Well, over the years, MozCon has evolved its schedule to include social, content and much more, just as the industry has. The speakers are hand picked by a committee at Moz each year and the 2014 line up included topics on:

• SEO
• Analytics
• Psychology
• Branding
• Social Media
• CRO
• Mobile
• Local SEO
• PR

That’s a heck of a list.

Why is PPC Here?

Short answer: because you can’t ignore all this red:
my presentation for MozCon, with the guidance of the MozCon queen, Erica McGillivray, we very intentionally chose Google Shopping and Product Listing Ads as the subject, because of its past close ties with SEO. In fact, when it first launched as Google Base, it was technically SEO. SEOs would go into Base, upload product feeds and see if they could get traffic from Froogle or Product Search, as it was called before it went to an entirely paid platform in October of 2012.

Nowadays, it’s called Google Shopping and it’s all paid – but the advancements and optimizations that are made through paid have serious SEO and content benefits. In fact a recent post on the YouMoz section on leveraging panda to get out of product feed jail, while geared towards SEO and content, could make a powerful argument for a site or navigation restructure using data or content from paid product feeds. So, yeah, PPC belongs. (Even if just a little bit.)

Disclosure: I did test the outline and the presentation itself on a few SEOs at Portent first. They seemed unharmed by it.

In fact, after I gave my presentation at MozCon, I had several SEOs come up and tell me they learned something or realized something about PPC that they didn’t know and that it was relevant to their own work. Heck, in the future they threatened to go to more sessions on paid search tracks, instead of always just going to SEO.

To me, that was a win.

Cross-Geeking Out

It also occurred to me that sometimes, we continually send people to the same conferences or they go and they stick only to the track that is their everyday specialty. I think we need to break that pattern. We should be challenging ourselves to cross-conference and learn more about the specialties we aren’t in everyday. I would rather have a session be over my head (like a super technical SEO session) and I have to stop and think about how all the pieces fit together rather than complain that the last session I was in wasn’t advanced enough.

Considering the rise of paid social and content promotion as well, we’re all blending into “marketers” more and more, away from that “specialists” label whether you like it or not.

So, I challenge you to go cross-geek out. Go to a social media session where they talk about their tools. Go to an SEO session where they talk about the changing SERP. Go to a content session where they talk about how they decide what to write. You’ll be glad you did. You might even make a friend.

I know I enjoyed MozCon as a PPC person. I cross-geeked out on social communities, web psychology, international SEO, semantic search and mobile SEO. What’s not to like about that?

How Did YOU Get In?

Yes, that was a real question and by more than one person. The only answer I have to give on that is “because I’m awesome.” And I can prove it:

Thanks, LinkedIn and my students at the University of Washington.
(The serious answer can be found on the Moz blog.)

Now What?

Feel free to check out the line up for MozCon 2015. (I’m not on there again, but that’s OK, I’ve started therapy.) Next time you go to a conference, be sure to read all of the sessions, not just your usual track. Sign up for webinars on different subjects, there are tons out there everyday and for every level. I went to one on email marketing the other day, something I’ve never really done! Ask someone you know or trust either in your field or at your company that is in another field to make a recommendation. And if you like to deal in volume, ask on Twitter, you’ll get a ton of responses.

And last, but not least, after 8 years and 8 months at Portent, I have to say that this is my last blog post on the Portent blog. This post is my 107th post in total. A distant 2nd to Ian’s 1500+ posts, but it’s a second place I’m proud of.

It has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of Portent. I will miss the culture, the work and most of all the staff, immensely.

Most of all, thank you for the opportunity to learn how to be a “pay per clip” marketer! It’s been a great ride.

To stalk me on future adventures, you can find me on Twitter @ebkendo

Live long and prosper!

The post PPC at mozCon – Challenge Yourself to Cross Geek Out appeared first on Portent.

Sure, it’s not the first idea of its kind, I’ve heard of CEO swaps and product teams rotating between each other while under the same company, but what made this particular swap different was the level of sharing and time that each party committed to in the pursuit of a dedication to the craft and polish of a trade- search.

How it worked

First, Toni came to the Portent office in Seattle last December. Then I went to the Tulos agency in Helsinki for two weeks in September (I couldn’t do a month – he was able to bring his family, I was not). Each Geek agreed to provide their own CPU/laptop and the agency provided a desk space, wifi/internet connection and inclusion in any team or company (non-client facing) meetings or trainings. It was agreed that neither Geek could “work” on any client account to avoid any working-visa type issues, but could consult, answer questions and give opinions. The Geek would carry on their own “home” workload (albeit 10 hrs ahead or behind) as best they could from the remote location. Additionally, since I work with multiple services as a division head, I was allowed to lightly interrogate the other services at Tulos, including SEO, CRO, Analytics and Operations (Yes, we signed NDAs too).

What did it cost?

• Airfare
• AirBnB
• A few meals (both agencies provided a meal per diem for the Geek)
• Team meals (taking the Geek out with the various teams)
• Some patience and understanding on behalf of the agency that was missing their Geek

In some respects, it was cheaper than attending a conference and far more interactive. Toni even did the math in his own blog post.

What did you learn?

That “what did you learn” is a terrible question, but when you reach a certain level of experience or expertise in a given industry, it becomes less “what did you learn” as in which lever to pull to get a 10% lift, and more of an expanding of experiences that will shape the bigger decisions and policies you put together that may affect a much larger group of people or even a company.

