ADWORDS AND SEARCH BASICS(WITH ROOT BEER FLOATS)PETER KAZARIAN AND FOSTER TECH

AGENDA/TODAY’S TOPICS

Basic Search Google – The basics Search Algorithms SEO/SEM as a Professional Discipline

Advertising w/Google Bidding System Adwords Anatomy & Metrics Adwords Campaign Monitoring and Improving

GOOGLE AND SEARCH OVERVIEW#BASICS OF SEARCH

GOOGLE: SEARCH ENGINES – THE VERY BASICS

Webcrawlers and indexing of cached sites

Indexing and presentation of search results by keyword (organic) along with paid links (sponsored)

GOOGLE: WHAT MAKES THEM SO SPECIAL?

Sophistication/first mover in backlinked search Scope (other products like Adsense, Youtube, Android, Chrome, Waze) Volume/scale

Internetlivestats.org

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-desktop-search-share-drops-lowest-point-6-years/124942/

SEARCH ALGORITHMS: UPDATES

Frequent changes to improve product

Some announced, some quiet

Constant quiet testing to optimize

Refined through input of constant feedback, testing,use of other services

https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION/SEO Hundreds of factors

Kept proprietary by Google, MSFT, etc

Studies done to analyze “secret sauce” of algorithm

Public changes announced and followed as Googlekeeps channel partners happy when possible, other onespushed through or guessed at

High-paid firms engaging in SEO as specialization, or in-house teams.

Highly technical, highly lucrative (or dangerous) for companies – incentivized by the money that follows search

http://www.searchmetrics.com/wp-content/uploads/seo-ranking-factors-2014.png

ADVERTISING WITH GOOGLEBIGGEST PUBLISHER/MEDIA COMPANY EVER

ADWORDS – ADSENSE Adwords / $22.54 bn

Presented alongside search results Growing every year (22% in

FY2013) Platform includes all Google.com

searches and Youtube (World’s #1 & #3 websites)

http://southernweb.com/2013/07/google-revenue/http://www.zdnet.com/article/analysis-whats-the-future-for-googles-plunging-12-7bn-adsense-business/

Adsense / $9.66 bn Text ads appearing alongside paid Google

content partners (people “monetizing” their blog or site)

More diverse, less deep set of inventory (breadth vs numbers)

Shrinking each year with decreasing effectiveness and national spend on display ads

ADWORDS – HOW IT WORKS

Cost per click advertising Competitive bidding program tied

to certain keywords Combination of max bid cost per

click and “quality” of link/landing page contribute to ranking

Adwords account filled with money, credits deducted on a per-click basis according to amount spent on ad

Max bid indicated, minimum spent to come out “on top”

http://www.smartinsights.com/paid-search-marketing-ppc/paid-search-analytics/clickthrough-rate-per-advert-position-in-adwords/

Position 1: Avg click through rate: 7.11%

Position 2: Avg click through rate: 3.01%

Position 3: Avg click through rate: 2.19%

Position 4: Avg click through rate: 2.15%

ADWORDS – HOW IT WORKS (CON’T: BID DETAIL)

IMPROVING YOUR ADWORDSPULL ALL THE LEVERS/WHAT ARE THE LEVERS

ADWORDS – IS IT WORKING?A B C D E F G H I J K L M

Clickthrough Rate (CTR):Clicks (A) ÷ Impressions (B)

Cost Per Conversion:Cost (E) ÷ Conversions (K)

Nonfinancial website metrics – requires Google AnalyticsCost Per Click AVG

(CPC):Cost (E) ÷ Clicks (A)

Conversion Rate:Conversions (K) ÷ Clicks (A)

Sales, emails acquired, leads generated – E.G. a “success” event

Adgroup 1

Adgroup 3

Adgroup 4

Adgroup 2

ADWORDS – TESTING Control for one factor

Differences in adtext, display URL, landing page, presence of dynamic text in ad, etc Test over time, diverting traffic Google optimizes test results to minimize revenue loss and find a “winner”

ADWORDS – WHAT TO CHANGE My campaign sucks! What do I do?

Too few impressions? Add more related keywords to access more of Google’s search “inventory” (e.g. come up in more searches) Raise your bids to move up the display ranking and make the first page or higher ad positions, so people see you more Add more keyword related content to boost your Adwords Quality Score

Too few clicks or a low click-through rate? Run a test between two different adtexts, and spread the winner out among your other keywords Raise your bids to move your average position higher to occupy those prime #1 & #2 spots

High cost per conversion: Too many expensive clicks, not enough conversions? (most common problem) Test a new landing page format against the existing one. The #1 problem is always your landing page.

Test it. Seriously, it’s probably your page.

Cut low performing (high click, low conversion) keywords to trim the fat on expensive words that generate expensive clicks but not conversions at a reasonable rate

Exclude certain hitchhiking keywords that are not your core audience (Exclude “–Day” from a boxing apparel site to keep out Boxing Day traffic that sees things, clicks and doesn’t convert

Refine your geographic ad area to something more relevant (i.e. within delivery area, or likely restaurant visit area, etc) to stop dead weight clickers from spending all your money.

Look at ad timing/day of the week to see if certain time periods or events are causing spikes or dead zones. Adjust timing windows of ads as needed.

You can always call the Google Adwords Helpdesk hotline, in Ann Arbor, Michigan (staffed almost exclusively by Ivy League & Stanford grads because Google.)

THANKS!ANY QUESTIONS?