friends down under. Joining us for this week’s episode were three of Australia’s most seasoned digital marketers:

    As always, you can view and listen to previous PPC Town Hall episodes here.

    So let’s take a look at our panelists’ 7 digital marketing lessons from their experiences managing local and global accounts from Australia.

    1. How long can the ‘new normal’ last?

    “I’ve been amazed with how quickly everyone has adapted. Two months ago, working from home full time was ‘impossible’ for many organizations,” Mike observed.

    “The knock-on effects — less pollution, less time in the car, property prices — will be pretty interesting to see. I don’t know yet what cultural changes will stick, but I feel like we might roll back some things if we don’t consciously design differences into our lives. And it would be a shame to lose this opportunity to make our supply chains more local or improve food security. In terms of consumer buying behavior, Amazon is an example of a company that comes out of this stronger than before.”

    With that said, Mike also urged marketers to remain empathetic by remembering that we’re not all equally fortunate.

    “We have to remember this is a pandemic of two halves. We and our teams are very fortunate to be able to work from home. Meanwhile, a whole bunch of jobs and businesses are just gone.”

    2. Small businesses need all the support they can get.

    Hit hardest during this crisis are small businesses, irrespective of industry. Many operate on low margins and don’t have the cash reserves to continue meeting expenses without regular revenue.

    “Google My Business has done a lot for companies during COVID. One example is the ability to list that you’re not open to walk-ins, but are offering delivery or pickups. So for cafés and restaurants, GMB has done some very positive things,” Monte noted.

    “That said, knowing a lot of people in restaurants and catering, they’re trying to move a bit away from services like UberEats and Deliveroo because of the huge margins (up to 30%). Most restaurants don’t operate on a 20% or 30% gross margin in normal times. So now they have their wait staff doing deliveries, and they’re finding new services that charge them a flat fee to place the order and have their own employees fulfill it. This needs to pick up, because the bigger services aren’t sustainable for small businesses.”

    If you can, we recommend you buy local to support small businesses and give your economy the best shot at bouncing back quickly.

    3. Hybrid business models are in.

    While the situation is improving in many countries, there’s no clear and definitive end to the pandemic. Ben believes that businesses will need to look at combining different strategies to maximize profitability for some time.

    “There are only two ways out of COVID: a vaccine or herd immunity. Every time lockdowns open up, there’s a spike in cases. So we’re probably indoors for a period of time, and this will change people’s buying psychology — it takes 30 days to form a habit and 60 days to break one.”

    “Google is still the first thing people use to search for and find things. In April, we saw categories like restaurants go through the roof — and they’re still there. Earlier, restaurants used to have people walk down the street and pop in, but they will have to adopt a hybrid business model for a while yet. This might look like deliveries and takeout supported by limited dine-in capacity.”

    4. Size does matter.

    Every few decades, history throws us a curveball that creates winners and losers. Pandemics are one of these events, and the current one is drawing out the divide between the haves and the have-nots.

    “It might not be common knowledge, but large organizations that have dedicated logistics and transport facilities have been able to maintain their supply lines,” Monte said.

    “But for a lot of small businesses that might be importing from China for distribution in Australia, that product is usually in the belly of a commercial airliner carrying passengers. That all came to a halt and as a result, these companies found their supply chains had collapsed for a while. We actually had some clients who put their e-commerce stores on hold because of a lack of inventory.”

    5. Work around the logistics.

    There’s no doubt that the world’s supply chains are under stress. Businesses have two choices: crib about it or work around it. Ben has been helping clients achieve the latter.

    “In March, stock was an issue. We had big online retailers who couldn’t get product, going from huge revenues to thinking about maybe closing the doors. So we pivoted to make sure they could do pre-orders and give attention to what was in stock. It’s amazing what little things like that and a bit of common sense can do for a business,” he shared.

    “I think Display and remarketing are useful to make sure you’re getting in front of these changing business strategies, like curbside pickup. We believed we were seeing a lot of those trends here in Australia as well. We did some analysis of our MCCs and it looks like the data matches that.”

    6. Pausing campaigns is unpreferred in both hemispheres.

    During last week’s PPC Town Hall, Navah Hopkins made a passionate case for keeping campaigns on at minimal cost. This week, Mike echoed her sentiments.

    “I’m reluctant to pause campaigns, having done that in the past with bad results. If we think a client will come back in a few weeks, we’ll wind stuff down to 1-cent budgets and leave it there. We’d rather spend a little bit than pause entirely,” he said.

    “Interestingly enough, some European campaigns for one of our US clients have been on these 1-cent budgets. There was some trickle of clicks coming through. Every now and then you get a sale, so the ROAS was staggering at 500x. Of course, those outliers don’t make for very pleasant reporting!”

    7. Truly great agencies are partnerships.

    Led by people like Ben, PPC agencies and consultants are proving to be worth their weight in gold during this crisis.

    “We have great clarity about our mission as a business — to serve and help SMBs succeed online. Many of our client managers see themselves as digital marketing business coaches, so they’re there not just to talk about Google Ads but what else we can do with client businesses,” he shared.

    “When COVID hit, they needed our help more than ever. We immediately thought about all these industries that were going to be affected and how we can help them stop from shutting their doors. We developed some e-commerce packages, rolled them out at cost price, and built them out in two days. One thing we achieved was helping a coffee shop sell coffee beans online and survive that way.”

    Conclusion

    It’s always reassuring to learn that people doing the same work around the world share your mentality and vision. So it was refreshing to speak with not just one, but three champions of human and empathy-focused marketing (we heard plenty of support for local and small businesses).
    Next week, we’re back to our usual time of 9 am PT / 12 pm ET / 18:00 CET and will be joined by two exciting panelists. Check out the details here!

    From Phantom Menace to New Hope: PPC Town Hall 7

    For the past six weeks, we’ve discussed how to adjust to this new normal and find hope in difficult situations. With signs of life starting to creep back into the digital advertising space, this week’s episode focused on solutions as we start to emerge from the sense of doom.

    The panel for episode 6 included:

    So without further delay, let’s dive into 9 insights that consultants, brands and agencies can use to guide the next phase of their PPC strategy.

    And remember, you can watch or listen to past episodes of PPC Town Hall on our dedicated page.

    1. People are starting to spend again.

    “I saw something interesting with a furniture client who has both B2B and B2C e-retail,” David said. “Each one had a moment of total crisis where sales just stopped, and we were all trying to figure out why. In retrospect, consumer confidence had vanished — along with their money. But then it started to pick up around late March and early April.”

    But that’s only half the story. While David’s client experienced slowdowns on both fronts at the same time, the recovery has been dramatically different.

    “The interesting thing is the pickup for B2B has not yet brought them to parity with what they saw in January and February, while B2C is higher than they’ve ever experienced.”

    2. Businesses are more flexible than ever.

    During one of our first PPC Town Hall events, Julie Friedman Bacchini of Neptune Moon predicted that businesses can only succeed if they adapted to the prevailing situation.

    Brandon has seen that play out firsthand.

    “SMBs experienced a number of weeks with a lot of reluctance and trying to figure out what exactly was going on,” he said.

    “I’ve been really impressed and surprised with our clients and the conversations we’ve had, and their attitude to getting back out there and maintaining their presence on digital. I’ve seen that more often than I expected.”

    3. Courage is paying off.

    According to Navah, “Clients who stayed the course throughout the flux are in an amazing position; the ones who pulled back their spend are experiencing a far more intense recovery. The former have been able to capitalize on cheaper CPCs and really own the ‘compassion conversation’ to stay top of mind.”

    So what’s the final verdict: should you turn your campaigns off or keep them on?

    “We can debate turning campaigns off versus keeping them on with a $5 budget, but leaving the campaign on can be worth the $400 or $500 you’d spend. It can help make sure you don’t face thousands of dollars in wasted time when you want to ramp things back up.”

    4. There’s no formula for recovery.

    Once again, another set of panelists confirmed that the absence of a playbook means they are handling each situation independently.

    “I don’t have set times or dollar amounts [as benchmarks for the recovery phase], as the variables differ greatly from client to client,” David said. “When I sense that we’re going to have to adjust the budget significantly, I will often switch to manual bidding and try to steer the account in the right direction.”

    5. Manual bidding might be necessary as advertising activity picks back up.

    The lack of data to guide Google’s machine means that advertisers who paused campaigns will find it a challenge to jump right back into Automated Bidding.

    “I’ve seen about a two-week period where campaigns coming back on benefit from manual bidding before re-transitioning to automated bidding,” Navah said. “What’s also been useful is target Impression Share with a bid cap just to protect the system. But for manual bidding, I don’t go more than two weeks provided we have conversion data.”

    Read more of Navah’s thoughts on the subject in her latest blog post for Search Engine Journal.

    6. Digital marketers can’t stay isolated.

    With data scarce and attribution not so clear, the divide between digital and traditional media is narrower than ever.

    “Bridging the gap between traditional and digital media has become a far more important conversation, and digital marketers need to be more comfortable interfacing with their traditional media counterparts,” Navah commented.

    “Pre-COVID, we were comfortable living in our tower of data with perfect attribution, and this crisis has shaken the foundations of having a pure data approach.”

    7. There is no ‘one channel to rule them all’.

    Even hardcore specialist agencies that focused on one or two channels have been open to new things, like Brandon’s organization (un)Common Logic.

    “One of the learnings of the last few months for me relates to diversification and having a few more channels at our disposal. We’re typically a direct response and PPC-heavy agency, and connected TV is one of the things I’ve been interested in,” he commented.

    And speaking of exploring new things…

    8. Now’s the time to experiment with creativity.

    If you need an example of agency and brand teaming up to succeed by trying something unconventional, you’ll love this anecdote from David.

    “We have a client who’s around the middle in terms of market share, and they noticed their competitors were drawing back in advertising. So we did a branding campaign of all Display Ads using no CTA,” he told us.

    “We featured their name and logo, and something about the position they wanted to occupy in the minds of their consumers. We ran those ads on the sites of every major city’s media outlets and got many millions of impressions for almost nothing. It was surprising how much it affected sales — the numbers truly did shoot up.

    “It’ll be another conversation whether that altered their position in the market, but a lot of those purchases were new.”

    Talk about a curveball!

    9. Years of pivoting have made agencies priceless.

    Anyone who’s worked for an agency knows how agile and flexible they have to be. Turnaround times are short, deadlines are always looming, and agency pros have made a life out of pivoting at superhuman speed.

    So who better to call when you need a partner who can change direction in a heartbeat?

    “What we’re doing more of is double-checking and making sure things are working well. I think we’ve seen fairly consistent performance, but we’re spending a lot more time in the accounts making changes where necessary, and just providing that oversight where it’s needed,” Brandon shared.

    “Our approach with clients has been highly consultative. The first thing we did was start having conversations not just about marketing needs, but what their businesses were going through. So we’re trying to adapt our strategy to that.

    “We’re primarily a PPC shop, but we do have expertise in other areas, so we tailor our solutions to each client. Being able to pivot and stay flexible has been key for us.”

    A glimmer of hope

    It’s May, and while it feels like more than just a few months since the COVID crisis began, we’re starting to see some positive signs around consumer behavior and supply chains. With luck, we’ll start to see additional medical advances and a subsequent restart of the economy in earnest.

    As we’ve said from the beginning, the only way out of this for the PPC community is by sharing all the information we have. One graph, one observation, one insight — any of these could spark an idea that leads to a solution we can all use.

    Please continue to join us for our weekly PPC Town Hall sessions. You can add it on your calendar, subscribe to email notifications, access the podcast and videos from previous sessions, or catch the live Town Hall on ppctownhall.com. It’s one hour that might be the most valuable investment you make all week!

    Google's 6 Practical Tips for PPC During a Pandemic

    There’s no company that isn’t affected by COVID-19. Whether it’s lower than usual demand or a supply chain that’s unable to keep up, every business must adjust the way they advertise to the people who buy their products and services.

    Customers understandably have high expectations that companies will provide value and act responsibly during this time. And with “the new normal” changing almost constantly, 71% of consumers say that they want to hear from businesses that can help them navigate this crisis, according to a joint study between Google and Ipsos.

    We spoke to some friends at Google to get some actionable advice. If you experience changes in demand for your products and services, or volatility in your PPC data, here are some of the best practices they shared to manage your marketing campaigns through unusual times.

    Phase I: Surveying the landscape

    While you keep an eye on shifting trends, there are ways to alter your business plan, update your strategic approach, and adapt to the current situation so you can be there for your customers. Google has useful resources available to help you navigate this uncertain time.

    Plan your way forward

    To know where you need to get, you have to start by figuring out where you are. Google recommends answering a few basic questions about your business or client, and the impact of COVID-19 on operations and marketing.

    Once you have the answers, you’ll be able to take steps to alter your strategic approach.

    Use Google’s knowledge bank

    There are a number of tools and resources developed by Google that can help you study the marketplace and understand consumer behavior.

    And as you re-engage with your customers, you can also explore additional resources on Google My Business, Performance Planner, and Smart Shopping and YouTube campaigns.

    Phase II: Assessing the situation

    Once you’ve answered some core questions about the state of your business or your client’s, you’ll be able to start piecing together a strategic solution. What that entails will depend on multiple factors — demand, availability, visibility, geography, and more.

    Here are four categories of situations that businesses find themselves in today.

    A. Businesses at risk

    These are companies in financial or operational trouble who need help staying afloat. Many are at risk of furloughs or layoffs, or likely to shut their doors.

    B. Businesses facing some challenges

    Some companies are experiencing threatening situations like supply chain shortages or decreased customer demand, and are unable to meet normal revenue targets.

    C. Businesses that have pivoted

    These companies have realized the need to adapt to the new normal, and are building awareness as they shift to producing something new.

    D. Businesses in demand

    Companies that are fortunate enough to be doing well are experiencing higher demand for their products. They want to discover newer ways to connect with and help customers.

    Phase III: Building a new strategy

    Depending on which category your business or client falls under, it might now be time to start putting together a paid search plan.

    Keeping the current business situation and new marketing goals in mind, here are six common tactics you can use.

    1. Keywords

    Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Use the Keyword Lasso tool to discover new keyword suggestions, or the Negative Keyword Ideas tool to find keywords that are causing wasted spend. 

    2. Creatives

    Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: The Ad Text Optimization tool allows you to search for phrases or words across campaigns and instantly edit them. Use this to quickly and consistently make bulk changes as your messaging needs to reflect the rapidly changing conditions in the world.

    3. Bids and Budgets

    Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Conversion Grabber lets you increase Impression Share by raising bids for high-converting keywords that are missing out on traffic due to low ad rank. The Optimize Budgets tool can help you quickly re-allocate budgets based on how different campaigns are doing against your goals.

    4. Target Constraints/Goals

    Goals: Evaluate your new business strategies and confirm target goals. Set performance targets and customize settings to your unique business goals.

    Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Use the Optimize Target CPA & ROAS on campaigns with automated bidding to increase conversions and Impression Share. You can also see converting ad groups that use other automated bidding strategies.

    5. Account-Wide Best Practices

    Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: The Rule Engine allows you to create data-based strategies, like removing non-converting keywords related to COVID-19. Or for a fun way to keep your account in shape, try the Workouts that combine multiple optimizations to achieve a specific objective.

    6. Audiences

    First-Party Audience Lists: Add all RSLA, Similar Audiences, and Customer Match lists to Smart Bidding campaigns.

    Fine-tune it with Optmyzr: Use the Customer Match List Updates tool (under Optimizations > Utilities) to keep your audiences in sync between your business data and Google’s audience repository.

    Phase IV: Measuring the impact of your new investments

    Once you have a new strategy in place, it’s important to keep a close eye on your campaigns to make sure they’re doing what you want them to. Even with automation, human context is critical to regular adjustments and optimization.

