The idea for ‘High-Resolution PPC’ was hatched two or three years ago, as we looked deeper and deeper into how paid search really worked, and how large and complex paid search campaigns should be managed.

At the time we were managing accounts for a range of very large advertisers. Like anyone else we were striving to produce better results. But we were constantly frustrated by the limits of the data we could access, the inflexibility of the tools at our disposal, and the general level of transparency we felt the engines were providing into how the choices we made impacted the behaviour and performance of our campaigns.

To address the first two issues, we accepted a venture capital investment, built an in-house product development team, and created ClickEquations. To address the last item, we began development of what was originally called ‘the methodology’.

The methodology was an effort to document the facts about how search worked and the process that one should follow to build and manage accounts. It started as a collection of ideas, beliefs, and habits we assumed were best practices. Over time we pulled back to look at the shape and sequence of the overall process, and dove in to examine individual elements, options, and interactions.

Eventually a framework emerged. Groups of items and options that fit together. Stages of the process that had natural breaks and measurable outcomes. The framework provided a structure around which all the steps, options, measurements, goals, interactions, and components of paid search management could be organized.

It got the name ‘High-Resolution PPC’ because one recurring theme of the exercise was the fact that everything we knew before was right, but far too over-simplified.

• Keywords mattered, but only in the way they attracted search queries, which had a lot to do with how and when match types were assigned.
• Bids mattered, but only due to their influence on ad rank which itself influenced CPC.
• CTR mattered, but it (and nearly everything else) was reported as an average and if you accepted the number without really thinking hard about how it was calculated you were likely to be misled. The examples continued endlessly.
• The list went on and one. Most of what we knew or thought was in fact true, but there was always a but. And if you know about the ‘but’ you would take different action than if you didn’t.

It seemed like the conventional wisdom was paid search at 300-dpi, but with a little effort and thought we could understand and act at 2400-dpi.

More accurate info. More precise actions. Better results. Higher resolution.

For the last 18-months or so we’ve continued to refine the High-Resolution PPC framework, and research and document the information on which it’s based. We’ve talked a bit about the process of managing paid search in this way (the original outline is presented here), and some of the posts on this blog over the past year have discussed elements of paid search in the terms we see and use them within High-Res.

But our new ebook is the first complete summary of what we’ve learned, at least in terms of the facts and philosophies we’ve come to consider the structural base of High-Resolution PPC.

To keep the book snappy, and a reasonable length, it’s written in a concise style – with just 1 page per item. Over the next month, this blog will feature a behind-the-scenes tour of the 21 truths, with expositions, examples, and with your help some conversations.

Sign up below to get your copy. And if you’ll be at SMX, SES, or OMMA in March, please visit the ClickEquations booth for a full color printed copy.

Get a free copy of ‘21 Secret Truths of High-Resolution PPC’.

The ebook will be available for download later this month.

Request Your Copy Today

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Related posts:

1. Video: Quality Score in High Resolution The Search Engine Marketing Professional’s Organization (SEMPO) hosted us for...
2. Coming Soon: The 21 Secret Truths of High-Resolution PPC For much of last year, regular readers of this blog...
3. Free High Resolution PPC Webinar with Bryan Eisenberg First, a quick intro – I’m Alex Cohen, the Manager...

To support that site, I created a new AdWords account and added two small ad groups with a total of 9 keywords and two text ads. Every keyword is a brand or navigational variation of the term ‘high-resolution ppc’.

That phrase is in the domain name and all over the home page, which serves as landing page for both ads.

This is a story of how quality score evolves.

At First, They Don’t Trust You

This is a brand new account. It has no CTR history. The ads are new. There is no visible URL history. The website has existed, and been indexed in Google, for a few months but with just a few pages and virtually no traffic.

The keyword ‘high resolution ppc’ does have a CTR history, because in our Clickequations.com AdWords account we buy the broad match version and aim ads at a page for ebook sign-ups.

I added six exact match keywords (shown right) to the first ad group. The initial bid was set to $0.10.

A few minutes after creation, they were all listed with a quality score of 3/10 and a First page bid estimate of $1.00.

Interestingly, Relevance was initially listed as ‘No Problem’ but 14 hours later is listed as ‘Poor’ for every keyword.