Personally, I got a first-hand look at not only another search agency, but how another ecosystem and culture worked. Now I get to steal and borrow everything I liked and they can do likewise. The biggest difference I think between sending a senior specialist that works directly on client accounts and a vice-president that oversees a division of four different channels (PPC, SEO, Social, Analytics) is that I have the ability to directly roll out and affect change in my own agency with a higher impact, faster. You might think that this seems like a mismatch of a swap but, honestly, I think we sent the right person to start with and so did they. I can tell you after 8+ years in the industry, I needed to not only see the inside of the “trenches” of these departments and the entire company, but without the distraction of my own agency.

Specifically, if you really want to know what I learned – it was actually quite a bit about Yandex from Tulos’ Yandex expert and got a tour of their ads UI and Direct Commander (AdWords Editor equivalent) as well as some very good insights around CRO and Analytics offerings and workflow.

And, most importantly, by not being constrained by clients or profit margins,  both companies were able to share knowledge and experience on a level that simply can’t be taught in a classroom of given at a conference.

Was it worth it?

Yes. When boiled down, this was a very simple, not overly complex program, but a part of a big idea that was technically executed upon by two individuals with a LinkedIn and Skype connection. After 8+ years in the industry, I can say that it was the kind of fresh air, reassurance and having the “brain space” to go and have this experience has not only renewed my interest in the industry, but in what I’m doing and what I’m bringing to my own agency as well.

Plus… we’re not alone in the world!

One thing we definitely appreciated on both sides of the world is how very alone we can feel sometimes with our own internal trials and tribulations, whether that’s with clients, keeping up with the industry or testing and trying new technologies and platforms. By getting to compare notes from an operational and business standpoint (I had coffee with their operations head), not just search, this feeling of “you know what, we’re doing just fine” was a welcome feeling on both sides. Obviously every company will have its quirks and problems and most often we get the filtered slant from our friends about their workplaces and colleagues with guarded information or a focus on the negative and here in the Geek Exchange, there’s very little hiding all that with a front row seat.

How can I get in on this?

You’re in luck, Toni and I want to expand the program and we’re looking for a few good agencies to conduct some experiments in this big idea with us.

Recommendations to consider first:

• Two weeks minimum commitment, anything less is not enough
• Ability to schedule any meetings/trainings at the agency being visited ahead of time. Block calendar time with the right people, even if you don’t have an agenda yet
• Able to provide an org chart/seating map to the Geek
• It’s good PR. You should promote it more formally on social channels and cross-promote
• Show off a little – if you’ve got a Geek that likes to speak or write, get them on your blog or as a guest presenter
• Geeks should be senior or above in competency of search knowledge and a top company contributor
• Geeks should also be able to influence or change department or company policies with their learnings

We’ll be launching a site later this month and I’ll be linking/posting my State of Search presentation here, so stay tuned for updates!

The post A Big Idea: The International Geek Exchange appeared first on Portent.

While bidding on the branded terms of your competitors is not an innovative practice, poor execution is something we see over and over again. Poor execution when buying on your competitor’s brand names is a terrific way to flush your ROAS down the drain.

When looking to go after this type of paid traffic, it is important to look at two sides of the paid search user journey- first, your account and campaign setup as the advertiser, and secondly, the experience visitors are taken through on your website after clicking your ad. Tying those two pieces together is your best chance for success when advertising on your competitor’s branded search terms.

Below are six actionable tips to implement immediately when bidding on competitor brand terms:

First, we will start in your PPC account.

1. Dedicate a specific budget

Set aside a portion of your account budget dedicated just for generating traffic from the brand names of your competitors.

When assigning this budget, go ahead and throw away your last-click attribution model and account-wide performance metrics— these types of campaigns typically convert at much lower rates than other traditional paid search ventures.

2. Separate competitor brands into individual campaigns

Search volumes are going to vary depending on the size discrepancy of your competition. If you set up one campaign to hold all competitor keywords, the competitors with the highest search volume will end up spending the highest portion of your campaign budget. Your largest and most searched for competitor should not necessarily dictate that they are your most important competitor.

To give those less searched for yet still important competitors a chance to have their customer base captured, segment each competitor into its own campaign to ensure your budget is spent under your control.

3. Customize ad copy

Find a way to make a connection between the users search query and your ad. It goes along with that whole relevance thing. Just because you are in the same industry as your competitor, a searcher may not know that and may have never heard of your company. This is your first chance to introduce yourself and create a connection between your company and your competitor.

Wading through the waters of Google’s trademark policy can be tricky when potentially dealing with trademarked brand names.

Finding a clever way to incorporate both your brand name and your competitor’s into an ad can position yourself for a huge win, leading to strong click through rates.

Once a user clicks on an ad, we must shift our attention to landing page experience.

4. Solidify a connection between your company and your competitor

Once a user hits your landing page, solidify the bridge between you and the specific competitor that user was searching for. Your visitor is familiar enough with your competition to search for their brand name- they probably know that competitor’s product line and the need it fulfills. Your ad created the connection for them, your landing page should drive home that connection.

5. Directly highlight why you are better

You know your product. You should know your competitor’s product. Now speak directly to why you are better. You have to convince a visitor who had the intent of learning about an alternative solution that you are the best option. Directly call out what you do better than a given competitor.
In an ideal world, set up an individual landing page designed around each competitor you plan on competing directly with.

6. Funnel to a soft conversion

Once your ad is clicked on, a connection is made, and persuasive messaging compels a visitor, look to convert them through a soft conversion. Free trials, whitepaper downloads, and free product samples are good ways to do this.

