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Published March 2013

Paid Search Best Practice Guide

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage

and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright Econsultancy.com Ltd 2013

Contents

1. Introduction .................................................................... 11

1.1. Features of this guide ............................................................... 12

1.2. About Econsultancy ................................................................. 13

1.3. About the contributors ............................................................. 13

2. Paid Search Basics ......................................................... 14

2.1. What is paid search marketing? ............................................... 14

2.2. Market context for paid search ................................................ 15

2.3. Recent developments in paid search ........................................ 17

2.3.1. Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance ..................................... 17

2.3.2. Enhancements to Universal Search ......................................... 17

2.3.3. Google encrypted search .......................................................... 18

2.3.4. Google Knowledge Graph .........................................................19

2.3.5. Google Shopping moves to a paid search model ................... 20

2.3.6. Changes to Google AdWords .................................................... 21

2.3.7. Google launches Enhanced Campaigns .................................. 24

2.4. Key terminology ...................................................................... 24

2.4.1. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) ............................................ 24

2.4.2. SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) ................................... 24

2.4.3. PPC (Pay Per Click) .................................................................. 24

2.4.4. Google Quality Score ................................................................ 24

2.4.5. CPC (Cost Per Click)................................................................. 25

2.4.6. CTR (Click-through Rate) ........................................................ 25

2.4.7. ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) .................................................. 25

2.4.8. ROI (Return On Investment) .................................................. 25

2.4.9. Landing page ............................................................................ 25

2.4.10. Sitelinks ..................................................................................... 25

2.5. The 95 characters that changed advertising history ................ 25

2.6. Why detail matters in paid search ........................................... 26

2.7. Identifying search volumes ..................................................... 27

2.8. Opportunities and challenges ................................................. 27

2.8.1. So whats the big challenge? .................................................... 27

2.8.2. Increasing competition ............................................................ 29

2.8.3. Balancing SEO and paid search .............................................. 29

2.8.4. The relationship between brand and generic keywords........ 30

2.8.5. Making the most of content networks ..................................... 31




2.8.6. Learning what works ................................................................. 31

2.9. Paid search success factors ..................................................... 32

2.9.1. Which factors control the success of your paid search campaigns? ............................................................................... 32

2.10. Keyword level efficiency controls including cost-per-click and Quality Score .................................................................... 33

2.10.1. Cost-per-click (CPC) ................................................................ 33

2.10.2. Quality-based positioning ....................................................... 33

2.10.3. Keyword matching criteria ...................................................... 37

2.10.4. Creative ..................................................................................... 37

2.10.5. Landing page ............................................................................ 38

2.10.6. Use of content network ............................................................ 38

2.10.7. Time of day ............................................................................... 38

2.10.8. Position in sponsored listings ................................................. 38

2.11. Campaign level effectiveness controls ..................................... 39

2.11.1. Return on investment goals..................................................... 39

2.11.2. Search engine networks used .................................................. 39

2.11.3. Keyphrase analysis and targeting ........................................... 39

2.11.4. Campaign structure .................................................................. 39

2.11.5. Budget allocation ...................................................................... 40

2.11.6. Listing position and bidding strategies .................................. 40

2.11.7. Campaign integration strategy ................................................ 40

2.12. Where do I start? ..................................................................... 41

2.12.1. The natural or organic listings .................................................41

2.12.2. The paid or sponsored listings .................................................41

2.12.3. Content network listings .......................................................... 43

2.13. Types of paid search marketing .............................................. 43

2.13.1. Content network paid search advertising............................... 43

2.13.2. Paid for directory inclusion ..................................................... 43

2.13.3. Pay-per-call ............................................................................... 43

2.13.4. Shopping comparison engines ................................................ 43

3. Planning and Strategy for Paid Search .......................... 44

3.1. Defining goals, objectives and KPIs ........................................ 46

3.1.1. Goals versus objectives understanding the difference ....... 46

3.1.2. Setting SMART Objectives ...................................................... 48

3.1.3. The value of KPIs for paid search ........................................... 48

3.2. Budgeting for paid search ........................................................ 51

3.2.1. Budgeting strategy ................................................................... 52

3.2.2. Listing position strategy .......................................................... 57

3.2.3. Positioning strategies ............................................................... 62

3.2.4. Bidding strategy ....................................................................... 63




3.2.5. Dayparting strategy .................................................................. 68

3.3. Resourcing and agency strategy .............................................. 72

3.3.1. Introduction .............................................................................. 72

3.3.2. Do you hire a plumber and a carpenter? ................................ 73

3.3.3. Alternative resources ............................................................... 73

3.3.4. Software tool selection ............................................................. 76

3.3.5. Agency fee models .....................................................................77

3.3.6. Briefing agencies or internal teams about your paid search requirements ................................................................ 80