Because the corporate account had bid on the keyword, I looked in ClickEquations to see how it was doing. ‘High resolution ppc’ (broad match) has a quality score of 7 and a Max CPC of $0.10. Relevance says ‘no problems’. The ad copy and landing page for that keyword also use the phrase in just about every place possible.

Given the lack of history, and knowing that history matters, I accept for the moment the fact that it’s necessary to bid $1.00 per click for a phrase I made up (ie the competition is light, on both content and competitive bidders). So I raise the bid on the one exact match keyword ‘high resolution ppc’ to $1.00.

The ad did not start showing in the SERPS. So I went to sleep.

Money Talks
This morning I checked again. The ad from the new account is now in position #1, at the top. It still has a quality score of 3, and a ‘Poor’ rating for Relevence.

Someone explain how these keywords could be more relevant for the search queries, text-ad copy, and target URL – all of which contain the exact 3-word phrase.

It had zero impressions or clicks overnight. To boost my CTR, I clicked it the time I ran my search to check it. Cost me a buck, but my CTR is now 100%!

There were only 3 ads shown the first time I searched. The book ad, the one from ClickEquations, and one from AdWords themselves trying to lure innocents into PPC for the first time.

Interestingly, and perhaps coincidentally, after my $1.00 self-help click, the phrase now returns 14 AdWords ads – due to broad matching on the ‘ppc’ part of the search query no doubt. I guess once Google sees that people who search this phrase will click paid ads, the ads come a-runnin’.

What Happens Next
There’s nothing too revealing in all this. The time frames and data sets are tiny, the behaviour is more or less consistent with what we’ve been told about quality score. Yet I find the rare opportunity to view a case study with so few complications appealing.

It won’t be pure, of course. Some of you will go run the query, depressing the CTR. A few will even click the ad, wasting a little money

But over the next few weeks we’ll see what happens.

1. How long will it take to get the quality score up from 3 to at least 7?
2. When will Google recognize that the relevance is perfect, not poor?
3. Will the CTR on the new version of the ads beat the old ones that earned the quality score of 7?
4. How long until I can get the bid down from $1.00 (which clicks are not worth) to $0.10 (which they may be)?
5. Once the account grows, what will be the best way to monitor and control lifetime account CTR history, and visible URL CTR history?
6. How much is this experiment going to cost? (Note: It’s not entirely an experiment, the ad and site are real and will live on – the learning is a bonus.)

Stay tuned….

Related posts:

1. Video: Quality Score in High Resolution The Search Engine Marketing Professional’s Organization (SEMPO) hosted us for...

High-Resolution PPC is about clarity. It’s about removing the confusion surrounding how things work, which measurements matter, and what you should do to drive better paid search results.

In the coming weeks and months we’re going to share a lot more details and thoughts about this new way of understanding and managing paid search.

One huge milestone in that process will be the release, later this month, of ‘21 Secret Truths of High-Resolution PPC’.

This will be a free eBook available to anyone who requests it, and we’ll have special full-color printed copies if you visit us at the SES, OMMA or SMX trade shows in March.

The book shares the 21 core facts and philosophies upon which we believe effective paid search management is based.

They’re called ‘Secret Truths’ because this isn’t a summary of the popular notions that typically pass for paid search best practices. This is a ground-up reconsideration of what each component in the system does, and a rebuild of how you should manage based on this fact-based (rather than faith-based) view.

One person who’s seen the final book is Avinash Kaushik. Here’s what he had to say:

“The glory of paid search is hyper relevance and how absolutely data driven it is. If your goal is to be the best you can be at paid search then your path goes through this e-book.”
- Avinash Kaushik, Author: Web Analytics 2.0.

You can sign up now to be notified as soon the the download is released. (Note: If you signed up from previous mentions, we have your name so you’re already on the list.)

Related posts:

1. The Origin of High-Resolution PPC 21 Secret Truths of High-Resolution PPC is our soon-to-be released...
2. Video: Quality Score in High Resolution The Search Engine Marketing Professional’s Organization (SEMPO) hosted us for...
3. Free High Resolution PPC Webinar with Bryan Eisenberg First, a quick intro – I’m Alex Cohen, the Manager...

They search because they want to learn about something. Or find out where something is. Or discover who has it or knows about it.

They may just be curious. Or the question may have been provoked by an urgent problem. The question could be simple or complex and the searcher might be sophisticated or naive.

But every search is a question.