Provide great value to them at no charge— that can motivate visitors back to your core offerings, which is where you collect revenue and tie back value with your paid ads.

By following these six actionable tips, you can begin driving value on your competitor-based paid search terms.

What techniques have you used to drive value when bidding on competitor branded search terms?

The post Six Ways to Win on your Competitor’s Branded Keywords appeared first on Portent.

Here’s the problem. Most people don’t actually understand PPC. Many aren’t even sure what PPC is. In many minds it’s like the functionality of a TV set – you just turn it on and BAM, it works!

Well, surprisingly enough that’s not the case. That’s why I’m here to tell you about the basics of PPC and why you should care.

PPC….What is it?

Here is a handy-dandy (extremely brief) overview of what PPC is.

At its core, PPC is a 3 part process:

1. Advertisers create ads to show in search results and select the keywords they want associated with that ad.
2. Advertisers set how much they want to spend each day + how much they want to spend every time an ad is clicked.
3. Search engines show the ads when relevant searches that match the advertiser’s keywords are shown.

At its core, PPC is that simple.

However, these days the search engines are constantly tweaking search results. Here are just a few of the multitude of examples:

Traditional Result – Text ads at the top of the page and in the right navigation area

Product Listing Ads – Image ads with product name, price and source

Sitelinks – Links to pages on a given site that can be included as part of an ad

So what’s with all of the variations? Well, their outward goal is always to provide users with the best possible search experience. That said, ads are often very prominently displayed whenever possible in order to “contribute” to the experience. Why not enhance usability and make $50 billion dollars like Google did from advertising revenue in 2013¹, right?

Why should we care?

PPC marketing is the way of the future – now!

In all seriousness, marketers are beginning to understand the massive value in PPC marketing. A recent PPC Hero survey found that Internet advertising will make up nearly 25% of the entire ad market by 2015! Furthermore, 72% of PPC marketers have plans to increase PPC budget this year.

One massive reason for the increase in focus on PPC is how quantifiable it is as a marketing option. A whole plethora of key performance indicators can be easily tracked such as clicks, average cost per click, the conversion rate, and total conversions. Most importantly, revenue and return can be tracked in almost real time.

PPC is also great from a branding perspective.  Why make it hard for customers to find you? For a much lower price than you pay for non-branded terms, you can get top branded paid results to accompany a top branded organic listing. On that note, if there’s a short-term slogan, sale, or incentive, that can also be easily advertised via branded.

Microsoft is a great example of maximizing available branded real estate. They use sitelink extensions (both paid and organic) and are not afraid to display incentives with non-branded terms.

Naturally, if competitors are bidding on your branded terms you don’t want them to have the top spot and steal traffic. Luckily search engines tend to give an advantage to brands. Plus, it’s way cheaper to bid on your brand than it is for competitors to pay to show up for your branded terms.

What’s the magic tonic that brings ads to life?

We’ve now covered what PPC is and why it’s important. Let’s now delve into how the PPC magic is created.

Actually, for most advertising platforms, it’s pretty simple. Each domain (www.yoururl.com) normally has 1 domain per account (more are possible, but not advised). Under this account, there is a campaign. Let’s use bedding as an example. A campaign is composed of a set of ad groups that share a common overall theme, such as “Pillows” or “Blankets.” The ad groups (an ad group contains ads, keywords, and bids) share a budget, targeting based on geographic location, and some other settings. They hold settings like daily budget and ad scheduling. In general, campaigns organize services or products you offer.

Below the campaign level is the ad group. The ad group level is where product type is distinguished. Using our bedding example one group could contain “Down Blankets” with another one covering “Fleece Blankets.” Specific keywords, ads, and bids fold up into each ad group.

The final level is ads and keywords themselves. When searched for, the keywords push to an ad. Settings for how exact a search query must be in order for the ad to display can easily be modified by campaign, ad group, or even individual ad, those are called match types.

Here’s a visual aide to clarify the typical levels of a given account:

Recap

Here’s a brief reminder in case you opted to scan through this post.

A. PPC is a 3-part process:

1. Advertisers create ads and select associated keywords to be displayed in search results

2. Advertisers set the daily and per-click spend of an ad

3. Ads are displayed by the search engines when a relevant search matches an advertiser’s select keywords

B. There are many ways in which ads are displayed by the search engines including traditional, shopping, and site links, to name just a few.

C. You should care about PPC because it’s a growing and proven method of advertisement, results can be easily quantified, and PPC can help grow and protect your brand name.

D. Most PPC platforms are set up in the following top-to-bottom fashion:

Account > Campaign > Ad Group > Ads + Keywords

Please feel free to share any comments or questions you may have below.

If you only remember one thing from this now long-winded tutorial it should be that PPC is great and your company should be doing it.

The post Pay Per Click Advertising Explained by a Non-PPC Person appeared first on Portent.

From the SEO Strategist:

I hate to say it, but it’s not really good enough to be number one for organic search anymore; paid advertising needs to be a part of your search strategy. When a client says to me, “I want to be number 1 for all my keywords,” they actually mean they want to be number 4. There are at least 3 other listings that will steal upwards of 64% of the clicks – at least for keyword phrases with commercial intent. So, as an SEO Strategist, I’ve resigned to the fact that I should probably discuss with PPC Strategists about how the paid campaigns for my clients perform. I want to know if those clicks they’ve been stealing are converting or not. The PPC Strategist has a whole minefield of interesting insights at their fingertips, and figuring out which keywords work and which are duds are all part of my plan for world domination.