    Here’s what you can do.

    We hope these insights from Google enable you to make the right decisions for your businesses and clients. For any additional support, our friends at Google recommend that you visit the Think with Google hub or contact your Google Ads representative.

    The 6 Weeks That Changed PPC (Maybe Forever)

    The past six weeks or so have been transformational in so many ways. Businesses, agencies, and individuals face uncertainties and challenges, unlike anything we’ve experienced in the modern era.

    Tough times always present monumental burdens for marketers. Knee-jerk reactions often include rapid reductions or eliminations of spend. Agencies worry about staying in business. Marketers worry about their livelihoods. 

    For the past six weeks, though, Optmyzr has hosted our weekly online PPC Town Hall events. We initially launched the concept to simply get PPC pros together to commiserate, dust off, share some fears and optimism, and maybe get a few ideas about what to do next. 

    The result has far exceeded what we hoped to achieve. 

    To date, nearly 1,000 viewers have logged on, with the vast majority staying for the duration. We’ve had stellar panelists – marketing leaders who graciously share their insight and wisdom. Typically, these are the folks keynoting and leading sessions at those now-canceled industry conferences. 

    PPC pros prove they are a solutions-focused bunch

    Interestingly, starting about halfway through our inaugural Town Hall, questions started coming in about “what can we do now?” It was as if the PPC community knew it had a responsibility to the brands we serve as a higher calling. Rather than wallowing in dread, our community wanted to move forward and do great work. 

    But how? There’s no roadmap for what we’re experiencing. 

    Maybe we have a few things working in our favor. Many PPC pros are used to working in relative isolation. Whether agency or at-home consultant or in-house marketer, many PPC pros had unknowingly pioneered the concept of social distancing! We spend our time in the data, detecting anomalies, solving problems, coming up with strategies, and figuring out how to connect those searching with the brands that solve needs. 

    The evolution of discussion from Episode 1 to Episode 6 last week has been amazing. Our community has done the very things noted above. Panelists have figured out ways to get up-to-the-minute data. We’ve examined, analyzed, opined, and theorized. Viewers have asked probing questions. 

    Sharing the opportunities and potential pitfalls on a weekly basis has provided hundreds of PPC pros with the information they’ve needed to go beyond surviving the times to thriving in the times. 

    One Hour Each Week Can Change Your Life

    Okay, we all may be a little fatigued spending our days meeting via webcam and sometimes struggling to hear what someone is saying through a cheap laptop microphone. Folks are a little “Zoom Meeting’d” out right now. Understandable, since that’s how we’re forced to meet. 

    We’ve been sourcing and testing different options and tech to make sure we have good audio, useful graphical information to share, and crisp messaging to make the one-hour Town Hall as valuable as it can be. Feedback tells us it’s getting better by the week.

    I invite you to join us for next week’s Town Hall on Wednesday, May 6 at noon ET. Our guests will be Navah Hopkins, and David Szetela, both on the list of 2019’s Top 25 PPC Influencers. They’ll be joined by Brandon Jones who has a unique perspective on how SMBs are reacting to COVID-10 through his role at agency un(Common) Logic. 

    Now that we’re into May, many states are actively easing business restrictions and slowly reopening commerce, creating big questions for PPC pros:

    The next few weeks are critical. We want to help you navigate the times and be the leader that is needed.  

    Our next Town Hall will be available live on our site this coming Wednesday. If you’d like to stay in the loop about upcoming topics and panelists, consider registering for the PPC Town Hall reminders or subscribing to our shared calendar. 

    It might very well be the most valuable hour of your week.

    Each Week of the Pandemic Era Brings New Insight: PPC Town Hall 6

    When brilliant marketers share insights, we can get a sense of clarity in troubling times. This week Optmyzr hosted the sixth episode of our weekly PPC Town Hall gatherings. To date, we’ve had nearly 1,000 attendees participating in these timely, essential discussions about search marketing in the COVID-19 era. 

    The response to our Town Hall concept has been terrific. We deeply appreciate the involvement of amazing panelists and the hundreds of attendees who watch, submit questions, and follow up with us.

    You can see all of our episodes to date on our PPC Town Hall page. 

    Week-6 brought another stellar panel of search marketing all-stars, including 

    This week’s event focused heavily on the tools, data, and creative thinking that is helping PPC pros navigate the strange times we’re in. 

    Innovative Insight Tools

    There are some great new tools to help us make sense of search behaviors and underlying dynamics that may be flummoxing marketers. 

    Aaron showcased the really cool COVID dashboard from the data and analytics experts at Tinuiti. We’ve referenced this dashboard in a few venues ourselves. The dashboard provides visualizations of month-over-month and week-over-week spend trends as well as indexed spend trends covering a wide range of sectors. 

    Explore the dashboard. It’s free. All you need to do is provide your email address. 

    Christi also showed some powerful insight tools that Microsoft is generating to provide intelligence into weekly trends in automotive, financial services, health & wellness, retail, tech & telcos, and travel. The Microsoft resources analyze marketplace impacts and provide meaningful context into indicators of recovery by sector. 

    I encourage you to watch the replay of the session for deeper analysis, but some key takeaways from our panel:

    Seeing clarity in the data

    Is it even possible to trust the data that is out there? The brilliant AI machines and smart automations are, in many cases, confused.  The machines know it’s a weird time, but they don’t know we’re in a crisis. The machines understand data from the past to predict the future. But the past doesn’t factor in massive global shifts in how people are living their lives. 

    Christi, Aaron, Jim, and I talked specifically about the use of RSAs and applying data to decision making. Aaron talked about moving from being data-driven to being data-informed. Look at data and best practices as very relevant, but we all need to view this information through very different lenses than we did two months ago. 

    Christi encouraged search marketers to take a much more manual mindset with RSAs. The days of set-and-forget are gone (for now). The challenge for marketers today will be to apply critical thinking, creativity, assessment of messaging, geo differences, and other factors to make decisions better than the machines can do right now.

    Jim echoed the same RSA points, and said he is heavily annotating analytics right now, due to the wildy dynamic environment marketers are in. We simply cannot compare anything from 12 months ago to make decisions now. He noted that like-for-like may never exist again, or at least not for quite some time. 

    Panelists also encouraged marketers to allow themselves to be wrong on occasion. In many cases, hindsight will be the only indicator of the decisions being made right now. 

    Amazon, Ecommerce, and “Black Friday” thinking

    As panelists have discussed in earlier episodes, Amazon’s impact on the market is far different today than it was two months ago. Still the ecommerce behemoth, shifting priorities and temporary shipping extensions create opportunities for other providers to step in the ecom gap. 

    Aaron and Jim both credited Amazon’s quick move to communicate extended shipping timeframes as a means of protecting the Prime brand. People associate Prime with same-day and two-day shipping more than they may associate it with the other services like Prime Video. Noting it’s better to underpromise and overdeliver on shipping. Cart abandonment that happens when people see shipping dates weeks out can help other providers – assuming their supply chains, inventory, and distribution can fill the void.

    Christi added that for those doing Amazon sponsored ads, it’s essential to be sure the ads, promotions, and messaging actually align with what people are purchasing now. Careful consideration of how sponsored ads are being applied now is essential to prevent needless spend or to capitalize on filling near-term needs for things people will actually purchase. 

    The ecommerce discussion also covered “Black Friday” thinking by many retailers. Balancing the potential perception that a provider is desperate against the perception of being viewed as opportunistic, the panel advised retailers to avoid keeping Black Friday type discounts from going on too long. 

    Aaron summed up the panel’s thoughts when he noted, “The people who market well are doing well. The people who market poorly are doing poorly. With the Black Friday concept, some can look a little desperate and it can seem like some are addicted to focusing on month-over-month or ROAS on last click. Longer term marketers are looking at the edge of the funnel – seeing the whole funnel as opposed to just the bottom.” 

    Light at the End of the Tunnel? 

    Nobody knows a timeline for returning to something resembling normal, but the week-6 panel expressed optimism with discussions beginning to shift to recovery versus managing through the crisis. 

    The tools shared above and all other data points can help search marketers have a better understanding of immediate factors, but also are now setting the stage for longer term thinking and decision making. Clearly we have a long way to go, but with each subsequent Town Hall, discussions are morphing and adjusting. Week-1 was more about being together and commiserating and trying to gauge “what the heck is happening?” Five weeks later, discussions are dramatically different. 

    Invest an hour of your time and watch the replay of episode 6 on our Town Hall web page or listen to it as a podcast. Then sign up for next week’s live session, which will feature Navah Hopkins and David Szetela, both on the list of top 25 most influential PPC experts in 2019, and Brandon Jones from un(Common) Logic, an Austin-based agency.

    Register today and we will see you Wednesday for PPC Town Hall #7.

    10 Digital Marketing Truths to Remember: PPC Town Hall 5

    As PPC Town Hall turns a month old, we wanted to take a moment to thank all our guest speakers, attendees, and everyone who has embraced the idea. From the beginning, you’ve expressed your support and helped share news of the Town Hall with new parts of the global PPC community.

    Thank you for being part of the journey so far!

    We created a new page for PPC Town Hall to make it easy to sign up for the next one and find old episodes.

    Joining Optmyzr CEO Fred Vallaeys this week for episode 5 in an all-new panel were:

    Let’s take a look at some of the core takeaways from this week’s edition.

    1. No business remains unaffected by the pandemic.

    “It’s almost a ‘feast or famine’ situation across commerce and service, and there are challenges with both scenarios,” Ginny observed.

    Whichever side your business or clients fall on, there’s plenty to do.

    “You’re either trying to drum up interest where demand has sunk through the floor, or figuring out how to deal with a surge in demand when the supply chain isn’t ready or you don’t have the resources to manage that surge.”

    Joe observed similar trends in the context of site traffic.

    “In many instances, brands are changing spending habits and adapting messaging. But some are simply getting so much traffic that they either can’t keep up with inventory, or because people are looking for anything even slightly related to their product, a lot of that traffic is unqualified.”

    2. People want brands to add value to their lives.

    Our panelists also provided some advice on how PPC pros can provide added value to businesses and clients by shaping conversations that their brands are part of.

    “Don’t sound like a used car salesman; be your customers’ partner in solving a problem,” Joe recommended. “People are nervous, bored, and anxious; reminding people of that doesn’t inspire them to fall in love with a brand. Shift that messaging to talk about how you’re going to help consumers come out of this.”

    Andrew believes brands should continue to talk about more than just pandemic-related topics.

    “No one wants to hear about you supplying hand sanitizer; we want to be reassured. We want someone to talk about the things that mattered to us before, because it matters even more now. We should still care about climate change, talk about sustainability, and promote and support local businesses.”

    3. Google is looking out for its loyal advertisers.

    It’s no surprise that small and medium businesses have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of them, online advertising budgets have either dropped sharply or stopped altogether.

    Google took notice and announced $340 million in ad credits to help keep these SMBs active on the  Google Ads network.

    “We’re going to start seeing these credits for SMBs in late May, which will be the first phase followed by a continuous rollout,” said Ginny. “These are designed to help SMBs and smaller accounts sustain ad spend in the future. The credit amount will vary based on your historical spend.”

    “To be eligible, you need to have been advertising (had active campaigns) for 10 out of 12 months in 2019, and also have been advertising in January or February of this year.”

    It’s worth noting that Google is not extending these ad credits to franchise businesses, even if they meet the SMB criteria.

    4. Now’s the time to try new things.

    The hallmark of COVID-19 for marketing professionals is the absence of a playbook or historical data that shows you how to solve current problems. Instead, two of this week’s guests recommend a more experimental, open-minded approach.

    “With the exponential intelligence of what Google can do every quarter, we go back and often find out that what didn’t work so well six months ago is doing better now,” Andrew observed. “Go back and look at some of your Google Ads audiences; they may be capable of delivering things your Google Analytics audiences can’t, and vice versa.”

    Joe, meanwhile, favors experimenting with channels you didn’t get to play around with earlier.

    “Test those Instagram story ads, do some brand-building, build out new targeting options, stretch your budget with more affordable media like Facebook CPMs, and use YouTube to generate awareness. In time, when inventory stabilizes, you can double down on search and shopping ads to capitalize on that new intent.”

    5. Google Shopping ads will soon be free (yes, free).

    The announcement that advertisers can list Google Shopping ads at no cost is a game-changer, and Ginny explained how it will work in greater detail.

    “Google is going to start showing free listings for shopping ads. It’s a really big change going from all-paid for the last eight years to primarily free, with paid ads at the top and bottom, just like a regular SERP.”

    It’s a big shift for the Shopping tab of the search results pages, but it’s also part of a larger evolution over the past year.

    “Google first opened up the Merchant Center to anyone to upload their feeds without needing to be an advertiser, and then opt in to services across Google,” Ginny elaborated. “The other thing Google announced is a new integration with PayPal so that you can connect that account to the Merchant Center to speed up data flow and merchant verification.”

    6. There’s an opportunity to beat Amazon at its own game.

    With non-essential deliveries shut off and two-day shipping a pipe dream at this stage, Amazon suddenly finds itself unable to deliver what it’s conditioned the marketplace to expect.

    Businesses that can help consumers get what they need and want with minimal delay have an opportunity to capitalize on that, and possibly retain a significant chunk of business even after the crisis abates.

    “If I still need a new pair of running shoes, and I can’t walk into a store and get them, I’m going to wherever I can get them soon,” Joe explained. “I’ve got more time to go for a run or a walk, and I’m not waiting for Amazon. So it’s about diversifying your marketing and finding where your users are, because they still want those products now.”

    7. There’s more than one way to stretch a budget.

    Despite knowing that investing in advertising is paramount, smaller businesses are having a tough time finding marketing dollars. But even with lower-than-ever Facebook CPMs, media on leading platforms isn’t within reach for every business.

    Joe provided some advice for restaurants looking to make their budgets go further.

    “If you’ve lost budget and you still want to run ads, look at different channels than the ones you’re used to. Waze local and Quora can help take your budget further than Facebook, for example. It’s a good time to test new things and see what works.”

    8. COVID-19 is creating a new breed of agile businesses.

    With supply chains unsteady and normal processes interrupted, businesses have to stay on their feet to survive. The result is a great deal more creativity not just in PPC, but across the marketing spectrum.

    Ginny spoke about one Amazon seller she knows. “Her products are made in the US, but she was worried the manufacturing plant might shut down for health reasons. So she ordered thousands of dollars in new inventory, but then Amazon shut off non-essential shipments.”

    “She was stuck, so she explored her network and found a new way to fulfil those orders. We’re seeing businesses adapt and pivot quickly.”

    More specific to PPC strategy, Andrew noted that changes further back than COVID-19 have compounded the challenges paid search pros face in the current environment.

    “The ad-tech industry has gone through a lot in the last 6-9 months due to ITP and how cookies work now. Marketers need to realize that betting the house on last-click, bottom-of-funnel tactics is not a sustainable approach.”

    9. The worst consumer is a disappointed one.

    With the supply chain disrupted, consumers no longer know where exactly to go to make certain purchases. They’re relying more than ever on search to guide them to a marketplace that has what they need.

    So what happens if a consumer finds it on your site, only to later discover that the product is actually unavailable? Andrew believes it’s a real problem that needs immediate attention.

    “The big danger is advertising products that are out of stock or have low stock, and disappointing users when they land on the page. As an industry we need to do better because it’s a common complaint I keep seeing.”

    “Low stock and a product feed’s ability to easily adjust to that remains a major area where things can fall down for SMBs. Either in-house teams lack the setup skills, or SMBs on low-cost PPC packages don’t get the attention they need to react to demand peaks,” he added.