Search engines deliver answers. They look at the word or words in the search box, assume or infer the question being asked, and then put together a list of potential answers to that question.

Paid search is your chance to offer your answer as a part of that list.

This simple truth – people are asking questions and you’re trying to answer them - is a great way to frame the process of managing paid search accounts.

It makes clear the fact that every step you take along the way should help to either target better questions, deliver better answers, or ensure that you pay a reasonable price for the privilege.

There are many complicated aspects of managing paid search. Accounts are large and business conditions change rapidly. There are confusing options, evolving algorithms, and aggressive competitors. This isn’t going to be easy.

But it’s nice to have a simple mental model to guide us: We’re just trying to answer questions.

No related posts.

Here they are:

#1 – Impression Share Deep Dive (Parts I, II, and III)

#2 – Thoughts on Revenue Allocation (Part I, Part II, Part III)

#3 – Avinash Revisited (SEM Analytics) (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part V)

Our New Facebook Page is looking for fans! If you’re a serious paid search marketer and enjoy this blog or like ClickEquations, please ‘fan up’ by clicking the button in the Facebook widget in the far right column.

Related posts:

1. The Top 9 Blog Posts of 2009 The distinguished accounting firm of Anderson Cooper & Woods have...

It’s no surprise, then, that when you look back at the year in significant Google AdWords changes one thing comes through loud and clear: Google is wringing every penny out of SERPs at the expense of organic search.

Advertising on the Google is becoming more competitive and more complex. The timeline below shows the key changes made to Google’s AdWords program in 2009.

As you can see, many of these changes pull attention away from organic listings: AdWords site links, Product extensions and even the location of the ads on the right, to name a few. (FYI – This timeline is embeddable on your site or blog).

If I missed a notable announcement, please comment.

2009 AdWords Changes Timeline

• January 13, 2009 – New Features in Google Maps Ads
  Google adds a new “info window” for Google Maps and extra analytics. Google is actually pulling some of the more common tasks users do for businesses (ex: getting directions) into the window.
  .
  This is significant, because each of these “micro-conversions” represents an action that approximates ROI for your local business. Analyzing and optimizing around these activities and others will help improve your ad spend.
  .
  It’s also interesting to note that Google is pulling more of the site experience to their site vs. yours, a trend we also see in the comparison ads (detailed below).
  .
  .
• February 20, 2009 – Updated Display URL Policy
  Disallowed multiple display URL domains within a single ad group. All text ads must now have the same top level domain.
  .
  For example, www.clickequations.com/blog, www.clickequations.com and www.example.clickequations.com would all be acceptable in the same ad group. However, you could mix www.clickequations.com and www.clickequations.paidsearch.com in the same ad group, for example.
  .
  The display URL affects your CTR, conversion rate and is a factor in your Quality Score, so it’s important to monitor changes to their policies.
  .
• March 4, 2009 – Expandable Rich Media Ads on the Content Network (beta)
  Expandable rich media, which offer interactivity and video streaming, was opened to beta advertisers on the content network.
  .
  Rich media has to be measured differently than traditional display ads, which is limited to impressions, clicks and post-click activity (though viewthroughs are now available, see below). Rich media, meanwhile, can be expanded and interacted with in a variety of ways: video plays, form completion, etc.
  .
  This also introduce an element of complexity in the analysis of your traditional display campaigns. How often are you competing against rich media ads? How does that affect your performance?
  .
  These questions aren’t easily answered today, but will become more important as the number of advertisers and media formats increases on the Content Network (see DoubleClick announcement below)..
  
  .
• March 11, 2009 – Interest Based User Targeting on the Content Network (beta)
  New behavioral and interest-based targeting on the content network. Content network targeting has been keyword based or placement targeted (you select from a list of sites).
  .
  Google is now classifying people into groups based on their visits to sites running AdSense, ex: Shopping – Coupons and Rebates. You can now target these groups without specifying keywords or choosing particular placements.
  .
  Display advertising is one of Google’s key focuses in 2010, so it’s likely that we can expect more targeting options going forward.
  .
• March 12, 2009 – Hal Varian’s AdWords Auction Video
  Google’s Chief Economist explains the AdWords auction. In this video, Hal Varian shared a lot of detail that helped illuminate some important concepts: clickthrough rate is the number one factor in Quality Score, your bid actually plays an indirect role in the final calculation of your CPC, and increasing your Quality Score could save you 20% or more.
  .
  