From the PPC Strategist:

While I’d like to think that PPC is awesome because it’s easy to control, takes effect quickly, and takes the top of the search result pages, it’s not the be all and end all of search marketing. Organic listings, and other information snippets appear on results page and drive on average 64% of visits to a web page. Clearly beating paid search as a traffic driver. Also, while paid search ads are accompanied by a little “ad” button designating it as a paid placement, SEO isn’t seen as advertising and is perceived as trustworthy by the public.

See that little ad bubble in the left hand corner of the PPC ad. Yes, that clearly designates it as an advertisement which dissuades some users from clicking on it. Sure internally I can know this is all above board, but it is like comparing your favorite garage band to an auto-tuned pop singer, one has a lot more authenticity.

Come Together, Right Now

With these views of SEO and PPC in mind we’re going to examine how the two departments can complement each other.

Keyword Research

Both PPC and SEO Strategists do keyword research before and during a campaign, so why not share those keyword insights with each other? Follow these steps to ensure clear keyword communication between departments: 1) The SEO specialist creates a “keyword map” report that details the keywords for which your site is already ranking and the corresponding landing pages for those keywords. This takes a bit of reverse-engineering in Google Analytics and other keyword data sources, but it is a necessary evil in this era of (not provided) keyword data loss. 2) The SEO Strategist also does some additional keyword research to find new keyword ranking opportunities and maps those keywords to the appropriate landing pages. 3) Then the SEO Strategist sends the keyword map to the PPC strategist. The PPC strategist can use this keyword map as a seed keyword list for building out campaigns. 4) After testing keywords to find over- and under-achievers, the PPC Strategist should send the results to the SEO. An SEO might try to rank for “keyword A” but if the PPC finds that “keyword B” is actually kicking ass, maybe the SEO would like to know that. This report which is pulled from the AdWords UI can be used to find out what queries are actually generating actions on a web site, but most importantly it can be used to find synonyms or other variations of keywords that were not included in the original keyword map or PPC campaign. With 20% of daily search queries being questions that have never been asked before, relying on a static keyword list leaves opportunities on the table. Review the search query report thoroughly to see what keywords could be added to a PPC account, or built out for SEO pages.

Improve Loading Speed and Overall Quality Score

Quality score is rated on a 1- 10 scale and determined by several factors such as keyword click-through rates and page loading times. If a page loads slowly, then your ads will cost more and your organic rankings will suffer. So the SEO and the PPC Strategists should do everything in their power to make the site as freakishly fast as possible. 1) The SEO Strategist should communicate with the PPC Strategist if they suspect that certain pages are suffering from slow load times. A PPC Strategist can then see if those pages have low quality scores.

2) The SEO Strategist can investigate page speed issues using Google PageSpeed Insights, YSlow, and other tools. 3) The SEO Strategist or a developer can then implement the fixes necessary. If a page loads slowly due to render-blocking JavaScript or CSS, then those should load asynchronously. Or maybe some static resources simply need to have expiry dates set so that browsers will load cached content. 4) Once page speed issues are addressed, the PPC should measure for improved click-through rates and higher quality scores.

Optimize a Landing Page Using PPC

Not only are the elements that drive clicks testable, but PPC can be harnessed to test post-click behavior as well. Since AdWords can send traffic to multiple landing pages via the same ad, a PPC Strategist can see what elements on a page influence KPIs for a particular keyword. For example, an ad group can be set up with two versions of the same ad that point to different landing pages. In this manner the page headline, call to action, layout, images, or other page elements can be tested. The findings from the PPC team can be used to inform SEO efforts. For example, if a PPC Strategist notices that Landing Page A is converting at a breakneck speed, then the SEO Strategist can take some cues and re-design the organic landing pages to follow suit.

Make Friends with AdWords and Webmaster Tools

When you link AdWords and Webmaster Tools together, beautiful things can happen. Have you ever wondered whether your organic listing is more effective if you also have a paid listing? Or if your paid listings are cannibalizing your organic listings? These questions can be answered by looking at the “Paid & Organic” dimension report within Google AdWords. This report pulls data from Google Webmaster Tools for organic searches, impressions, and click-through rates, and compares that data to AdWords keywords you’re bidding on. This helps you to look holistically at your integrated SEO and PPC campaigns. 1) The PPC Strategist should pull a monthly report of the “Paid & Organic” dimension report and send it to the SEO Strategist. The two strategists should look for insights such as the performance of keywords where both organic and paid ads show for a given keyword. 2) The PPC Strategist should determine if any changes need to be made in terms of bidding strategy based on the report. Look especially at keywords where “Organic only shown” as new keyword ideas. 3) The SEO Strategist should determine if any changes in SEO strategy should be made. Pay attention particularly to “Ad shown only” keywords where there were a significant number of clicks – this may indicate a qualified keyword to target.

Setting up Site Search

Setting up Google Site Search in Google Analytics allows PPC and SEO Strategists to see what users look for in the site search box. This can help you glean additional keyword info and help you understand what your users can’t find. For example, if 85% of users search for “blue penguin,” and you do, in fact, sell blue penguins but the product is buried under Blue Items > Penguins, then maybe it’s time to feature your blue penguins on the home page.

1) The PPC Strategist can use this information to bid on new keywords and drive them to a page that speaks to what they seek. 2) The SEO Strategist can use this information to determine which keywords are important to users that they can’t easily find, and then use that information to suggest on-page SEO improvements, new pages, and/or site structure revisions.

