PUBCON 2014: Hacking AdWords - Winning at PPC the Weird Way by Larry Kim, WordStream, Inc.

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Hacking Adwords: Winning at PPC the Weird WayLarry Kim (@larrykim)Founder/CTO, WordStream, Inc.March 19, 2014

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Over 1000 Changes in AdWords in 2013 Alone!

Previous Best Practices Become Outdated

Warning: Lots of Data Ahead!

Epiphany #1:What is Quality Score and Why Does it Matter?

How Quality Score Impacts Ad Position

• AdWords is Like Real Estate: It’s all about Location!

How Quality Score Impacts Actual CPC

Epiphany #2:What’s an

Average Quality Score in 2014?

Avg. Quality Score Has Been Falling.

• Today, average score is 5/10. Previously was 7/10!

Cost Per Conversion Greatly Impacted by QS

The Impact of Quality Score on Cost Per Conversion

Epiphany #3How is Quality

Score Calculated?

QS is Based on Your CTR vs. Expected CTR!

Quick Recap So Far

1. QS plays huge role in determining CPC and Avg. Position and cost per conversion

2. QS is largely based on beating the expected click through rate for your ad position

3. So Winning at AdWords Requires Writing Ads with Above Average CTR.

Epiphany #4:Google Expects (Much) More Of

Your Ads

Which Ad Wins?

a)Ad A– 32,423 Impressions– 453 clicks (1.4% CTR)– Average Position: 2.8

b)Ad B– 36,223 Impressions– 760 clicks (2.1% CTR)– Average Position: 3.0

Trick Question! Both Ads Suck.

• Neither ad is worth declaring a “Winner”.• Not even the 2.1% CTR in the 3.0 Avg. Position.• Why??

What’s a Good CTR?

• Even the “Winner” is a Loser!

Forest vs. Trees

Even the “Winning” Ad is a Loser!

Epiphany #5:What’s a Good

CTR These Days?(You’d be surprised)

What’s a Good Search CTR? (Account Avg. CTR’s)

But Lots of Variance!!

Under-Performing vs. Unicorns

Percentile Vs. Expected CTR

Bottom 50% Below Expected CTR

Under-Performing Advertisers

Top 15% 2X Higher Awesome Advertisers

Top 5% 3x Higher Super Awesome Advertisers

Top 1% 6x Higher!! Unicorns

@larrykim

Unicorns?! (6x Avg. CTR!)

What Unicorns (Top 1%) Look Like

Ad Text Testing

• Same Story – 20% of Ads Generate 92% of Spend• 20% of Ads Generated 65% of Impressions• But CPA, CTR, and Conversion Rates vary

@larrykim, @perrymarshall

Hunting Unicorns

1. Keywords With High Commercial Intent

2. Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)

2. DKI Doesn’t Produce As Many Unicorns

3. Ad Extensions Impact on Quality Scores

3. Ad Extensions Impact on Click Through Rate

Epiphany #6How To Write “Unicorn” Ads

4. Most Ads Suck. Create Emotional Ads.

36Larry Kim (@larrykim) #wordstream #pubcon

Creating “Emotional” Ads

An Example:

Versus…

Epiphany #7You Need To Test 100 Ads To Find 1

Unicorn.

Relative Abundance

Name Percentile Relative Abundance

Vs. Expected CTR

Awesome Ads

Top 15% 1:6.7 2X Higher

Super Awesome Ads

Top 5% 1:20 3x Higher

Unicorns Top 1% 1:100 6x Higher!!

You’re Not Testing as Many Ads as You Think…

Epiphany #8It’s Not as Hard

As You Think

Most Small Businesses Aren’t That Active

85% of Impressions are From 5% of Ads

Epiphany #9Life is Great for

Unicorn Accounts

Here’s What It Looks Like IRL

• Grade Your Account at http://www.wordstream.com/google-adwords

Quality Score Average of 8.8/10!!

14% Click Through Rate!!

Consistent Account Activity

Mostly Targeting Long Tail Keywords!

Negative Keywords

89% Impression Share

Epiphany #10Life Stinks for

Low QS Accounts

The Bottom 4% of Accounts IRL

Avg. Quality Score 3.8/10

Avg. CTR of 1.32%

No Activity in Last Quarter

Awful Keyword Targeting

No Negative Keywords

61% Impression Share LOST

Epiphany #11Don’t Pursue a Low CTR Strategy (Low QS)

Quick Recap

1. Low CTR = Low QS2. Low CTR ads don’t

even get displayed3. They get penalized with up to 400%

higher CPCs 4. Dramatically increases cost per

conversion

Epiphany #12How to Scale

Your PPC?

Quick Recap

1. Above Average CTR Keyword/Ads = Great Success.

2. Below Average CTR Keyword/Ads = Train Wreck

3. So … Delete the bottom third of your account and re-deploy that spend to remarketing

Average CPC’s by Industry and Network

Average Conversion Rates by Industry

Average CPA’s for Search & Display, by Industry

Your Questions

Thank You PUBCON!Benchmark your AdWords account today!

http://www.wordstream.com/google-adwords

Today’s Slides: http://bit.ly/hacking-adwords

PUBCON 2014: Hacking AdWords - Winning at PPC the Weird Way by Larry Kim, WordStream, Inc.

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Transcript of PUBCON 2014: Hacking AdWords - Winning at PPC the Weird Way by Larry Kim, WordStream, Inc.

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