  .
• May 14, 2009 – Google Loosens Their Trademark Restrictions
  You can use trademark terms in your ad text in the U.S. even if you don’t own the trademark. Previously, Google permitted you to bid on trademark terms, but not use them in your text ad. Now, “you can use trademark terms in your ad text in the U.S. even if you don’t own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it.”
  .
  You can expect increased competition among branded and trademarked terms from retailers, resellers and affiliates. Tools like The Search Monitor can help you monitor trademark use.
  .
• June 17, 2009 – Import Google Analytics Goals into AdWords
  Advertisers who use Google Analytics can now import conversion goals into AdWords (click to enlarge). If you’ve tagged your site with Google Analytics, you can substitute that measurement for the Engine specific conversion tags to measure conversions and revenue.
  .
  To use this feature, advertisers must opt-in to share their data with Google products or Google products and their benchmarking services. Keep in mind that both Google AdWords and Google Analytics currently default to last click revenue attribution.
  .
  
  .
• July 24, 2009 – Local Extensions for Local Business Ads
  Displays address alongside the text ad for relevant searches. Local businesses can now link their Local Business Center account to AdWords.
  .
  Your location will now appear alongside your text ads in one of two ways. Either you can associate specific location extensions with individual ads or let Google dynamically match eligible locations to a user’s location (usual determined by IP) or geographic modifiers in their query (ex: philadelphia gym).
  .
  These extension replace the local business ads format, but differ in two important ways:
  - Business title: You will no longer be required to have your business title be the first line of your ad text.
  - Targeting restrictions: By default, enabling ad extensions at the campaign level will not limit your ad targeting.
  Unfortunately, Google hasn’t released any reporting to help you understand when local extensions appear and how they affect your performance. Make sure to test your text ads and set your geo-targeting options properly as you transition over.
  .
• July 30, 2009 – New AdWords Interface
  Google redesigned the user interface and features in their web-based editor for AdWords. Reaction was mixed, according to some polls.
  ..
  Most notable was the addition of the Opportunities tab, which pulls together a number of tools and automatically suggests changes or additions to advertisers accounts. Devin Sandoz said that this is a key area for 2010, which means we can expect to see more features.Right now, the tab primarily presents suggestions for keyword additions.
  .
  The relevance of these words varies wildly, so be careful with your additions and make sure to mine your search queries.
  .
• August 3, 2009 – Bid Simulator Launch
  Google new tool to estimate impressions, clicks and costs at different bids (click to enlarge). The data, calculated on a rolling 7 day basis and only for higher volume keywords, is an unusual move by Google to increase transparency into the bidding process.
  .
  You can see the potential (though theoretical) trade offs between impressions, clicks, CPC and total cost at various Max CPCs. As Hal Varian explains in another great video, you have to look at the incremental cost and profit per click, not just the potential traffic change.
  .
  This, combined with Google’s research showing that conversion rate doesn’t vary by position, can help you make more informed bidding decisions. Of course, you still need to optimize your Quality Score. For more detailed analysis, check out our article on Search Engine Land..
  .
• August 6, 2009 – Google Moves Paid Ads Closer to Organic Listings
  Ads on the right side of the search results are now closer to organic listings. Previously, ads were set to a fluid width. As a user’s browser screen stretched, the ads moved further away from the organic listings, staying close to the scroll bar.
  .
  Now, the ads stay fixed to the right side of the organic search results regardless of browser window size. While there aren’t any hard statistics, it’s likely that paid search clickthroughs increased at the expense of organic results.
  .
• September 17, 2009 – The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is Integrated on the Content Network
  DoubleClick Ad Exchange sites are now part of the Content Network. Google has been aggressively pursuing the display ad market, first with its acquisition of DoubleClick and then with the introduction of the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
  .
  Now, that exchange is connected to the Google Content Network (sites which run AdSense).  This vastly increases the inventory of sites that your content network targeted ads could show up on. Make sure you run you run regular placement reports to see how these new sites could affect your performance and exclude sites where appropriate.
  .
  To learn more about the content network, download David Szetela’s book, Customers Now..
  .
• September 30, 2009 – Viewthrough Conversion on the Content Network
  New reporting about “where your ad is seen, but not immediately clicked on”. As part of Google’s expansion into display, they’re ramping up measurement and analytics. Viewthrough reporting attempts to show the value of an impression to conversions.
