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Cutting Edge PPC Bidding Strategies

You Should Be Using

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Presenters• Frederick Vallaeys

– Founder of Optmyzr

– Hero Conf London Speaker

– PPC Hero Blogger

– @siliconvallaeys

• Jeff Baum– Associate Director of Paid Search at Hanapin

Marketing– Hero Conf London Speaker– PPC Hero Blogger

– @jeffbaum71

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Join the conversation

• Include the hashtag #thinkppc in your Twitter tweets.

Or use the webinar question box to send us questions.

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Live Poll Question #1

How long have you been in PPC?#thinkppc

A. Less than 1 yearB. 1-3 yearsC. 3-5 yearsD. 5+ years

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Live Poll Question #2

How do you manage your account(s)?#thinkppca) I’m part of an in-house PPC team.b) I do all the marketing myself.c) I work for an agency.d) I’m a consultant.

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Bidding for Profit

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Bidding for Profit

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Bidding for Profit

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Bidding for Profit-Calculating Profit

● Understand the full value of your ppc customers including lifetime value.

● Make reasonable assumptions about each value factor so revenue can be estimated.

● Factor out gross margins and advertising costs.

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Bidding for Profit-Approach To Testing

● Test areas of account that’ll provide enough conversion data.

● Common practice to increase bids 25%-30%.

● Understand your sales cycle to determine appropriate length of test.

● Don’t set and forget. These are big bid modifications!

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Bidding for Profit-Scenario A

● Increasing bids led to higher avg position and more conversions.

● CPA increased 20% BUT profit increased 143.75!%

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Bidding for Profit-Scenario B

● Granularity.

● Performance Variance by Product.

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Bidding for Profit-Practical Considerations

● Account Structure is Key. Group Most Profitable Products and Services Together.

● Bids Need to Make Sense for Your Business.

● Test in Aggregate to Prove Concept Then Get Granular.

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Bidding for Profit

Profit Is The Rocket Fuel That Propels Businesses. Don’t Let Bid Strategy Be a Limiting Factor to Your PPC Success!

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Bidding for Profit- Convincing Stakeholders

● Innovation: Thinking About your PPC differently.

● Growth: Removes Growth Limitations CPA and other efficiency metrics Cause.

● Bidding is Strategic: Align & Support Business Goals. Not Just a Tactic.

● Making Total Profit the KPI: Scales your PPC more quickly.

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Weekend Bidding

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Weekend Bidding

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Weekend Bidding● Cost per Lead Appreciably Higher on

Weekend.

● Account-Wide CPL Fluctuated As a Result.

● Monthly Cost per Lead Goal Not Being Met.

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Weekend Bidding● Identified Source of Weekend Cost per

Lead Spike (Google Adwords Search Account).

● Built Automated Rule to Reduce Bids 15% Account Wide.

● Rule Went into Effect 12:01am Saturday and reverted back to normal 12:01 Monday.

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Weekend Bidding-Results

● Total Weekend CPL Decreased 22%.

● Despite Bid Decrease, Lead Volume & Conv Rate Improved.

● Reducing Account Wide Performance Fluctuation.

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Weekend Bidding-Lessons Learned

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Weekend Bidding-Performance Tracking

● Have a Method in Place to Track Performance.

● Identify Deviations from the Norm.

● Use Your Performance Tracker as Guide to Deeper Analysis.

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Weekend Bidding-Lessons Learned

● Understand Your Market’s User Behavior.

● When Are The Most Likely to Convert?

● Predict & Adjust Accordingly (Using Your Analyzed Data).

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Weekend Bidding-Lessons Learned

● Don’t Leave Any Stone Unturned

● Consider All the Possibilities.

● Answers & Solutions are There if You Dig Deep Enough to Find Them.