3.3.7. Switching account management between agencies ............... 83

3.4. Paid search ad network strategy ............................................. 85

3.4.1. Introduction .............................................................................. 85

3.4.2. Reach of search ad networks ................................................... 86

3.4.3. Benefits of using a range of search engine ad networks........ 87

3.4.4. Different levels of search networks ......................................... 87

3.4.5. International search engine networks .................................... 90

3.4.6. Content network strategy ........................................................ 90

3.4.7. Social networks with Pay Per Click options ........................... 96

4. Setting up Paid Search ................................................... 97

4.1. Account and keyphrase creation ............................................. 97

4.1.1. Account set-up considerations ................................................ 97

4.1.2. What is keyphrase analysis and why is it important? ......... 100

4.1.3. The relationship between keywords ...................................... 101

4.1.4. Five stage approach to keyphrase research .......................... 102

4.1.5. Guidance on using match types in keyword selection ......... 109

4.1.6. Expanding your keyphrase list ............................................... 111

4.1.7. Creating a keyphrase repository ............................................ 111

4.1.8. Understanding search behaviour ........................................... 113

4.1.9. Grouping and categorising keyphrases ................................ 120

4.1.10. Keyphrase variants .................................................................. 121

4.1.11. Keyphrase analysis tools ........................................................ 123

4.1.12. Considerations for enhanced campaigns ............................. 124

4.2. Campaign structure for paid search ....................................... 126

4.2.1. Introduction ............................................................................ 126

4.2.2. Managing campaign structure in Google AdWords ............. 127

4.2.3. Defining campaign structures ............................................... 130

4.2.4. Options for structuring ad campaigns ................................... 131

4.2.5. Structuring by audience type or segment .............................. 131

4.2.6. Structuring by buying behaviour ........................................... 131

4.2.7. Managing international campaign structures...................... 132

4.2.8. Targeting through local mapping facilities .......................... 132




4.2.9. Structuring by performance .................................................. 133

4.2.10. Duplicate keywords in different ad groups .......................... 133

4.3. Local paid search marketing and geo-targeting ..................... 134

4.3.1. The evolution of local search ................................................. 134

4.3.2. Targeting local audiences through Google and Bing ........... 134

4.3.3. Local ad extensions ................................................................ 136

4.3.4. Targeting through directories ............................................... 136

4.3.5. Local paid search resources and tools ................................... 137

4.4. Ad creative and copy strategy.................................................138

4.4.1. Introduction ............................................................................ 138

4.4.2. Searching for your ads ........................................................... 139

4.4.3. Different ad formats ............................................................... 140

4.4.4. Basic advice before you start ................................................. 142

4.4.5. Writing ad creative ................................................................. 150

4.5. Campaign tracking ................................................................. 151

4.5.1. Introduction ............................................................................. 151

4.5.2. Effectiveness of ROI tracking .................................................152

4.5.3. Tracking sophistication ..........................................................154

4.5.4. Comparing paid search with other online media ................. 167

4.5.5. Tracking and reporting granularity ...................................... 168

4.5.6. Tracking system options ........................................................ 170

4.5.7. Tracking methodologies ......................................................... 171

4.5.8. The importance of cookies in determining results accuracy.................................................................................... 173

4.5.9. A note on web analytics .......................................................... 174

5. Paid Search Optimisation ............................................. 175

5.1. Bid management tool strategy ............................................... 175

5.1.1. Introduction ............................................................................. 175

5.1.2. Reducing inefficiencies by using portfolios and rules .......... 177

5.1.3. Setting performance objectives for bid management tools . 179

5.1.4. Issues with bid management systems .................................. 180

5.1.5. Most popular bid management tools ..................................... 181

5.1.6. Paid search bid management systems: requirements and features .................................................................................... 183

