How to Beat the Odds in AdWords with Competitive

Intelligence

#PPCcompetition

Today’s Presenters

Navah HopkinsCustomer Success Specialist,

WordStream

@navahf

Michael StrickerMarketing Director,

SEMrush

@RadioMS

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#PPCcompetition

Sleuthing for Data

What does it take to pass

a PPC audit?(and can I?)

Account AuditsBenchmarking Success

and Avoiding Set-Backs

Focused Analysis - Audit Campaigns Regularly!

• Campaign Health

• Ad Group Size and Focus

• Keywords, Match-types, and Bidding

#PPCcompetition

Audit Competitors – Early and Often!

• SWOT Analysis

• what to avoid

• what to emulate

• GOAL: Data-based decisions

#PPCcompetition

Audit Competitors – Budget Allocation

• Audit your Competitors, too!

• SWOT Analysis

• what to avoid

• what to emulate

• GOAL: Data-based decisions

#PPCcompetition

Audit Competitors – Traffic VS Traffic Price

• Audit your Competitors, too!

• SWOT Analysis

• what to avoid

• what to emulate

• GOAL: Data-based decisions

#PPCcompetition

Audit Competitors – Keywords and Traffic Cost

• Keywords and Traffic Cost

Domains’ Total AdWords Keywords and Traffic Cost

#PPCcompetition

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

1,800,000

Cars.com Edmunds.com AutoTrader.com CarGurus.com KBB.com

Keywords

Traffic Cost

• Traffic and Traffic Cost

Competitor Domains’ Traffic and Cost for that Traffic

#PPCcompetition

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

1,800,000

Cars.com Edmunds.com AutoTrader.com CarGurus.com KBB.com

Traffic

Traffic Cost

Audit Competitors – Traffic and Traffic Cost

• Cost / Keyword and Cost / Traffic

Competitors Cost / Keyword and Cost / Unit of Traffic

#PPCcompetition

Audit Competitors – Cost per Traffic Unit

$0.00

$2.00

$4.00

$6.00

$8.00

$10.00

$12.00

$14.00

Cars.com Edmunds.com AutoTrader.com CarGurus.com KBB.com

Cost/Keyword

Cost/Unit of Traffic

How much time/money

should I spend on PPC?

Time is MoneySpend Both, Wisely

How Much Time Should I Spend on PPC?

• How much time are you spending on PPC?

• How much time is ideal?

#PPCcompetition

How Much Time Should I Spend on PPC?

• Save Time to Go Beyond AdWords Dashboard:

• Prepare Reports

• Check competition’s budgets and efficiencies

• Total Spend

• Spend per Keywords

• Spend per Unit of Traffic

• Research new Keywords that Work!

#PPCcompetition

How Much Time Should I Spend on PPC?

• Can I get good results with 20 minutes per day?

#PPCcompetition

Spend Your Budget Wisely – Including Time!

• 20 minute PPC work week = work smart, not hard

• Know your industry and optimize for transactions

• Leverage Targeting and Auto-bidding

• Invest in a robust negative keyword list

• Chase tail (long-tail that is!)

#PPCcompetition

#PPCcompetition

http://bit.ly/1yg3jGH

Where should my PPC

focus be, and am I

focused enough?

AdWords vs. BingWhich is For Me?

Is there a Place for Both?

• Cons of AdWords-only approach?

• Pros of an integrated approach?

• Trade-offs? Time? Return?

• How will you know when you need more network?

#PPCcompetition

How do I generate action

items from data?

Turn Data

into Action

How Do I Keep From Downing in Data?

• Think ROIs, KPIs (CPA) VS ‘noisy’ metrics

• Automate data reports

• Leverage competitor dataResearch Paid KWs that perform – for others! Save time, effort, money. Emulate winners; shun losers

• Triple Witching ▲ Ads Traffic rising ▲ Ads Keywords rising▼ while Ads Traffic Price falls

• Cost / Keyword instead of number of Keywords

• Cost / Traffic Unit (CPC) instead of bid rates

#PPCcompetition

• Ad A• 2,423 Impressions

• 453 clicks (1.4% CTR)

• Average Position: 2.8

• Ad B• 36,223 Impressions

• 760 clicks (2.1% CTR)

• Average Position: 3.0

Pick the Winner

#PPCcompetition

•

• SEMrush new PLA Tool with rapid updates on popular items prices, images, appearance in SERPs.

Metrics That Move You – Google Shopping

#PPCcompetition

Metrics That Move You

• Google Trends

• The case of the disappearing skirt

• The case of the changing lexicon

• Extensions give you more real estate and more user interaction data

#PPCcompetition

Turning Data into Action Items

• Focus on transactional users VS aspirational users

Go beyond “money words” to detect transactional

intent with “buy” words. (See the Ebook for a list!)

• ID winners; steal KWs; steal Ads text; counter offers;

price check

• High impressions + low CTR = Negative Keywords are

needed!

• CPA tinkering based on event and device trends

#PPCcompetition

I got got the click –

now what?

Highway to the

Danger ZoneWhen Landing Pages Don’t Convert

Bad-News Bears Landing Pages

#PPCcompetition

Strong Landing Pages…

Deliver on the ad’s promise.

Adding keywords from the PPC campaign led to 144% increase in conversions for a marketing solutions company.

Are conversion focused – across all devices!

Mobile optimized landing pages led to 153% increase in conversions for Deluxe.

Aren’t one size fits all.

Companies with 40+ landing pages get 12X more leads than those with 5 or less.

#PPCcompetition

Examples of Strong Landing Pages

#PPCcompetition

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Thanks for Joining Us!

Keep Learning!(It’s free!)

EBook: How to Beat the Odds in AdWords with Competitive Intelligence

Article: The Great Debate: Google AdWords vs. Bing Ads

Infographic: Google AdWords Vs Yahoo Bing Network

Infographic: 18 Mind-Blowing Landing Page Stats

Worksheet: The 20- Minute PPC Work Week Checklist

AdWords Performance Grader

AdWords Landing Page Grader

#PPCcompetition

Questions?

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We’d love to hear from you!

marketingteam@wordstream.com

michael.stricker@semrush.com