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.