5.1.7. Bid management rules and targets ....................................... 184

5.1.8. The downside of bid management tools ............................... 185

5.2. Ad extensions ........................................................................ 186

5.2.1. Sitelinks ................................................................................... 186

5.2.2. Enhanced sitelinks ................................................................. 188

5.2.3. Location Extensions ............................................................... 188

5.2.4. Call extensions ........................................................................ 189




5.2.5. Mobile app extensions ........................................................... 190

5.2.6. Seller ratings ............................................................................ 191

5.2.7. Social Extensions.................................................................... 192

5.2.8. Product extensions and product listing ads ......................... 192

5.2.9. Dynamic Search Ads .............................................................. 194

5.2.10. Extensions on limited release ............................................... 194

5.3. Testing and optimising creative .............................................196

5.3.1. Warning what is the impact of changing ad creative? ..... 196

5.3.2. Improving ad headline creative ............................................ 196

5.3.3. Improving description creative .............................................. 197

5.3.4. Mobile Ad Creative ................................................................. 198

5.3.5. Dynamic ad creative ............................................................... 199

5.3.6. Improving the display URL ................................................... 201

5.3.7. Ad rotation and optimisation ................................................ 204

5.3.8. What to optimise against dependent variable .................. 204

5.3.9. Structured testing programmes ............................................ 205

5.3.10. Testing landing pages ............................................................ 205

5.3.11. Summary - twenty testing ideas ............................................ 206

5.3.12. Examples from a structured testing programme ................. 207

5.4. Destination or landing page strategy .................................... 209

5.4.1. Introduction ............................................................................ 209

5.4.2. What is conversion efficiency? Why it matters .................... 212

5.4.3. What is a landing page? ......................................................... 213

5.4.4. Defining landing page objectives .......................................... 213

5.4.5. Measuring landing page effectiveness .................................. 214

5.4.6. Different types of landing page ............................................. 214

5.4.7. Different referrer types ...........................................................215

5.4.8. Selecting the relevant landing pages for paid search .......... 216

5.4.9. Twelve Landing Page Success Factors ................................... 217

5.4.10. Improving the Quality Score of landing pages ..................... 224

5.5. Campaign review and optimisation strategy ......................... 227

5.5.1. Account or campaign performance review process ............. 227

5.5.2. Ad group and keyword performance review and optimisation ............................................................................ 228

5.5.3. Reporting and visualisation approaches .............................. 228

5.5.4. Auditing current performance .............................................. 230

5.5.5. Troubleshooting a campaign ................................................. 233

5.6. Click fraud strategy ............................................................... 235

5.6.1. Introduction to click fraud .................................................... 235

5.6.2. Know your enemy - how are fake clicks generated? ............ 235

5.6.3. Preventative measures from the search engines ................. 237

5.6.4. Identify metrics to audit at ad group and individual keyword level .......................................................................... 238




5.6.5. Consider use of specialist software for tracking these metrics ..................................................................................... 239

5.6.6. Audit metric values to create a benchmark .......................... 239

5.6.7. Review current metric values against benchmark values ... 239

5.6.8. When benchmark thresholds are exceeded present audited data to search engines .............................................. 239

5.6.9. Is it really click fraud? ............................................................ 240

5.6.10. What to watch out for with click fraud ................................. 240

5.7. Paid search and web analytics / reporting ............................ 242

5.7.1. Introduction why web analytics is essential ..................... 242

5.7.2. What analytics tools are available? ....................................... 243

5.7.3. How should web analytics tools be used to measure paid search activity? ....................................................................... 244

5.7.4. Attribution modelling looking at the wider effect of paid search in assisted conversions .............................................. 249

5.7.5. Using analytics tools to evaluate retargeting campaigns .... 250

5.7.6. How do businesses report on paid search performance? ....251

5.7.7. Useful resources for paid search web analytics ................... 254

6. Mobile Paid Search ...................................................... 256

6.1. Introduction .......................................................................... 256

6.2. Growth and trends in mobile usage ...................................... 257

6.3. Why mobile is important for paid search .............................. 258

6.4. An introduction to Enhanced Campaigns how it will change mobile paid search campaign management .............. 260

6.5. Differences between mobile and desktop paid search ............ 261

6.6. How mobile is influenced by other marketing channels ....... 263

6.7. Mobile paid search good practice approaches ....................... 264

6.8. Maximising the local opportunity through mobile paid search .................................................................................... 265

6.9. Using mobile paid search to drive app downloads ................ 267

6.10. The future for mobile paid search ......................................... 268

7. International and Multilingual Paid Search ................ 269

7.1. Introduction .......................................................................... 269

7.2. Global opportunities ............................................................. 270

7.3. Competition overseas ............................................................ 272

7.4. A brief intro to Googles competition .................................... 273

7.4.1. Bing Ads .................................................................................. 273

7.4.2. Yahoo! Japan .......................................................................... 273

7.4.3. Baidu ....................................................................................... 274

7.4.4. Yandex ..................................................................................... 274




7.4.5. Naver ....................................................................................... 275

7.4.6. Seznam .................................................................................... 275

7.5. Managing international search engine marketing ................ 276

7.5.1. Devices users will be searching on ........................................ 276

7.5.2. Payment methods and currencies ......................................... 277

7.5.3. Legal and compliance issues ................................................. 277

7.5.4. Landing pages and content.................................................... 278

7.5.5. Translation / localisation of paid search campaigns ........... 278

7.6. Tools and resources for international paid search marketing282

7.6.1. Desktop editing tools ............................................................. 282

7.6.2. Keyword tools ......................................................................... 282

7.6.3. Ad preview tools ..................................................................... 282

8. Marketing Campaign Integration Strategy ................. 283

8.1. Integrating paid search with SEO ......................................... 286

8.1.1. Advantages and disadvantages of SEO ................................. 287

8.1.2. Advantages and disadvantages of paid search ..................... 290

8.1.3. Developing a search engine marketing strategy .................. 292

8.2. Integrating paid search and display advertising ................... 297

8.2.1. Why is the relationship between paid search and display important? .............................................................................. 297