    The Optmyzr Rule Engine’s ability to integrate with business data, as well as the Optmyzr Campaign Automator can be used to address the issue of advertising only products that have adequate inventory or that have margins that support a profitable ad buy. Contact the Optmyzr team if you’d like to learn more.

    10. Marketers miss connecting in person.

    The ongoing crisis has made it difficult for people to see their loved ones and close friends, causing some of us to feel powerless and lonely.

    A less impactful effect is that it’s also isolated professionals from their community networks.

    While we still have the power of technology to stay connected and learn from one another, the PPC industry is still dealing with the absence of events. HeroConf Austin, for example, was canceled due to COVID-19, impacting the learning and development of hundreds of marketing teams.

    Crushing his workout in the morning and building scripts in the evening! Get Fred’s COVID-19 script here!

    “Events such as HeroConf provide genuine insight into what industry leaders are seeing and experiencing every day, and we all can learn from their insights,” Andrew noted. “So maintaining that is absolutely necessary from an education perspective. Virtual events can help, and I really hope they happen.”

    Fortunately, the Paid Search Association is hosting their annual conference as a virtual event. You can learn more about PSAC 2020 and register for the conference here (seats are limited).

    Conclusion

    We love hearing from our attendees about the PPC Town Hall helping them see new ways of thinking, or reassuring them that they’re not the only ones experiencing challenges at this time. It’s why we do what we do!

    We especially love this LinkedIn video recap from Moe McLeod of Digitopia, a PPC Town Hall regular and one of its most vocal supporters.

    We hope you’ll join us again next week for another discussion on how we can overcome the present challenges together!

    9 Insights on Bid Management, Paid Social & More: PPC Town Hall 4

    Following last week’s successful PPC Town Hall, we returned with a 4th edition featuring some of the most knowledgeable minds in the PPC and paid search space.

    If you happened to miss this week’s chat or any previous editions, check them all out on our YouTube channel or listen to them as podcasts over here.

    This week, we focused on bid management in dynamic environments (such as the one created by COVID-19). Optmyzr CEO, Frederick Vallaeys, moderated a panel that included:

    Let’s take a look at 9 key insights from this week’s conversation that every agency, advertiser, and consultant can act on.

    We’re still in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be achieving any degree of ‘normal’ in the immediate future. With so much volatility across markets, it might be a good time to explore Google’s Performance Planner if you haven’t already.

    To quote Google, “Performance Planner is a tool that lets you create plans for your advertising spend, and see how changes to campaigns might affect key metrics and overall performance.”

    Google Ads Performance Planner. Image courtesy of Google.com.

    Performance Planner works with the latest data at any given time, but the current climate means that said data is rarely predictable and stable from one week to the next.

    Peter recommended checking in on Performance Planner every week to explore the impact of shifting CPA, ROAS goals, and manual bids.

    “The market is changing so frequently that a target ROAS that gave you a great volume last week might not do the same this week.”

    2. Not all businesses have been affected equally.

    Just like in every crisis, certain businesses are doing well even as others struggle to stay afloat.

    You might have a client whose product or service is experiencing incredibly low demand, or one that’s waiting on overseas shipments and can’t run more ads until they’re able to fulfill additional orders.

    Martin has seen that spectrum play out for some of Bloofusion’s client base.

    “With our e-commerce clients, we’ve seen a number of differing challenges in the current crisis. Some were overwhelmed by demand. In a few cases, supply is an issue. Others have problems to keep up with packing and shipping. They’ve scaled back or turned off their campaigns to gain a little breathing room.”

    3. Products that make isolation less boring are in demand.

    With most states in the US (and many geographies around the world) under ‘shelter in place’ orders, it’s no surprise that Google has observed a significant uptick in volume for search terms related to products that make the experience more tolerable.

    “We’re seeing that as people are spending more time online, usage is increasing across multiple devices,” Emi said.

    “Consumers are searching for many things including technology that helps them work from home (+750%) as well as connected televisions (+37%), streaming devices (+38%), and gaming consoles (+48%).”

    4. Consumers want to stay healthy and informed.

    But not everything is about work and recreation. Consumers are also looking to maintain their health — and that of their finances.

    “In healthcare, consumers are looking to keep themselves physically and mentally healthy while at home. For example, searches related to ‘online workouts’ increased 12x in the past 90 days,” Emi revealed.

    Alongside that, people are also preoccupied with what’s happening in their bank accounts. With unemployment hitting record levels and even those in secure jobs suddenly looking cash flow issues in the eye, there’s been a surge in search volume for many related topics.

    She added, “Consumers are also looking for financial help, professional advice, and mobile apps to plan for the future with a 9x increase in ‘financial help’ queries e.g. rent/mortgage relief, loan relief, deferred payments.”

    5. Hard-hit industries are starting to figure a way out.

    It’s worth noting that Tinuiti has an insightful tracker that monitors Facebook spend performance segmented by vertical (signup required).

    A quick glance shows that travel is down 79.5% month-on-month but has risen 13.5% week-on-week. Fred speculated that this could be a sign that some of the industries COVID forced to pump the brakes are starting to put new strategies in place.

    “People still want to travel; we just can’t,” he said. “These companies could realistically be building desire and demand, identifying an audience searching for these things during this restrictive phase, so they can convert them when travel opens up again.”

    Google Trends. Image courtesy of Google.com.

    In the case of the automotive industry, which is also showing signs of resurgent spending, Susan speculated that it could be an effort to supplement TV commercials advertising never-before-seen offers like extended windows for no payments and 0% financing.

    Either way, it’s evident that businesses that can’t convert at their usual pace are starting to acquire new users to fill the top of their funnel. Which means…

    6. It’s a great time to use social media to build TOF.

    You don’t have to be as hard-hit as travel or hospitality to consider taking advantage of low-priced social media.

    Given that your clients have the budget to do so, now’s as strategic a time as ever to front-load your pipeline with consumers who are high on intent but limited in their capacity to act.

    In other words, you can build desire and demand to a fever pitch — and do so with a fraction of the budget you’d normally need.

    “We’re seeing some of the cheapest Facebook media with CPMs as low as $2-3. If you have the flexibility and the budget to focus on some top-of-funnel activity, it’s not a bad time to acquire users even if they’re not all going to convert right away,” Susan observed.

    If you want to dive deeper into paid media performance during COVID-19, check out her article on Search Engine Journal.

    7. Smart bidding offers more control than you realize.

    While some advertisers and agencies might be hesitant to allow machines more than a modicum of control over their paid search strategies in the current environment, Smart Bidding might actually empower you more than you thought.

    By using tens of millions of data signals, Smart Bidding pairs your inputs with similar auctions in the industry, so it works even if you’re short on first-party data.

    “Smart bidding has the ability to pick up signals and compare it to other things going on in the market to make those adjustments. While it uses both aggregated and recent trends, it favors what’s been happening recently,” Peter noted.

    Google Smart Bidding considers a multitude of signals to set the right bid for every query. Image courtesy of Google.com.

    The key is to remember that as human operators, we’re capable of watching the news and observing the world around us, and then using those observations to provide context to your paid search programs.

    You really can influence Smart Bidding to work for you as long as you don’t ‘set it and forget it’!

    8. Hyper-segmentation might actually be a good idea.

    Under normal circumstances, it’s not absurd to look at the US as a single market: largely the same regulations, similar opening hours, and common methods of fulfillment.

    Today, that’s simply not the case. States are enforcing their own COVID-19 restrictions, and even individual counties and cities can impose their own limitations.

    So while it’s not the best idea to hyper-segment under normal circumstances, it might be useful to at least try it out right now — and Smart Bidding could be of help.

    “Smart Bidding lets you bid at the intersection of each bid adjustment you can manually set,” Fred shared. “One example is adjustments for a location like New York which has been hit hard, one for time of day, and then another for the audience. It can look at the actual scenario of that one auction and how that combination actually matters.”

    Peter agreed that if you see significant discrepancies in a geography or other parameter, separating campaigns can afford you a greater degree of control by putting individual levers on your campaigns.

    9. Experts are making it easy for PPC pros to stay informed.

    As the PPC community continues to face a number of hardships with finding reliable data, some of the industry’s leading experts have developed scripts that enable marketers to make quick observations about the shift in behavior.

    One example is this COVID-19 visualization script developed by Fred, which overlays government actions related to the pandemic on Google Ads performance metrics.

    “The idea is to help you see if certain events, like store closures, the start of shelter in place, the closing of schools, or the introduction of social distancing correlates in any way with drop-offs or spikes in performance.”

    Martin has also developed a script that compares pre- and post-COVID behavior.

    Google Ads script by Bloofusion and Martin Röttgerding generates charts showing account performance before and during COVID-19. Image courtesy of Bloofusion.

    “Overall trends may be a traffic shift from mobile devices to desktop computers, people searching later at night, and weekdays blurring,” he said.

    “However, we’ve found that this is not true for every account. In many cases, these things have remained more or less stable. The script can give you some handy charts about the situation in your own accounts.”

    Conclusion

    We started the first PPC Town Hall with two objectives in mind: to provide a safe space for paid search pros to vent and share their thoughts on everything that’s been happening, and to steer clear of using it as an opportunity to promote any kind of software or services.

    Since then, the PPC community has embraced these weekly conversations, and they’ve evolved into a source of insights on how to approach these new problems that none of us really have all the answers to.

    We’re in this together, and we’ll get out of it together.

    Please join our next PPC Town Hall on Wednesday, April 22.

    5 Things PPC Agencies Need to Do to Survive Any Crisis

    As a career creative, I’ve worked for and with virtually every type of agency — specialist, generalist, design, integrated, mainline, digital, creative, performance.

    One thing that’s remained constant is the disproportionate relationship between value provided and revenue generated. All but the biggest network agencies are sorely under-compensated for the value they bring to the table — few clients truly recognize this.

    This is the position agencies start from in a best-case scenario.

    So whether performance marketing is your shop’s forte or just one of its many offerings, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has likely already impacted both your revenue and your operating plans for the near to distant future.

    Clients are already notoriously difficult to impress, so what’s an agency to do when spends have been lowered or paused across multiple accounts with little to no notice?

    The toughest part of running paid search and other performance marketing campaigns during a crisis isn’t the drop in spend itself; being asked to do more with less is something all agencies are accustomed to.

    It’s the lack of a clear solution or roadmap to recovery.

    No one knows exactly when shipping and logistics will return to normal, when flights will start operating again at full capacity, or when hotels will once more be so busy that they double-book guests over Christmas. None of us have ever been here before.

    What’s evident is that the ‘normal’ way of doing business doesn’t work right now.

    Agencies have to pivot while helping clients do the same — and they must do it quickly. This is one of the reasons Optmyzr is hosting weekly PPC Town Halls where the PPC community can come together, talk about the problems we’re facing, and learn from each other.

    Let’s take a look at the value agencies provide and some of the things they can do to survive — maybe even thrive in — the coming months of this pandemic.

    1. Shift focus from performance to strategy.

    If your clients are slashing ad spends, there’s a strong chance your account managers and PPC specialists suddenly have a lot more time on their hands. Use those extra hours to shift from managing campaigns to devising new tactics to build awareness, increase engagement, influence brand perception, and increase conversions.

    Are there unexplored (and cost-effective) channels you can use to promote your clients’ brands? Would partnerships give their products and services greater visibility? Is lower CPC actually making a client’s newly reduced budget viable?

    Work closely with clients to ensure they can’t foresee a future without your agency

    During our April 1 PPC Town Hall, Benu Aggarwal, president of Milestone Internet Marketing which services several hospitality and travel clients, shared her team’s approach to providing new value in the interim.

    “Within a week of the pandemic, 80% of our clients told us to stop paid search,” she said. “We are omnichannel, so what was helpful was developing plans for ‘crisis, recovery, and growth’. As part of the crisis plan, we ensured proper messaging. We put a page on every site updating our clients’ responses and measures to COVID-19. We also did this for local channels, such as GMB.”

    We believe Benu and her team are smart to have prioritized helping their clients for the long-term, even if there was uncertainty around their near-term ability to pay the bills. Everyone is feeling the pain from the crisis, and doing what you can to strengthen relationships with your clients will make them value their partnership with your agency once things return closer to normal.

    Optmyzr Tip: Above all else, be defensive of your value and service. Make sure your client doesn’t get used to a ‘new normal’ that doesn’t include working with you. That may mean getting creative and helping them in new ways, or helping them even while they request grace periods on their invoices.

    2. Adjust pricing models to create shared value.

    Every agency knows the dangers of scope creep and overextending non-billable hours to unsustainable levels, but having too little to do is a new challenge for many shops.

    If you’re at the point where client retention is a concern (or will be soon), it might be worth exploring a temporary change in the way your agency bills. Many shops already work with generous credit windows, so this shouldn’t be an entirely alien conversation.

    Agencies that bill by percent of ad spend stand to gain the most by switching to hourly, retainer, and la carte pricing models for the foreseeable future. Independent consultants and small agencies should be especially careful about waiving any fees or costs.

    In “4 Tips for Running a Small Digital Agency in Times of Crisis” for Search Engine Journal, ZATO founder Kirk Williams (who’s slowly becoming a regular on Optmyzr’s PPC Town Hall events) shares great insights on managing financials (among other solid advice).

    Among his recommendations are providing pricing options that offer “tangible benefit to both parties” rather than “a fire sale of value”.

    “Discount prices randomly for no reason without there being some reason or pull-back in scope… would only undervalue and undermine [agencies’] abilities to stay alive themselves as profit was decreased in ever difficult times, and would also set a new lower standard for accurate value once the crisis was inevitably over,” he writes.

    3. Support clients with growing businesses.

    If your agency is fortunate enough to see no change in business — or even growth — there are several ways you can support your clients.

    For clients who are shifting from brick and mortar to e-commerce for the first time, the current climate can make routine tasks challenging.

    Clients migrating to e-commerce for the first time need agile agency partners

    Something as simple as establishing a digital presence might require a lot more thought than usual; setting up fulfillment methods could take significantly longer.

    Your greatest asset is the speed that agencies are famous for. Stay nimble and help set up new accounts quickly for clients coming online for the first time — you’ve done this a thousand times before!

    If a client is in a market that’s currently benefiting from lower than average CPCs, help them maximize that window of opportunity.

    And last but not least, if you happen to find yourself with more than you can realistically handle, spread the joy. Recommend clients you can’t service to other agencies in your city or region who could benefit from the opportunity.

    Optmyzr Tip: If you need to build out new accounts quickly as traditional brick and mortar retailers try their hand at e-commerce, use the Campaign Builder to quickly create shopping campaigns, ad groups, and product groups that are well-structured and will be well-positioned for successful management in the long run. Our standalone Campaign Automator can also help you create and manage inventory-driven keyword campaigns using business data like a Google Merchant feed.

    4. Support clients with contracting budgets.

    On the other hand, your shop might be fighting to convince clients to avoid or minimize cuts to their marketing budget — or, in some cases, to retain your services altogether. While the smart thing to do is keep marketing (even if it’s for top-of-mind recall), clients in some industries simply can’t afford it.

    For those brands that can keep spending a certain amount, there’s a lot that agencies can do to help.

    _Machines can’t provide context to what’s happening; agencies can — and must
    _ (Photo by Helloquence on Unsplash)

    After all, while consumer sentiment is cautious, people are spending up to 30% more shopping online according to this article “COVID-Consumers: Pessimistic, but spending more online” by Search Engine Land.

    Performance marketing agencies have a role to play as PPC doctors. Market realities are changing daily — hourly, for some industries — and what ails the patient changes rapidly from day to day.

    Unlike machines, humans can determine the context of data and steer campaigns in the right direction.

    Check in more frequently. Adjust bids to be in line with prevailing CPC rates. Run hygiene checks on your automations to make sure they’re fine-tuned. Review your ad copy and extensions to eliminate tone-deaf or insensitive language.