Testing Page Titles

One of the many benefits of PPC is that it allows marketers to test messaging. Use this if you launch new content and would like to see what messaging resonates most with your audience, or test specific offers, promotions, or value propositions. SEO Strategists can get in on the action too. Ask your PPC colleague to write two ads for a given term with the exact same copy except for the title. Then set Google AdWords to rotate the ads evenly until a winner is decided. Sit back and watch the results come in. In the AdWords interface you will be able to see which title performs better in terms of click-through rate. This indicates that there is more interest for this specific offer. Google Analytics can also assist in this effort too. Go to Analytics > AdWords > Campaign and set the secondary dimension to “ad content.” This way you will be able to see post-click metrics such as bounce rate time, time on site, and pages per session. Now you will be able to determine which ad after driving a user to a page actually kept them there. This isn’t possible with just SEO alone, but is a great example of how SEO Strategists can leverage the unique ability that AdWords offers PPC Strategists. As you can see from the example below Ad 1 had a significantly lower bounce rate and kept users on the site for a longer period of time. Consider utilizing the copy in Ad1’s headline in and SEO title tag.

Test New Geographic Markets and Demographics

And last but not least, PPC Strategists can help SEO Strategists by testing new markets and demographics with their laser sharp geo-targeting. PPC is helpful for businesses that are testing new markets to decide if there is enough demand for their products/services before they invest money and resources into new markets, and/or determine if your site would benefit from a long-term international SEO strategy. A properly executed international SEO strategy can take up a lot of time and resources. PPC in international markets, however, can be properly set up and executed within a few hours, if performed by an experienced PPC manager. 1) A PPC Strategist can set up a separate campaign for the country, region, city, or even ZIP code that you are interested in targeting. After testing the new campaign to see if you can achieve average or below-average CPA, the PPC Strategist can then send the findings to the SEO Strategist for implementation. 2) The SEO Strategist should not rely on estimated search volumes alone as an indicator of whether targeting a new region will be effective. Instead, wait until after a PPC campaign has launched to determine if targeting a new region will be successful.

SEO + PPC = Money

As you can see, there are several opportunities where SEO and PPC Strategists can work together to glean richer, more relevant data that can help them refine their search strategies.

This blog is a great example of the magic that can be made when two aspects of search marketing come together. The ironic thing is that this kind of inter-departmental information sharing rarely happens. Why? We think it is because it is possible to be successful within one’s own department. It is possible to carry out an effective SEO or PPC strategy without discussing these topics with a co-worker. And yet, as this article has pointed out, there are so many ways in which we  can teach and learn from each other! We hope this post inspires you to break out a six-pack and make yourself comfortable at your friendly SEO/PPC person’s desk and get to work. Also read this article about How to Use PPC to Bolster Your SEO, Inspired by Elizabeth Marsten’s Mozinar.

Although we can’t post this from two different people, this was a joint blog by both PPC Strategist, Laura Oden, and SEO, Kaitlin McMichael.

The post PPC and SEO — Shouldn’t They Get Along? appeared first on Portent.

Ever since Google AdWords introduced enhanced campaigns, targeting mobile traffic effectively using mobile bid modifiers has been an important strategy for all PPC managers.  Some of you may have mobile bid modifiers set in your campaigns already, but aren’t seeing very good results from mobile traffic.  Others may have your mobile bid modifiers set at -100% because mobile traffic has never been very reliable for you in the past.

We all know mobile traffic is becoming increasingly important; the percentage of mobile users on the web keeps growing.  Having an ineffective or non-existent mobile targeting strategy in your PPC campaigns will not be a viable option for much longer.  You need to figure out a way to target these users effectively so you can maintain profitability.

Solution

One simple way to figure out what your mobile bid modifier should be for any given campaign is to focus on the difference in average value per session or per user between computer/tablet traffic and mobile traffic.  If you’re trying to answer the question of how much more or less you should bid for a mobile user, then it stands to reason to reference the average value of these users compared to other traffic.

For example, there’s a campaign in which the average value per session is $2.99 for a non-mobile user and $1.63 for a mobile user.   This is a 45% difference:

Since mobile users are 45% less valuable on average than non-mobile users in this campaign, we want to bid down by 45% for mobile traffic.  Hence, the mobile bid modifier should be set to -45%.

Results

We at Portent tried this strategy with one of our e-commerce clients, applying the appropriately calculated mobile bid modifier according to the example above to all campaigns.  The before & after results are as follows:

As you can see, changing the mobile bid modifiers to coincide with the differences in values we were already seeing allowed us to make mobile targeting efficient and profitable.

Do you have any strategies for setting mobile bid modifiers?  What results have you seen?  Share your ideas below.

The post Getting Started with Mobile Bid Modifiers appeared first on Portent.

I agree with my fellow search colleagues in the area of outrage, it’s just not acceptable what is being taken away in favor of a murkier, harder to control setting in terms of managing your keyword list. Some of us were using true exact match in a very specific and profitable manner and this loss of control seems senseless.

For example, we have a couple of clients that have a huge brand name, brick and mortar stores, online presence and a rabid social media community. We’ve been using the exact match of their one word name to dispel same named entities and direct traffic to the appropriate places, at a great CPC and high CTR. Everyone wins in this scenario, Google gets money for the clicks (instead of organic), users find what they’re looking for and we get the visits for Google at a great rate with the corresponding transactions.

So that brought me back to the WHY. Seriously, WHY?

The default setting for new campaigns is close variants, so only those that are well versed in PPC marketing would know to not only change that setting  but also why you would want to change it. Additionally, the advanced search community practitioners number far less than those out there new to running their own campaigns for their business, in house or otherwise, so what would it hurt to leave that level of control available for those that know how to use it?