8.2.2. Good practice approach to paid search and display advertising integration........................................................... 297

8.2.3. How marketers can use Google to create and manage display advertising campaigns .............................................. 299

8.2.4. Measuring the effectiveness of paid search and display advertising integration........................................................... 305

8.2.5. The future for paid search and display advertising ............. 307

8.3. Affiliate integration strategy ................................................. 308

8.3.1. Introduction ............................................................................ 308

8.3.2. Types of affiliate marketing for paid search ......................... 310

8.3.3. Affiliate payment models ....................................................... 312

8.3.4. Defining an affiliate marketing strategy for paid search..... 313

8.4. Integration with overall media communications ................... 317

8.4.1. Plan paid search as a starting point, not an after thought ... 317

8.4.2. Always on vs. campaign-based search strategy ................... 318

8.4.3. Updating always-on paid search strategy to reflect marketing campaign activities .............................................. 319

9. Appendices ................................................................... 324

9.1. Glossary ................................................................................ 324

9.2. Paid search digital marketing template files ......................... 334




9.3. Briefing / request for proposals template ............................. 335

9.4. Useful resources and further reading ..................................... 341

9.4.1. Econsultancy resources ......................................................... 342

10. Acknowledgements ...................................................... 343

10.1. Lead author ........................................................................... 343

10.2. Expert contributors ............................................................... 343




1. Introduction Econsultancys Best Practice Guides help organisations improve their results from digital marketing through improved planning and execution.

Our guides explain best practice for successfully implementing digital marketing on a large scale

in medium and large organisations, but best practice guidelines also apply for smaller

organisations.

The guides have been developed to be the definitive source for best practice on a range of online

marketing topics. They are packed with strategic recommendations and practical tips, which will

help you benchmark and improve on your current approach whether you are a small business

with focused campaigns or are responsible for complex, international enterprise search.

In particular, these reports will help (and are aimed at):

Specialists in digital marketing teams who are actively involved in improving results from online marketing activities.

Managers of digital marketing specialists who control digital marketing and want to improve their strategic understanding of search marketing.

Managers and team members responsible for traditional marketing activities who want to understand the issues involved with successful planning, implementation and

integration of digital marketing activities.

Specialists in specific digital marketing activities such as search engine marketing who need to understand more about integration with other digital marketing activities.

Digital marketers in agencies who are looking to increase their skills and gain a comprehensive understanding of paid search.

Key features of our guides

Comprehensive covers all aspects needed for success in one place but also references other in-depth sources in different portals, forums, blogs and books.

Accessible content is structured to help readers navigate to and assimilate relevant content.

In-depth covers topics in sufficient depth to successfully implement suggestions.

Practical explains how to implement techniques and describes success factors that can be applied straightaway.

Improvement focused explains how to revise existing approaches through evaluation of current approach, refining strategy and then implementing an improved approach.

Leading edge incorporates the latest best-practice advice and regularly updated to stay current with new additions clearly highlighted.

If you have any feedback, suggestions or comments, please send these to Econsultancys Research

Director, Linus Gregoriadis: [email protected].




1.1. Features of this guide We have incorporated a range of features to help make this guide an effective learning tool:

Key Recommendations

Guidance and key takeaways for paid search strategies and tactics.

Key Recommendation

Tips

Practical recommendations to improve results.

Tip

Links

Links to tools, articles and portals found within the body text, footnotes and in the resources

section at the end of the guide.

Paid search summary success factors boxes

Designed for easy reference, these cover the major strategies that need to be reviewed to improve

your paid search results. These are mainly positive factors, which will improve performance, but

associated negative factors are also referred to.

Each box often contains several related best practice factors and issues to watch out for. These

boxes have been designed for at a glance consultation to understand best practice without reading

all of the detailed commentary.

Where relevant, a level rating has been included. The level rating gives a general indication of how

advanced the technique. Generally levels 1 to 3 have to be considered by all paid search marketers,

increasing in complexity. The actual importance of the factors will vary by search engine, market

and audience.

Example paid search best practice success factor box

Paid Search Summary

Name of summary Applies to:

Scope: which search engine networks?

Level:

Advanced strategy

5/5

4/5

3/5

2/5

1/5

Fundamental strategy

What is it? A brief description of the scope of the strategy issue and other factors it relates to

Example An example from a real situation

Best Practice A series of recommendations, starting with the most important

What to watch For

Related factors and issues to consider for success




1.2. About Econsultancy Econsultancy is a global independent community-based publisher, focused on best practice digital

marketing and ecommerce, and used by over 400,000 internet professionals every month.