    Optmyzr Tip: Use the Rule Engine to weed out new search terms that are generating clicks but aren’t leading to conversions. The Ad Text Optimization tool lets you make bulk copy edits to existing and new ads, to weed out phrases like ‘Visit us today’ or ‘Open 24 hours’.

    5. Stay adaptive to changing conditions.

    Going outside of your domain expertise or primary offering will give your agency the adaptability it needs to pivot itself while helping clients do the same.

    This might mean servicing a new vertical or industry that you have to quickly familiarize yourself with, entering a new segment or market, or bringing a service to the forefront that was earlier simply part of your marketing mix.

    From adding new services to servicing new industries, be open to market demands

    Whatever it is, you’ll likely retain the core strengths that made your agency valuable partners in the first place: a higher degree of expertise in SEO, local search, and performance marketing than your client (in most cases).

    Neptune Moon founder and PPC Town Hall guest speaker Julie Friedman Bacchini is a vocal proponent of staying fluid and receptive to change.

    “Flexibility is the best skill you can cultivate right now, if you don’t already have it. If nobody wants to buy what you do, you’re going to have a problem,” she noted during our April 8 webinar. 

    “Agencies should be listening to clients — really, really listening — to discern what’s keeping them up at night, what they’re worried about, and what it is they feel they’re not going to be able to do,” Bacchini added. “Are you able to offer a solution in that area? Being able to shift around how you do things and offer things is critical to longevity.”

    Optmyzr Tip: Watch our social media pages for the details of our PPC Town Halls to gain insights from PPC leaders and influencers. We finish up with a Q&A session, so bring any questions you might have!

    What real agencies are doing

    Some shops have already put contingency plans into practice, having made the switch from what they used to do to what they’re doing now.

    Let’s take a quick look at what agencies around the world are doing in response to the financial and operational challenges posed by COVID-19.

    • Global holding company WPP recently announced a $2.48 billion financial health plan that includes halting its buyback scheme, canceling its dividend, freezing hiring and raises, pausing discretionary spending, reducing capital expenditures, and instituting a 20% pay cut for the board and global executives.

    • Minnesota-based Media Bridge Advertising noted that “some advertising agencies are taking advantage of their clients by charging them exorbitant rates to create ‘pivot plans’ to adjust”. In addition to waiving onboarding fees, CEO Tracy Call has decided to provide free media and marketing audits for new clients, and free development and execution of “pivot plans” for existing clients.

    • Thrive, an internet marketing agency from Arlington, Texas, published a list of 10 approaches to strategic planning during COVID-19. “A grinding halt with your digital marketing efforts… would be a complete waste of the time and resources you’ve already poured into your business to gain traction in a crowded online marketplace,” the article quotes Thrive founder Matt Bowman as saying. “You would lose ground to your competitors and put your business in a position to fail in the second half of 2020.”

    As always, Optmyzr is here to provide any help we can. Our team is working with customer agencies and the wider PPC community to provide new tools and scripts, quick and nimble support, and new features to more effectively manage ads and campaigns.

    5 Things PPC Pros Can Do to Keep Commerce Moving in a Time of Volatility

    We are living in strange times. 

    Just a couple of short weeks ago, we had packed sports arenas, sold-out concerts, major industry conferences, crowded malls, and a secondary worry of “what is this Coronavirus thing all about?” Today, the best we can enjoy for TV sports are reruns of classic games on ESPN, restaurants (ones that are open) have a lot of open tables, and music & theater venues have gone dark. Above all, we can’t seem to escape the topic of Coronavirus on TV, social media, or in our dwindling person-to-person contact. 

    Search marketing in the “Social Distancing” era

    It’s impossible to tell at this point how long brands and social marketers will have to navigate these uncharted COVID-19 waters. PPC pros are trying to sift through a brand new set of challenges and questions, while still being expected to drive conversions and return on investment.

    Perhaps more than ever, PPC pros must make sure brands and organizations are present when people are searching. And let’s face it…we’ll undoubtedly have a LOT more searching going on via Google and Bing” in the coming weeks as consumers adjust their lives. And as people go deeper into social distancing, we’ll see even more searching on Amazon to further replace brick-and-mortar shopping. 

    It’s clear we are experiencing an unprecedented event in the internet age. But good management and solid automation layering tools can help you get through this in the best possible shape, and hopefully reduce some of the tremendous stress everyone’s dealing with. 

    In this post I want to share a few techniques to deploy today to help your business or that of your clients make the most of an uncertain situation.

    Near-term/Long-Term – The Impact is Not Clear

    Online is the place to be with COVID-19 casting its shadow. Colleges and universities around the country are moving courses online. Even K-12 schools are closing and moving to virtual classes for at least a couple of weeks. Distance learning providers are benefiting from the crisis. Likewise, companies are quickly figuring out how to expand remote work opportunities through video conferencing providers like Zoom who are also seeing their stock value rise. The outbreak has also been driving huge demand for cleaning products, boosting companies with domestic manufacturing such as Clorox and Purel. 

    Google Trends data from March 2020 shows a big increase in people searching for video conferencing solutions to address the need to work from home due to COVID-19

    When consumer behavior shifts dramatically, in this case due to external events none of us can control, opportunities arise for nimble companies. With many people at home with little to do, it seems every streaming service should be making moves like Disney+. They quickly shifted gears and announced streaming of Frozen 2 will start a few months earlier than planned. 

    Other industries are facing a crisis. Hospitality providers are scrambling to serve near-term needs with reduced staffing but they must also remain ready for the day people can and WANT to travel again. SAS airlines have cut 90% of capacity, American is grounding all its widebody aircraft, and if they survive this economic turmoil, they will need a game plan to capture customer demand when it returns.

    Small business is also hard-hit. When local companies must close, or have no more foot traffic, they may not be ready or able to provide a digital alternative (think gyms for example). Despite evaporating sales, they still have to pay rent and possibly staff. When business reopens they may need to win back all the customers they once already had and digital marketing may become a make-or-break proposition for them.

    Whether your business or that of your client (if you’re an agency) falls in the category of positively or negatively impacted, the good news is that as a digital marketer, you are in a position to help them. And even better news is that tried-and-true methods and best practices from non-crisis times also apply here.

    Optmyzr Tip #1

    Use the PPC Investigator to quickly see how external factors like changes in queries and changes due to what your competitors are doing are impacting your top line numbers for sales and conversions.

    Use the PPC Investigator to monitor changes in year-over-year performance. Pay close attention to how query volume and Lost Impression Share are responsible for the overall change in account performance as these are driven by changes in consumer behavior and changes in competitor behavior. In uncertain times, these two factors can have a dramatic impact on account performance, even when you have made no changes to the account.

    Managing PPC budgets in a time of crisis 

    While businesses often knee-jerk their budgets down in times of uncertainty, now may very well be the best time to up the spend on PPC. Social distancing means more people will buy online. It’s essential and responsible to be sure to capture the surge in online shopping. 

    Use the MCC dashboard to set a target budget for the month and get a quick overview of which accounts are falling behind or getting ahead of projections the most. You can then address these issues using the budget management tools or scripts in Optmyzr.

    Optmyzr Tip #2

    Set up a budget script. You may be spending money much faster than usual if you sell sanitizer online. You can use a script to set account-level monthly limits. Or if you see the opposite because you sell flights and fewer consumers are booking, a script can set more aggressive budgets to quickly capture consumers when they start to fly again – and they WILL fly again.

    Automated Bidding algorithms have never seen this before

    Automated bidding relies on historical patterns to predict future behavior. But just like it’s not great at figuring out what’s happening when you have a short weekend sale (because the duration is too short and too unexpected to learn from), what we’re seeing now is drastic and unexpected and not something we can fully trust the machines to understand.

    Unlike machines, we have context about the situation and we can use judgment to steer things the right way. 

    An example is that we may see a lot more search volume for toilet paper (not sure what it’s like in most of the world but it’s sold out everywhere in the US) and hand sanitizer. Machine learning may think it’s wise to boost bids a lot. But have you considered your margins and profitability goals for these products? At some point, the machine may increase bids so much that sales volume spikes but does so at the cost of profits. Or what if sales continue to be counted but your supply runs out and you have to cancel orders. Is machine learning looking at your REAL conversion data or making bad decisions because you gave it incomplete data?

    Google Trends data for March 2020 show searches for toilet paper have inexplicably skyrocketed as a result of the COVID-19 situation in the US.

    Optmyzr Tip #3

    Learn how to add external data, like product margins, to Rule Engine to make sure your target ROAS is set correctly for every product based on its margin. This will help ensure profitable sales and only running ads when it makes financial sense.

    Another example, we can expect even MORE time spent on mobile devices and less on desktops because that’s the trend we see on weekends when people are home. But now a lot of people are going to be home all week to work remotely. This can potentially impact behavior for devices and days of week. Those weekend-specific strategies you’ve used to capture heavier mobile time may well have to be deployed all week long for a while. And when things return to normal, you may need to guide the machines to understand we’re back to business-as-usual.

    Optmyzr Tip #4

    If you’re using automated bidding, use automation layering in the form of alerts and monitoring to ensure any changes in behavior are acted upon by machine learning algorithms. For example, with an expected change in device type usage on different days of the week, set up an automation that tells you if there are shifts and if those could be responsible for performance changes in automated bidding.

    Rule Engine can be used to build device-specific rules. Rule Engine can be used for Microsoft Ads, Google Ads, and even Amazon Ads.

    Don’t pay for news queries that don’t drive conversions

    We’re seeing a lot of searches related to coronavirus updates for airline policies. If you don’t want to spend your PPC budget on those types of clicks you need to add negatives quickly. A simple automation that looks for high volume new queries with low conversion rates can automatically help you with this, now with coronavirus, but also for whatever unexpected disruptive event will happen in the future.

    Optmyzr Tip #5

    The Rule Engine lets you customize date ranges and compare the performance of several date ranges against one another. This lets you execute a strategy where you monitor for new queries that have significant volume in a more recent period of time (e.g. this week) compared to a previous period (e.g. last week). 

    Add custom date ranges in Rule Engine so that you can check for things like queries that went from no impressions last week to lots of impressions this week. This can identify trending queries quickly before they eat up all your budget without driving conversions.

    Don’t accidentally run ads for stuff you can’t provide

    Toilet paper is sold out, yet shopping ads galore for toilet paper. With a tool like Campaign Automator you could automatically update keywords, ads and more to reflect that some products are sold out, or that others (like last minute flights to get back home before the borders close down) are more expensive.

    In addition to our core PPC management and reporting software, Optmyzr sells a product called Campaign Automator that makes inventory driven ad automation easy to set up and automated to maintain.

    Conclusion

    The tips above are simply smart business practices that PPC pros can and must deploy quickly to help the brands they represent weather a really tough storm. Sure, there are charlatans out there seeking to profit unethically from a crisis. That’s the opposite of what we are talking about. 

    Commerce can, and must, go on. In fact, it’s perhaps more important than ever that PPC pros lead the charge in facilitating commerce and being sure to help the brands we represent meet these extraordinary circumstances. 

    The team at Optmyzr is proud to be working with you, side-by-side, with powerful PPC tools that can layer the automations you need to do great work and keep the economic engine running well until we find our new normal. 

    Search Marketing Automation ProTips: How to Become a True PPC Hero

    PPC Hero Summit is just around the corner, and I hope you take time to attend a webinar session I’m doing Feb. 12 with my good friend and fellow PPC veteran Jeff Baum of Hanapin Marketing. 

    Jeff and I will help PPC pros decipher one of the most confusing (and sometimes feared) aspects of PPC in 2020: Automation and artificial intelligence. Our session is entitled “Beyond the Engines’ AI: Make Machine Learning Work for YOUR Brand.”  We will help PPC pros learn how they can outperform the competition as automation by Google and Bing threatens to make things easier – and more difficult at the same time. 

    Pros and Cons of PPC Automation

    Google and Bing know what they are doing. Billions upon billions of searches have provided unprecedented opportunity to understand the actual intent and needs of audiences in ways old school marketers could never dream. 

    Over the last few years, in particular, the big engines have deployed powerful AI and machine learning to automate many core functions of PPC. On the upside, they’ve made it possible for pretty much anyone to set up and run good PPC. There are a lot of positives associated with automations now at search marketers’ collective fingertips – not the least of which is time savings. 

    The automation of many aspects of core PPC is eliminating busy tasks that used to take up the lion’s share of time for even the most efficient marketers. 

    However, with all of the greatness of automation, we see some big “cons” on the other side of the ledger, including a growing concern among search marketers that they may be automated into obsolescence. Let’s consider a few specific areas of concern, which we’ll cover in our PPC Hero Summit online session:

    1. Smart marketers are not 100% sold on the search engines’ machine learning features and settings. After all, the buck stops at the desk of the actual PPC pro when it comes to spending our own (or our clients’) budgets. Surrendering all control and decision making to Google and Bing automations isn’t wise. 
    2. If everyone uses the same automations in the same manner, PPC may well become overly commoditized. It could be akin to all teams in a sports league using the exact same playbook and strategy.
    3. Company A and Company B may be in the same industry selling similar products, but things that work well for one company or its customers may fail miserably for the other. 

    Jeff and I will cover essentials of what’s working and what’s not when it comes to the big engines’ machine learning. More importantly, we’ll discuss many liberating and empowering reasons to use a third-party tool to help you leapfrog competitors, including:

    Perhaps most valuable, we’ll help search marketers understand how to make a strong business case to their own bosses for a third-party resource. 

    I encourage you to invest 30 minutes of time to participate in our February 12 session. Jeff and I know your time is valuable, so we’re planning a rapid-fire event that can make a tremendous difference in your future as a marketer – without a huge investment of your time. 

    Register today and we look forward to this informative session.

    How to Pick a Profitable ACOS or ROAS Target

    Online advertising can get expensive but thankfully the ad engines like Google, Bing and Amazon all have controls that help advertisers keep costs at the right level for their business goals.

    In this post I’ll share how to use your profit margin in conjunction with either target ROAS (tROAS) or target ACOS (tACOS) to achieve break-even on your ad spend. Once you know how to pick the right target so you don’t lose money on PPC, you can dial it up or down to find the right balance between profits and revenue.

    The Difference Between Google ROAS and Amazon ACOS

    First let’s take a look at what ROAS and ACOS mean and how they are calculated.

    Google uses ROAS

    When it comes to reporting columns, Google uses terms like ‘Conv. value / cost’ or ‘All conv. Value / cost’. ROAS (return on ad spend) isn’t a metric you can pick: 

    But the good news is that ROAS is simply one of the ratios expressed as a percentage so it’s just multiplied by 100 and a ‘%’ sign is slapped on the back:

    Google does use the term ROAS in one of its automated bid strategies: Target ROAS (tROAS).

    Amazon uses ACOS

    Amazon shows the ACOS (advertising cost of sales) metric in its interface more prominently so advertisers are immediately exposed to it when they start advertising on Amazon.

    ACOS is based on two of the other metrics Amazon shows by default in its interface:

    ACOS and ROAS both serve the same purpose of giving guidance on how to make online ads profitable but at first glance the two metrics seem very different:

    While the formulas look quite different, that’s mostly due to the difference in nomenclature between the two ad platforms. Where Google calls it ‘cost’, Amazon calls it ‘Ad Spend’. 

    Google cost = Amazon ad spend

    Where Google calls it ‘Conversion Value’, ‘Conv. Value’, or ‘Value’, Amazon calls it ‘Sales’.

    Google Conversion Value = Amazon Sales

    So once we standardize the terminology and swap out all the synonyms, we see that ROAS is the inverse of ACOS:

    We need to know product profit margin before ACOS and ROAS become useful.