The claim by Google is that only 7% of queries are misspellings and that we’re missing out on those queries. I would say that if I had two campaigns, one for that true exact match and one for the rest, would I not I still get that query anyway? The claim that it would “simplify” things and therefore you would only need one campaign with the close variants argument ignores that now we’re going to have to comb through search query reports (which aren’t available in real time) to add negative keywords, after the fact. And after we may have paid for a click or two as well, which if you deal in $100+ clicks is just not OK.

So, again, WHY?

The conspiracy theorist in me started going to a couple of different places; the timing, surprise and overall oddness of this change just isn’t sitting right. At least with enhanced campaigns it was clearly a money thing. (It’s always a money thing, but that trail was a lot easier to follow.)

1. Rolling this change out in September, right before holiday, means that Google will be capitalizing on matching more ads to queries, driving up clicks/cost as traffic volumes increase.
2. Google’s filed a few patents focusing on entity names, relationships between queries and intent and their database about entities (especially since acquiring Freebase) has swelled to over 250 million. This means that they can match a query for “Dec” to “December” and “Michael Jackson” to whether or not you mean the singer or the Homeland Security guy. Check out Bill Slawski’s recent article on this.
3. Then check out how Knowledge Base Entities can be used in searches– these example queries may be longer and in question form like, “what is the movie where Scarlett Johansson is the computer” and more likely will trigger the result you’re looking for based on the additional attribute information given in the query, especially when checked against their Knowledge Base. Whereas if you were to search for “Her” as a keyword, the SERP could be very different looking. Are they trying to close that gap so that they can start showing ads on those longer queries more often? It’s very unlikely that you’ve bid on that phrase in a keyword list.
4. The accuracy and quality of matching has improved in AdWords immensely in just the last few years.  Stop and think about what “broad” match meant in 2007 and the types of queries that would match the keywords on your list versus how it works now in 2014. This is probably where the confidence is coming from in a move like this. If the search query report still resembled anything like 2007 with a broad match, people would have stopped using the platform.
5. How long do you think it is before we get “intent” or “informational” as bidding options? Or something along those lines? Aren’t we already kind of doing that with Google Shopping and Product Listing Ad units?

My hope is that we (the search community) are able to change Google AdWords’ mind on this loss of control, because as long as people still type words into a search box, keywords are still relevant, and until we are in a place where we can control these intent, entity and attributes like keywords, we’re still going to need that level of control.

Sign the petition here, if you haven’t already.

The post Unexpected Loss of Control: Google AdWords Exact Match Controversy appeared first on Portent.

That’s why we have full bands and, furthermore, the production and management crew that all help make a spectacular show possible. Portent is the same. Our strong team works together to provide our clients with fantastic full service that keeps them coming back for more!

As mentioned earlier, you can impress with a single display of amazing talent. However, with the right people alongside you, something greater can emerge and possibly go supernova! This doesn’t just apply to concerts and Portent. Everyone can benefit from solid teamwork.

The Band Members

The Front Man (or Woman)

The lead guitarist or singer is usually the first to be recognized or remembered in a typical rock band. These members are generally the “front man” who serves as the face and voice of the band.

Without a front man, there is an uncomfortable amount of room for a chance at a PR nightmare. Kind of sounds like an Account Manager, right?

We rely on Account Managers to clearly express who we are and what we’re doing for current and potential clients (who’re practically the audience).

The Drummer

When I ask non-musician friends what comes to mind when they think of rock drummers the response is often along the lines of “frantic people with sticks”. This is partially true.
While it may seem that drummers are just banging on drums and making noise, from experience I can tell you they are really the key to keeping in time and are crucial when it comes to determining where you are in a song.

Like the drummer, Project Managers are (while doing four things at once) keeping everyone at a steady pace.

The Producers and Accompaniment

Big bands often hire a very reputable producer or songwriter. It would be very overwhelming for any one person to write music for each instrument, the lyrics, and focus on mastering your part while teaching others. That is, unless they were already a master at their creative craft. That’s where these specialists come in.

They create the music for the band to perform for the audience. There are numerous famous bands out there that would cease to exist if it weren’t for their producers. There are, however, a good number of songwriters who still perform out there. That’s the kind of talent our subject matter experts have.

Whether it’s our PPC, SEO, or Content team, we’d be at a complete loss without them. Not only do we have them produce brilliant work, but they also act as consultants both to us and to our clients.

Band or business, there’d be nothing for anyone to do if there’s no substance or strategy to work with.

The Stage Production

Even if the music is great, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the show is going to be great. That’s where stage production comes into play. The stage production crew consists of artists, engineers, and directors who all work to incorporate a spectacular display and atmosphere in tandem with musicians. These range from light shows and motion graphics to stage props and costumes. This provides great assistance to the image and persona of the band.

Our Creative team is comprised of talented artists, engineers, and directors who specialize in a variety of trades and services. Just look at the Portent website, it’s pretty snazzy. When our clients need something that “wows” their target audiences, we have faith in our Creative team to do just that and more.

The Managers

Sometimes, being a master of your own craft is not enough to successfully turn it into a business. This is why we have managers. Gigs, budgets, and the big picture are what they provide their bands. Imagine what a manager could do if they were also experts in performing music. They’d be able to keep everyone on track with the long term goals and offer guidance.

We don’t have to imagine. Our leadership team consists of some of the most knowledgeable professionals in their industry. At the end of the day, they are the ones credited with keeping the band a cohesive unit.