Our hub has 190,000+ subscribers worldwide from clients, agencies and suppliers alike with over

90% subscriber retention rate. We help our subscribers build their internal capabilities via a

combination of research reports and how-to guides, training and development, consultancy, face-

to-face conferences, forums and professional networking.

For the last ten years, our resources have helped subscribers learn, make better decisions, build

business cases, find the best suppliers, accelerate their careers and lead the way in best practice

and innovation.

Econsultancy has offices in London, New York, Sydney and Singapore and we are a leading

provider of digital marketing training and consultancy. We are providing consultancy and custom

training extensively across Europe, Asia and the US. We train over 5,000 marketers globally each

year.

Join Econsultancy today to learn whats happening in digital marketing and what works.

Call us to find out more on +44 (0)20 7269 1450 (London) or +1 212 971 0630 (New York). You

can also contact us online.

1.3. About the contributors Econsultancy would like to extend sincere thanks to the following paid search professionals and

agencies, without whom this guide could not have been put together. Their full details and

professional biographies are included at the end of this report.

Lead author and project manager

James Gurd, Owner, Digital Juggler

Contributing authors

Chris Camacho, Head of Paid Search, SMG Search

Peter Whitmarsh, Head of PPC, Search Laboratory

Net Media Planet

Matt Whelan, Head of Search, The Digital House

Sandra DOnofrio, Head of PPC, LBi

Mike Fantis, Head of Paid Search, Make It Rain

Jonathan Beeston, Director, New Product Innovation, Adobe

Tom Lewis, Head of Professional Services, DC Storm




2. Paid Search Basics With consumers spending ever increasing amounts online, and with digital channels being of

growing importance in the B2B decision making process, marketers are increasingly keen to look

at how they can use digital technologies to help them achieve their business goals.

Paid search marketing provides an unsurpassed opportunity to advertise to prospects when they

are in research or buy mode. What better point to reach your audience than when they are looking

for information by typing a search term to find out more about a product or supplier? Or to buy

there and then?

Our guidelines will help you whether you are starting out in paid search marketing or are looking

to improve the results from an existing programme. But paid search is only one form of search

engine marketing (SEM). To get the best results from SEM requires integrating your paid

search activities with search engine optimisation (SEO), where you do not pay directly for

clicks as your links are listed for free.

2.1. What is paid search marketing? Paid search marketing goes under many names: Pay-Per-Click (PPC), search engine

advertising, sponsored listings, paid for placement and more. Its also referred to by the

advertising programmes of the main search engines, which we will explain how to get the most

out of in this report:

Google AdWords - http://adwords.google.com.

Bing Ads (Yahoo! Bing Network) - https://secure.bingads.microsoft.com.

Paid search marketing means you advertise within the sponsored listings of a search engine or a

partner site by paying either each time your ad is clicked (hence pay-per-click) or less commonly,

when your ad is displayed (CPM) or when a phone contact is generated which is pay-per-call (notice how the industry is running out of acronyms?).

Thats why we call it paid search rather than Pay Per Click. It is not necessarily Pay Per Click there are other options for buying a marketing presence and response. For example, you can buy

placements on Google AdSense partner sites on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis and affiliate

(CPA) basis models are being trialled.

The most widely used form of paid search is still PPC. On the following page is a screenshot of

standard sponsored PPC ads appearing in the search listings on Google and Bing. Note that one of

the Google ads has a phone number included in the text this is actually against Googles terms of service (https://adwords.google.com/select/tsandcsfinder) for sponsored ads but its not unheard of for advertisers to slip a phone number under the radar! Thats not encouragement though




3. Planning and Strategy for Paid Search Paid search planning sessions often start with the question What keywords should I target for paid search?

Thats not the best way to approach paid search investment. Focusing on keywords first risks making your paid search programme untargeted and alienating it from your overall business

goals. We prefer the question: How can paid search support my business goals?

Key Recommendation

Think in terms of goals. How can paid search support ecommerce and digital marketing goals? What do you

want to achieve?

This section outlines the importance of using goals, objectives and KPIs to structure your

paid search marketing. Some of the key themes (e.g. budgeting, resourcing, keyword planning,

and campaign structure) are explored in more detail later in this report.

Paid search is part of the bigger picture

Paid search is a digital marketing channel, not a business strategy. Though its possible, weve not yet come across a business that uses paid search as its only marketing channel. Therefore, paid

search is part of the whole and needs to be aligned with your other marketing channels, both

online and offline.

The first discussion to have is how paid search fits in. The learning from your existing marketing

channels can help influence paid search planning, in relation to popular products and services,

and geographic targeting.

Its essential that you stop and consider the role paid search will play in customer acquisition and retention. Ask yourself the following questions:

What gaps do you currently have?

What products/services/content do you currently struggle to get attention for?

What conversions do you want to increase?

Which web pages arent doing well for natural search (SEO) that you could give a short-term boost for using paid search?

How can paid search support other channels like display and offline advertising?

