Adwords Finally Adds “Optimize for Conversions” Option

February 25, 2011 By 1 Comment

Ever since the dawn of Adwords, advertisers have had the option to run more than one ad variation per ad group. This is one of the features that makes Adwords so attractive – the ability to test different ad copy and landing pages against a set of keywords and learn which performs the best.

Until this week, though, there was always a problem with the definition of “performance.” For Google, and for a handful of advertisers, “performance” is defined as “click-through rate” – the ad that generates the most traffic. But for most advertisers, “performance” is defined as “conversion rate” – the ad that generates the most desired actions, commonly known as conversions.

Until this week, Adwords offered 2 options for serving multiple ads: Optimize or Rotate. Rotate is simple to define: your ads will rotate evenly among impressions, with each variation getting approximately the same number of impressions. So if you have 2 ads, each will display on about 500 out of 1,000 impressions.

By default, the Optimize setting is turned on – changing it requires editing your Campaign Settings. And “Optimize” sounds great: after all, everyone wants to optimize their campaigns, right? Ha, wrong. Optimize (until this week) rotated ads based on click-through rate: the as with the highest CTR would, over time, be displayed on a larger proportion of impressions. It’s not uncommon to see as much as 80-90% of impressions going to one ad with “optimize,” meaning the ad with the lowest CTR barely gets shown. It’s also not uncommon for the ad with the best CTR to be the ad with the worst conversion rate – so you end up spending a lot of money for not very many conversions. Not good.

But what if you were an advertiser who wanted to drive traffic, with conversion optimization as a secondary goal? What if your ad test is just starting out? What if you’re a new advertiser and you don’t even realize you have a choice?

Good testing principles indicate that all test variants should be shown to test samples that are relatively equal in size and demographic. For instance, if an ad only shows to females age 18-34, there’s a good chance the results won’t translate to men age 45-54. So you want to divide up your sample 50/50, and make it random. But if your Adwords ads are set to “Optimize,” that’s most likely not going to happen.

Never fear, though – Adwords to the rescue! This week, Google launched a third option: Optimize for Conversions. Finally, after years and years of advertisers asking for a way to serve the best-converting ad more often, Google came through! Right?

Sort of. As with many Adwords features, there are a few caveats. First, note in the documentation this important caveat: “If there isn’t sufficient conversion data to determine which ad will provide the most conversions, ads will rotate using ‘Optimize for clicks’ data.” Yikes. It’s pretty obvious that most ads will amass a statistically significant number of clicks long before they reach a statistically significant number of conversions. So really, any new test is doomed to start Optimizing for CTR – thus messing up your conversion test results from the start.

Also, the word on the street (or at least on Twitter) is that Optimize for Conversions will optimize based on conversion rate, not number of conversions. So you may have an ad that gets a great conversion rate, but not many clicks; or vice versa. Either way, the system could be making the wrong decision about what’s working for you.

So for now, I’m sticking with “Rotate,” even though Google warns me every time that it’ll ruin my results.

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Using AdWords Segments To Increase PPC ROI

December 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

Most of you are aware of the recent improvements to the Google AdWords user interface (UI), including the ability to run reports in the Campaigns tab. These are great time-savers for PPC managers. However, there’s another new and little-known feature called “Segments” that can really take your campaign performance to the next level.

The Segment option allows you to review your campaign performance data in a number of ways:

* Network: Google Search, Search Partners, and Content.
* Click type: URL clicks or Click to Call.
* Device: Computer or mobile device.
* Experiment: Campaign Experiment results.
* Day: Performance by day.
* Week: Performance by week.
* Month: Performance by month.
* Quarter: Performance by quarter.
* Year: Performance by year.
* Day of week: Performance by day of week (Sunday through Monday), regardless of date.

All data is displayed for the date range selected in the AdWords UI. For example, if you’ve selected “Last 30 days” as the date range, segment data will display for that time period.

You’ll find the Segment option just under the Campaign Management tabs (Ad Group, Ads, Keyword, etc.):

So, how do you make the leap from “interesting” to “actionable” when it comes to segment data?

Focus on Underperforming Campaigns, Ad Groups, or Keywords

Sure, you could slice and dice every possible data point in your account, but most of us don’t have that kind of time. Instead, start at a high level.

Do you have one campaign in your account that’s performing worse than the rest? Is one ad group falling behind the curve? Is there a keyword or set of keywords that are highly relevant, yet aren’t converting? Start the segmenting process here.

Use Time-related Segment Data to Spot Trends

Let’s say performance for one of your top ad groups has declined recently, but you’re not sure when the decline began. Start with the “last 30 days” date range, and then segment the data by week. You may be able to pinpoint the week when things went south. You may even be able to associate a particular event that coincided with the decrease.

For example, one of our clients’ PPC campaign results fell off the map over Labor Day weekend. We were able to use segmentation data to discover that performance was steady until Labor Day, when it fell off the map.

