Intro To SEM (Google Adwords) For Techstars Chicago

S E M F O R T E C H S T A R S
ELAN MOSBACHER, SUMMER 2016

• Intro
• Why SEM Matters
• About Me
• SEM vs SEO
• Everything you need to know about
SEM in 1 deck
• How to not fail
2

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G O O G L E T R E N D S :

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G O O G L E T R E N D S : S U P E R B O W L

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G O O G L E T R E N D S :

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S E M I S A M A J O R I N V E S T M E N T F O R M O S T S T A R T U P S
• Google is top 5 publicly traded company
• > ¾ of Google’s revenue comes directly from SEM
• After headcount, SEM is often biggest line item for startups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by_market_capitalization
https://investor.google.com/earnings/2015/Q3_google_earnings.html

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T O P A C Q U I S I T I O N C H A N N E L S F O R C H I C A G O S T A R T U P S
24%
20%
8%8%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%4%
Top Acquisition Channels
SEM
SEO
Word of Mouth
Partnerships
Social
Referral
PR
Outbound Sales
Other
Facebook
Email
Direct Traffic
Content Marketing
Conferences

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M A R K E T I N G B U D G E T F O R C H I C A G O S T A R T U P S
22%
56%
0%
11%
11%0%0% <$100K
$100K to $499K
$500K to $999K
$1M to $5M
$5M to $10M
$10M to $25 M
$25M to $100M
$100M+

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A B O U T M E
Elan Mosbacher
• Serial Startup Marketer: Head of marketing @ 3 venture
funded startups
• VP of Marketing @ SpotHero Past 3 Years (Seed to Series B)
• >$10 Million in SEM Management (3 FTE, countless
consulting gigs)
• Kellogg MBA, B.S. in Finance & Entrepreneurship
• Techstars companies I’ve helped:
o Power2Switch
o GiveForward
o WhimseyBox
o UrbanLeash
o SpotHero (as FTE)

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S E M W A R N I N G : A M I N U T E T O L E A R N , A L I F E T I M E T O M A S T E R

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S E M V S S E O

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S E M ’ S A D V A N T A G E
• Immediate traffic to your website
• Flexible budget
• Easy to scale
• Optimized for testing
• Measureable and data rich
• Full control over targeting & ad copy
• Capture existing demand resulting in
relatively high ROI

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H O W T O G E T S T A R T E D
The 3-Step Elements Wave

E V E R Y T H I N G Y O U N E E D T O K N O W
A B O U T S E M I N 1 D E C K . . .

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S E M A D V E R T I S I N G A C C O U N T S T R U C T U R E

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L E T ’ S S T A R T W I T H K E Y W O R D S

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K E Y W O R D S
What Keywords Are You Customers Looking For?
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Instant / Google Suggest
• Uber Suggest
• SpyFu / SEM Rush
• SKUs, or names of products and services you sell

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K E Y W O R D S : K E Y W O R D P L A N N E R

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K E Y W O R D S : K E Y W O R D P L A N N E R

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K E Y W O R D S : G O O G L E I N S T A N T / S U G G E S T

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K E Y W O R D S : U B E R S U G G E S T

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K E Y W O R D S : S P Y F U O R S E M R U S H

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K E Y W O R D S : M A T C H T Y P E S
Not
Relevant
Less
Targeted
More
Targeted
Negative Match: -games
Won’t show for: parking games
Broad Match: parking
Show: parking, best place to park
Broad Match Modifier: +chicago +parking
Show: chicago monthly parking, parking in chicago
Not: Evanston parking
Phrase Match: “chicago parking”
Show: chicago parking rates, best chicago parking
Not: Chicago cubs parking
Exact Match: [chicago parking]
Show: chicago parking
Not: chicago parking rates, loop parking, parking chicago
PRO TIP: When in doubt, use a more targeted keyword match type.