Goals provide direction

Most businesses will have a potential paid search market of hundreds of thousands of keyword

queries, if not millions. Churning through all of these combinations is resource-intensive, not to

mention mind-numbingly tedious. How do you pick? Based on total available impressions? On

estimated cost per click (CPC)? On competition levels?




4. Setting up Paid Search Having covered in previous sections of this report the planning and strategy that should be

completed prior to starting a paid search campaign (either in-house or through an agency), this

section covers in more detail how you can go about getting your campaign up and running.

4.1. Account and keyphrase creation

Contributor

The following section on Account and Keyphrase Creation has been put together and reviewed by Mike Fantis, Head of Paid Search, Make It Rain.

In this section, we explain a structured process to setting up a paid search account and identifying

keyphrases related to your products and services. We also point you at the best free and paid for

tools for identifying keyphrases and evaluating their potential.

Keyphrase analysis and selection are core to success in SEM. Identifying relevant key phrases for

your marketplace is a crucial starting point both to starting and refining both paid search and

SEO.

Why the term keyphrase?

In this report we use the term keyphrase (short for keyword phrase or search term) rather than keyword since it reflects the behaviour of the audience.

Searchers type in phrases in a sequence, which reflects what they are looking for. Some sequences

are more important than others. Furthermore, the whole search strategy is based on deciding on

which phrases to optimise for or bid upon.

Were probably being picky here, but many search companies and commentators talk about optimizing clients keywords and in our opinion pay insufficient attention to keyphrase analysis . Through evaluating keyphrases we understand the sequence in which a searcher enters their

search terms.

4.1.1. Account set-up considerations

The most important element of account set-up is deciding the structure. By structure we mean

how you use campaigns, ad groups and ads to target your keyphrases across brand and non-brand

(or generic) terms.

It helps to focus on three key considerations when planning the set-up of a paid search account:

1. Website navigation structure

2. Reporting requirements

3. Campaign granularity




Website navigation structure

Account setup should ideally mirror your website navigation as closely as possible. This will help

you align targeting with your core product ranges to ensure your campaigns are relevant to what

you offer. We also find it helps digital marketing teams to understand the relevance of paid search

and how it aligns with trading an ecommerce channel.

In instances where there are too many options you will need to review the account structure. In

the example of a department store like John Lewis, following the navigation menu to build a

campaign for electricals wouldnt be advisable because there would be too many ad groups.

Too many ad groups could result in budget suffocation and prevent keyphrases from achieving

impressions. In this case, youll need to pick and choose your campaign targets to ensure there is a clear focus. However, the navigation menu acts as a prompt for decision-making. Whilst we are

using an example of a B2C retailer, this approach is valid for B2B as well where solution areas are

also categorised.

In this example we would recommend each of the top navigation options to be an individual

account, then you treat the top level Categories as if you are a specialist retailer in that product

area.

Reporting requirements

Another consideration when creating an account is how you want/are expected to report on

performance. Ask yourself important questions about what information your business needs to

make decisions. Taking the Electricals example above:

Do you need to communicate sales of Televisions vs. DVD players?

Do you need to be able to report by brand e.g. Sony vs. Panasonic?

Do you need to be able to report at model number level?

Do you need to distinguish between attribute groups e.g. 2 slice vs. 4 slice toaster?




5. Paid Search Optimisation

5.1. Ad extensions

Contributor

The following section on Ad Extensions has been put together and reviewed by Peter Whitmarsh, Head of PPC at Search Laboratory.

Introduction

Google has long since moved beyond the original and basic ad texts on their search result pages:

since the launch of sitelinks in late 2009, there has been somewhat of an explosion in the range of

ad extensions now on offer.

The reason that these extensions are so important to the modern paid search marketer depends

on the extension in question: it may be that it allows for the promotion of a secondary goal such

as communication ad extensions for lead gathering, or simply because they can massively

increase the prominence of the overall ad, such as is the case for enhanced sitelinks, thus leading

to improved CTRs. We will go through the benefits of each extension type in further detail below.

Google are constantly innovating when it comes to ad extensions. The typical approach that they

take is to initially launch new extensions in small closed beta trials, before opening them up

further to more advertisers. All of the types of ad extension featured in this first section are now

available to be used by all AdWords advertisers assuming that individual criteria are met.

Key Recommendation

With the recent introduction of Googles Enhanced Campaigns, we now have the power to schedule different ad extensions for different times of the day. For example, you may have a call centre which is only open from 9-5. By

only having your call extensions enabled at this time you can be sure to restrict any unwanted out-of-hours calls.

5.1.1. Sitelinks

These are the original ad extensions first launched back in November 2009, additional links that

go under the main ad text and mirror the sitelinks that are automatically displayed in the organic

search listings.

