Guest Speaker today from GSI Commerce

Which Ad is better (A or B)? Jim Jansen College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University

Today, we are talking ads and, how to make them better! We are always aiming to improve our keyword advertising effort!

Think of this as product or service lines (e.g., cars vs. trucks, cakes vs. cookies, etc.) Think of this as your SMB (i.e., car dealer, bakery, etc.). Think of this as individual product or service (Kia Spectra, bran muffin, etc.)

Today we again focus on the ads, which are the welcome, the directions, and the path to your customer’s business The Ad needs to convince the customer that your Website is the best place to get what they want!

Note that these are called *Ad groups*, although much of the focus has been on keywords. The ads are good ways to further refine our campaigns

Note, refine! We needed to start with the keywords first before we can shift the focus to the ads! Not contradicting but instead getting more complex, nuanced, and focused! In other words, improving! What does it mean to focus on the ads?

For example, … This topically organized Ad group is an excellent place to start. But, can we get better? Source: 21 Secret Truths of High-Resolution PPC – Click Equations Probably yes, by now shifting the focus from the keywords to the ads. We now have 3 Ad groups Much tighter shot group (i.e., better demographic targeting on potential customers) More Ad groups cost you no money! and very little additional time.

Campaigns and Ad groups … focus on a line of products/services (i.e., campaign) or a specific product/service (i.e., Ad group). This has been our line! However, there are exceptions (i.e., content network, geo-targeting, branded keywords, etc.). This are relatively common. More complex are: campaigns with overlapping terms and negative keywords, day parting with bid management, Google only (no search partners), etc.). Our goal is “always be improving!”

What about what our IMPAQT Speaker told us? Now is a good time to talk about this 1 to 3 keywords per Ad group 1 to 3 keywords per Ad group *is* a really good target; however, not a good place to start. Good Rule of Thumb: 5 – 10 (+/-) keywords per Ad group to start Okay, what do we do then to get to this good target of 1 to 3 keywords per Ad group?

An Example … Ad group Keywords cat food order feline food cat food online kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow Typically, find that small subset of keywords are the work horses (i.e., 80% of traffic)! With most of the other keywords doing little. Ad group Keywords cat food order feline food cat food online kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow Ad group Keywords cat food order feline food cat food online Ad group Keywords kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow So, we create a new Ad group with these high traffic keywords and the high performing ad. We remove those keywords from our old Ad group and create a new ad.

And the process repeats … Again, we typically find that small subset of keywords are the work horses (i.e., 80% of traffic)! With most doing little. Ad group Keywords cat food order feline food cat food online Ad group Keywords kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow Ad group Keywords kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow Ad group Keywords kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat So, we create a new Ad group with these high traffic keywords and the high performing ad. Ad group Keywords discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow We can repeat this process with a new ad, although at some point we just get rid of the underperforming keywords.

Ad group Keywords cat food order feline food cat food online Ad group Keywords kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat Ad group Keywords discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow Also, it is a recursive process.. Note that our *new* Ad groups will also have high performers! We can take these uber high traffic keywords with ads and make new Ad groups! Ad group Keywords cat food order feline food cat food online Ad group Keywords kitten food best food for new kitten what would my kitten like to eat Ad group Keywords discount cat food cat food coupons online coupons for kitty chow We can repeat the process until we end up with 1 keyword and 1 ad per Ad group!

Okay, let’s talk about these ads and making them the focus of structuring our campaigns First, a quick review!

Writing Keywords Ads Your ad has three goals, which are: –Generating clicks from potential customers –Discouraging clicks from unlikely customers –Setting customer expectations for the landing page (i.e., want a positive customer experience)

Think of Each Line As Having a Separate Goal/Being a Component There are four components to a search engine marketing ad. –The Headline: grabs the user’s attention –The Description Line: clearly defines the product or service you have to offer, and how it will meet the need indicated by a user’s search. –The “Call to Action”: tells the customer what to do after they click on your ad and land on your Web site. –URL: establishes trust and is relevant

Okay, but what about the ad itself? Sometimes very small changes can make a difference. Let’s look at two examples …

Example Comparison 1 Winning Ad has as 135% greater CTR and 42% greater CR than Losing Ad. What’s the difference? Why? Source: Answer: The … implies more information.

Example Comparison 2 Winning Ad has as 180% greater CTR than Losing Ad. What’s the difference? Why? Source: Answer: The change from Changes to Change moves from automatic (i.e., Changes) to manual (i.e., Change).

Okay, but endless possible changes. Where do I begin? Generally, a change in the headline will get the most response difference. (just a guideline!) See what other folks have done. Why reinvent the wheel? It might work for you! See (in addition to the presentations for Lesson 07 and 09): – adwords-tips/ adwords-tips/ – ritin.htmlhttp://blog.frogbody.com/frogblog/2006/02/a_tip_on_w ritin.html – effective-google-adwords-copy/8279/ effective-google-adwords-copy/8279/

Hey, Jansen, even if I implement these changes and techniques, how do I know if it is an improvement?

A/B testing with Ads this is a capability that you can use to set up two ads (or more!), running simultaneously, for the same set of keywords. An A/B experiment allows you to test the performance of two (or more!) different versions of an ad for a set of keywords Start with your original test ad -- the ad whose content you want to test then create an alternate version of an ad for that Ad group

What does that look like?

Unless you are getting a lot of impressions, hold it to two ads Set-up two ads in the same Ad group Then after a set time, compare your metrics

How do I do that?

This is key! We **always** select Rotate no matter what!

A/B Testing for Ads Once you have your two ads, you can let them run for a period of time, then see which one is performing the best (i.e., CTR and CR) Then, you get rid of the less performing ad and replace it with another ad to test Test, test, test with the goal of Improvement, improvement, improvement!

Question there, Jansen? How do I know that the ads are really performing differently?

You do a split test analysis (think back to one of your stat courses!) … shows whether or not there really is a difference between the metrics of two ads.

A / B Testing of Ads Exercise 1.Review the material that we have covered in class and that is available on the Web on writing ads. 2.Identify some ad creating tactics that you believe will work for your client. 3.Take at least one (or more) of the Ad groups that you are responsible for and design a second ad (reminder to set up the Campaign settings) 4.Experiment with split-testing-tool/ (or other tools) and see what the ballpark range of CTR and CR are needed to get a statistically significant difference. split-testing-tool/ 5.After finished with this exercise, team leaders, the remaining lesson time is yours.

Thank you! (reminder to do your daily logs) Jim Jansen College of Information Sciences and Technology The Pennsylvania State University