  .
  There are two key limitations: first, there is no proof that a user looked at your ad. Second, it requires that you have AdWords conversion tagging. Proceed with caution…
  .
• October 2, 2009 – Google Increases Advertiser Bans
  Google permanently bans advertisers “who’ve submitted multiple sites that violate our landing page quality guidelines”. A number of advertisers were excluded from AdWords in a short period of time, according to reporting by Barry Schwartz on Search Engine Land.
  .
  Some have speculated that these changes were related to Google’s introduction of product ads through product extensions (see below) and specific types of websites and landing pages. There’s no official word from Google on their blog.
  .
  This post provides a good process for appealing landing page Quality Scores.
  .
• October 29, 2009 – New AdWords Comparison Ads
  AdWords Comparison Ads launch for mortgage queries (click to enlarge). Google has offered search suggestions and other forms of query refinement options for a long time. Now, they’re extended that concept into a structured experience starting in the mortgage/refinancing industry.
  .
  The new tool features a number of options to drill down: location, home price and income to name a few. The ads only show up in a limited number of areas and advertiser participation is currently by invitation only. They haven’t shared any details of how this will develop next or what kind of reporting will be offered. If you advertise in one of these industries, I suggest you contact your sales rep for more details.
  .
  Like the changes on the local business ads, Google is pulling more of the site experience to the SERPs themselves. If your business relies heavily on these kinds of tools (Progressive, I’m looking at you), you’ll want to keep an eye on how these ad formats change. You may have to differentiate less on tools and more on content..
  .
• November 3, 2009 – Ad Sitelinks in AdWords
  Some searches will produce ads that display up to 4 additional display URLs can be shown for “for ads that meet certain quality criteria” (click to enlarge). These are similar to the sitelinks you see in organic search listings, but you can explicitly choose which landing pages and text are eligible to be displayed (up to 10).
  .
  To setup ad extensions, click on the Campaign Settings tab and go to the “Show additional links to my site” section under “Ad extensions”.
  .
  The conditions that trigger these new ads are still somewhat unclear. A few things seem to be true: it’s for ads in the preferred position (above the free results) and those with a substantially better clickthrough than other ads. This is likely to be primarily brand terms.
  .
  Like many of the other changes to AdWords, reporting features to analyze these new options aren’t yet available. I’ve heard anecdotal evidence from my conversations at SES Chicago that the links improve conversion rate. Of course, you’ll want to be mindful of how these links push down organic results and potentially cannibalize that channel..
  .
• November 11th and 24, 2009 – Product Extensions Open to All
  Product images, titles and prices from Google Merchant Center appear alongside traditional text ads (click to enlarge). This feature links Google Merchant Center (previously Google Base) to AdWords as an ad extension, similar to site links.
  .
  This is in addition to the Product Listing Ads announced earlier. Product extensions are charged on a CPC basis, while product listing ads are charged on a CPA basis. Product extensions are open to everyone, but product listing are currently in closed beta.
  .
  This is, perhaps, the most aggressive step Google has taken in their New Ads Formats Initiative (see The Future of AdWords below). According to Google’s own blog post, some companies have seen a 10% CTR increase with product extensions.
  .
  This has two practical implications. First, those extra clicks can only come from 3 places: organic listings, competitor ads, or users who wouldn’t have clicked on any ad at all. In the case of the first two, you could lose (or win) clicks, depending on where you show up on the SERP vs. yoru competitors. Given what a strong component clickthrough rate plays in Quality Score and ultimately your CPC, you want to keep an eye on it.
  .
  Second, (and this is speculation) it’s possible that the people who click on an image ad may convert better for your business than those who click on a text ad. If they can see exactly what they want before they get to your site, they may be better qualified.
  .
  The bottom line is that this is Google’s game, these ads aren’t going away anytime soon and you’ll need to run experiments to see how it works for you..
  

Here’s an alternate version of the events listed in an interactive timeline:

.

The Future of AdWords

Late in November, Google announced their “AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative” and declared “This initiative is Google’s next chapter in search advertising and over the next year it’ll be a major focus for AdWords”.

At SES Chicago, I asked Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager for AdWords, about the guiding principles behind the initiative. He pointed to the evolution of organic search results, which have increasingly blended text ads with videos, images and news content.

