Stretch Your Marketing Dollars - My SES Chicago Presentation Recap

Last week, at SES Chicago, I was honored to be part of the panel on the "Stretch Your Marketing Dollars" session. I presented a case study on one of our Fluency Media clients, where we used PPC to inform SEO.

I love the challenge of working within a small budget. It forces me to get really creative as a PPC manager and make sure I'm spending every cent in the best way possible. In many ways, it's easier to work with an unlimited budget than with a small, limited one - and it's more rewarding to see huge results from a relatively small spend.

SES Chicago is somewhat unique in that it tends to attract more in-house SEMs, as well as a lot of newcomers to search. The Stretch Your Marketing Dollars session was no exception - when I polled the audience to find out how many in-house vs. agency folks we had in the room, at least 2/3 of them were in-house SEMs.

I got a lot of great feedback after the session - one person even told me they took pages of notes! I hope the information in the presentation helps you too.

Have you had to work with a small budget? What did you do? What were the results?

Skills Every PPC Manager Should Have

Yesterday, my friend Matt Umbro wrote a fantastic post on PPC skills titled PPC and So Much More. He's identified 3 key skills that people often overlook when it comes to PPC, yet are critical to doing it well.

Matt has kindly given me credit for inspiring the post, but he deserves the credit for calling out these key aspects of our craft. Nice work, Matt!

The Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance - Here We Go!

This week, it's happening - the much-vaunted transition of Yahoo PPC traffic to the Microsoft Adcenter platform and the combination of the two programs. Not since the launch of Yahoo Panama back in early 2007 has there been such a momentous shift in the traditional PPC marketplace.

Yahoo and MSN have done a commendable job of preparing advertisers for the transition. It was announced nearly 18 months ago, and both engines have sent out continual communications and progress reports, using email, social media, in-person events, webinars, and information within the respective user interfaces. I attended the Search Alliance Summit in Seattle back in June, just prior to SMX Advanced. It was just a one-day seminar (and I missed the first half due to travel challenges), but it was jam-packed with useful information. Since then, I've received countless communications from both MSN and Yahoo, updating me on the change. Kudos to both for the great communication!

All that communication doesn't mean much until launch, though. Now is the time where the rubber meets the road. We'll finally get an answer to probably the biggest question on PPC advertisers' minds: the traffic quality question. Will Yahoo's historically-lower quality search partner traffic pull down results? Or will adCenter's more robust matching & relevancy algorithms offset that? I for one remain skeptical - if I had to bet right now, I'd say that we'll see a 30-40% decrease in results with the influx of Yahoo. I hope I'm wrong.

Another unknown is how well adCenter will transfer Yahoo's icky Standard and Advanced match types into the more commonly-accepted Broad, Phrase, and Exact match. (Incidentally, I don't think anyone is sad to see Standard and Advanced finally go away.) adCenter has provided information about how match types will be mapped, but I have my doubts. Even though it was 3 ½ years ago, I still remember how badly Yahoo botched the transition from the Overture platform to the Panama platform, and how long it took me to straighten out my PPC account. I was doing in-house SEM at that time; I shudder to think how arduous that task will be in an agency setting….

Finally, I would like to know when we will be able to set separate bids for Bing vs. Yahoo traffic. Frankly, I was stunned to discover that this option wasn't baked in to the original Alliance plans. Advertisers have begged, pleaded and cajoled for more control in setting bids across networks since PPC first started. Why on earth this wasn't part of the deal from day one is a mystery to me, and one that smacks of a money grab. (The official word from both Microsoft and Yahoo is that there were too many technical difficulties with building this functionality into the initial Alliance launch, but I'm not buying that. C'mon - you are Microsoft, aren't you?)

We need this granularity in bidding. Traffic quality varies so widely from Yahoo to Bing, it's not even funny. And it doesn't always go the same way. We have a large B to B client who gets fantastic results from Yahoo - better than Google, even (higher traffic and a better CPA). However, their MSN campaign was a complete flop. They're the only client we've ever turned off in MSN and left on in Yahoo. On the other side of the coin, we have clients who've flopped royally in Yahoo, but had huge ROI in MSN. And there are others who get consistent results across all 3 search engines. Regardless, I need the ability to bid appropriately based on traffic quality. Really, we all win when this happens!

What are you seeing so far with your Yahoo and MSN traffic?

Modified Broad Match - The Good and the Bad

Earlier this year, our PPC prayers were answered: Google finally rolled out their Broad Match Modifier, also known as Modified Broad Match. For years, we complained that broad match was just too broad. Our PPC keywords were matching to "silly synonyms" along with relevant terms - and our ROI went in the tank as a result.

Now, with Modified Broad Match, we can stop the hemorrhaging. We get all the benefits of broad match, but none of the junk.

Or do we?

The Good:

Getting rid of the junk. I wrote about this in one of my recent Search Engine Watch columns. In summary, one of our clients is a law firm specializing in aviation accident law. Even though we use negative keywords extensively, broad match is just too broad at times. Just prior to the US launch of modified broad match, our law firm's ad for the broad match term "aviation lawyer" was displayed on this search phrase: "what the laws of flying with glass bongs". This is an obvious case of broad match gone wild - and one that won't happen with modified broad match.