The PR

Need to get word out about a new album? Want to make sure as many people as possible know about your book? Get PR on the line. These folks excel at the right kind of marketing, reputation, and public awareness. The results are bigger crowds, more sales, and more recommendations.

We have people who do that for us through means of social media with superb outreach. I present our social media team! Sure, Facebook is a product that millions of people know how to use, but how many people truly know the ins and outs and how that affects business? I can name a few off the top of my head because I see those folks here at Portent. I have personally learned how much more intricate social media can really be after speaking to the experts here. It goes beyond the stage AND the page.

The Roadies

Last but not least, I’d like to talk about what I believe relates closest to what I do here at portent. In all my time that I’ve performed as a guitarist, I was really lucky to have a roadie for a couple of months. Roadies are the backstage people who prepare things for the performers. These things include setting up the gear, assisting the sound and light masters, and providing support to the performers so they may rock the crowd as best as they can.

That’s where I come in. Whether it’s project support, technical support, or building a tool that can help background tasks running more efficiently. Although I’m not standing in the lime light, I get to watch the Portent teams “wow” their clients and have the satisfaction that I’m a key element of this band.

The post If Portent Were a Band: It’s All About the Hair appeared first on Portent.

You really should do a short, written profile for every client you write ads for.

Why?

Because all the fanciness, automation, calls to action or free shipping offers won’t attain that last level of achieving total conversion rate prowess without it. People still click on the ads. People still buy. And people are all kinds of whacked out.

And depending on what you sell, those just might be your kinds of people.

Get Started

First and foremost, this should be a relatively simple exercise. If it’s taking 5 hours, a branding team, designer and a guy in India, you’re doing it wrong. The goal of this post is to try and make this approachable. So the first step is not telling anyone. Seriously. This is one of those things that if you’re an agency, the client will get overly into, demand to see and edit. If you’re in-house, a branding team might try and invade your cubicle and insist upon reviewing the stock photo you used for “branding guidelines.”

Just stop there. You’re writing 95 characters. Not Hamlet. Some guy already beat you to that anyway.

But- this means that there are resources for you to draw from. These types of resources and information should be available to you (since you supposedly work there) easily enough to get started.

Grab Whatever Is Already There

If your company already has a persona built out, cool, steal it. You’re probably not going to need all 4 pages about Golfing Greg, but it’s easier to pare down than start over.

The client or company should have some kind of mission or vision statement somewhere. When they talk about themselves, how do they do it? With humor? Seriousness? Razor sharp wit? Hang onto that, you’re going to need it later for tone. Wherever the company or client is talking about selling features, take note.

What is the lifecycle of the customer? How long do they take to buy? Can they buy online? Have to talk to a sales guy? Is it a major investment on their part or within the buying range of a thing to try?

The Keywords

Yeah, these are going to be important. They’re just the things you bid on after all, at least for now. And they just might indicate to you a few things like- where the customer is in the buying cycle (where do you get the most volume? Conversions?)

What are your top keywords? Grab those and set them aside, because when you go to write this thing, you’re going to use them in it. What better way to get you in the ad copy/landing page Quality Score happy zone?

Picture

You should pick one. It helps. Just pick one that is:

• Not a famous person
• Not anyone you know
• Free or stock is OK
• Embodies the physical traits you’re looking for

(A weight loss company might want someone a little stockier, while a Christian supply store might want someone a bit more pious looking, for example.)

Good example:

Bad example:

Name Your Persona

It doesn’t have to match or rhyme, but it is easier to remember. It should fit within the vein of the desired brand. Personally, I like to scroll through customer reviews, find positive ones, and utilize names from there. I love if I have a target age range to use so that I can go review the most popular baby names for those years. Remember when Rachel on Friends named her baby “Emma” in 2002? That name hadn’t been in the top 10 ever. Now that name has been in the top 10 for the last 11 years.

You know who has a great site for aggregating the top names for males and females over the last 100 years? The Social Security Administration. Michael has been in the top more often (44 times) and Mary with 42 times than any other male or female name. Check it out by decade or even by state. Kentucky kicked off 1990 with 891 ‘Joshuas’.

Specific Tools

The number one question I get when someone is developing a persona is “what tools should I use?” with the hope that I’ll point them to some magical website where you can enter in some demographics and basic info and it’ll spit out a beautiful, short persona. While I wish that were true (someone want to tackle this?) it requires a bit more legwork than that. Typically I end up using about 3-4 tools to build a persona, here are a few that you might find helpful.

Facebook

You already knew this one. Lookalike audiences, age ranges, genders galore. Specifically, I like to start a “new campaign” without the intention of actually launching it. They just expanded the bejeezus out of their targeting capabilities to include income, relationship status (getting super granular), automotive, travel habits and charities.

Followerwonk

It’s a moz app. Analyze your own followers or those of competitors. It’s wicked fun. For example, I compared followers of the 3 major sports teams in Seattle.

The US Census

It’s free, it’s online and there’s a plethora of information if you’re willing to look for it. This is a must if your persona needs to be geographically targeted at all. Find age ranges/groups, ethnicity, population density, affluence.
For example, I did a presentation to a local hospital about which zip codes to concentrate their budget on in a greater metro area.

At first, the median home price here and salary level would make zip code 98105 look attractive in that sense, more than the 98125 seen here.

But, upon closer inspection, we see that the population density of an area of roughly the same size is much more. And that the numbers of home sales occurring are slightly less- why might that be?