We then looked at segmented data for Labor Day 2009, and saw that performance fell off during that week last year, too. Based on this, we recommended staying the course with PPC, rather than making huge changes to ads and keywords.

Sure enough, performance rebounded a week later. Without segmentation, we might have made changes that we’d regret later.

Regularly Review Network and Device Performance to Find Under- and Overachievers

For some of our clients, the Search Partner Network performs better than Google Search. For others, it performs much worse. With the Segment feature, we can find this out in seconds.

The same thing goes for performance on computers versus mobile devices. Some of our clients get great results from mobile; for others, it’s a waste of money. Again, we know in seconds which clients fall into which category.

Side note: It’s a PPC best practice to use separate campaigns for computers and mobile devices. That said, serving ads on all devices for a short time acts as a test bed to determine whether it’s worthwhile to set up a separate mobile campaign.

Review Day-of-Week Data to Find Under- and Overachievers

It takes a little more time to analyze day-of-week data, but it can pay off in a big way. Segmenting performance data by day of week can yield some shocking insight.

It’s common for B2B advertisers to discover that weekends are a complete waste of PPC budget. Not only do the hottest prospects do most of their searching during the week, but most B2B customer service departments work normal business hours. So even if a hot prospect is searching over the weekend and finds your ads, they won’t hear back from you for a couple days — or, they may wait until Monday morning, do another search, and click on your ad again (doubling your cost per conversion in the process). If you’re a B2B advertiser, look long and hard at the weekends to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.

The same thing goes for B2C advertisers — although the weekends may not be your problem. One of our clients advertises apartment rentals. Their worst day is Wednesday. It makes sense, if you think about it: people go look at apartments over the weekend, and follow up online Monday or Tuesday. Or, they start looking on Thursday and Friday for apartments to visit over the weekend. Wednesday is no-man’s land — and doesn’t convert as well for the client.

Armed with this segment data, you can use Ad Scheduling to turn off your ads on days that don’t convert well for your business.

If you haven’t already tried the Segment feature, go do it now — and watch your ROI increase!

This post originally appeared on Search Engine Watch on September 30, 2010.

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Filed Under: adwords, pay per click ad testing

Top 5 Free PPC Tools

December 3, 2010 By 1 Comment

It’s December, and around the world the holidays are upon us. For many, the holidays bring a spirit of giving. In keeping with that spirit, I thought I’d list my top 5 favorite free PPC tools. Think of it as my PPC gift to you. (wink)

#1: Adwords Editor

Without a doubt, Adwords Editor is #1 on my list. All the other tools are, well, not useless, but much more difficult to put into practice without Adwords Editor. When I train new Fluency Media PPC staff, the first thing I have them do is “download Adwords Editor.”

If you’re new to PPC, or are a PPC Luddite, Adwords Editor is a downloadable application that lets you edit your Adwords campaigns offline. So if you’re without an internet connection, you can still work on your campaigns, and then post the changes the next time you’re connected.

Adwords Editor is also great for creating campaigns, copying campaigns, ad groups, or keywords, moving keywords or ads from one ad group to another, and making changes in bulk. It was originally developed as a tool for Adwords staff and was built off the Excel platform, so it has many of the features we all know and love from Excel, including find & replace, sorting, filtering, appending, copying….. You get the picture. I literally could not do my job effectively without this tool.

#2: Google Keyword Tool

While the Google Keyword Tool has undergone several recent changes, and is notoriously inaccurate at times, it’s still my go-to tool for finding keywords. I like to start with the “website” feature, entering a URL and letting the tool tell me what keywords it thinks are relevant. Not only does this give you a lot of keyword ideas for your PPC campaigns, it alerts you to potential issues with the page that could negatively affect your PPC and SEO results. In other words, if you think the page is about one thing, but the keyword website tool tells you it’s about another, you’ve got a problem – and you’ll need to address it if you want to earn the best Quality Score and organic rankings.

#3: Acquisio Modified Broad Match Tool

I just discovered the Acquisio Modified Broad Match tool about 2 weeks ago, although it’s been around since July. The guys at Acquisio are awesome – I consider Marc Poirer, their co-founder, to be a great friend in the SEM industry – and this tool is simply incredible.

Earlier this year, Google introduced Modified Broad Match and SEMs all said, “Finally!” It’s long overdue, and is easy to implement if you’re only modifying a couple of keyword or keyphrases. However, applying modified broad match to a long list of keywords is daunting. Excel’s Concatenate function won’t do it, Adwords Editor won’t do it, and the thought of typing that “+” sign over and over is enough to make my stomach hurt.

Enter the Acquisio tool. Just copy and paste your keywords into the box, indicate whether you want all words modified or only specific words, and click “generate.” Voila! It’s that simple. I recently created a huge holiday campaign with several hundred modified broad match keywords in a fraction of the time it would have taken me otherwise, just by utilizing this tool.