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T I P : F O C U S O N T H E L O N G T A I L K E Y W O R D S

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K E Y W O R D S U M M A R Y
• Brainstorm keywords
• Be sure to use the right match type
• Be sure to use negative keywords
• Group them into buckets of similar themes
o Brand
o Geo
o By product or service
o By stage of the funnel (e.g. ideas vs. compare vs. buy)
Tip 1: Use the “search query” tool to find new exact match and new negative match terms
Tip 2: This is an ongoing process. You do it regularly, not just once.

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A D S & A D G R O U P S

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• Themes of keywords go in a bucket called an ad group
• On the front of the bucket, you’ll have an ad
Adgroup 1 Adgroup 2 Adgroup 3
Brand
Terms
Product
Terms
Service
Terms

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Use the keywords in your ad
Test at least two ad copy versions
• Headlines
• Descriptions
• Display URL
• Ad Extensions
Make sure your keyword, ad and landing page offers match

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Q U A L I T Y S C O R E & B I D D I N G
Bidding
• You set a max CPC you are willing to pay
• Google looks at CPC, CTR & Quality score to determine what you pay
• Better CTR means Google makes more money
• Better CTR means higher quality score
• Example: $1 x 1M or $1M x 1
Quality Score:
• How relevant is your ad & landing page to the search term?
• How strong is the click-through rate relative to others?
• How good is the User Experience on the landing page?
• Relevant ads are better for the user and make Google more money
Therefore, Google reward higher quality score accounts with lower CPC

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Q U A L I T Y S C O R E & B I D D I N G T I P S
Quality Score Tips:
• Tight buckets of keywords themes in adgroups
• Tailor ad copy to intend of search, include keyword
• Split test ads to boost click-through-rate (CTR)
• Build landing page to meet needs to search

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A C C O U N T S & C A M P A I G N S
Campaigns are where you set budget, targeting & distribution
• Product line, geo, service type, etc
• You have have multiple per product, geo, or service
When your accounts get big enough (100ks keywords), you may open
multiple accounts with one search engine under one MCC account

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W A Y S T O M E A S U R E
SEM is about balancing costs and volume
• CPM = Cost Per 1000 impressions
• CPC = Cost Per Click
• CPL = Cost Per Lead
• CPA = Cost Per Action or Acquisition
• ROAS = Return on Ad Spend
• GM = Gross Margin
• CAC:LTV = Customer Acquisition Cost : Lifetime Value
• Payback = How many months until you break even?

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P A R T 1
Ask: Is SEM right for you?
• Target Audience (e.g. Not developers)
• Demand Capture > Demand Generation
• Budget? Competition? Profitability (e.g. eCommerce > social network)?
Be sure your web analytics and conversion tracking are set up properly

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P A R T 2
Keywords: Avoid broad match, which is the Google default because it makes them
the most money
Ad Groups: Get a granular as possible:
• 1 keyword : 2 a/b tested ads : 1 dedicated landing page
Bidding: Bid on:
• Your brand terms
• Long tail terms
• Terms with purchase intent (e.g. rates, compare, vs., buy)
• The specific products you sell (e.g. SKU #)
Focus on one thing at a time
• More volume (keywords)
• Better CTR (ads)
• Better conversion rates (landing pages)

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P A R T 3
Start small and grow slowly, or you can waste a lot of money
Don’t: Set & forget! Forget to ask for help.
Hack: Take your competitors’ email subject lines & run an exact match display
campaign…you’ll end up in your competitors’ customers gmail inboxes
Get Adwords Editor! Makes life way easier 
Need help? For starters 
• One-time audit > ongoing monthly retainer

T H A N K Y O U
Elan Mosbacher
VP of Marketing
elan@spothero.com
@mosbacher
773.888.ELAN

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A D D I T I O N A L R E S O U R C E S
Terms to know:
SEM
SEO
PPC
CTR
CPM
Campaign
Ad Group
Ad Copy
Keyword
Exact
Phrase
Broad
Broad Modifier
Quality Score
Where to get started:
Google Adwords Certification (To learn)
Google Adwords Account (To start)
Google Keyword Planner (To build)
Google Adwords Editor (To scale)

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