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Understanding the Google Machine Ryan Hutchings

Ryan Hutchings, Vacation Roost

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Ryan Hutchings, Director of Online Marketing for Vacation Roost, talks about paid search best practices at March 2012 SLCSEM.org event.

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Page 1: Ryan Hutchings, Vacation Roost

Understanding the Google Machine

Ryan Hutchings

Page 2: Ryan Hutchings, Vacation Roost

THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 2

Page 3: Ryan Hutchings, Vacation Roost

• Online wholesaler of vacation rentals and vacation packages

• Industry with 1 huge player, and lots of small ones

• Large PPC Budget - $2 Million/year– 160,000+ keywords, 4 accounts, 18 websites

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Page 4: Ryan Hutchings, Vacation Roost

Step 1: Break the System• Broke campaigns into 100’s of

adgroups– Match specific, keyword specific, 3-5 keywords

per group– Even similar keywords got separate adgroups

• i.e. “park city cabins” vs. “park city cabins for rent” vs. “park city cabin rentals”

– Do this for every type of lodging we offer- hotels, condos, cabins, homes, townhomes, villas, chalets, etc…

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Results:• Cross adgroup confusion

– Ads from one ad group showing up for another, keywords not triggering matched queries (even exact match)

– Cross campaign confusion– Negative keyword lists not being respected at campaign levels

• Complaints to Google, “account reps” couldn’t really help• Infamous “the system isn’t designed to work that way”

from Google people• Magically got a new account team, dedicated to us with

an adwords, analytics and mid-management specialist

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Page 6: Ryan Hutchings, Vacation Roost

Step 2: Digging into Interpretation Effect• Google creates “buckets” for industries.

The system operates within these “buckets” and will “interpret on your behalf”.– Cabin means condo, hotels, lodging, vacation

rental, private home, etc…

• Solution was to manage/insert 10’s of thousands of negative keywords to force Adwords to respect keyword and override interpretation

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Page 7: Ryan Hutchings, Vacation Roost

What does this all mean?

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Double Rainbow somewhere

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Interpretation Drives Google Systems and Product Development

1. Organic and Search are similar in intent

2. Stay on top of new features/trends to anticipate both arenas

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 9

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 10

• Google will continue to push out new features and merge the line between paid and non-paid spots

• Keeping visitors on Google as long as possible in in their best interest- in both paid and organic results

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 11

• Location – places integration• Call – phone numbers, click to call• Sitelink – deep links• Product – Product feed integration• Social – Google+ integration

Dominate the paid space by utilizing each of these, and you can anticipate organic results having the same effect.

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 12

Stay up to date with what you see

1. Your own industry searches

2. Popular changing industry searches:– “ipod touch”, “dell latitude”– “las vegas hotels”– “credit cards”

• Do not do “ppc management” – apparently they arent interested in having good ppc ads

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 13

Coming Down the Road in PPC

1. Google Advisor/Finders

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 15

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 16

Coming Down the Road in PPC

1. Google Advisor/Finders

2. Offer Extensions

3. Video Ad Extensions

4. Lead Form Extension

5. Extended Ad Headlines (ad and domain name)

http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/ for information on the latest tests, trends and status of new releases

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THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 17

1. Beware of your “interpretation bucket” – check to see if your ad is showing via Google’s tool

2. Stay up-to-date with industry searches + popular terms1. Look for sign in both organic and paid

3. Utilize every single extension available