The Magic of Quality Score!

This post is to understand Quality Score and to learn about techniques to improve it.

Quality Score is impacted by following factors :

1) Avg. CTR

2) First page Bid

3) Max. CPC

4) Other relevant factors like landing page quality, navigation, LP load time, ad creative relevancy with query etc.

Couple of Optimisation techniques that can be done in order to improve QS:-

1) If QS is low then first step to improve is to check whether it is sitting in the right adgroup/campaign

2) Change the match types to make sure that keywords matches to the most relevant query

3) Monitor CTR. If CTR is low then Optimise to improve CTR

4) Do check the first page bid/ maximum CPC

All the above techniques should help to improve QS for a campaign. If QS is improved in the account, one can see uplift in conversions upto 15% -20%. So, QS optimization is one the significant step to improve overall performance.

Google Caraousel's launch and its impact on SEM

You must have heard about Google's Carousel launch in last week of June 2013. Its a very significant feature launch from Google before moving to Enhanced Campaigns. We have seen gradual evolution of search ad with Sitelinks addition, call extensions, location extensions, Product listing ads and now Caraousel. So far all the other formats have been very successful from User experience POV and also from advertisers POV. The reason Carousel launch is significant is because it further simplifies the ease of searching in Google and gives more pictorial searches which always have performed much better than texts.

From the image above, one can clearly see that for search "mexican restaurant in NYC", searches are in the top is Carousel and it has images with little details which is enough rouse User's interest to click on it. The studies have shown that clicks on Carousel is 48% higher than normal text ads. Also with Carousel, there is a map beside the organic results. So, if you are running your paid search campaigns and if your restaurant address is on Google then you will get maximum exposure with Carousel. it will have carousel, Address on the map towards the right and text ads below Carousel.

One shouldn't forget that Carousel is a Beta at the moment and it is being tested after a failed launch of Universal ads from Google. Will talk about Universal Ads failure in other posts.

So, couple of things can be expected from Carousel launch :

1) Increase in CTR and also Conversion rate?
2) Increase in Overall Spends
3) Increase in impressions as more and more people would be searching due to higher recall
4) Higher brand recall and also good for brand awareness kind of activity.

The interesting to note would be how Google will take this success to mobile. So watch out!

How Match Types can be used with various Marketing Tactics?

In SEM, match types can be used very tactical for SEM campaigns -

Broad Match Types  - Useful for Product Launches, New campaigns kick off, running SEM campaigns in new market where Brand Visibility is low.

Modified Broad Match - One level up in filtering the traffic to the site - Useful for driving consideration campaigns, Lead generation, for an existing brand that has a presence etc.

Phrase Match - Another level of filtering the traffic - Useful in campaigns that's driving lead generation, sales or wants to drive the most relevant to the site

Exact match - Last leg of filtering the traffic - Useful for driving sales and most efficient campaigns. Keywords with Exact match Types generate low CPC and high CTR and low CPA

Hope you have some idea of how match types can help in your campaigns!

Back To School - How can we leverage Search to boost sales during this period?

Back To School is a crucial period for lot of marketers who are selling stuff related to kids like stationaries, electronics, apparels, Shoes etc etc...mainly its an important period for most of us. How can one use Search to boost sales during this period?  This is the answer - Follow the below strategies to get the maximum impact :-

Set up all the above tactics phase-wise so that impact can be measured separately.

Search Vs. Social vs. Mobile

These are the three vehicles that have never been so important as it is now. A decade ago when online advertising surged, people started spending on Banners. The usual metric used to be impressions, clicks and CTR. And it never made any sense to any marketer and it is still the same for most of them. But now two vehicle that has truly come up and is doing very well are Search and Mobile. I would keep Social aside for the moment.

Search Vs. Mobile  - Search kicked off with the rise of internet penetration in the markets. With time, consumers were more aware, had more choices and they wanted to get the best out of what was available. So that lead to a lot of people doing more searches and search volume soared. With smartphones coming into pictures, that went to another level.

Mobile vs. Social - the first thing people do when they wake up in morning is check their Facebook account and that too on Mobile. Its a proven fact. So, this is definitely catching up and the buzz is right. The challenge for Facebook is how to tap into this opportunity and monetize it.

These all make sense, but what is not clear to me is the buzz about Social. Social alone hasn't proved any beneficial to anyone. And it is the talk of the town at the moment. Everyone wants to know how Social can be used for marketing but seriously no one has figured out a proper way to monetise it for the benefit of marketers.

On the other hand, no one is really talking about Search but its working for direct response clients. On path to purchase search is the first vehicle that is user initiated. That shows the intent of the people who wants to buy. And grabbing at the moment when user is interested in buying, is the best way to convert them into sales.

So, to me Search marketing is still the best and on top compared to Social and Mobile.

Facebook bought Atlas from Microsoft...

The much anticipated deal between Facebook and Microsoft was closed last month. There are mixed reactions in the market. Some marketers are skeptical about how facebook is going to use the adserver tool. But overall sentiments seem positive. From my point of view, it is a good deal for both Facebook and Advertisers and following are the reasons that corroborate my thinking :-

1) The rumor is that FB bought this tool by paying close 50million for which five years ago Microsoft had paid 6.7 billion. Considering what Microsoft paid, FB got it at dirt cheap. Having said that the question still stands what value ads Atlas will bring to the table.

2) Another good reason to have Atlas is that Facebook can give a holistic view of campaign measurement. Not many people know that Facebook doesn't allow third party tracking (in full) which means advertisers had to depend on FB data to analyse the campaign. And they were manually consolidating the reports. This would definitely help the agencies and advertisers.

