Bid Estimation with the AdWords API (v2)

Google Inc. - All Rights Reserved

Bid Estimation with the APIMaintaining highly performing AdWords ads

Joel Toby, Google, Inc.

Agenda

● Bid Estimation Objectives

● Achieving These Objectives

● Services Available Via the API

● Utilizing Estimates for a New Campaign

● Optimizing Existing Campaigns


Bid Estimation Objectives


1. Create relevant ad campaigns that drive high volumes of quality traffic

2. Maximise ROI by minimizing CPC

3. Maintain and constantly improve these campaigns

4. Achieve all of the above efficiently and scalably

Bid Estimation Objectives


Achieving these objectives


1. Relevant campaigns, high traffic volumes

2. Maximise ROI by minimizing CPC

3. Maintain and improve campaigns

4. Efficiently and scalably

The Importance of Quality Score

Directly affected by Quality Score


What does Quality Score influence?

EligibilityDetermines whether an ad is

eligible to enter the auction for that query

PositionDetermines relative position of an ad in relation to other ads

on that result page

PriceA better Quality Score reduces

the price you need to bid to maintain a given position

Top SlotOnly high quality ads are

eligible to appear above the natural search results


What contributes to Quality Score?

Quality Score range: 1 - 10

Quality Score

Clickthrough rate * Relevance Landing Page

* Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the most important factor


● Some of the useful data exposed by the API○ Keyword Ideas○ Keyword historic stats data○ Traffic estimate data○ Cost and clickthrough rate estimates○ Keyword search volume estimates

The Available Data


API Estimation Data Services


● TargetingIdeaService (TIS)○ Generate new keyword ideas based on parameters○ Retrieve historic statistics for existing keywords based on

parameters

● TrafficEstimatorService (TES)○ Retrieve traffic estimates for proposed or existing campaigns, ad

groups, and keywords

● Report data○ Often combined with estimates data when optimizing campaigns

Targeting Idea and Traffic Estimator Service


TargetingIdeaService RequestsTargetingIdeaSelector - Key components

SearchParameters[]RelatedToQuerySearchParameter

LocationSearchParameter

RelatedToUrlSearchParameter

ExcludedKeywordSearchParameter

RequestedAttributeTypesSEARCH_VOLUME

AVERAGE_CPC

COMPETITION

KEYWORD_TEXT

RequestTypeIDEAS

STATS

IdeaType

CurrencyCode


TrafficEstimatorService RequestsTrafficEstimatorSelector

campaignEstimateRequests

adGroupEstimateRequests

keywordEstimateRequests


CampaignEstimateRequestTrafficEstimatorSelector



keywordEstimateRequests

campaignId

dailyBudget

criteria

networkSetting


AdGroupEstimateRequestTrafficEstimatorSelector



keywordEstimateRequestsadGroupId

maxCpc


KeywordEstimateRequestTrafficEstimatorSelector



keywordEstimateRequestsisNegative

maxCpc


Building a new campaignAn real-world example


Example: A New Campaign

● The business○ A bakery○ Based in New York○ Has a website

● Use the TargetingIdeaService to○ Get some good keyword ideas○ Evaluate some existing keyword ideas

● Use the TrafficEstimateService to○ Plug keywords into a complete campaign and estimate traffic

volumes and cost

HTML


// Building the request, first the SelectorTargetingIdeaSelector selector = new TargetingIdeaSelector();selector.setRequestType(RequestType.IDEAS);selector.setIdeaType(IdeaType.KEYWORD);selector.setRequestedAttributeTypes(new AttributeType[] {

AttributeType.KEYWORD_TEXT,AttributeType.SEARCH_VOLUME,AttributeType.AVERAGE_CPC,AttributeType.COMPETITION

});

JAVA

TargetingIdeaService: Get Keyword Ideas

HTML


// Paging is required for the targeting idea service.Paging paging = new Paging();paging.setStartIndex(0);paging.setNumberResults(15);selector.setPaging(paging);

JAVA


HTML


// Get ideas related to query search parameter.RelatedToQuerySearchParameter relatedToQuerySearchParameter =

new RelatedToQuerySearchParameter();relatedToQuerySearchParameter.setQueries(new String[]

{"bakery", "pastries", "birthday cake"});

JAVA


HTML


LocationSearchParameter locationParameter = new LocationSearchParameter();

Location newYork = new Location();newYork.setId(1023191l); // code for New York *locationParameter.setLocations(new Location[] {newYork});

CategoryProductsAndServicesSearchParameter categoryParameter =new CategoryProductsAndServicesSearchParameter();

categoryParameter.setCategoryId(13693); // Cat ID for ‘Bakeries’*

JAVA

* See ‘Appendix A: Criteria Codes’ in API docs:https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/productsservices


HTML


// Sending the RequestRelatedToUrlSearchParameter urlParameter =

new RelatedToUrlSearchParameter();urlParameter.setUrls(new String[] {"http://newyorkbakery.com/"});

selector.setSearchParameters(new SearchParameter[] {relatedToQuerySearchParameter,locationParameter, categoryParameter});

// Get keywords ideas.TargetingIdeaPage page = targetingIdeaService.get(selector);

JAVA


HTML


// Parsing the results// Parse keyword ideas data.if (page.getEntries() != null && page.getEntries().length > 0) {

for (TargetingIdea targetingIdea : page.getEntries()) {Map<AttributeType, Attribute> data =

Maps.toMap(targetingIdea.getData());

StringAttribute keyword = (StringAttribute) data.get(AttributeType.