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Bid Automation

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Automation To The Rescue

• People get distracted

• Some are bad at math

• Want to work on fun projects

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Smart Automation Leverages Your Team’s Knowledge

“Adding human judgment to statistical methods makes results roughly 15 percent more accurate. And it’s even true in chess: While the best computers can now easily beat the best humans, they can in turn be beaten by humans aided by computers.” – Wired Magazine, January 2014

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Tools

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There’s Always Money In The Banana Stand

Source: RKG Blog

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Incremental Cost Per Conversion

Source: RKG Blog

Goal ActionMaximum Profit Stop buying clicks

when ICC > value of click

Growth with no profit Stop buying clicks when avg CPC > value of click

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Hour-of-Week Reports• Analyze a double segmented report using day of week and hour of day

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2 Types of Bid Management Methods

• Rule Based Bidding

• Portfolio Bidding

Find similar entities and manage these to a common average goal

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Rules Based

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The SalesX Bucket Bid Method™

High Converters

In last 30 days…Conversions:- At least 5

Known Converters

In last 30 days…Conversions:- Less than 5- More than 1

Unknown

In last 30 days…Conversions:- NoneImpressions:- Less than 10

Top of page bid

First Page + 50%

First Page Bid

Filter All Keywords ApplyBid Strategy

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Problem #1: Creating Good Buckets

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Problem #2: Choosing Lookback Windows

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Problem #3: Data Density

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Hybrid Approach To Get More Data

• Alternate between duration and account level

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Automated Rule: Bid To Average Position

< 3

If Position

Then Bid+10%

> 2

If Position

Then Bid-10%

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Portfolio Based

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Google’s Automated Bid StrategiesBid Strategy Goal Level

Maximize Clicks More Site Visits C, AG, KW

Target Search Page Location More Ad Visibility C, AG, KW

Target CPA More Conversions at Target CPA C, AG

Enhanced CPC More Conversions C, AG

Target ROAS More Return on Ad Spend C, AG, KW

Target Outrank Outrank another domain’s ads C, AG, KW

Maximize Revenue Get as much conversion value as possible Announced in 2014

Maximize Conversions Get as many conversions as possible Announced in 2014

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First Page Bid Freshness

~70% of keywords with a change in QS have no reported change in FPB

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Real Time Bidding

• Only Google can set bids at the time of the query

• Enables them to consider more factors than advertisers can to determine the best bid

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An Example Of What Google Knows

• Google can set different bids based on search funnel data like this

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New: Test Different Bids

• Bid Simulator support for Bid Strategies

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New: Bid Strategy Dashboard

• Get more insights into how bid strategies are working

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How Conversion Data Is Used By Google

• Tell Google how to attribute conversions when managing your bids

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A Word Of Caution About Bid Automation

“As long as the humans […] understand what it is they are controlling, we’re fine. It’s when they become slaves to the numbers that trouble breaks out.”

– Wired Magazine, January 2014

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Advanced AdWords Automation

AdWords Scripts

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What Are AdWords Scripts?

AW Scripts are pieces of JavaScript code that are put into an AdWords account where they can be scheduled to run automatically on a predefined schedule.

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What Can AdWords Scripts Do?Scripts can create reports and make account changes.

Supported entities:

• Shopping Product Groups • Ad extensions • Budgets • Bid Strategies • Advanced APIs • Labels• Keywords• Bids• Ads• Ad Groups• Campaigns• Targeting• Bid modifiers

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Prediction API + Scripts1. Use algorithms to find similarities and build portfolio groups2. Use AdWords Scripts to calculate and set the bids for the portfolios

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Scripts + Google Calendar

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Scripts For Bid RulesBuild complex rules that run as often as every hour

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Quicker Reporting With Scripts

• What is the Description Line 1 with the best CPA?

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PPC Retainers

Need some assistance for your PPC? We offer on-going and one-time retainers.

Learn More:

http://www.hanapinmarketing.com/ppc-retainers/

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Live Q&A Time!

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Thank you for attending our webinar! #thinkppc

• Contact us Directly:

» Hanapin Feedback: marketing@hanapinmarketing.com

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