Search Engine Marketing
Managing an effective Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign can be daunting and time-consuming, especially if you are a small organization where the person in charge of internet marketing is also wearing several other hats. Contracting with an outside SEM service to manage the process can be equally frustrating since most of them won't even talk to you unless you are spending tens of thousands on PPC each month. Some of these firms do a great job if you can afford them, but their strategies are too often designed to generate traffic with little regard for the quality of that traffic.
We take a different approach. Our Pay-Per-Click development and management programs focus on conversions—if your keywords aren't generating sales and/or quality leads then we will do whatever it takes to change that. Our policies and procedures have resulted in significant benefits for our clients, including;
1. The Accounts Are Yours, Not Ours
Unlike most agencies, we consider your SEM accounts to be your property, not ours. If you have existing accessible accounts with Google, MSN and Yahoo, we will work within the existing accounts so you don’t lose the benefit of your history. If your current agency “owns” your accounts, we will set up new ones for you, in your name. From day one, you will have full access. We ask that you not make changes, but you can check up on us to your heart’s content – every change or adjustment to your account will be entirely transparent. In fact, you can move the account in-house or to another agency without missing a beat. We strive to develop long-term relationships with our clients, but if you ever decide to move on, we don’t think your business should suffer in any way as a result.
A side benefit to this arrangement is the fact that you have full access to the wealth of data available through the search engine interface (if your account is “owned” by an agency, you may not have this kind of access). Google’s robust reporting can help you refine your site and optimize your product mix to generate more conversions.
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Client Results: Several of our clients use the Search Query Report available through Google AdWords to identify the exact terms customers are using to search for their products. This granular data is not accessible through any standard keyword research tools, which are designed to deliver information on more broadly-focused keywords. This research has helped clients improve both SEO and SEM conversion through changes to existing page copy, and the introduction of new products and product categories.
2. We Don’t Manage PPC in a Vacuum
Part of a successful PPC program is determining the best landing page for a particular ad and keyword set. If, in the process of selecting landing pages for your account, we see an opportunity for you to improve conversions through adjustments to your site navigation, page content or page structure, we will let you know. We rarely recommend creating pages specifically for PPC; if something makes sense for paid search, then it will also likely work for other visitors to your site. Delivering your traffic to the right landing page will also save money in click charges since Google considers the relevancy of the landing page when assigning keyword quality scores. Good keyword/ad/landing page synergy will result in high quality scores, lower click charges and higher conversions.
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Client Results: Extensive keyword research for a client revealed that searchers were using the same search terms for products separated into two categories on their site. When we combined the two categories into one, conversion rates from PPC, organic and direct traffic improved by more than 30% for the combined products.
3. No Automatic Bidding Software
On the face of it, automatic bidding software may seem like a good thing. Most automatic bidding programs, however, fall short when it comes to maximizing the best aspects of your account and eliminating the worst. They tend to put the emphasis on the cost ratio or spending the entire budget, while paying less attention to other aspects of the account (such as ad position, keyword mix and effective ad/keyword/landing page synergy) which can have a much larger impact on results. Over time, the account can fall into a mediocre state where you are meeting your cost percentage goals but failing to access all of the high quality traffic available. Most of the bidding models are also not sophisticated enough to manage category or product-level goal changes. Our system allows you to set cost and/or traffic goals all the way down to the product level. If you want to relax your ad spend requirements for a certain category of products due to higher margins, we can handle it.
Managing bids for tens of thousands of keywords without automated software is not as difficult as you might think. We use all of the management tools available through the search engine interfaces, as well as Excel-based analysis, to look at the data from every perspective. We maximize your account’s performance by using the best combinations of keywords, ads and bids.
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Client Results: After taking over an account that had previously been managed with automatic bidding, we eliminated campaigns, ad groups and keywords that were not performing, and devoted the budget wasted on those to improving exposure for the campaigns, ad groups and keywords that generated revenue. Year-over-year PPC revenue has improved by over 20% with no increase in ad spend. We also have a client who is willing to spend more in PPC on certain product categories that carry higher margins, something their previous agency was not able to accommodate within the structure of their auto-bidding software. PPC sales for these categories have doubled, and cost is well within the required ratio.
4. We Believe in Negative Keywords
One of the most powerful (and under-utilized) tools for refining PPC traffic is the liberal use of negative keywords. It is not unusual for our client accounts to contain nearly as many negative keywords as bid keywords. This strategy allows you to take full advantage of the long tail without paying for traffic that will not generate sales. Since the search engines continually adjust the algorithms that control ad delivery, effective negative keyword management is an ongoing process. This an area that is often poorly managed by many agencies, because it requires regular in-depth analysis of search query terms that may or may not be captured by their internal software. We continually analyze search query terms and their performance to identify potential negatives.
5. We Manage Brand and Non-Brand Keywords Separately
Your brand is the lifeblood of your business, and while you should be bidding on terms related to your brand name in PPC, your brand terms should perform at a much lower cost ratio. When we create or modify a PPC program, we separate brand terms into a different campaign to simplify the evaluation of traffic and performance. We will work with you to set goals for each group to maximize performance. For companies in an aggressive growth phase, we can use blended goals, but brand and non-brand results will be reported separately, so you can clearly see how each is performing.
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Client Results: After separating brand terms from non-brand terms for a new client, we were not only able to improve performance for non-brand terms, but also identified irrelevant traffic that was being delivered to brand keywords for a similarly-named business. The cost associated with brand terms dropped by 50% after adjustments to keyword match types and the addition of negative keywords, with no reduction in revenue.
6. We Work Weekends
Your ads run on weekends, so there should be someone watching them on weekends. We monitor your account 7 days a week; if something goes wrong over a weekend, we will know about it and can fix it before you have missed out on sales or run up unnecessary click charges.
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Client Results: Due to a bank error, one of our clients had a credit card payment to Google rejected on a Saturday morning in early December. The bank not only denied the charge to the primary card, but also rejected the charge to the backup card. We were able to contact the client and make arrangements for another method of payment to keep the ads running. Had we not been aware of this problem, the client would have lost nearly $50,000 in revenue over that weekend.
Our PPC development program includes:
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Comprehensive analysis of your current PPC program, or from-scratch development for companies new to Pay-per-Click.
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Site critique to spot potential improvements in navigation, shopping cart features and page layout.
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Keyword generation.
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Analysis of PPC bid competitors.
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Account setup/modification on Google, Yahoo and/or MSN.
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Compelling ad text copy that appeals to your customer and takes full advantage of the PPC algorithms to improve keyword position.
Our PPC management program includes:
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Daily monitoring of PPC accounts, including bid management.
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Ad, landing page, and keyword analysis and testing.
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Timely and responsive management of promotions, seasonal changes and new product introductions (in other words, when you let us know that you have put new product on your site or are planning a promotion, we will generate new keywords and have them running on PPC within a week - something you will rarely get from the "big guys.")
Our Fees
We develop and manage PPC programs for any size business, and our SEM fee structure is simple: 12% of ad spend, with a $500 per month minimum cap and a $5000 per month maximum cap. This fee structure means that you will not see a dramatic increase in your PPC management fees during your best season just because it is your best season. We also set a target ROI based on your business objective to ensure that your PPC program will be successful. A setup fee (usually between $1000 and $5000, depending on the size of the account) will apply to new PPC programs and programs that require significant revision.
Our unique approach to PPC management has resulted in significant benefits to our clients, including:
We only take on a limited number of clients to ensure that we remain effective, but rarely turn away a small business in need of help.
Ready to launch a pay-per-click program that really works? Give us a call today at 434-973-0609 or contact us at info@kineticmarketingconsultants.com
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