    So how are ACOS and ROAS helpful in bid management? How might we decide what a good target ROAS or target ACOS might be? To do that, we need to understand margins.

    Product profit margin or gross profit margin is the ratio of profit over revenue for a single product. The simplest way to think of profit is as the value of the sale minus the cost of producing the thing that was sold:

    Let’s look at an example where we sell 3 products for the same price but they all cost different amounts to make. Or for an Amazon reseller, they all cost a different amount to buy from the manufacturer:

    Combine margin with ROAS or ACOS to find your break-even point

    Now we have all the pieces needed to find how much we can spend on advertising to break even on each sale or conversion*. 

    To make sure we don’t lose money by buying ads, our ad spend to get a sale should be no more than the profit we get from that sale.

    We make a profit when:

    profit on the item sold >advertising cost to get the sale

    That’s simple logic to understand, but to communicate this goal to the ad engines, we need to translate it into the jargon they use. That means we need to bring it back to ROAS and ACOS.

    What is a Break-Even ACOS

    ACOS it’s very simple to equate to break-even if you know your margin. The numbers have to be the same.

    What is a break-even ROAS?

    Because ROAS and ACOS are the inverse of each other, our break-even point on Google is when is (product profit margin)-1 . That’s the product margin divided by 1.

    Let’s see that in a different more visual way:

    The bottom line

    So there you have it, the perfect ACOS or ROAS to break-even on your ad spend on Google or Amazon. On Amazon, it’s the profit margin of the product you sell. On Google it’s the inverse of that same number.

    *You don’t really break even by spending no more on ads to get a sale than what you gain from that sale as that doesn’t consider other costs to run the business of selling things. This is why knowing the break-even point is just the start and you should add a target profitability so you make money.

    Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon: Manage Them All with Optmyzr

    Running PPC programs used to be relatively simple, with essentially one major platform to consider. Those who mastered what was then called “AdWords” could focus nearly all of their attention on Google – maybe showing occasional love to tier-2 search platforms. 

    Seemingly overnight, others achieved “powerhouse” search marketing status, including Bing, Facebook, and now Amazon. 

    Over the past 5-10 years, these major players have gained significant share of the universe of commerce-related searches. All are now locked in fierce battle to connect people with the information and products they are seeking through billions of searches every day.

    The Optmyzr team has worked hard to provide a platform that allows PPC pros to optimize ads in each of the leading platforms with ease and confidence. Today we’re excited to launch Amazon Ads Management within our PPC Management Suite. This new capability will help PPC pros tap into the expansive growth of Amazon’s presence in the search marketing landscape.

    Amazon now ranks as the third-largest platform for share of net digital advertising revenue, and it’s gaining ground on Google and Facebook. Amazon is masterful at capturing high-intent search traffic – or even casual browsing traffic – and then driving customers down the funnel. 

    Optmyzr Rule Engine, which is a critical component of our full PPC Management Suite, sits at the heart of our foray into Amazon. Using Rule Engine, PPC pros can manage bids and keywords for Amazon Advertising campaigns, while being able to easily toggle ads on and off for rapid campaign response. Prebuilt recipes and one-click optimizations, which are inherent in our full system, are now able to be put to work against Amazon Ads, allowing PPC pros and agencies to broaden their portfolio of services, in-house and agency alike. 

    We sought to make a system that would allow PPC pros to turn existing optimization processes into scalable, automated workflows. The recipes noted above make it easy to:

    Try Optmyzr’s Amazon Functionality – NO RISK

    We want to make it easy for you to try Optmyzr’s new Amazon functionality. All you need to do is link your Amazon Advertising account to Optmyzr.  We’ll enable access to our beta on a rolling basis. 

    We’re confident PPC pros and agencies can find great value in managing campaigns across multiple platforms from a common system. We continually look for ways to remove complexity and create opportunities for you to run campaigns like a PPC rockstar. 

    Amazon is clearly among the fastest-growing ad systems in the marketplace. The upcoming holiday shopping season (yes, it’s time to start thinking about the holidays) will be a make-or-break season as competition for online conversion will continue to escalate. Think of the depth and value you can bring to your stakeholders by optimizing all their digital marketing from a single workspace.

    PPC in 2019: The Year YOU Reach Rockstar Status

    As an industry, we made huge strides in pay-per-click automation during 2018. It really was a transformational year for PPC pros, agencies and the brands we serve.

    There are tremendous opportunities on the horizon for PPC pros who are forward-thinking and eager to recalibrate their own role and value in the PPC value chain. Yet many PPC pros today are perhaps a bit flummoxed about what the future holds for them, as Google and Bing are seemingly automating the PPC pro out of existence.

    The PPC pro’s rapidly shifting role will be a huge topic of discussion on this blog and other outlets as we move through 2019. Our team is in the trenches daily crafting functionality, scripts and concepts that will help you – the PPC pro – transform into a PPC rockstar due, in large part, to ongoing automation within the big engines.

    Building on automation & innovation in 2018

    Q1 of 2019 kicks off with amazing PPC automation momentum that welled up during 2018. A scan of 2018’s most-read Search Engine Land contributed posts shows extraordinary interest in automation and other new functionality designed to eliminate tasks associated with PPC.

    Examples among the top posts include an interesting piece by Daniel Gilbert that showcases the power of scripts to automate ways to quickly fix low quality scores. (As you know, scripts are a key element of Optmyzr’s push to make the most out of automation.) While Google and Bing continue to automate so much of the upfront aspects of PPC, smart pros will take their script game to new heights in 2019. Scripts can be daunting if you haven’t dabbled in them before. But even for those versed in using scripts, they can almost certainly be used to an even greater degree to make the most of the daily advancements available natively in the engines as well as PPC management software like Optmyzr.

    We love seeing innovative script ideas from our peers in the industry. It keeps our script artisans on our toes to continually craft new and innovative scripts to crush tasks and foster greater strategic thinking among PPC practitioners. In fact, subscribers to Optmyzr have long had access to a script just like Daniel’s and now we’ve added a tool for pausing low QS keywords as a One-Click Optimization™ so it’s easier than ever to use.

    Optmyzr subscribers can easily create custom rules or copy one of the many we’ve already created as instant recipes. This one identifies and pauses low quality score keywords that are not driving any conversions.

    Our team was pleased to see Optmyzr twice in the Top-10 SEL posts. We dove into some of the core things Google Ads can now do automatically and we examined close match variant changes that challenged and elevated capabilities for marketers and providers alike.

    Core in all of the discussions, whether about automation or other industry advancements, those of us writing about critical topics focused a lot of energy and attention on helping PPC pros view new dynamics as opportunity versus a threat to your long-term viability.

    Interestingly enough in 2018, some of the mainstream press started paying a little more attention and respect to the oft-misunderstood and underappreciated role of PPC. It was attention fueled, perhaps in part, by the significant role of buzzworthy concepts like AI and machine learning. Even Forbes included coverage this past year that started to unlock the mysteries of PPC and its potential to the broader business community. Writer Tom Chalmers took steps to help our business brethren connect dots between AI, automation and a more integrated view of marketing/content/PPC, in general. While not a deep piece, it was good to see PPC addressed in Forbes!

    Of course, the old school marketing/advertising media outlets like Ad Age and others still seem to view PPC as an odd, distant step-relative to old school marketing. A search of “PPC” on the Ad Age site yields a couple of results from two years ago. Such apathy within “mainstream” marketing underscores opportunity for smart PPC pros to elevate to rockstar status in 2019.

    Read on for a taste of what we’ll be talking about in the months ahead….

    Automation, AI/Machine Learning – Buzz or Brave New World?

    Some of the words we (our industry) use are perhaps beginning to take on very similar and sometimes diluted meanings in our space. To an extent, we’re all guilty of buzz-ifying our industry when we talk about concepts like AI and machine learning – and in the process, even the smartest of pros can struggle to figure out what these concepts really mean for our shared future.

    The reality, though, artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation dovetail in many ways to create unprecedented opportunity for PPC innovators. Few other marketers can quantify their impact on the business as a PPC expert. Few others are at the center of the storm where purchase-intent consumers are stampeding toward the bottom of the funnel, ready to convert. Few others can connect the dots between the content, words, images that people see in different channels and search for every day.

    As a result, the PPC rockstar in 2019 should earn a more commanding seat at the marketing leadership table!

    PPC rockstars can and should influence broader marketing strategies from the very beginning of the process. As automation frees us from the tasks of PPC, you can unearth significant opportunity to put your knowledge and analytic abilities to work in much more strategic fashion – for your PPC initiatives and help foster true integration of marketing.

    2019 might well be the breakout year for PPC pros to go from “yeah…she does that pay-per-click Google stuff” (uttered with a slightly confused tone) to “she really transformed our marketing integration in amazing ways.”

    Sneak peek: Big News coming soon

    Without giving away the farm, I’m looking forward to sharing news about a project that has been near and dear to my heart for the last several months. Look for an announcement soon about something I think will be really helpful for PPC pros to get your mindset in the right frame for 2019.

    Automation will rule the day in PPC in the months ahead. But that doesn’t mean automation should rule the PPC pro. On the contrary, I look forward to unveiling our latest project that will help PPC pros elevate their game to rockstar status by taking control of what, how, and when automation is deployed in search marketing to help you drive increasingly powerful results for the clients and brands you serve.

    In the meantime, keep studying. Keep reading. Keep learning. Embrace automation because it is your ticket to great things in 2019.

    Ensure Your PPC Accounts Are Well Managed With Our PPC Audit Tool

    End-of-year puts PPC audits top-of-mind. While PPC pros dissect performance and report campaign results daily, weekly or monthly, deeper audits can fall by the wayside. Regular reporting gives great insight into campaign metrics, but audits dig into critical structural elements, such as having enough ad variations in ad groups, consistent use of ad extensions across campaigns, and many other foundational issues.

    Audits pop back up as a priority as PPC pros answer the myriad year-end questions from stakeholders and get immersed planning for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, infrequent audits means critical insight can be left unknown for too long.

    Let’s face it – auditing PPC programs can be a colossal, time-consuming pain. Even the best pay-per-click pros can put off audits until they absolutely must allocate scarce time to dig through spreadsheets and hunt for anomalies and root causes. Compounding the challenge, PPC data interdependencies run deep and it can be nearly impossible to do effective auditing manually.

    Our PPC Policy & Audits Builder turns processes that would take days to complete into fast, executable activities that can yield great value. Putting off audits until year-end can result in those dreaded “I wish we knew that back in August” moments.

    Audits also foster essential policy compliance when managing external agencies. For example, if an agency says it always does ad testing, but the audit shows ad groups only had one ad, you now have an accountability trail. In addition, audits help defend accounts from being poached by competitors by ensuring accounts are following best practices, making it difficult for competitors to claim accounts are being mismanaged.

    Point & Click Ease

    Policy & Audit Builder is simple and intuitive. Clicking “Create New Audit” launches the step-by-step process in which you can choose to audit Ad Groups, Ads, Campaigns, Search Campaigns, and Keywords.

    As seen in the image below, each audit type allows the user to adjust the essential parameters to begin auditing by segment. Auditing Ad Groups, for example, allows the user to readily uncover anomalies in quality score, spend, number of ads, or number of keywords. The PPC pro can run audits based on all parameters or disable individual ones to focus in on specific attributes.

    Clicking “Run” executes the high level audit and immediately issues a report card that provides letter grades of A+, A, B, and C. Just as with school grades, the report card shows the areas that are running well and calls out ones requiring further attention.

    Clicking into the report card gives deeper insight into specific areas of interest. From this view alone, the PPC pro can begin to take corrective action or dig deeper into the data to analyze foundational issues and then resolve problems or out-of-policy actions.

    Powerful and easy-to-execute audit capabilities empowers the PPC pro to quickly uncover otherwise hidden spikes or valleys that could be driving increases or decreases in overall performance. In addition, PPC campaigns have countless data interdependencies (sometimes making cause/effect analysis nearly impossible), so our audit tool taps the power of machine learning and AI to dig into relationships between various attributes to get to root causes more efficiently and accurately.

    Overall, PPC pros can gain a much deeper understanding of the potential impact of issues to help drive excellent performance across all activities.

    Audit’s Role Moving Forward

    Streamlined audit processes mean PPC pros can add audit to their activities with greater frequency. If you currently only audit quarterly, semi-annually or annually – consider a monthly audit run to help uncover potential issues faster.

    Be sure to close out 2018 with a deep audit and analysis of your holistic PPC program. Give Policy & Audit Builder a try to see just how fast and effective it can be at mining for information beyond the KPIs. Then craft a plan for 2019 that better taps the power of audits and moves them from being a must-do hassle to an area of great opportunity to boost PPC’s effectiveness in what is sure to be an even more competitive year ahead.

    Check out Policy & Audit Builder with a free audit today. Or if you are not yet an Optmyzr customer, try our 14-day free trial.

     

     

     

     

    Building Better PPC Workflows in Optmyzr

    Optimizing your accounts with Optmyzr is pretty simple and straightforward. You get to work with performance analysis and optimization tools, reporting features and task automation, among others, while still maintaining complete control.

    We want you to make the most out of your experience with Optmyzr, and show you how you can reach your business goals through the use of our tools. And in the spirit of easing the process of getting started with your account, we’ve created a first-month checklist to guide you along all our tools and make sure you aren’t missing out on anything.

    This checklist works as a referential guideline for the first five weeks from when you link your Google Ads accounts to Optmyzr. It has different tasks for each week, starting off with recommendations that cover a more general and broad aspect of your account management, and which get more specific and advanced along the way.

    Week 0 & Week 1

    For the first two weeks, Week 0 and Week 1, you’ll be setting up alerts, analyzing your overall account and doing some simple optimizations. This will give you a great baseline for further account management. During Week 2 we’ll cover performance on networks, and by Week 3 and 4, you’ll be analyzing performance by location, optimizing ads and analyzing search queries for new keywords and negatives.

    In this checklist, the first week to be taken into consideration begins once you create your Optmyzr account, and link your existing Google Ads accounts to it. You’ll start off by setting performance alerts, to make sure you are always aware of how your money is being spent. This creates a great baseline for any further optimization, as any unwanted performance won’t go by unnoticed.

    During this initial phase, we recommend setting up automation to monitor account performance and landing pages for ads, as well as budget-related monitoring. These alerts and automations only need to be set up once, and will then on continue to work in the background.

    Week 2 & Week 3

    Moving forward, and for the upcoming week you’ll get recommendations for account analysis, and a few simple optimizations to begin with. Tools like the PPC Investigator will help you figure out how the key performance metrics on the account have changed and based on this data you can determine the optimizations you should do first.

    You can also use tools such as the Spend Projection to get insights on whether your budget is overspending or underspending, and you can then use that information through the Optimize Budgets optimizations to reallocate those budgets across campaigns.

    Week 4 & Week 5

    As the checklist moves forward, you’ll be getting recommendations that dive deeper into analyzing performances, such as by network and location. We’ll guide you along tools to optimize the search queries that drive traffic to campaigns, manage your keyword bids based on performance by the hour of the week, and set bid adjustments by device and location, among others.

    All throughout this checklist, you’ll also see some recommendations for prebuilt Account Workouts. The Account Workouts are a series of tasks that are put together to achieve a specific goal. They combine the different tools from Optmyzr in a logical order to create the right combination for optimizing your accounts.

    All in all, this 5-week checklist is a great way to get familiarized with practices you can follow with Optmyzr, and though the steps here are just our recommendations, we think it will be of great use for you and your team. If you would like a customized checklist for your team, feel free to write to support@optmyzr.com and we’ll be happy to help you.

    Are your AdWords ads losing money on bad landing pages?

    When it comes to functionality and performance of landing pages, some errors go beyond a non-working URL. Here are two common use cases that you should take care of.