Up to ten 35-character sitelinks can be added in AdWords, though only 4 or 6 links will typically

be displayed. They are used to link to different sub-sections of your website, allowing the searcher

to choose the most relevant content for themselves. In the past sitelinks have also been an

opportunity to include a few extra USPs - in which case theyd all have the same landing page URL - but recent policy changes enforce use of unique URLs, thus preventing this practice.




Though click-through rates on individual links tend to be extremely low, their presence still serves

to increase the prominence of the ads that feature them simply as they take up more space on the

screen, thus increasing the overall ad click-through rate.

The great thing is that you can track clicks on individual sitelinks, helping you discover what type

of link has the greatest impact. This is really useful for brand campaigns where you might have

product category links and dont know which ones encourage the best click-through.

Sitelinks are currently the only ad extension type also supported by Bing Ads.

Its interesting to see how different businesses use sitelinks in brand paid search ads. Below is a comparison of ASOS and H&M. Notice how ASOS uses deep links to promotion pages whereas

H&M is focused on category ranges.

Different uses of sitelinks in brand ads - ASOS

Different uses of sitelinks in brand ads H&M

Suitable for:

Almost everyone. Theyre extremely quick and easy to set up, so should be enabled for all search network campaigns. The only exceptions may be for very small websites where no suitable

alternative pages exist; or if an advertiser is especially keen to have another type of ad extension

show instead, and doesnt want to cede control of this to Google, which chooses the most relevant ad extensions available according to its algorithms and an internal hierarchy invisible to the advertiser.




6. Mobile Paid Search Contributor

The following section on Mobile Paid Search has been put together and reviewed by Net Media Planet.

6.1. Introduction It is true across the board. Roughly one in seven searches, even in the smaller categories, are happening on a mobile phone, but how many of you are putting one

seventh of your resources into mobile Your customer is trying to engage you it would be like not doing business with your customers on Thursdays.

Source: Jason Spero, Google

Mobile search has grown rapidly since this report was first published in 2008. We can be sure

that mobile paid search will get bigger, since smartphone usage is now greater than PC usage.1

UK advertisers increased their mobile paid search budgets last year by 94% to 19.32% of total ad

spend, according to Marin Softwares Mobile Advertising Around the Globe report. The rapid proliferation of devices, together with a shift in consumer needs and behaviour is changing the

paid search landscape.

At the time of writing, Google announced one of the biggest changes ever to their AdWords

interface with the launch of Enhanced Campaigns. This change intends to improve the

effectiveness with which advertisers can connect with potential consumers across devices.

Undoubtedly there will be changes in the way advertisers manage their paid search campaigns,

and likely further acceleration in the adoption of mobile paid search.

At Net Media Planet, a specialist search and display agency, we have written this section to

explore the key areas of mobile paid search. This section will look at:

Growth and trends in mobile usage

Why mobile is important for paid search

An introduction to Enhanced Campaigns how it will change mobile paid search campaign management

Mobile paid search best practice approaches

The future for mobile paid search

Throughout this section, Enhanced Campaigns will be referred to as Enhanced, and current

campaigns will be referred to as Legacy.

1 http://econsultancy.com/reports/mobile-statistics




7. Acknowledgements

7.1. Lead author The lead author and reviewer for this version of our Paid Search Best Practice Guide is James

Gurd.

James Gurd is an experienced ecommerce consultant and

owner of Digital Juggler, an ecommerce and digital

marketing consultancy. He has more than 10 years B2C and

B2B experience client and agency side, providing

ecommerce advice and support.

He works with a wide range of ecommerce clients helping

digital teams to create, implement and evolve digital

strategy, of which search marketing is a core component.

James is a guest blogger at Econsultancy and can be found

on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. He is also co-host of

#ecomchat, a weekly industry chat on all things ecommerce

every Monday.

7.2. Expert contributors Econsultancy wishes to extend sincere thanks to the following paid search professionals and

agencies. Between them, they have carefully reviewed and updated, and in some cases entirely

rewritten the original previous content, adding current front-line best-practice tips and insight

derived from their experience in this complex area of online marketing.

Chris Camacho, Head of Paid Search, SMG Search

Sections contributed to:

Ad creative and copy strategy

Bid management tool strategy

Testing and optimising creative

Click fraud strategy

Integrating paid search with SEO

Integration with overall media communications

SMG Search is a division of Starcom MediaVest Group. Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human

Experience Company with a dream to grow their clients' business by transforming human

behaviour through uplifting, meaningful human experiences.

The SMG Search department manage an extensive and diverse portfolio of PPC and SEO accounts

as well as other biddable media across 30 countries in 19 different languages including

automotive, technology, finance, FMCG and travel sectors. SMG Search have been recognised for

their market leading search proposition by being awarded at the Direct Marketing Association

awards and winning Best Use of Search at the Travel Marketing Awards in the last three years.