3) With this acquisition, Facebook is sending clear signals that they are here to stay. With an important launch last year, graph search, they had clearly showed the intention on where they are heading. Though FB has denied in their official statement that they are not intending to launch ad-network, it is very doubtful they would do that because at the end of the day, they would want to maximise the returns from the tool.

4) With the help of the tool, Facebook could finally prove that their ads work and therefore they commend higher pricing and thus more revenue for them.

Good deal for advertisers :-

1) With this, advertisers can understand Consumer Journey on Web and Facebook's role in that journey.

2) Now Ad dollars can be more justified. Therefore, can plan more Social Media campaigns.

3) Social Media campaigns could be more targeted. So in future less wastage is expected. This may also give rise to Socio-Commerce.

4) This will boost Social Media and Search Co-optimization which means advertisers/agencies will have details like what people intend to buy(through google search data gathered by companies like Chango) and what are their likes and dislikes through FB. If both the data can be brought together, its a huge WIN.

These are more like speculations from the deal, we will have to wait and see for actual results.

Google's Advertising Policies change regarding trademarks..

In case yo haven't caught the news --

"Updates to AdWords trademark policy

Google has made a policy revision that applies to complaints we receive regarding use of trademarks as keywords. Starting 23 April 2013, keywords that were restricted as a result of a trademark investigation will no longer be restricted in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Brazil.

While we will not prevent use of trademarks as keywords in the affected regions, trademark owners will still be able to complain about the use of their trademark in ad text.

How does the revised policy affect which ads can be shown?

Google will no longer prevent advertisers from selecting a third party’s trademark as a keyword in ads targeting these regions."

Source : -  https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/177578#

This could mean more irrelevant results on Google Search page results.....

Google powered their shopping by acquiring Channel Intelligence

Google continues with its strategy of acquiring smaller relevant companies that would power its offerings. The latest acquisition in news is Channel Intelligence. Google acquired this company to power their Merchant Center and Product listing feature.

In US, it has been tried and tested that Product Listing Ads perform and they are doing extremely well. The only hitch was that advertisers had to allocate a resource to manage their Merchant center feeds. Merchant Center needs to be updated with the latest promotional offer, inventory, price etc. And Google needed a platform that would facilitate the regular updates from client's inventory to Google's shopping list. Big advertisers could hire companies like Channel advisor but not all can afford such companies. Channel Advisor is an inventory management company that provides the platform that google needs for its shopping list. Channel Intelligence is similar to Channel advisor and offerings are same.

By strengthening Merchant Center, Google will open a whole new avenue of earning money from advertisers. Initially Google Shopping was free and now they started charging. And with CI acquisition, Google will provide a free tool (as always) that would ease the inventory management on Google shopping.

The smartest thing Google has done is that for Product Listing Ads (PLA) feature, advertisers should have Merchant center set up. And to run Merchant center, one needs Channel Intelligence. And since PLA is performing better than regular search ads, advertisers are ready to take that extra step. An example below of PLA Ads -

Facebook Using Google data to target Ads

Last Year, Business Insider reported a very interesting news about the ability to use Search data to target Ads on Facebook.. This strengthens Facebook ads which were already generating higher returns for advertisers. Facebook's targeting capability was based on the personality of the audience, their tastes, interests, likes and places but FB didn't have much idea of what people need and are intending to buy. This important info is with Google.

Chango is the name of the company that is key in bringing the two data together. They have gathered billions of cookie pool through Google Searches and they are intending to use this data in Facebook exchange. So now advertisers know what people are searching for and depending on their interests, ads can be targeted. Chango can do the profiling for advertisers and ads can be more targeted than ever before. So its less wastage and even higher returns from Facebook ads.

In my opinion Google doesn't have an answer yet for this type of retargeting. Google's remarketing is based on user's Search behavior within Google network but it has limitations beyond Google n most importantly Google had been trying to integrate their Social platform (Google +) data into Search but failed. In this scenario, FB ads are winning strategies for marketers and they have long way to go.....

Power of making simple changes to Account Structure....

Big clients who are running their campaigns for years, have tonnes of keywords in their account...and as part of optimization, there is constant addition of keywords, adcopy changes, bid changes etc. but few have realised that a simple change in account structure can have a meaningful impact.

Following changes in account structure is recommended :-

1) Review if your site structure matches with the account structure in search. Is there any change on the site that should be replicated in the account.

2) Do we have our adgroups tightly themed and we have not more than 10 keywords in each adgoup?

3) Review all the keywords in each adgroup. Keywords with low Quality Score, low impressions and clicks should be moved to more relevant adgroup or create a new adgroup for them. They may not be getting enough opportunity to perform in current location.

4) Another action for keywords should be -
  i)  Keywords with low impressions and clicks since last 3 months should be paused/removed from the client.
ii)  KWs with high impressions and low clicks need to be shifted to different location.

iii) Keywords with low impression and high clicks are valuable and therefore bids should be up so that they get more exposure.

5) Match Types - are all your Keywords in Broad? if yes then thats not ideal. Broad match types are not always good...though it fetches more impressions than others but there's lot of wastage. And not to mention, negative keyword addition becomes very important. It would be good to do lot of match type testing to see which match types work best for each keyword.

6) Ad-creative - First point sale for marketers in Search advertising. it is important to be catchy enough to grab audience attention and get clicked. There should be at least 3 creatives in each adgoup, having more creative doesn't mean good performance. Not all creative will have equality opportunity to show up. So, its better to do regular adcopy testing and keep the best performing ones. Adcreative should be most relevant to the adgroup.

Just add these simple tasks in regular optimizations and one should surely see the difference...