don't start a bidding war: outmaneuver your ppc competitors
TRANSCRIPT
Don't Start a Bidding War: Outmanoeuvre your Competitors with Auction Insights
Rod RichmondDirector | C lean Dig i ta l | @rodppc
@rodppc
“You should learn from your competitor but
never copy. Copy and you die.”
Jack Ma
@rodppc
CHAPTER 1 OF 4ENTER THE COMPETITOR
No problem with website?!
Quality score looks solid?!
No other external factors?
You do some sample searches and…
Who are
GolfersParadise.com???
Generics…
Shopping
Brand
KNEEJERK REACTION
Target their brand terms?
95% of the time this is a lazy solution
It CAN work occasionally…
1. When You’re Clever
Can work, but not be lazy!
2:“website agnostic”
3:“low product brand
loyalty”
Overall Not Recommended
Because:
“Searchers Don’t Change Their Mind
Easily”
125 respondents
US & UK
All Ages
63.2% (79/125) respondents:
would not click an ad for a website they have never heard of before
62.4% (78/125) of respondents said:
“It's confusing when a company shows a paid ad when you have
searched for a competitor instead”
Fine. Let’s get aggressive on bids instead…?
golfersparadise.com
Without Copying, We Need To Monitor and Out Think Them
Starting with this little button…
CHAPTER 2 OF 4AUCTION INSIGHTS
START WITH AUCTION INSIGHTS
Released in May 2012
Just keyword level originally
We had Impression Share before that
Better the structure and tighter the themes, the better the data
SKAG (Single Keyword Adgroup)
METRICSImpression Share
METRICSAverage Position (Search Only)
METRICSOverlap Rate
Position Above Rate
Top of Page Rate
Even more important since March 2016
Outranking ShareLow =
We’re almost never outranking them
To Summarise:
EdinburghGolf.comV
GolfersParadise.com
The Inverse of Average Positionx
Impression Share=
Competitor Activity Score
A High Score:
(11-2.0) = 9x
86%=
7.74
A Low Score:
(11-7.0) = 4x
42%=
1.68
Bonus Formula Time!!
Shopping Auction Insights
EXCEL TIME!
HISTORICAL TRACKING - MANUAL
Manually by exporting with segments
Just impression share %
Relatively consistent
Off Sundays
Thursday and Friday Push
Definitely Managed
Very inconsistent
When active = aggressive
Brand new or unmanaged
SEGMENT BY DEVICE
GolfersParadise.com – Top Of Page Rate
COMBINE SEGMENTSCompetitor Activity Score as Main Metric:
REMEMBERMissing Key Metrics
No Display Network data
Not all impressions used in report
On average 27% available impressions used for Auction Insights
report.
CHAPTER 3 OF 4MONITOR OTHER CHANNELS
Bing Network (Bing, Yahoo, AOL)UK: 23.25%, US: 31.3% market
share
Same Metrics as AdWords
Can do Manually but time consuming
i.e. 30 day reports, or Mobile v Desktop only campaigns.
No Auto Device/Time Segmentation Though
Crossover with AdWords competitors?
On average 2.83 AdWords competitors also show on Bing (24%)
23 competitors in an average auction insights report
12 competitors in an average auction insights report
Snoop on their Interest Targeting & Creative
“Why Am I Seeing This Ad?”
GP
GP
Ad Espresso Ads Gallery
Ad Espresso Ads Gallery
General Research
Auction Insights much more accurate
Can Compete Can’t CompeteNext Day Delivery
(Free)
Our Seller Ratings are better (4.9)
We Can do 30% off Nike Clothing
12 Free Balls With Every Order over £50
Mobile price extensions
Loyalty Scheme
21,000+ Products
PGA Pro In Every Store
“What are the most important factors to you when clicking on a PPC ad?”
“What are the most important factors to you when clicking on a PPC ad?”
37% said PRICE was the #1 factor when clicking on a PPC ad
“What are the most important factors to you when clicking on a PPC ad?”
“What factors would most make you change your mind and click on a
competitor ad?”
“What factors would most make you change your mind and click on a
competitor ad?”
52% said PRICE was the #1 factor
Compared to 36% for PPC in General
When trying to get a searcher to change their mind, PRICE is king
“What factors would most make you change your mind and click on a
competitor ad?”
CHAPTER 4 OF 4IMPLEMENTING OUR STRATEGY
Bi-Monthly Auction Insights Report Scheduled
Specific Outranking Bidding (Portfolio Bidding Strategy)
Specific Outranking Bidding (Portfolio Bidding Strategy)
Outrank Bidding Setup (Portfolio Bidding Strategy)
Daily Bid Adjustments
Own Mobile and Tablet Traffic
GolfersParadise.org – Top Of Page Rate
New Ads and Extensions
Loyalty Scheme
21,000+ Products
PGA Pro In Every Store
Next Day Delivery (Free)
Our Seller Ratings are better (4.9)
We Can do 30% off Nike Clothing
12 Free Balls With Every Order over £50
Mobile price extensions
Old Ad
New Ads
Old Ad
New Ads
IP exclusions
Gmail Sponsored Promotions
Gmail Sponsored Promotions
We will own Bing and Bing Shopping
And new ads and sitelinks…
Better Creative
Push Edinburgh & Scotland Push “Free Balls” Promo
Interest Targeting
Golfersparadise.com are an interest at URL level
Fill in their interest gaps
“18 to 35” and “36 to 60” in separate ad sets
Combine interests for “Scotland Golf” not just “UK Golf” and tailor ad messaging
And best of all
We avoided a bidding war!
Q and A
@rodppc