KEYWORD_TEXT);

JAVA


HTML


JAVA

long averageMonthlySearches =((LongAttribute) data.get(AttributeType.SEARCH_VOLUME))

.getValue();

Money averageCpc =((MoneyAttribute) data.get(AttributeType.AVERAGE_CPC))

.getValue();

double competition =((DoubleAttribute) data.get(AttributeType.COMPETITION))

.getValue();



Keyword textAvg monthly

search volumeAverage

CPC Competitioncake bakery 170 0.485384 0.41bakery story 390 0.069918 0.12specialty cakes 90 0.510527 0.8local bakeries 40 0.187052 0.41online bakery 70 0.652462 0.8bakery names 70 0.074779 0.19creative cakes 210 1.009925 0.15french pastries 260 0.231775 0.16bakery cakes 70 0.405006 0.51



TargetingIdeaService: Get stats for existing keywordsStats request differences

● RequestType = STATS● Some SearchParameters are not compatible with

STATS requests and cannot be used● CategoryProductsAndServicesSearchParameter

Stats results differences● No new keyword ideas will be returned● Result contains stats for the request keywords


Keyword textAvg monthly

search volumeAverage

CPC Competitionbirthday cakes nyc 390 0.507404 0.65

TIS: Keyword Stats Results


Traffic Estimates for a New Campaign

● The business○ A bakery○ Based in New York○ Has a website

● Use the TargetingIdeaService to○ Get some good keyword ideas○ Evaluate some existing keyword ideas

● Use the TrafficEstimatorService to○ Plug keywords into a complete campaign and estimate traffic

volumes and cost

HTML


JAVA// Create an Keyword estimate request.List<KeywordEstimateRequest> keywordEstimateRequests =

new ArrayList<KeywordEstimateRequest>();

for(String keywordText : candidateKeywords) {Keyword keyword = new Keyword(null, null, null,

keywordText, KeywordMatchType.BROAD);

KeywordEstimateRequest keywordEstimateRequest = new KeywordEstimateRequest();

keywordEstimateRequest.setKeyword(keyword);keywordEstimateRequests.add(keywordEstimateRequest);

}

TrafficEstimatorService

HTML


JAVA// Create an AdGroup estimate request.List<AdGroupEstimateRequest> adGroupEstimateRequests =

new ArrayList<AdGroupEstimateRequest>();AdGroupEstimateRequest adGroupEstimateRequest =

new AdGroupEstimateRequest();

adGroupEstimateRequest.setKeywordEstimateRequests(keywordEstimateRequests.toArray(

new KeywordEstimateRequest[] {}));adGroupEstimateRequest.setMaxCpc(new Money(null, 600000L));adGroupEstimateRequests.add(adGroupEstimateRequest);


HTML


JAVA

// Create a campaign estimate request.List<CampaignEstimateRequest> campaignEstimateRequests =

new ArrayList<CampaignEstimateRequest>();CampaignEstimateRequest campaignEstimateRequest =

new CampaignEstimateRequest();

campaignEstimateRequest.setAdGroupEstimateRequests(adGroupEstimateRequests

.toArray(new AdGroupEstimateRequest[] {}));


HTML


JAVA

// Build the CampaignEstimateRequestsLocation newYork = new Location();newYork.setId(1023191l);Language english = new Language();english.setId(1000L);campaignEstimateRequest.setCriteria(new Criterion[]

{newYork, english});

campaignEstimateRequests.add(campaignEstimateRequest);


HTML


JAVA

// Create Selector.TrafficEstimatorSelector selector = new

TrafficEstimatorSelector();selector.setCampaignEstimateRequests(

campaignEstimateRequests.toArray(new CampaignEstimateRequest[] {}));

// Get traffic estimates.TrafficEstimatorResult result =

trafficEstimatorService.get(selector);



TrafficEstimatorResult

● TrafficEstimatorResult is a nest of objects that reflects the request

● StatsEstimates are contained only within the KeywordEstimates returned.

● Each KeywordEstimate contains two StatsEstimates: upper and lower bound estimates


The StatsEstimate object

StatsEstimateaverageCpcaveragePositionclicksPerDayimpressionsPerDayclickThroughRatetotalCost


Campaign Optimization


Optimizing the new campaign

● Once campaigns have been serving for a while, they should be optimized.

● Reports provide ‘actual’ performance data including data not available in estimates○ QualityScore○ Conversions

KeywordPerfReport

SearchQueryReport

CriteriaPerfReport


A simple, effective way to optimize

● Use report data to remove low QualityScore keywords● This will improve the performance of your campaigns

Click volume increase of 26%with a 62% improvement in CTR

290 real accounts were recently optimized in this way with great results:


You might then use the TES and TIS to replace keywords with new ones

Back To Estimates...

Estimate Data

Report Data

Remove Keywords

New Keywords

Google Inc - All Rights Reserved

ResourcesGuides

Using Keyword Planner to get keyword ideas and traffic estimates -https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2999770?rd=1

Understanding your Keyword Planner statistics and traffic estimates -https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/3022575

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2999770?rd=1

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2999770?rd=1

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/3022575


Questions?


Technology

Bid Estimation with the AdWords API (v2)