Which is better (A or B)?

Jim Jansen

College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University

jjansen@ist.psu.edu

• Today, we are talking ads

• And, how to make them better

Think of this as product or service lines (e.g., cars vs. trucks, cakes vs. cookies, etc.)

Think of this as your SMB (i.e., car dealer, bakery, etc.).

Think of this as individual product or service (Kia Spectra, bran muffin, etc.)

Today we again focus on the ads, which are the welcome, the directions, and the path to your customer’s business

Note that these are called *Ad groups*, although much of the focus has been on keywords. The ads are good ways to further refine our campaigns

For example, …

This topically organized Ad group is an excellent place to start. But, can we get better?

Source: 21 Secret Truths of High-Resolution PPC – Click Equations

Probably yes, by now shifting the focus from the keywords to the ads.

We now have 3 Ad groups

Much tighter shot group (i.e., better demographic targeting on potential customers)

More Ad groups cost you no money! and very little additional time.

• Okay, let’s talk about these ads and making them the focus of structuring our campaigns

Writing Keywords Ads

• Your ad has three goals, which are:– Generating clicks from potential customers– Discouraging clicks from unlikely customers– Setting customer expectations for the landing

page (i.e., want a positive customer experience)

Think of Each Line As Having a Separate Goal/Being a ComponentThere are four components to a search engine

marketing ad. – The Headline: grabs the user’s attention– The Description Line: clearly defines the product or

service you have to offer, and how it will meet the need indicated by a user’s search.

– The “Call to Action”: tells the customer what to do after they click on your ad and land on your Web site.

– URL: establishes trust and is relevant

Stuff that we can ad to (or help) our Ads …

• Google Local Business - https://www.google.com/local/add/login

• Google Checkout - https://checkout.google.com/seller/?hl=en&gl=GB

Stuff that we can ad to (or help) our Ads …

• Google Local Business - https://www.google.com/local/add/login

• Google Checkout - https://checkout.google.com/seller/?hl=en&gl=GB

Why do we want this?

Advertising blockade – if we are in both

organic and sponsored listing,

CTR on both increases.

Stuff that we can ad to (or help) our Ads …

• Google Local Business - https://www.google.com/local/add/login

• Google Checkout - https://checkout.google.com/seller/?hl=en&gl=GB

Why do we want this?

Grabs the searcher’s attention on a

crowded SERP.

Okay, but what about the ad itself?

• Sometimes very small changes can make a difference.

• Let’s look at two examples …

Example Comparison 1

Winning Ad has as 135% greater CTR and 42% greater CR than Losing Ad. What’s the difference?

Why? The … implies more information.

Source: http://www.googlelady.com/416/10-killer-headline-adwords-tips/

Example Comparison 2

Winning Ad has as 180% greater CTR than Losing Ad. What’s the difference?

Why? The change from Changes to Change moves from automatic (i.e., Changes) to manual (i.e., Change).

Source: http://www.googlelady.com/416/10-killer-headline-adwords-tips/

Okay, but endless possible changes. Where do I begin?

• See what other folks have done. Why reinvent the wheel? It might work for you!

• See (in addition to the presentations for Lesson 07 and 09):– http://www.googlelady.com/416/10-killer-

headline-adwords-tips/– http://blog.frogbody.com/frogblog/2006/02/

a_tip_on_writin.html– http://www.searchenginejournal.com/9-tips-to-

write-effective-google-adwords-copy/8279/

• Even if you implement these techniques, how do I know if it is an improvement?

A/B testing with Ads

• this is a capability that you can use to set up two ads (or more!), running simultaneously, for the same set of keywords.

• An A/B experiment allows you to test the performance of two (or more!) entirely different versions of an ad for a set of keywords

• Start with your original test ad -- the ad whose content you want to test

• then create an alternate version of an ad for that Ad group

What does that look like?

Unless you are getting a lot of impressions, hold it to two ads

Set-up two ads in the same Ad groupThen after a set time, compare your metrics

How do I do that?

A/B Testing for Ads

• Once you have your two ads, you can let them run for a period of time, then see which one is performing the best (i.e., CTR and CR)

• Then, you get rid of the less performing ad and replace it with another ad to test

• Test, test, test with the goal of Improvement, improvement, improvement!

Question there, Jansen?

How do I know that the ads are really performing differently?

http://www.websharedesign.com/tools/ppc-ad-split-testing-tool/

You do a split test analysis (think back to one of your stat courses!) – shows whether or not there really is a difference between two ads.

A / B Testing of Ads Exercise1. Review the material that we have covered in class and

that is available on the Web on writing ads.2. Identify some ad creating tactics that you believe will

work for your client.3. Take at least one (or more) of the Ad groups that you

are responsible for and design a second ad (Note: you can design more ads than two, just pause them.)

4. Experiment with http://www.websharedesign.com/tools/ppc-ad-split-testing-tool/ (or other tools) and see what the ballpark range of CTR and CR are needed to get a statistically significant difference.

5. After finished with this exercise, team leaders, the remaining lesson is yours.

Thank you!(reminder to do your daily logs)

Jim Jansen

College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University

jjansen@ist.psu.edu