    Ads leading to out-of-stock landing pages

    Ads leading to out of stock product pages or product not found pages can become a problem both for the user as well as for the advertiser. We know Google checks the landing page your ad leads to as part of the ad approval process, but it only checks if the URL leads to an active page. So when it comes to product availability, if your ad leads to an out of stock product, your ad won’t get disapproved and you won’t get notified. Ads that lead to out of stock pages result in a bad user experience and wasted spend. It can also affect Quality Score because users don’t spend enough time on the page which can be an indicator of how relevant they found the page.

    Quality Score is made up of three components: Expected Clickthrough Rate, Ad Relevance, and Landing Page Experience, this last one being a way of measuring just how well your website responds to what people searched for.

    Now imagine you are looking for a digital camera. You’ve been looking all over for that model, and you see an ad that shows the specific one you wanted and at a great price, but once you click on the ad, you reach a site that reads “product not available”.

    From the user’s point of view, this is a negative customer experience, and could affect the way the user views your site. From the advertiser’s point of view, it generates a wasted click and a poor landing experience that affects your overall score. When a user lands on a ‘product not available’ or ‘out of stock’ page, and because they couldn’t find what was offered in the ad, your landing page experience score will likely get affected.

    The main problem with this, and as mentioned before, is that the landing pages are still considered to be ‘functional’ by Google AdWords, therefore you won’t be notified this is happening. The clicks that land on such pages are wasted but manually checking the landing page for every ad is not a feasible option. To help automate this task, we built an enhanced script called Check Destination URLs, which automatically checks the landing pages an ad leads to.

    This enhanced script finds ads and keywords that lead to a 404 error, and can also check for text like ‘product not found’ or ‘out of stock’. The script generates a report with the URLs that generate this error and can also automatically pause corresponding ads and keywords. You can set it up to run for specific campaigns or for the whole account. The script has an advanced setting that lets you monitor specific text on a landing page. This helps you keep a better track of landing pages that are ‘functional’ but lead to ‘product not found’ pages. Read how this script works here.

    Underperforming Landing Pages

    Another great way of getting input on how the landing page for an ad is working, is by using the Landing Page Analysis tool. This tool gives you information on how landing pages are performing across the account and divides the results into three categories: High Performer, High Potential and Expensive.

    The High Performer category shows landing pages with high conversion rate and high CTR. These are landing pages that are performing well.

    The High Potential category shows landing pages with a high conversion rate, but a low CTR. This category shows you the landing pages where the keywords and ads that lead to them are not as relevant and can be improved. These landing pages are converting the clicks that they get quite well so directing more traffic to them is likely to result in more conversions. One way to do that is to make the keywords and ads more relevant to the landing page.

    Finally, in the Expensive category you’ll find landing pages with a low conversion rate and high CTR. This usually indicates that the keyword, ad and landing page are relevant to each other but users don’t convert at a high rate after coming to the landing page. This could happen if the conversion process on the landing page is complex or is not user friendly. In such cases, it is a good idea to analyze the page and make changes to it. Read more about how the Landing Page Analysis tool works here.

     

    Optmyzr Express: Finish top optimizations over your first cup of coffee

    As marketers, we all know that running successful PPC campaigns requires agility and speed when making crucial optimizations. You’ve likely noticed a new option within the Optmyzr PPC Management System – Optmyzr Express. This is our latest automated offering that suggests the most important optimization opportunities across your campaigns. We created Optmyzr Express to bring one-click simplicity to help PPC pros take immediate action on top opportunities for campaign optimizations.

    Available immediately to all users of the full Optmyzr PPC Campaign Management Suite, Optmyzr Express is designed to help simplify and automate the top up-to-the-minute opportunities. The user can simply click to accept an automated optimization suggestion or they can access an intuitive dashboard to customize or modify suggested changes from a single screen.

    The Express offering augments the full Optmyzr software system. Designed to allow you to crank out the top optimizations fast – perhaps over your first cup of coffee in the morning – Optmyzr Express will allow you to blast through those “quick-hit” opportunities right away. It allows you to then allocate more of your valuable time digging deep into advanced functionality within the suite to be more strategic overall.

    Think about those fast opportunities we all seek for rapid optimization: from pausing low performing ads or adding new keywords to quick fixes for Quality Score and high performing keywords and more. Optmyzr Express facilitates smart, on-the-go campaign adjustments and creates a workflow for continuous improvement.

    Initial user feedback has been excellent and has validated that Optmyzr Express is a real time-saver. It delivers fast insight, agility and power, which encourages more frequent optimizations. PPC pros have told us they want a workflow that helps them make immediate changes for the most pressing opportunities, while retaining the full suite functionality for deep dives into campaign performance improvement. Through client feedback, we also know that a workflow that appears similar to a high value to-do list across multiple accounts allows for greater efficiency for in-house and agency teams alike.

    Other key features:

    We have more information available in a news release we just posted to announce Optmyzr Express. You can also see a quick overview in our new YouTube video.

    Give Optmyzr Express a try and let us know your thoughts.

     

    Managing AdWords & Microsoft Ads? New functionality streamlines both

    Anyone who has worked with Optmyzr knows our innovative platform has greatly streamlined and automated Pay-Per-Click campaign management for Google AdWords. Many marketers who work with our innovative PPC Management Software have seen significant improvements in campaign performance and agency profitability.

    We now offer much of that same automation to support Bing Ads management for agency and in-house marketers alike. PPC pros can tap the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence to help make Bing Ads accounts more effective and profitable – much the same way they use Optmyzr for AdWords.

    Specific features rolled out for Bing Ad management include an intuitive UI that brings together key PPC management tools in one package:

  • Budget and KPI monitoring: Marketers have access to powerful visualizations and alerts to track and manage against key metrics, such as conversions, return on ad spend (ROAS) and cost per conversion.

  • Ability to find new keywords and create single keyword ad groups (SKAGS): Optmyzr’s intuitive Keyword Lasso tool allows One-Click Optimization™, which automates analysis of search terms and identifies higher performing search queries. Previously only available to support AdWords accounts, the Keyword Lasso now allows the same ability to identify optimal keywords and create new ad groups that support SKAG ad group structures.
  • New ad creation in A/B testing: Optmyzr now extends ad creation and A/B testing for Bing Ads management. Marketers benefit from automated suggestions for ad content based on what has worked in campaigns.
  • Hour-of-week performance optimization: A new Hour of Week Bidder for Bing gives PPC pros recommended hourly bid adjustments, based on conversion and cost goals as well as other variables. Ad schedules can be changed in bulk, giving marketers greater ability to turn off ads when they are not needed.

  • Search term N-grams for Bing: This tool allows marketers to gain quick insight into long-tail search behaviors, helping to minimize wasted spend and improve results by unearthing words (N-grams) that lead to wasted spend.
  • Landing page analysis: PPC pros can now benefit from aggregated performance data for landing pages across Bing campaigns. This helps understand which pages perform well and gives insight into improvements that can be made to landing pages that have low conversion rates.
  • Geo HeatMap analysis: Optmyzr now brings powerful visualizations of Bing Ads geo data via an interactive heatmap. Marketers can tap this information to analyze traffic and conversions based on location, allowing more strategic budget allocation right down to the city level.

    • The above mentioned features are available to try out in Optmyzr. Use this link to access tools for Bing Ads accounts.

    Our developers have enhanced marketers’ abilities to optimize Google AdWords campaigns over the last several years. Of course, Google still dominates the PPC landscape, but Bing has gained market share for six consecutive years. As a result, many marketers now manage similar campaigns across both platforms. Our objective is to help marketers improve efficiency and profitability of their overall PPC initiatives.

    Stay tuned for additional Bing-specific functionality as we move through 2018. We are working on additional ways marketers can extend instant optimizations and gain quick insights into their PPC programs.

    Optmyzr's Introduction to PPC

    We know that when you are used to traditional-media advertising, taking a step into the digital world can be an overwhelming task. We seem to take for granted that the basics of digital marketing are something everyone is familiar with. And though creating advertisements on a digital platform is becoming easier and more accessible by the day, there are still some who believe that an online advertisement for your 24-hour plumbing service is simply typing in what you want your ad to say.

    The art of Marketing relies on interactions. Whether it’s through a digital platform or a traditional channel, the basic principle remains the same: target the right audience, at the right time and in the right place, and offer a solution to a problem.

    Some people believe that traditional marketing platforms have better results, because they target the people they want to target, instead of having their advertisements “all over the web”, but the reality is that every day, the digital marketing world becomes more and more customizable to tailor your advertising needs to appear where, when, how and towards who you want it to.

    Before we can help you tailor your advertising needs, it is important to define what we mean when we talk about “Digital Marketing”. By using such a generalized term, we tend to put all the different types of digital marketing in just one concept. And though the term successfully englobes the idea of online marketing strategies, the type you choose should depend on the product or service you want to advertise, your business goals and the type of advertising you want to create.

    There are several subcategories of digital marketing, which include Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). Although we’ll focus on Pay-Per-Click (PPC), we want to point out a few differences between SEO and PPC (some of the most common).

    Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses on getting increased search engine traffic to the business’s website by ranking higher in Google search results. In this case, the most commonly searched for terms are included in the content on a webpage. PPC, on the other hand, refers to paid advertisements and promoted search engine results. The way it works is you choose the keywords for which you want your ads to show, you write a relevant ad for each group of related keywords, and you set bids based on the expected value of each click. You then only pay when your ad is clicked.

    While PPC has much more to it than just bidding on keywords and defining how much you are willing to pay for a click on your ad, the goal is to always get more traffic with more accuracy and less time invested. By analyzing your strategies and keeping track of the structures that work out best, you’ll be able to create effective campaigns across networks and devices.

    The main platforms used for PPC Marketing are Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Google Adwords runs on Google and its Search Partner sites and Display Network sites, while Bing Ads shows ads on the Bing and Yahoo networks.

    With traditional-media advertising, it doesn’t matter whether you get 1 or 100 clients through your ad, you will still pay the same price simply for putting it out there. It’s harder to track the results and reach out exclusively to specific audiences and it’s more expensive to analyze how to improve your ad and/or service.

    With digital advertising and PPC, not only are you choosing what keywords are essential to your service, but you can also filter the traffic or searches that don’t apply to you by using negative keywords. This way you can avoid any unqualified traffic, and being placed in the wrong search results.

    Later on, we’ll go more into how keywords and negative keywords work.

    One of the best things you’ll find with PPC is having the possibility to visualize, analyze and determine which of your ads reach a larger audience. You can get real-time insights into your account, and take actions to continue improving your strategy.

    So whether you are covering a common necessity with your handyman business, or if you have a target-specific vintage fashion store, PPC marketing strategies can help you get the most out of your advertising campaigns. In the end, it all comes back to the basics: knowing when and where!

    PPC marketing will help you create a great new advertising strategy for your service or product, and help you place your brand name on multiple platforms for a wide range of people, but most importantly, it will give you the control you need to invest your money in the right place.

    On the upcoming articles, I’ll describe in depth the steps needed to tailor your online advertising, from the available platforms and the differences between them to the structure and components of your campaigns. I’ll be explaining how and when to target a specific audience, which bidding strategy is generally used for different types of advertising campaigns, and what to take into consideration when creating a budget.

    6 Tools, Tips & Resources to Never Miss a New AdWords Feature Again

    Hands down, Google AdWords is one of the most complete advertising platforms available today. From the day it was released (October 23, 2000) to this day, the Google team has worked remarkably hard to offer the perfect experience to both the user and the advertiser.

    But nothing is perfect, is it?

    Despite the effectiveness of the tool and its superior ROI, many of us still struggle to unleash the real potential of AdWords PPC. One of the primary culprits is the lack of understanding about the different features and tools available.

    In 2016 alone, Google added 56 new features to AdWords. Add to this the fact that many updates are not publicly announced, and you’ll understand why so many advertisers find it tough to take full advantage of the platform.

    But what if I tell you there’s a way to never miss on a new AdWords feature again? A simple process to find even the most obscure features and beat your competition as a result?

    Well, that’s what this post contains.

    1. Use Feedly to track major publications

    It’s not a big secret that major publications—like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, or PPC Hero—tend to be the first on publishing the latest news in the industry. Some of the most influential people in the PPC field (including former Google employees) write for such websites, so it’s to be expected.

    If you want to be up-to-date with the newest AdWords features and trends, keeping a close eye on this kind of websites is not a bad idea.

    The thing is, top-tier sites produce a lot of content. Search Engine Land alone publishes between 4 and 5 new articles per day, excluding weekends. That’s 80 to 100 new articles per month, from just one site.

    Sure, you don’t have to read all those articles, right? You are only interested in AdWords related news. But assume you’re tracking three or four of these sites. In this case, you’d have to search through hundreds and hundreds of articles per month to find the true gems. It doesn’t matter how efficient you are, you wouldn’t keep up.

    Here’s where Feedly comes in handy. In short, this tool helps you do three things:

    • Track and organize websites
    • Filter content based on popularity
    • Discover sites in your industry

    This means that you can find all the news, updates, trends and guides from your favorite websites in one single place. And since you can sort content based on popularity and date of publication, this is an excellent way to separate the wheat from the chaff and focus on the topic that really matters to you: Google AdWords.

    How to use Feedly to find relevant AdWords news

    Setting up Feedly is simple, first add some sources to follow:

    Feedly

    In the search bar, enter the URL of the website you want to track. If you’d like to follow Search Engine Journal, for example, you’d enter “www.searchenginejournal.com.”

    feedly search

    If the website you’re searching for covers more than one topic—say social media, paid marketing, and SEO—Feedly will display each topic separately, as if they were completely different websites. Make sure to follow all the categories that you’re interested in. To do it, click the “Follow” button located at the right side of each category.

    feedly follow

    Since this is a new account and you have no collections, Feedly will ask you to create one. Collections are an excellent way to stay organized and never miss on the important news from the websites you’re following.

    Name your first collection accordingly and then click “Create.”

    feedly collection

    Note: To add more websites to any of your collections, just click the “Follow” button and select your desired collection.

    Now, in case you don’t know what sites to follow, some examples of publications that post relevant AdWords news are:

    • Search Engine Land
    • Search Engine Journal
    • PPC Hero
    • Entrepreneur (Google AdWords News & Topics Section)
    • Search Engine Watch
    • Huffington Post (Google AdWords Section)
    • Marketing Land
    • The Search Herald
    • The SEM Post

    To find even more sites, visit sem.alltop.com.

    2. Use ContentGems to discover hidden treasures

    So now you’re following the cream of the crop of PPC blogs, and I’m sure you’ll find some gold nuggets. However, sometimes you need to dig a little bit deeper to find the entire gold mine.

    The fact that you are tracking top-tier websites doesn’t guarantee you won’t miss out on a relevant AdWords story. Over 2 million blog posts are published every day, some of which could be of great value to your business. Without the right tool, you couldn’t possibly find them.

    That’s the reason I want to introduce you to ContentGems, a content discovery tool I recently invested in.

    ContentGems works similarly to Feedly, but instead of tracking websites, you track keywords, and the tool shows you the most popular content related to such keywords. This ensures you never miss an important story.

    How to use ContentGems

    First, start a free ContentGems account and set up a new interest to help you organize your keywords based on topics.

    content gems new interest

    One of the things I love most about this tool is that you can filter your results with three different keyword filters:

    • Should Contain ANY — results can contain any of the keywords you enter in this filter

    • Must NOT Contain ANY — results can’t contain any of the keywords you enter in this filter

    • Must Contain ALL — results must contain all of the keywords you enter in this filter

    These filters will help ContentGems find the most accurate results for your search query. Take a look at this screenshot:

    contentgems

    In “Must contain” filter, I added the keyword “AdWords” because I’m only interested in content that’s directly related to AdWords marketing.