While those changes occurred, PPC ads have largely remained text only. It’s possible that ads may not get clicked on as often.And now, they’re experimenting with videos, product extensions & location specific information to counteract the effect. For advertisers, this means you can take your existing campaign and Google will attach relevant information “when it makes sense.”

I think this is an important analogy which tips Google’s hand a bit about where AdWords is going. The evolution of the organic listings with universal search producing blended listings is likely to slowly make its way into the paid ads. Could personalized text ads be far behind? We already have session based retargeting with Broad Match (here and here).

It now means your performance has much more to do with the context of the SERP than ever before. Were you competing against product ads? Which sitelink did someone click? Are you fighting against a more robust comparison ad?

2010 is going to be a tougher year for AdWords advertisers. How are you planning to keep up?

No related posts.

The official top 9 best loved posts from the ClickEquations blog for 2009:

• The Economics of Quality Score
• Living In The Past: 10 Signs Your PPC Got Stuck in 2003.
• Broad Match is a Fishing Tool and You Should Be A Hunter.
• Keyword Suggestion: Think Like and SEO for PPC.
• Surprise: Bids Don’t Determine Your CPC.
• A Guide To Bidding on Brand Terms.
• Avinash’s Favorite PPC Tips.
• Why Adwords isn’t Good Enough.
• Introducing The DeTweet

Note that posts originally a part of a series were not eligible for this year’s awards. A separate ‘best series’ category has been created and winners shall be announced separately.

Related posts:

1. Top 3 Blog Post Series of 2009 As promised, we continued counting ballots, and now can announce...

The National Retail Federation estimates that 11 million more people planned to shop on Cyber Monday, a 14% over last year. This is just the beginning of the holiday rush. If you optimize now, you can make the most of the holiday season. Here are our 5 favorite retail cures:

1. Separate Out Your Brand Terms From Brand Plus Terms – Some of the fastest rising queries this holiday weekend were “Walmart Black Friday” and “Target Black Friday Deals Online”.
   .
   These are “brand plus” terms: some version of your brand modified. It’s the plus part of these search queries that can skew your performance and analysis.
   .
   Is a search for “walmart online” as valuable as “walmart black friday deals” or “walmart bath towels”? Can you effectively target them all with one text ad? Would you want to send all to the same landing page?
   .
   The answer to all three is, obviously, not. Many retailers lump together their brand terms with category terms with brand ones (ex: a Bath Towels ad group that includes “walmart bath towels”) or fail to separate out obviously different brand terms (ex: www.walmart.com).
   .
   Improve your targeting and analysis by separating your brand terms into unique ad groups and campaigns. Start here for some ideas.
   .
2. Tag and Analyze Multiple Conversion Events – Google’s Retail blog reported an interesting trend that “searches for “printable coupons” on Thanksgiving and Black Friday were up about 50% over last year. Google Search was also used to develop in-store shopping strategies, as “Walmart Black Friday Store Map” surfaced as a fastest rising term, blurring the lines between online and in-store shopping.”
   .
   This isn’t surprising to anyone who regularly reviews their search queries (see point #3), but it can be a real eye opener to exec who see a surge in traffic (and cost), but a decrease in conversions.
   .
   If you just analyze online sales, then the knee jerk reaction is to decrease bids as soon as conversions go down or pause words that don’t convert. But, you could be analyzing only a part of the value.
   .
   Chances are you have micro-conversions on your site that correspond to some value in offline sales or future sales:
   1. Printable Store Maps or Circulars
   2. Email Newsletter Signup
   3. Store Locators
   4. Find Local Ads
      .

   Each of these events need to be tagged and considered when you’re evaluating the effectiveness of your account. Sure, not everyone is as valuable as an online sale. And, yes, you can’t always perfectly tie them to revenue. That’s okay. Awareness is the first step.
   .
   Once you know, you can at least make an educated guess about the value/cost of keeping these keywords live. Plus, you now have a real reason and focus on closing your offline/online analytics gap.