#4: SplitTester and SuperSplitTester

If you’re running ad copy tests (and you should be), you’ll need a tool to tell you whether your test results are statistically significant or not. There are several good tools out there that fit the bill, but I like SplitTester and SuperSplitTester.

If you’re just looking at one metric, i.e. CTR, conversion rate, or whatever, use SplitTester. Enter the number of clicks (for CTR) or conversions (for conversion rate) and the CTR or conversion rate percentage, and it tells you whether the results are significant, and at what confidence level.

SuperSplitTester takes it a step further and incorporates CTR, conversion rate, and cost per impression. It runs all those metrics through its super-secret algorithm, and tells you which variation will make you the most profit over time. We use this free tool for almost all of our clients’ PPC tests, and the results speak for themselves.

#5: Twitter

Twitter? Yes, indeed – Twitter is one of my favorite PPC tools. It’s not a tool like the other 4 I’ve listed, in that it doesn’t take in data and spit out a result. Nonetheless, Twitter is my go-to place when I’m having a PPC problem that I can’t solve, or when I want to get quick feedback on something. It’s also become my news reader: I get breaking PPC news from Twitter before I see it anywhere else, and it aggregates everything into one place. Not only is it a great way to keep up with friends in the industry, it’s really become a valuable PPC tool.

Bonus Tip:

Since I’m feeling especially generous, here is a bonus tip: My good friend Alex Cohen from ClickEquations wrote an article for Search Engine Watch not long ago on 43 Paid Search Tools. It’s long, but as always, highly educational. Check it out!

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Filed Under: adwords, pay per click ad testing, pay per click strategy, search engine marketing

Effective PPC Ad Copy Testing

November 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Ad copy testing is one of the easiest ways to improve PPC conversion rates, yet I’ve seen many advertisers who just don’t do it. In June, I spoke at SMX Advanced on this very topic. The gist of my presentation was basically “Never Assume.” Don’t assume you know what ads will work and forgo testing altogether. Don’t assume one ad is the winner by eyeballing the results. And don’t assume that Google is always the best-performing engine.

Check out my Test That Ad presentation and let me know what you think!

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Effective PPC Ad Copy Testing Techniques

January 14, 2010 By 1 Comment

All PPC advertisers, no matter how small, should be testing ad copy on a regular basis. Much has been written on this topic, yet I continue to see a surprising number of advertisers who aren’t doing any testing at all. Here are the steps I take when setting up a testing matrix for our clients.

Step 1: Turn off auto-optimization. Auto-optimization is based on click-through rate, which may or may not be the best success measure for your PPC ads. Additionally, auto-optimization skews the number of impressions for each ad variation, so you could have one ad generating 90% of the total impressions. That’s not the best way to conduct a statistically valid test.

In Google, go to Campaign Settings and find Ad Delivery Options. Expand that section of Settings, where you will see the option to Optimize or Rotate. Choose Rotate. Even though Google warns you that this is not a “recommended” setting, do it. Google doesn’t recommend it because it may not make them as much money if you rotate ads evenly. Selecting Rotate will ensure that each ad variation gets approximately the same number of impressions.

In Yahoo, you’ll also need to go to Campaign Settings, under Optimize Ad Delivery. Turn this off, and you’ll get a message saying “Ads will display in turn.” This is what you want.

Unfortunately, MSN/Bing doesn’t offer the option to turn off ad optimization. So, what I usually do is to test ad copy in Google and Yahoo, and then roll out the winner to MSN. Not optimal, but necessary.

Step 2: Create at least 2 different ads for each ad group. If you have a high-traffic campaign, you may want to test 3 or more ads, but 2 is the bare minimum.

Step 3: Let the test run until you have a statistically significant number of clicks and conversions. There are lots of statistical programs and applications out there that will quickly tell you whether you have enough data for statistical significance. I like Super SplitTester, a free tool from Perry Marshall. Super SplitTester tells you which ad variation gives you the best cost per impression – in other words, which ad will make you the most money – by factoring in both click-through and conversion rate. It takes seconds to key in your data and get the answer. Bookmark it and use it!

Step 4: Start a new test. Many advertisers make the mistake of taking the winning ad and pitting a new ad against it. Mistake, you ask? Indeed. It’s a huge risk to expose 50% of your PPC traffic to a brand new, untested ad that may or may not convert. Instead, I use the method outlined by Dan Thies in his SEMMY award winning post, Split Testing Adwords: You’re Doing It Wrong. The method is spelled out step by step in that article, so I won’t repeat it here. But do it – your bottom line will thank you.

Step 5: Rinse and repeat. There’s a good chance you’ll hit on a “strong hero” ad that’s hard to beat. Keep testing. Create an ad that you think will never work, and test it (just make sure to use Dan Thies’s method above to minimize your risk!). You may be surprised – I know I have been on more occasions than I’d like to admit.

Follow these steps, and you’ll be well on your way to improved PPC performance!

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Filed Under: pay per click ad testing, pay per click strategy
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