The team comprises of over 65 Google-certified Search professionals and work with many of the

established and new technologies in the marketplace. SMG Search are also members of the IAB

Search Council and IPA Search Group.




Peter Whitmarsh, Head of PPC, Search Laboratory


Budgeting for paid search

Ad extensions

International and multilingual paid search

Peter Whitmarsh is Head of PPC at Search Laboratory. Having graduated from Manchester

University with a degree in Maths, Peter joined the team in 2010 managing a number of accounts

across a wide variety of vertical sectors. In 2011 Peter took over management of the team of

twelve, driving the team forward and managing the latest innovations and best practices in paid

search. Managing clients in over 18 countries, Pete and his team combine their expertise in PPC

with use of the companys proprietary bid management software BidLabTM to drive greater

returns for clients from their paid search marketing.

Net Media Planet


Mobile paid search

Integrating paid search and display advertising

Net Media Planet is an award-winning agency specialising in Search and Display marketing. We

help ambitious brands to create a step change in their online performance.

Since launching in 2004, we have built a proven track record of success for clients such as

Microsoft, Monsoon, Accessorize and P&O Ferries.

Our work has received numerous industry accolades, including winning awards for innovation

from Econsultancy, Revolution, DADI, the Effective Mobile Marketing and the coveted Grand

Prix award at the UK Search Awards in 2012. In addition, we have been listed in The Sunday

Times Tech Track 100 and the Deloitte Fast 50 Technology businesses.

Based out of London, we run campaigns across over 55 countries, in over 30 languages and

generate client revenues of over 100 million annually.

For more information please visit www.netmediaplanet.com

Matt Whelan, Head of Search, The Digital House


Local paid search marketing and geo-targeting

Destination or landing page strategy

A search marketing veteran, Matt has had practical experience working with leading brands in

every sector, and has successfully devised search and digital strategies on a global scale.

Matt's in-depth paid search knowledge is derived from working on multi-million pound accounts

from the agency side, and also from time spent as a consultant within businesses, demonstrating

how to get the most from search engines, and how Adwords fits with related channels. He would

class himself as "extremely hands-on", and enjoys rolling up his sleeves and problem solving with

his team, as well as training others how to build winning PPC accounts.

Matt's a Plymouth Argyle fan, and asks that you sympathise accordingly.




Sandra DOnofrio, Head of PPC, LBi


Paid search ad network strategy

Campaign structure for paid search

Sandra has been with LBi for over two years and now heads up the PPC team. She is responsible

for the on-going development of quality and delivery of the PPC service. A polyglot with in-depth

PPC expertise as well as excellent organisational skills, Sandra has worked on some of the PPC

key clients across all verticals. Sandra is also heavily involved with some of the agencys major and most complex PPC campaigns, covering multiple languages and territories. She has a wealth of

knowledge having worked with a number of PPC management tools including Marin, DS3 and DC

Storm.

Sandra has seven years search experience. Prior to joining LBi, Sandra worked at Netizen Digital,

managing accounts focusing on PPC across the travel vertical. Before that, she worked at

Greenlight as a PPC analyst for major brands.

Mike Fantis, Head of Paid Search, Make It Rain


Account and keyphrase creation

Mike has over eight years experience in search engine marketing, specialising in PPC strategy as a client, specialist search marketing consultant and within media agencies, including Manning

Gottlieb OMD and Latitude. Mike is a respected authority on PPC and regularly contributes to

industry forums, advising and training Econsultancy members on strategy and performance.

As Head of Paid Search for Make It Rain, Mike develops PPC strategy for premium online brands

including Ted Baker, Best Western, David Lloyd and Burgess, the super yacht industry leader. He

is responsible for ensuring high performance across the companys portfolio and developing

bespoke campaigns that outperform competitors.

Mikes search marketing experience spans blue-chip brands in major search verticals including Virgin Media, Skype, and Merlin Group.

Jonathan Beeston, Director, New Product Innovation, Adobe


Paid search and web analytics / reporting

Jonathan Beeston is director, new product innovation at Adobe. He leads product marketing of

search, social and display advertising solutions for Adobe in Europe, as part of a global team

working on Adobe Media Optimizer. A veteran of online advertising, Jon joined Adobe as part of

the Efficient Frontier acquisition where he ran EMEA client services for over 4 years before

moving to marketing.

Jon is a frequent blogger, commentator and speaker on online advertising and social media. Prior

to Adobe, he ran the search marketing practice at Mindshare London, part of WPP.




Tom Lewis, Head of Professional Services, DC Storm


Affiliate integration strategy

As Head of Professional Service, Tom runs a team of Digital Marketing Consultants whose role is

to interpret the clients needs and deliver bespoke tracking and attribution solutions, ensuring they maximise the potential of the Storm platform. Before joining the DC Storm team, Tom

managed agency teams specialising in the delivery of multi-language Global PPC campaigns.

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