3. Mine Your Search Queries – Holidays tend to bring out very specific search queries. Queries for deals, hours and hot products pop up more rapidly than in the rest of the year. Chances are that you’re using Broad or Phrase match. It’s almost a certainty, then, that you’re paying for searchers you can’t convert.
   .
   Take the time now to mine your search queries, the actual words someone types, not just the keywords you buy. Sort the list of your queries by cost and add the irrelevant ones to your negative keyword list. It’s one of the easiest ways to cut waste from your holiday campaigns.
   .
   For more info, check out our search query post or the Master Search Queries video.
   .
4. Check Your Lost Impression Share Due To Budget – Impression Share displays the percentage of the time that your ads were displayed to people who entered search queries which match your keywords (at their specified match types). It’s a Google only metric that is reported at the campaign level.
   .
   There are 3 additional diagnostic metrics that help you understand why you’re losing Impressions. Lost Impression Share (IS) Budget tells you when you lost impressions due to a campaign being underfunded. This is rarely a concern most of the time, but as the volume of online shopping increase, you could be hitting your caps. It’s an easy fix: if the campaign is profitable, increase the cap.
   .
   To learn where to find Impression Share and how to analyze, check out our Impression Share blog posts and white paper.
   .
5. Kill Underperforming Text Ads – Clickthrough rate (CTR) is one of the biggest factors in Quality Score and your text ads are far and away the biggest driver of CTR. Plus, you’re messaging will change as the holiday shopping season progresses.
   .
   Now’s the time to review your past text ads tests and weed out any underperformers. If you’re not already text ad testing, it’s the perfect time to launch some.

Worried that you’ve wasted money on Cyber Monday? There’s still time to optimize before the real Cyber Monday. According to research done by Comscore and the National Retail Federation, the biggest online shopping day hasn’t fallen on the Monday after Thanksgiving:

Researchers predict that Monday, December 7th will be the biggest for sales this year. Time to start optimizing…

No related posts.

The first is with Greg Meyers, who recently published Part-I of a discussion of Paid search: art or science?

An Excerpt:

“There is a truth to the way the search engines work, and there is an approach to managing paid search that aligns with this truth. It’s knowable and provable and repeatable. It seems that many of the so-called ideologies out there lack this grounding. The church of ‘keyword expansion’ for example tends to lack a grasp of how keyword matching really works. The church of ‘position 1 or 2′ fails the math test. The church of ‘relevance’ or ‘holistic’ is the most faith-based of them all.There’s no substitute for sharp strategy in PPC. Which segments should you target? Which products should you promote first? Should you build out the search network or the content network first? That kind of planning is based in good data, but your own human intuition and experience still have to rule.” Read the entire interview…

The next was with Garry Przyklenk of PPC-Advice, where we discuss bid management, revenue attribution, and paid search reporting.

An Excerpt:

“We would agree with your premise that the data driving a whole range of assumptions about both bid management tools and their use is generally inadequate.  Beyond that, the role of bidding within campaigns is generally misunderstood.  People seem to wish bidding would cure or resolve a huge range of issues that it can’t and won’t.  And some vendors seem willing to feed into that desire.  When you combine these two issues you get a lot of poorly designed bidding solutions pretending that they’re PPC cure-alls.  It’s a sorry state of affairs.” Read the entire interview…

Thanks to Greg and Garry for their time and interest.

If you’ve got a PPC blog and would like to talk about PPC, or review ClickEquations, let us know!

PS: If you like these, here’s one from a few month ago with Manoj Jasra at WebAnalyticsWorld.

No related posts.

Quality Score is just as important at keywords and bids in PPC, but isn’t nearly as well understood. In this webinar you’ll find thorough explanation of what Quality Score is, what it means and how you can improve yours.

If you like the webinar, check out our Quality Score white paper.

Related posts:

1. The Preface: Quality Score in High Resolution Quality Score is a relatively new and not broadly understood...
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3. Chapter 1: Quality Score in High Resolution This post is from the upcoming ebook Google Adwords Quality...

But the truth is that keywords are just a means to an end; they’re little magnets sent out there to attract search queries. And if you’re only able to review reports and make decisions at a keyword level, you’re not getting a very accurate or informative picture of what’s really happening in your account – so you’re almost certainly making bad decisions and not optimizing your results.”

That’s a snipped of the Craig Danuloff’s interview with Josh Dreller, paid search columnist at Search Engine Land and VP at Fuor Digital, on the topic of query mining. He covers a broad range of questions:

• Where can an SEM pro go to find search query data?
• Why did you invest so much time into building query reports into ClickEquations?
• Why do you hate Broad Match so much?
• I’m supportive of your suggestion of an Include match type. Can you sum up your thoughts on this for the readers?
• What is the best way to organize search queries to gather insights for optimization?
• What are some best practices to utilize once you’ve analyzed the query data?

