©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

10 Lessons Learned About Paid Search

David Szetela, Clix Marketing

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

1:00 PM EDT

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

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Marin Search Marketer

• Next-generation paid search management application

• Designed by and for search experts

• For advertisers > $50K/mo

• Free 30-day trial; works with existing URLs

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

David Szetela

• Contributor to Search Engine Land

• Founded PPC Ad Agency Clix Marketing in 2003, following a 25-year career in technology sales and marketing

• Author of two lessons in SEMPO’s Advanced Search Advertising course

• Frequent speaker at industry conferences such as Search Marketing Expo

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

1. Mixed Search and Content Campaigns

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1. Mixed Search and Content Campaigns

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

2. Believing Search Keywords = Content Keywords

• Keywords are not discrete entities

• Keywords describe target sites – not your

product/service

• Keywords + Ad Text = one of 594 Themes

• No more than 20-40 keywords per ad group

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

2. Believing Search Keywords = Content Keywords (cont)

• Match types are irrelevant (except

negative)

• Individual keyword bids are irrelevant

• Negative keywords are necessary

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

3. Ignorance about Content Ad Sites

• Google Placement Performance Reports are vital

• Show performance (clicks, conversions) by site where ads are served

• Eliminate poorly-performing sites w/Site Exclusion Tool – now with Topic and Page Type exclusion

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

4. Using Search Ads in Content Ad Groups

• Content ads need to stand out

• Yell, don’t whisper

• Be more competitive – e.g. free shipping

• Strong, explicit calls to action

• Test, test, test

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

5. Neglecting Long Tail Keywords

• Common stems (e.g. best, online), plus:• False plurals – widget’s, widgets’• Domains – www.widgets.com, widgets

com, ww widgets• Weird Delimiters - >, +, ‘• Competitor terms and domains –

Coyote Widgets, coyotewidgets.com

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6. Gigantic Ad Groups

• Too many unrelated keywords

• Often via abuse of keyword research tools

• Objective: every keyword appears in the ad copy

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

7. Writing Bad Search Ads

• Keyword in headline, then qualifier

• Benefits work better than features

• Tightly couple ad text with keywords and landing pages

• Test everything, big and small – e.g. caps in display url

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

Keyword in Title

Action Verb

Winning at Billards

Get the Must-read Secrets – Winning

At Billiards. Sign Up for Daily Emails!

www.PokerBlasts.com/Poker+Winning

Capitalized Words

More Action at EndExtra Words in Display URL

7a. Writing Great Ads

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

8. Landing on Home Pages

• Assume every visitor suffers from ADD

• You have just milliseconds to convince them “You’ve Come to the Right Place”

• Repeat search terms on landing pages

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Search Term: Gallery Wrapped Photo

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Search Term: Wedding Photo

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Search Term: Dog Portrait

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9. Complicated B2B Lead Forms

• Offer multiple contact options

• Neat, clean contact form

• Require the minimum info necessary

• Apologetic error trapping

• Autoresponder for immediate feedback

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

Search as % of Marketing Spending

Campaign Size /

Complexity

SEM management software

Agency

DIY / Excel

20K keywords$20K/mo

0% 50% 100%

1MM+ keywords; $1MM+/mo

10. Manual Bidding for Complex Campaigns

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

David Szetela

• Email: david@clixmarketing.com

• Company Blog: www.clixmarketing.com/blog

• Content Advertising Column: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=sew_experts/content_advert

©2006 Third Door Media, Inc.

Questions?

Email us:

webcasts@searchmarketingnow.com

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www.marinsoftware.com

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