10 Ways to Outsmart Your PPC Competition in 2013 [Webinar]

Presenters:

Larry Kim | Founder, CTO of Wordstream

Amanda West-Bookwalter | Writer and account manager at PPC Hero & Hanapin

Marketing

10 Ways to Outsmart Your PPC

Competition in 2013

& HOSTED BY:

Speaker Introductions

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• Larry Kim

– Founder, CTO, WordStream, Inc.

– Been doing PPC & SEO for 10 Years!

– 3 Years ago, started WordStream!

– Today we’re an industry-leading provider of a PPC Management Platform

• Amanda West-Bookwalter

– Account Manager at Hanapin Marketing and Blogger at PPC Hero

– Focuses primarily on eCommerce

– PPCHero.com is the leading site for PPC Strategies, News and Information

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• Competition in PPC is more fierce than ever! You need to be faster and smarter than your competitors to keep up.

• 10 tips to help you outsmart your competition in 2013.

• Questions & Answers.

Today’s Agenda

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Take Part in Live Blogging on Twitter / Google+

• Include the hashtag #ppccompetition in your Twitter tweets, Google+ status updates, etc.

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Live-Poll Question 1

Question: Which of the following tools do you find most helpful in getting an edge on your competitors? #ppccompetition

a) Google Analytics

b) SpyFu

c) WordStream’s AdWords Grader

d) New Google Betas

e) AdWords Scripts

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Live-Poll Question 2

How long have you been involved with Search Marketing? #ppccompetition

a) Less than 1 Year

b) 1-3 Years

c) 3-5 Years

d) 5+ Years

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1. Be More Organized Than Your Competition

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A. Tightly-structured ad tests and AdWords Campaign Experiments can help you keep track of what you’re testing and, more importantly, why.

B. Give yourself enough time to gather a statistically significant amount of data, but stick to your calendar and follow through with your testing initiatives in a disciplined fashion to get an edge on the competition.

C. As an example: try creating an Ad Testing Matrix to give yourself a defined timeline for testing the impact of new headlines, copy, and display URLs.

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Example: Ad Testing Matrix

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2. Use Bid Management and Reporting Tools.

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A. Automating your workflow with Bid Management and Reporting software can help free up your spare time from maintenance tasks – time you can then dedicate to strategy, research, and the creation of more compelling ad copy!

B. There are some paid options like Acquisio and Marin with very robust bidding rules and automated reporting software.

C. In terms of free options, you have the ability to set automated bidding rules natively in the AdWords Interface and schedule basic AdWords reports. For the price, you can’t beat Google Analytics’ custom reporting options, either.

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Try It Now: AdWords Automated Bidding Rules

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Go to your account’s Keywords tab and select the “Automate” button. You have a variety of rules to choose from, so select carefully based on your KPIs!

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3. Learn How to Use AdWords Scripts and Excel Macros.

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A. These powerful snippets of code can turn a mountain of data in to easily digestible insights – saving you hours of time.

B. AdWords Scripts can help generate graphs for ad copy analysis, examine keywords, and provide Quality Score monitoring. Requires some knowledge of JavaScript, but can be absurdly useful in the right hands.

C. Excel Macros can help you generate unique insights from the most basic of AdWords reports – for instance, you can use Excel Macros to derive statistics from a Search Term Report for each individual word in that report, aiding you in discovering what terms/modifiers work best for you!

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4. Utilize third party retargeting sites

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A. These services, like ReTargeter and FetchBack give you bigger audiences. This allows you more chances to reach your most qualified audiences.

B. Get access to Facebook Ad Exchange. This allows you to capture your retargeting audience when they’re in the social mindset.

C. Use awesome creative like dynamic ads. This allows you to show users what they’re most likely to interact with again: the page they were just visiting.

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5. Make sure you’re on the cutting edge for new betas

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A. Google Analytics just whitelisted a bunch of accounts for an Attribution modeling tool. It lets you segment your data based on credit for interaction points leading up to conversions.

B. Search Remarketing is still in beta, and lets you target site visitors while they’re actively seeking products and information.

C. Having an agency with a great relationship with their Google rep, or having a great relationship with your own Google rep if your account is large enough to have one will keep you in the best place to get in on the ground floor for exciting new betas.

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6. Analyze your data to find your account’s sweet spot in terms of average ad positions.

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A. Stop wasting money trying to get to the top. It might not be the best place for your ads.

B. Download a keyword report by campaign, segment for week, create a pivot table. Segmenting data by each .5 change in ad position lets you analyze data by all your important metrics. You can pick out the best performing ad position to know where you’re getting the best volume for your dollar.

C. Check out this URL for a step-by-step guide: http://www.ppchero.com/find-your-ppc-accounts-optimal-ad-position-with-pivot-tables/

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7. Get Your Quality Score Discount!!

Typical Quality Score Discounts

• Source: “The Economics of Quality Score” by Mr. Craig Danuloff

Advertiser A – 14% Click Through Rate

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Advertiser A – Avg. Quality Score of 8.8

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Advertiser A

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Advertiser B – 1.3% Click Through Rate

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Advertiser B – Avg. Quality Score 3.8

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Advertiser B

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9. Ad Extensions!

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9. Creative Ads (Source: Perry Marshall)

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What Ad Testing Is Not

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Forrest vs. Leaves

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“Forrest”

• “Creative Stuff”

– Your Offer

– Your USP

– Your Guarantee

“Leaves”

• Grammar

– Punctuation

– Capitalization

– Spelling

Focus on this

Example

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• Source: Perry Marshall

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Example 1

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Example 2

3 Tips for a USP / Offer that Stands Out From the Competition

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Ask your customers!

• What is your #1 question about ____?

• What caused you to look for ____ today?

• What would you like us to help you with today?

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10. Maintain an Active PPC Lifestyle

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11. Find Out How Your Account Compares with the Competition - Grade Your PPC Account!

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• Baseline your performance

• A free, instant PPC audit in under a minute!

• Grades your AdWords account performance based on 8 Key PPC metrics

• Compares how you’re doing against other accounts of similar size (monthly spend)

www.wordstream.com/google-adwords

Grade Your Quality Score

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Grade Your Quality Scores

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Grade Your Click Through Rates

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Summary: PPC Optimization Clinic

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• Work smarter in 2013 to get an edge on your competition.

• Look for new tools and opportunities to provide insights that your competitors might have missed!

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Final Poll Question

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Q: If you’re looking for help with your accounts, would you like…

#ppccompetition

a) WordStream Offer: A free 1-on-1 AdWords account assessment with a certified AdWords Professional

b) A free one-on-one solutions blueprint/account assessment with Hanapin Marketing (for accounts with over $20,000/ month in spend)

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Your Questions

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Thank you for attending WordStream & Hanapin Marketing’s PPC Optimization Clinic webinar. #ppcclinic Don’t forget to sign up for a Free Trial of WordStream:

http://www.wordstream.com/ppc-free-trial Sign up for a Free Solutions Blueprint from Hanapin Marketing

http://www.hanapinmarketing.com/solutions-blueprint-sign-up

Or contact us directly: Larry Kim lkim@wordstream.com http://twitter.com/larrykim Amanda West-Bookwalter amanda.west-bookwalter@hanapinmarketing.com

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