Turns out that 98105 is the primary zip code for the University of Washington, which has a very dense population and explains the affluence level. Any home that close to a major university s going to have tremendous property value, but not a lot of available homes to buy or rent and there will be more people crammed into that area.

Customer Reviews/Forums

It’s where the people are. What are they complaining about? What do they love? What pain points did your product or service solve that you can roll into your persona?

This is a gold mine of potential persona names, styles of writing, sophistication, education and tech savvy levels. You’ll have to do some sifting to find those nuggets of gold but they’re in there.

Google Analytics

Find your customer geography, loyalty, recency and return numbers and roll that in as well. Is your product or service something that will bring them back or require them to buy again (like a refill) or will it be more of a large one time purchase?

Search Suggest/Ubersuggest

Ah, Google search suggest. Supremely helpful in finding out what people search for in connection with your keywords as well as how they write. Do they spell it “you” or “u”? Is it “soda” or “pop?” Makes a difference when you’re trying to learn the language of your customer.

Ubersuggest is Google search suggest on crack. Save yourself some time and blast through with this tool.

Glassdoor, Onward Search, Salary Guides

Use a job listing site or niche specific guide or site that can help you find occupations in your desired salary ranges to choose a job for your potential persona.

Putting it All Together

OK, we have a lot of pieces right now that got gathered up. Where do they all go?

Start with the basic bullet list of name, photo, what they do for a living, salary range, male/female.

Then put together WHY their product would be useful/why they would buy- what benefits or features would appeal to them? What problems would your product or service solve? What are pain points that they face?

Then get a little creative. Like a creative writing class.

And you’re DONE. Remember, this is supposed to be a simple exercise, just for you. You don’t even have to write this much. Post it personas are cool too.

The post Creating Personas for PPC appeared first on Portent.

Still, despite her best attempts at teaching me the value of plus signs, quotes and brackets, some habits die hard.

The wide net of broad match, though often shunned in favor of more stringent match types, still has its place in the world of paid search. However, as Google and Bing-Hoo race to loosen the elasticity of these matches, wrestling your matched queries into submission becomes a river of tears labor of love. Fortunately, there are ways to process low-relevance queries in bulk without need for any scripting chops or a surplus of free time.

Enter Fuzzy Lookup.

Fuzzy Lookup is an add-in for Microsoft Excel that simplifies comparative text analysis and allows for variable thresholds of output similarities. Such a tool has countless potential applications for anyone working with large sets of data. For our purposes, Fuzzy Lookup will enable us to prune our search queries using our bidded keywords as matching criteria. The output can then be used to build large sets of negative keywords and, ultimately, maximize the quality of traffic being driven by non-exact keywords.

Before we get to work, you’ll need to download and install the Fuzzy Lookup add-in from Microsoft. Once finished, open a blank Excel workbook and look for the Fuzzy Lookup icon in the ribbon of your Excel window. Salvation lies within.

To populate your workbook, grab a list of your bidded keywords and the corresponding search queries. It doesn’t matter if you pull these from reports or just download them directly from the AdWords UI, but keep your initial selection to one Ad Group. This method is capable of processing much larger lists of keywords, but a smaller selection will serve you well when setting up for the first time.

Paste each list in a separate worksheet, using descriptive headers like “Bidded Keywords” and “SearchQueries”. Once both are in place, highlight either list and click the “Format as Table” button in the Excel ribbon. Which style of table you choose is entirely up to you, but do remember to indicate that your table has headers. Do this for both lists, and then click back to your Bidded Keywords worksheet.

You should now have two worksheets, once with a table of raw search queries, and the other with a table of bidded terms. I know how exhausted you must be, but mop that e-sweat from your iBrow and let’s see this one through. “TEAM” on three!

There’s a tab in the Excel menu titled “Fuzzy Lookup”, and a button by the same name behind it. When you click the “Fuzzy Lookup” button, it searches out all tables within the workbook, regard less of how many worksheets are present. A sidebar control panel will appear, and you should see the Fuzzy Lookup has already Identified your tables.

I generally keep the Bidded Keywords table as my Left Column, and my Search Queries table as my right.

Now, because I have 23 queries that I’m looking to match, I’ve set the Number of Matches to exactly 23. Experiment with lowering this number as you explore the tool and see the difference in the results that Fuzzy Lookup returns. I also keep my “Similarity Threshold” just West of center at around 0.33. Again, the specific results you’re after may be hiding behind a different set of conditions, so give yourself some time to try out alternative settings.

Finally, if my Bidded Keywords table is on Sheet 1 A:A, then I’ll highlight Sheet 1 B1 and click “Go”.

Note: Make sure the “FuzzyLookup.Similarity” option is checked.

Above is a picture of the output I receive using my lists of Bidded Keywords and Search Queries. For a little extra flair, I’ve added color scales as conditional formatting.

With this information, I can use the similarity score both to identify similar terms I may consider actively bidding on, and to identify low-relevance queries that could find a home in a negative keyword list somewhere. No pulling and comparing reports, no manual examination of hundreds of queries, just a free plugin, some swift fingers, and a lot of leftover time.

So what do to with that time? Here’s a thought: VLookups. Try adding in engine-side performance data (CTR, CPA, Impressions, etc) and see what correlations you find. What is the similarity threshold beyond which your CTR takes a dive? What are the low-similarity but high-impression terms that are artificially deflating your overall CTR?

Go forth, geek out, and keep it fuzzy!

The post Harvesting Bulk Negative Keywords with Excel appeared first on Portent.