Improving cost per conversion. By its very nature, modified broad match reduces the wasted impressions and clicks, and hones in on the right queries - without restricting impression the way phrase and exact match do. We've seen large improvements in cost per conversion for several clients who found that phrase match didn't give them the traffic they wanted, but traditional broad match didn't get good ROI.

Offering flexibility. On multi-word keyphrases (which you should always be using for PPC, by the way), the broad match modifier can be applied to one word in the keyword phrase, or many. For example, let's say your keyword is "discount running shoes." You could put the modifier on just the word "discount," like this:

+discount running shoes

This will ensure that your ad only displays when the word "discount" is part of the query, but will still allow you to appear on queries like:
• Discount jogging sneakers
• Discount shoes for running
• Running shoes at a discount
• Etc.

But you might also show up on:
• Discount basketball shoes
• Discount athletic socks
• Used running shoes at a discount
• Etc.

Ugh. So maybe you'll want to tighten things up a bit more:

+discount +running +shoes

Now, you'll eliminate those crazy examples above, but can still show on:
• Running shoes at a discount
• Shoes running discount
• Discount shoes for running a marathon
• I want to find running shoes at a discount store
• Etc.

These are queries that you won't get with phrase or exact match, but they're still relevant and likely to convert.

The Bad:

It's still too restrictive at times. We've seen the modifier shrink impression volume by as much as 80%, with no improvement in conversion rates. While this could be due to other concurrent issues, it's hard to explain to a client why their volume on a top keyphrase suddenly disappeared.

It results in higher CPCs. We've also tried running modified broad match phrases side-by-side with traditional broad match. CPCs on the modified phrase have been 20-25% higher than the traditional broad phrase - again, with no difference in CTR or conversion rate.

Sometimes, it performs worse than traditional broad match. Yes, we have actually seen this happen: the modified broad match phrase ended up generating a good amount of impressions, but CTR and conversion rates were actually WORSE than the traditional broad match term. What gives?

What's your experience been with the broad match modifier?

PPC In-House or Agency: Decisions, Decisions, Part II

Last week, I wrote about the pros and cons of in-house PPC management. I'd like to thank all of you who commented on Twitter and linked to the article - it's gratifying to know that I can help sort out some of these things for you!

In Part II of this 2-part series, I'll cover the pros and cons of agency PPC management.

(And it bears repeating: let me make it clear that this is my personal blog. As such, the opinions expressed in this and every post here are mine, and do not necessarily reflect those of past or present employers.)

Agency Pros:

• Experience. Chances are they've done this before. Lots of times. They'll be ready to hit the ground running with best practices, instead of spending a lot of budget trying to, as someone on Twitter said last week, "get a clue."
• Contacts at the major search engines. Any agency worth their salt has a dedicated account team at both Google and Yahoo/Bing - meaning they have a direct line to help and support within the search engines.
• Contacts in the SEM industry. Again, most agencies worth their salt attend at least one or two search marketing conferences per year. The really good ones not only attend the shows, they speak at the shows. They're plugged in to what's going on in the industry - and your account will benefit from their connections.
• Multi-channel integration. Many (although certainly not all) digital agencies can manage not only your PPC program, but your SEO, social media, display, email, and sometimes even traditional media. This holistic view gives them a "big-picture" perspective that can get lost when these programs are siloed across several in-house departments.
• Accountability. As an outsourced vendor, it's in the agency's best interest to be good stewards of your PPC budget. If they're not, it's pretty easy for you to pick up your ball and go to another agency - or go home and do it in-house.

Agency cons:

• Cost. This depends on how you look at it: of course, it costs money to pay a full-time in-house PPC staffer. But an agency is going to charge you to manage their PPC budget, resulting in either a higher PPC budget, or a reduced spend with the search engines.
• Communication can be an issue. Good agencies know how to work around this, but sometimes it's hard for a client to know just what the agency is doing.
• Accountability. Yes, I know I listed this in the "pros" column, but hear me out. An in-house PPC manager has to report to your company's management team. If they do a poor job, chances are good they'll be fired - and have to look for another job. But an agency manager likely works for several clients. Unless they're grossly negligent, doing a poor or even mediocre job on your PPC account probably won't' cost them *their* job. It may cost the agency your business, but that person will probably just keep on working there.
• Depth of account manager expertise. While it's absolutely not the case at many agencies, sometimes the day-to-day management of your account will be handled by a junior staffer (or even an intern). While junior staff is almost always monitored by senior staff, if it's important to have your account managed by a seasoned PPC pro, it's not guaranteed at an agency.

Like I said, there's no one right answer. I've done both, and I strongly believe in both approaches. If you're wrestling with this idea, I recommend listening to this episode of the Best Search Strategies show. Jamie and Brian (both are super-smart acquaintances of mine) give a thorough overview of questions and considerations to review when you're deciding on in-house or agency.

And as always, let me know your thoughts!