    Also, at this moment, I don’t want to find anything related to Bing advertising, so I added the word “Bing” in the negative keywords filter.

    Finally, in the “Should Contain” filter, I added six keywords that will give ContentGems a hint of the kind of content I’m looking for: “PPC”, “Features”, “Feature”,“News”, “New,” and “Search Engine Marketing.”

    Now, if you will, you can use the same keywords I used for this example, but I recommend that you play with the tool and experiment.

    Once you have filled each keyword filter, click “Create Interest,” and voila!… you’ve created an automated engine to discover AdWords news on demand. Now, ContentGems will process your query and will show you a bunch of articles that match your selected keywords:

    contentgems results

    3. Read these 4 Google official resource pages

    You may think this tip is obvious or simple, but it’s staggering how many of us overlook the marvelous information Google itself provides through its different resource pages and blogs, yet these are some of the few places online where you can find accurate, to-the-point, and up-to-date information about AdWords.

    Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced PPC advertiser, these four pages will put you on the right path to a more profitable AdWords campaign:

    1. AdWords Help (New AdWords Features Section)—in this page, you’ll find a timeline of all the new features added to AdWords in the last 12 months. You can also learn about upcoming updates and tools. It’s the fastest way to keep up with what’s new on the platform.

    2. AdWords API Blog—whether you want to increase the efficiency of your large campaigns or just integrate AdWords with other apps, this blog will unveil some of the “top secret” AdWords features and help you get the results that you want.

    3. AdWords Scripts Blog—practically speaking, this blog will show you how to automate AdWords; make tedious tasks simpler and quicker, which is super helpful if you manage many AdWords campaigns. They also have a “What’s New” section where you can find new scripts and tools.

    4. Inside AdWords—this is Google’s official blog for news, tips, and information on AdWords. It’s a must-read for anyone trying to take their AdWords skills to the next level.

    4. Embrace curiosity

    If you can adopt only one quality from any of the greatest marketers and entrepreneurs of all time — Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Seth Godin, or Mary Kay Ash, to name a few — it should be curiosity. But, sadly, most advertisers seem to be afraid of experimenting and trying out new things.

    The truth is until you embrace curiosity and start questioning stuff and exploring, you’ll never get ahead. That’s a fact in business, life, and AdWords PPC.

    You might be surprised by the number of features you probably have never used in any of your campaigns. Did you know that you can distribute video ads to blogs? Have you ever used the Display Ad Builder to design your ad creatives? How many ad-extensions have you tried? Have you ever checked your competition through the Auction Insights Report? There are so many things you can do to improve your ROI.

    Marketing writer Tania Hoque put it well on Brilliant AdWords Features You Didn’t Know Existed._ She adds, “In a bid to catch the #1 spot on Google, many advertisers are missing the brilliant AdWords features that provide incredible opportunities to target potential customers.”

    The bottom line? Explore the AdWords platform. Try to pinpoint features you haven’t yet used. Look for tools you may have overlooked in the past, and most importantly, don’t be afraid of experimenting with them.

    5. Attend #PPCchat Every Tuesday

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see inside the mind of some of the smartest people in the industry and “steal” their secrets?

    Well, that’s exactly what #PPCchat is all about. Every Tuesday at 9:00am PST, leaders and industry insiders meet on Twitter to discuss news and trends on PPC marketing. This is a unique opportunity to get your questions answered by people with tons of experience in the field.

    So next Tuesday, grab a pen and a notebook and get ready to learn from some of the world’s best.

    In the meantime, you can read guides and archives from previous chats here.

    6. Make friends with Optmyzr

    At Optmyzr, we’re advocates of all things PPC, and we want to see your results improve. That’s the reason we continually update our channels with some of the most relevant news, articles, guides, and videos in the industry.

    If you’re in a rush or simply want a quick and easy way to improve your advertising skills, this is a good place to start:

    • Follow us on Twitter (@Optmyzr) — we’re looking forward to having a good conversation. Whether you have a specific question or just want to say hello, Twitter is a great way to connect with us.

    • Read our Blog—every month, we publish new tutorials, guides or scripts to help you get the most out of your AdWords campaigns. So to make sure you never miss our content, I recommend that you subscribe to our blog.

    • Watch our videos— If you’re more into videos, our YouTube channel is full of interviews with industry insiders, advanced webinars, and detailed tutorials on everything PPC, AdWords, and Search Engine Marketing.

    • Check out the news we’re reading—we’ve put together a page to share all the news and trends we’re currently reading. Take a look through them and see what content we think is worth sharing.

    Over to You

    Did I leave out any of your own tricks to find secret AdWords features? If so, make sure to drop them in the comments.

    Geniads’ tips for better PPC ad performance

    I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the team at Geniads, a Premier Google Partner and an Optmyzr customer, to talk about how they built a successful PPC agency with many happy clients.

    They are a team of seven PPC geeks, headquartered in Denmark, and dedicated primarily to managing AdWords for 50 clients. I spoke with Ebbe Kjær Skau and Simon Raun Madsen who’ve both been doing PPC for three years.

    What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.

    Fred: Tell me a bit about what makes Geniads special.
    Geniads: We are 100% specialized in AdWords, and only touch on other PPC and marketing areas to understand AdWords in a broader context, to use its full potential. We’ve also really focused on being transparent and honest, something that is important because many advertisers have been burned by shady agencies in the past. Sometimes we take over an account from another agency, and we see that there have been no changes in the last six months!

    Fred: How do you grow your agency when you’re in a relatively small market, Denmark having a population of only about 5.7 million people.
    Geniads: We have employees from several countries, and like many Danish people, they are multilingual so we can write ads in Swedish, Norwegian, German, Danish, English, and French. That gives us a considerably larger market to address.

    Fred: How do you scale your agency?
    Geniads: We have clients from a wide variety of verticals so we can’t do cookie cutter account management. The way we scale is by being 100% focused on AdWords and by streamlining our operations by using tools like Optmyzr. We also spend a lot of time staying up-to-date on the industry so that we can advise our clients on interesting new opportunities within AdWords. When they are successful, they tell others, and that’s how we grow.

    Fred: What interesting trends do you see in PPC?
    Geniads: We’re very focused on ROPO (research online, purchase offline). According to Google, 80% of offline buyers research online before buying. For one client we were able to get store visit data from Google (which wasn’t obvious given the small size of the Danish market), and that helped us optimize that campaign by going beyond simple ROAS (return on ad spend). We increased the overall revenue of the company significantly by having more accurate data. For example, a general keyword like ‘sofa’ had a ROAS around 200% but when we added store data, that jumped to 2000%! So we were able to drive a lot more conversions on that keyword by investing more in it, something we wouldn’t have done if we thought the ROAS was only 200%.

    Despite all these offline purchases we see with ROPO, we also see a lot of growth in online purchases driven by Google Shopping Ads which have grown every year for us. Optmyzr’s been very effective to help us build our shopping ad groups in a way that we can granularly control bids and add negative keywords at the SKU level. We do this by using the tool to automate creating ad groups for every product in the feed.

    Another trend is the growing importance of demographic data and sharing it between channels like social and search. For example, we provide our clients with demographic data from AdWords which they then give to their Facebook reps to help with those campaigns. For us, the Holy Grail is to have a perfect push-pull system where social and search work together to deliver more conversions.

    Fred: Is there data from outside AdWords you leverage to make AdWords perform better?
    Geniads: We use sales data from Google Analytics, and Webmaster data from Google to identify new high volume keywords or high volume keywords that have too low a CTR in AdWords.

    Fred: How do you save time with Optmyzr
    Geniads: We used to spend five days per month on reports. Now even though we doubled our clients, we do all reports in one day. Even though reports are mostly automated, we still look at them because they provide valuable insights that can be applied to improve performance further. Time saved on reporting can then be spent doing more optimizations.

    Fred: How did you find Optmyzr?
    Geniads: We tested a few vendors like TenScores and Acquisio and found Optmyzr could cover more of the work we needed to do. In the two years we’ve been working with Optmyzr, the team has been great at implementing some of the new capabilities we’ve requested.

    Fred: What is your favorite tool in Optmyzr?
    Geniads: The difference between AW and Optmyzr is that Optmyzr lets you look back historically much better, and makes it easy to act on the insights you find. For example, in the Hour-of-week bid adjustment tool we use customizable time slots to find and implement dayparting bid adjustments. Doing the same in AdWords would consume far more time.

    We also like the Shopping Campaign Builder to split our shopping campaigns, and with our big e-commerce clients, we’ve been able to create different ad groups for every SKU, so we can bid and add negative keywords on product-level.

    With bidding, we like to make geo and device bid adjustments, and that is much easier in Optmyzr.

    [Geniads office](https://www.optmyzr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Geniads-office.png)
    The Geniads office in Lystrup, Denmark

    Fred: Do you think you’ll go beyond AdWords management soon?
    Geniads: We believe that we can get more people to search for our ads by doing more on Facebook. The whole push-pull effect. In that way, FB and AW can be great companions. Bing is pretty small in the Nordic countries, so Bing Ads is less important for us.

    Fred: What’s your favorite trick in AdWords?
    Geniads: We think there is a lot of potential around ROPO. Even without store visit data, you can still get data in AdWords about proximity. We see that the closer the user is to the business, the higher the conversion rate. It’s surprisingly easy to get this data when you have a Google My Business Account.

    In Shopping Campaigns there isn’t enough focus on negative keywords and too much focus on bidding. Although automated bid management is important, your impression share is likely to decrease dramatically if you keep reducing the bids due to poor performance. Rather than just having scripts that decrease the bid for products with a high CPA or low ROAS, you should also take a look at the queries on product-level and add negative keywords. Hence, your products will still trigger impressions on highly specific and relevant queries, so you can continue to capture conversions.

    Demographic data in search has allowed us to tweak the message based on the age of the user and that’s driven some impressive results for our clients. We can see which combinations of age and gender underperform and fix those. We’ve just put the age in the ad text, and that seems to appeal to users, e.g. “Are you 18 to 24 and looking for x?”.

    We use countdowns in ad customizers to simplify account structure and to make sure that when the ad changes, we still keep the historical data.

    Fred: Thanks so much for sharing some of your tips for managing AdWords and growing an agency! If any other Optmyzr users want to share their tips on our blog, let us know!

    9 Costly Google AdWords Mistakes to Avoid

    This is a guest post written by Phil Frost, Founder and COO of Main Street ROI. Phil will be presenting a webinar, “How to Improve Adwords Profits With Proper Conversion Tracking” on October, 5th at 12:00PM EST. Click here to register.

    Google AdWords is the sports car of online marketing. It’s fast, intuitive and draws a lot of attention. When firing on all cylinders, there’s really nothing like it.

    Neglect or disrespect it, though, and your campaigns can quickly lose traction.

    A number of issues can stall your AdWords efforts. Some issues are easily fixable, while others require a closer look under the hood. Here we’ll review nine common problems that keep advertisers’ campaigns out of the fast lane.

    Mistake #1: Targeting both networks at once

    AdWords is powered by Google’s massive search and display networks, connecting businesses with endless scores of potential customers. The Search Network includes Google.com and partners such as Ask.com and AOL.com. The Display Network encompasses websites such as YouTube, Gmail and Blogger as well as millions of other websites, blogs, and apps.

    Unfortunately, AdWords urges advertisers to run their campaigns on both networks. This is problematic because Web users on each network behave entirely different. People on the Search Network are usually shopping or doing research, while folks on the Display Network are often just surfing the Web. Different approaches are required to market toward each group.

    Don’t follow Google’s advice here. Instead, create separate campaigns for each network. You’ll see the payoff when optimizing for better results.

    Mistake #2: Using the wrong keyword settings

    Are you getting tons of clicks but few conversions? Or is your campaign getting a high volume of impressions with very low CTRs? If so, check to make sure you’re not using broad-match keywords.

    Broad-match keywords are undesirable because they’re far less likely to send relevant traffic to your website. Even if those uninterested users don’t click on your ad, you could still end up paying if low CTRs drag down your quality scores. You’ll get less traffic from phrase- and exact-match keywords, but you’ll also get better CTRs and landing page conversions, and your quality scores won’t suffer.

    Mistake #3: Ignoring negative keywords

    Negative keywords can stop your ads from being shown to completely irrelevant users, boosting your CTRs and conversions. However, many advertisers completely overlook them. Always, always, always set negative keywords when building your campaigns.

    An example of a negative keyword: If you owned a barber shop, then you’d want to set variations of “dog,” “cat” and “pet” as negative keywords. Otherwise, you’ll be inundated with traffic from people seeking haircuts for their four-legged friends.

    Mistake #4: Not using AdWords Conversion Tracking

    AdWords Conversion Tracking helps you understand what happens after Web users click on your ads. Do they respond to your landing page by calling your business, downloading apps or making online purchases? Do they click around your site or bounce without taking any meaningful actions? This information is absolutely essential when optimizing for better performance.

    Installing AdWords Conversion Tracking is fairly simple, though you might need help from a Web developer. You need to add a snippet of code to your website and/or mobile app. You can also use a Google forwarding number to track phone calls resulting from website visits.

    Mistake #5: Not linking your AdWords account to Google Analytics

    Google Analytics provides you with data you can’t get within AdWords alone. With Google Analytics, you can run various reports to get detailed information about your campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords and traffic sources. It’s free and easy to set up, although you’ll need to install code throughout your website.

    Mistake #6: No separation of mobile and desktop traffic

    More people view the Internet now using smartphones and tablets than desktop PCs. And while online shoppers share similar motivations, key differences in the mobile and desktop experiences mean people behave differently when using their smartphones. For advertisers, that means remembering that campaigns optimized for desktop users probably won’t appeal as much to smartphone users, and vice versa.

    The easy mistake here is setting up your campaigns to run across all devices. Instead, create separate campaigns for mobile and desktop users. Also, make sure your mobile campaigns are using responsive landing pages that display properly in smartphone Web browsers. Don’t even think about campaigns for mobile traffic if your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewing.

    Mistake #7: Ads lack important keywords

    Writing compelling ad copy is anything but an exact science. However, an easy way to attract eyeballs is to include your best keyword terms in your ads. People are more likely to click your ad if it literally contains what they’re looking for.

    As your campaigns pick up steam, you’ll eventually learn which of your keywords drive the most high-quality traffic to your ads and landing pages. Use this information to build new ads and ad groups around your top-performing keywords.

    Mistake #8: Incongruent landing pages

    Does your landing page deliver on the promises you make in your ad copy? If not, there’s a good chance people are bouncing as soon as they hit your landing page.

    Make sure that whatever you claim in your ad copy is clearly represented on your landing page. If your ad offers free shipping, then your landing page should have information about your free shipping policy.

    When advertising a sale, your landing page should prominently feature the sale event or items. Nothing sinks conversions faster than incongruent landing pages. And you definitely don’t want to draw complaints about using bait-and-switch tactics.

    Mistake #9: Refusal to seek help

    Anyone is capable of cultivating AdWords campaigns that help their bottom lines. However, it’s common for marketers and business owners to plateau or experience diminishing returns. Sometimes, seeking help from a knowledgeable third party is the key to further progress.

    That said, don’t be too quick to hand over the keys to your AdWords account. The more you learn about AdWords, the more you’ll know whether your account is in good hands with a third-party professional.

    Conclusion

    Google AdWords is as powerful a vehicle as you’ll find in online marketing, but you won’t get far without knowing which features can help your campaigns. It’s easy to get in the driver’s seat and launch a few campaigns, but there aren’t any shortcuts to long-term success.

    Fortunately, using AdWords is much less risky than driving a high-powered sports car. You just need to know the rules of the road.

    Want more tips to improve your AdWords performance? Click here to get your free copy of our Ultimate Google AdWords Checklist.