Check out the full article.

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1. Search Query Webinar Recording & Another Key Tip If you missed our recent webinar, Master Search Queries to...

Of course, a lot of folks had their training budgets cut due to the economy. Thus, I present our virtual conference: 5 Videos to Boost Your Paid Search. It includes a recording of our latest webinar, “Marketing During A Recession: From Pre-Click to Post-Click” with Bryan Eisenberg of FutureNow and David Brussin of Monetate.

If you like these, join us on Thursday, September 24th for our free SEMPO webinar: Quality Score in High Resolution.

Marketing During a Recession: From Pre-Click to Post-Click

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Master Search Queries to Decrease Cost and Increase Conversions

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PPC Analytics Tips from Avinash Kaushik

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High Resolution PPC

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Quality Score: The Secret Factor in PPC Success

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Don’t forget to sign up for our free SEMPO webinar: Quality Score in High Resolution.

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1. Free Content to Learn Paid Search Hi, this is Alex Cohen, the Marketing Manager for ClickEquations. ...

First, we’ll be at OMMA in New York City, with a booth at the OMMA Global Show. Stop by to say hello or catch a demo of ClickEquations.

Mid-week, ClickEquations CEO Lucinda Holt will be in Las Vegas at Shop.org. No booth for us this year, but if you’ll be there and would like to talk, contact us at info@clickequations.com and we’ll set something up.

On Weds and Thursday I’ll be in Los Angeles at the PPC-Summit. I’m speaking on Weds afternoon about Strategies and Tactics for AdWords.

If you want to get some advanced PPC training I think the two day event will be great. To arrange a discussion or meeting while I’m on the west coast – shoot us an email (info@clickequations.com) and we’ll set something up.

Of none of these shows match your travel plans, SMX-East is just a few weeks away…

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Even if they had a lot of impressions and a good number of clicks, it’s been hard to cut them loose, due to the nagging thought that ‘if they were only up higher, those better converting people would click them and everything would be alright.”

Or so we (at least I) always thought.

But as I was staring at a long list of keywords over the weekend, pondering bid strategies (yes, I know how to have fun) it occurred to me that Google’s recent claim that conversion rate don’t vary (much) by position should take this worry away. There really aren’t a higher class of frequent buyers to meet higher up the page.

It’s still a little hard to believe. But I’m trying.

For background on all this, check out the article I wrote on SearchEngineLand discussing the recent Google announcement.

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On September 16, Craig Danuloff (ClickEquations President & Founder) will join experts Bryan Eisenberg of FutureNow and David Brussin of Monetate for a free webinar: Recession Marketing: From Pre-Click to Post-Click

Date: September 16, 2009. Time: Noon, EDT.
The webinar is free but space is limited so if you plan to attend we encourage you to register now.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will help you to synchronize your efforts, from traffic acquisition, through the sales funnel, to closing. You’ll get advice from experts and company founders including:

• How persona marketing works, from end-to-end, even when times are tough
• Practical tips for using your existing analytics data to assess what segmented marketing can do for your bottom line
• Why there’s never been a better time to steal market share from your competitors

The Experts

• Craig Danuloff will explain SEM techniques for targeting profitable customers via search campaign design and deep analytics.
• David Brussin will present the art and science of deriving and acting upon persona information in the post-click experience.
• Bryan Eisenberg will discuss how “recession marketing” can steal market share from your competitors in this challenging economy.

Register Now

Registration is free. Please click here to register online. If you have any questions about our webinars, please contact us.

About the Presenters

• Bryan Eisenberg: Chief Persuasion Officer and Co-founder, Future Now, Inc. Bryan is the author of several marketing bestsellers, including: Call to Action; Waiting For Your Cat To Bark; and Always Be Testing.
• Craig Danuloff: President and Founder of ClickEquations, Inc. Craig is a leading expert on pay per click marketing and a frequent speaker at industry events such as SMX.
• David Brussin: CEO and Co-founder of Monetate, Inc. David is an author and experienced public speaker who works with leading edge e-retailers to perfect post-click marketing strategies.

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