    Optmyzr PPC Forecast 2016: PPC Trends to Watch For

    As a new year starts, PPC industry experts predict the trends that shouldn’t be ignored in 2016. We’ve collected the most mentioned predictions according to what different experts believe will be the biggest trends in PPC for 2016 in pieces written by Momentology and Acquisio.

    From all the insights, one trend was clear: 2016 should be more about targeting consumers than targeting keywords. New technologies (like machine learning or artificial intelligence) are helping us understand the customer journey better. This will help us improve the way we communicate with customers, allowing us to focus better on the target audience by creating custom targeted campaigns. By creating a customized experience, we can deliver the right ad, with the right product at the right time.

    We’ve ranked the top predictions, and summed up some key areas that you should focus on, while preparing your PPC 2016 marketing strategy.

    Trend 1: Customers first

    As voted by Laura Collins, Zvika Goldstein, John Gagnon, Daniel Gilbert, Larry Kim, Zach Schroll, Katy Tonkin, Frederick Vallaeys, Justin Fried, Melissa Mackey, Christi Olson

  • Developing campaigns based on the insights you get from different first party data sources (like CRM databases) or tools (like Google’s Customer Match or RLSA) will allow you to create and better target your custom user audiences, improving the user experience.
  • Audience segmentation based on information like demographics or interests will help you deliver customized messages that will target the right audiences across all marketing channels. Leverage data (from social demographic data to search history) more strategically, to create high-value target audiences and customize messaging.

    • Trend 2: Personalized customer journey experience

    As voted by Jennifer Johnstone, Christi Olson, Diane Pease, Lisa Raehsler, Justin Fried, Daniel Morris

  • You should maximize your efforts on gathering insights to better understand the customer journey. It is not all about sales and leads, but also about the user’s micro-conversions and how these will lead up to a conversion. Instead of promoting your brand, give your customers a solution or an answer to their query. Mold your campaigns to provide a response towards what the individual is looking for.
  • It’s important to consider the overall customer journey experience. Learning from the journey will also help you understand how the user moves across multiple sessions and devices, online and offline activity, the links between these connections, and how you can benefit from them to improve your cross-device conversions. Focus on delivering targeted campaigns that are relevant to users.

    • Trend 3: Go mobile-friendly

    As voted by Tim Ash, Zvika Goldstein, Pauline Jakober, Larry Kim, David Szetela, Katy Tonkin, Brad Geddes

  • As the number of mobile phone users keeps increasing, your strategy should prioritize the mobile experience first. Don’t think about mobile optimized ads only, but also how to create a mobile experience (a mobile landing page, not a lite version of your desktop site). The customer experience should work across channels and platforms.
  • Mobile-friendly sites should always consider a structure that can help you maximize calls and leads. A mobile structure and strategy often requires different calls to action.

    • Trend 4: Custom automation

    As voted by Daniel Gilbert, Zvika Goldstein, Andrew Goodman, Brad Geddes

  • Automation tools can help you maximize resources, especially when the amount and complexity of your portfolios keeps on increasing (given the amount of data and different target audiences you want to approach).
  • Focusing on a hybrid approach (automation tools used along with a manager’s analysis and strategy) rather than relying only on third-party management technology, will help you decide when it’s appropriate to use different tools. This approach can help you accomplish more robust results depending on the complexity of your audience, and your marketing goals.

    • Trend 5: New technologies

    As voted for Bryan Eisenberg, John Gagnon, Mona Elesseily, Purna Virji, Brad Geddes, Bryan Minor

  • Technology can help you produce fresh and relevant insights at a level that no humans can do, specially when analyzing high volumes of data. Use new technologies (like machine learning or artificial intelligence) to improve your ads performance, landing page, and to funnel your communications.
  • Advertisers should also consider voice search as a trend, based on the growth of digital personal assistants. The increase in voice search queries could affect how advertisers approach mobile PPC.

    • Trend 6: Focus on social and video

    As voted by Katy Tonkin, Frederick Vallaeys, Pauline Jakober, Melissa Mackey, Zach Schroll, Lisa Raehsler, David Szetela

  • As consumer behavior shifts, brands must look for additional channels (like social media) to stay relevant. The arrival of custom audiences on Facebook and Twitter will allow advertisers to communicate with consumers and prospects across multiple online touchpoints. As social and display advertising is already outpacing search ads in audience targeting functionality and usability, you should consider them in your budget.
  • Google migrated TrueView ads to the AdWords interface, making video campaigns and budget management easier, so video ads could be the next major ad format to show on search results pages. Also, Google will likely introduce new ways to place ads alongside or inside videos, that will provide better targeting and improve conversion rates. Keeping this in mind, as a marketer, you should consider expanding your efforts towards video ads.

    •  

    Conclusion

    So here are the 5 key takeaways from what the PPC experts predict for 2016:

    Introducing Account Health Cues and Ask Optmyzr

    Figuring out whether an AdWords account is healthy or not can be a very time-consuming task, especially when managing multiple accounts. In the past, we added red and green arrows to show the directionality of key metrics to our MCC dashboard.

    Optmyzr’s MCC dashboard shows changes in account performance using red and green arrows.

    However, we found that this still didn’t help us quickly identify accounts that were in trouble because accounts with lots of green arrows could still be underperforming. So one of our engineers, Manu, got to work on figuring out how to roll up all the data into a single indicator of account health. Today we’re starting a whitelist preview of what we came up with: Account Cues.

    Each account gets a color coded dot that indicates how the account is performing for its key metrics when comparing a recent period to the last 6 months of data:

    Account Cues use a single color-coded dot to indicate whether an account is meeting or missing its main goals.

    By clicking on the dot, you can see more data about the metrics that Cues is evaluating:

    Account Cues analyzes the most important metrics for each account’s main goal.

    There are five types of cues available for every account and they are based on the main goal which can be sales (conversions), leads (converted clicks), traffic (clicks), branding (impressions), or meeting a target for one metric of your choice.

    For a goal like leads, we automatically analyze three related metrics: converted clicks, converted click rate, and cost per converted click. If any of these deviate more than 10% from the expected values based on six months of historical data, the account will be flagged with a red dot to draw attention to it.

    Once you see that an account is not performing well, the next step is to investigate why. This can also be quite time-consuming so we tried to simplify this too with a new Data Insight called “Ask Optmyzr”. When you start with this tool you can ask a question about why key metric is either up or down for a certain date range:

    Then we pull several reports in the background and present the results in an easy-to-read manner like with a cause tree:

    Quickly identify the main reasons why certain AdWords metrics are changing.

    The concept of this tool is that every metric depends on other underlying metrics and rather than randomly hunting in your account for things that are different we show potential causality. For example, if clicks are down like in the example above, we highlight that fact in red and show the underlying related metrics: impressions and CTR. In this case, CTR is not an issue (it’s green), so we look further down the tree to see that impressions are down because IS lost due to budget has increased dramatically. From this visualization, we can quickly determine that raising the budget and taking a look at the conversion rate of the landing pages should help restore conversions to this account.

    We provide additional aggregated reporting for campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and queries to help you find the specific elements with the biggest change in the account. Finally, we combine all this data with segments like devices and networks to help you discover if any of these are contributing to the problem.

    We’re excited to launch Account Health Cues and Ask Optmyzr in whitelist beta today and we can’t wait to hear your feedback about how we can improve this to make your lives easier when managing PPC accounts. If you want to try it out, just drop us a line through the support links.

    Make Better PPC Decisions With Analytics Data

    I recently hosted a Hangout On Air for Google Partners and wrote a post on Search Engine Land about how you can get better results in AdWords by using data from Analytics. In AdWords, you are usually limited to seeing only data about how many clicks turn into conversions and at what CPA. By adding Analytics data to the mix, it’s possible to gain insights into WHY some clicks turn into customers and others don’t. You can also use Google Analytics to do attribution modeling to better understand how PPC ads contribute to the success you may be seeing in other channels.

    Read the complete article about using Analytics and AdWords together on SearchEngineLand.com or watch the video from the session I hosted for Google Partners.

    Back to Basics: Naming Conventions for AdWords PPC

    Naming convention for campaigns and ad groups

    When creating a new AdWords account, we jump right into creating campaigns and ad groups, adding keywords, and writing ads. We don’t really put thought into the name we give campaigns and ad groups. What is in a name? Well, a lot. The way you name campaigns and ad groups doesn’t affect account performance but following a naming convention will definitely prevent your account from becoming a management nightmare.

    How to name campaigns and ad groups

    The campaigns in an AdWords account are usually the major product categories on the site. Name your campaigns after the name of the category and if a category has more than one campaign then use \[category name\] – \[number or names of sub-categories\]. For example, a shopping site that has categories like Men, Women and Kids can have campaign names like Men – Clothes, Men – Shoes etc. Similarly to name ad groups, append the sub-category name with the keyword theme. See example below:

    image

    For seasonal or holiday campaigns, that need to be created every year mention the year or date in the name. You won’t have to find a new name every time and will know which campaign ran when.

    Why follow a naming convention?

    1. Easy account analysis and management

    By just looking at the campaign and ad group name you know the keywords that are inside and if the categories on your site have good coverage.

    2. Performance analysis

    Campaign and ad group level statistics can help you analyze the performance of a category or sub-category of products. You don’t need to go to the keyword level. It makes it very easy to see which products are profitable and which aren’t.

    3. Quick transition

    If the management of your AdWords account changes hands, it is easy to transition. The new person taking over the account knows exactly what it contains and doesn’t have to spend time understanding the account structure.

    Next time you’re naming a campaign, follow a convention and make your life easy!

    Back to Basics: Theming Keywords in Ad Groups

    The relevance of a keyword to an ad text impacts the clickthrough rate (CTR) and indirectly the Quality Score. The ideal structure would be to have one keyword and one ad text per ad group as this would help achieve almost 100% relevance. However, this is not a feasible structure as it will result in an unmanageable number of ad groups. This is where theming of keywords comes in.

    Theming is essentially grouping together similar keywords in an ad group. It is a good idea to be granular when theming keywords. This improves the chances of a keyword being relevant to the ad text.

    How to theme keywords

    Theming can be subjective and depends on how granular you want to go. After you get a list of keywords, identify broad themes, and then look for sub-themes within that. You can create separate ad groups for sub-themes as well. You can also use the ad group suggestions the AdWords keyword tool offers. However, you’ll still need to go through these ad groups to weed out irrelevant keywords and maybe split them out further to theme them better.

    In the example below, all the keywords belong to the same broad theme – footwear. However, if you look closely, there are three sub-themes – Heels, Dress Shoes and Sneakers. In this case we’ll create a separate ad group for each sub-theme.

    image

    The best way to determine which keywords to put in an ad group is to see the number of words that are common in a set of keywords and whether they logically fall under the same theme. In the above example, if you only go by the matching similar words in keywords, colors like black and red emerge as themes. However, grouping keywords based on the type of shoes is more logical than grouping them based on color.

    Why theming is important

    1. Good Quality Score

    Well-themed ad groups make it possible to write ad text that will be relevant to all keywords in an ad group. Keyword to ad text relevance directly impacts clickthrough rate (CTR) which affects Quality Score. A high CTR is a good way to improve Quality Score.

    2. Performance comparison

    Well themed keywords make it is easy to compare performance across product categories. For example, if you put keywords for skirts and shoes in the same ad group then the only way you can compare the performance of the category skirts with shoes is at the keyword level. This can be quite tedious. If you follow a logical theming scheme, keywords for skirts and shoes will be in their individual ad groups and you can just compare performance at the ad group level. This same comparison can go up to the campaign level.

    3. Easy to expand

    When you have to add new keywords you know exactly which ad group to put them in because you built the foundation right.

    4. Ad group bids

    It is easier to set accurate ad group level bids because similar keywords usually have the same bid requirement.

    5. Specific ad text

    If all the keywords in an ad group belong to the same theme, it is easy to write relevant and specific ad text. This is because the USPs and descriptions will be the same. For example, in an ad group that has only keywords related to black heels, you can easily use a text like ‘Dress up your feet in stunning black heels’. It is relevant and specific to the product and one line does the trick for all keywords. However, if you had keywords for dresses in the same ad group, you would have to use something broader like – ‘Great collection of shoes & dresses.’ Which one would you click on as a user if you were searching for black heels?

    Back to Basics: How to Structure a PPC Account in Google AdWords

    Account structure is essentially how you organize your ads and keywords in your AdWords account. Keywords and ads are the working elements in your account as keywords are what users search on and ads are what they see. Think of campaigns and ad groups like boxes that hold keywords and ads. The question is what goes into which box.

    Creating campaigns and ad groups

    AdWords has a three-layer design: Campaigns → Ad groups → Keywords + Ads

    image

    The first step is deciding how many campaigns you want to have. A good way to build an AdWords account is to mirror the website structure. For example, take an online clothes store that has the categories – Men, Women, Kids with sub-categories like shoes and clothes under them. In this case, a good account structure would be to have three separate campaigns for the categories – Men, Women, Kids and ad groups for the sub-categories.

    Apart from creating separate campaigns at the category level, there are a few more instances when creating separate campaigns is required. In AdWords, some settings can be changed only at the campaign level so when you need more control over these settings, create separate campaigns. I’ve mentioned some instances when you’ll need to create separate campaigns below:

    • Budget: You can only set budgets (how much money you want to spend) at the campaign level. To control budgets for different product categories, sub-categories or networks (search, display) it is a good idea to create separate campaigns.

    • Location: The geographical locations you can target are also set at the campaign level. To implement different strategies for different locations, create separate campaigns. For example, you may want to have a locally targeted campaign and a nationally targeting campaign or, you may want to group together certain regions. This also gives the flexibility to allocate budgets based on location.

    • Too many ad groups: If the number of ad groups in a campaign is going above a manageable number (say 100 – 200) consider creating a separate campaign. There is absolutely no harm in creating extra campaigns to make account management easier.

    Earlier it made sense to create separate campaigns for different devices (desktops, mobiles, tablets) but with enhanced campaigns this practice has become redundant.

    How many ad groups to create in a campaign

    Technically you can have 20,000 ad groups in a campaign but as the number of ad groups increases, account management becomes difficult. The number of ad groups will depend on how granular you want your account structure to be and the categories you want to cover under the campaign. I personally prefer not to have more than 100 ad groups in a campaign.

    How many keywords to put in an ad group

    Limiting the number of keywords to 10 -15 is a good practice because beyond that number the theme of the ad group goes for a toss. Theming essentially means keeping the same type of keywords together in one ad group. Theming can be subjective and depends on how granular you want to go. In the example below, all the keywords belong to the same broad theme – footwear. However, if you look closely, there are three sub-themes – Heels, Dress Shoes and Sneakers. In this case we’ll create a separate ad group for each sub-theme. We’ll discuss the importance of theming in another post.

    image

    How many ads to create per ad group

    Try out at least 2-3 different ad variations per ad group to see which one works best for you. Highlight different USPs and features in each ad. After the ads have run for a while, you can pause the lowest performing ads.

    Why it’s important to have a good account structure

    • Easy to manage and optimize: In my experience so far, I’ve seen accounts of almost all shapes and sizes. The badly structured ones take double the time to analyze, are difficult to optimize and challenging to manage. Structuring an account in a logical manner (preferably mirroring the website) makes it very easy to manage. Even if you’re starting small, with just a few ad groups, it is good to create a good base structure as it is the foundation. After that, you can just keep building on top.

    • You can’t fix it later: Once ads start running, restructuring the account is difficult as moving keywords around impacts their performance and you lose historical data.

    • Easy to transition: If you need to transition your AdWords account management to another person, it is much easier and faster.

    In the next post we’ll discuss theming of keywords and why it is important!