Presented by Annie McAndrews: July, 25, 2017 Everyone is searching, but who knows exactly what they’re looking for? Paid search allows advertisers to step in and help point users in the right direction. In this class, we’ll discuss how paid search works and why it should be a part of your client’s digital strategy. We’ll also review the different ways advertisers utilize paid search to help us find the object of our desire, be it shoes, burritos, or even a college degree.

1. Search 101

2. Annie is a 28-year-old
Cancer who was once
called “a cool boss.” The
person quickly took it back,
but no backsies on that. It’s
already out there. If this
doesn’t establish credibility,
I don’t know what does.
2
Meet Your Professor

3. i. How Search Works
ii. How Do Ads Show Up?
iii. Building a Search Campaign
i. Keywords
ii. Ad Copy
iii. Ad Extensions
iv. Day-to-Day Management
v. Troubleshooting: Where’s My Ad?
vi. Things To Always Remember
3
Agenda

4. HOW SEARCH WORKS

5. 5
SERP: Search Engine Results Page
QUERY
ORGANIC
PAID RESULTS

6. Paid Search
Pay per click
Instant results
Once investment stops,
ads stop
SEO
(Organic)
Clicks are free
Gradual process of
improvement
Residual benefits and
results continue after initial
investment
Paid Search v. SEO

7. Increased
Visibility
Branding
Instant
Results
Flexibility Control Data
Benefits of Paid Search

8. HOW DO ADS SHOW UP?

9. 9
Paid Search…In a Nutshell
Select relevant keywords and ads
Users search on selected keywords
Engines rank ads through an auction
Winning ads serve
Pay only when ads are clicked

10. Quality Score - How Are Ads Ranked?
Quality
Score
CTR
Ad
Relevancy
Keyword
Relevancy
Landing
Page
Historical
Performance

11. 11
Why is Quality Score Important?
ELIGIBILITY
Determines whether your ad
is eligible to enter the
auction for that query
POSITION
Determines the relative
position of your ad in relation
to the other ads on the SERP
TOP SLOT
Only high quality ads are eligible
to appear above organic results
(position 1-4) with full extensions
PRICE
A better quality score
reduces the bid needed to
maintain a given position

12. BUILDING A SEARCH
CAMPAIGN

13. 13
Paid Search Campaign Structure
Keywords
Match type
Bids
Destination URL
Ad Group
Keywords
Ad Copy
Campaign
Daily Budgets
Language Targeting
Location Targeting
Footwear
Sneakers
Low-top
sneakers
High-top
sneakers
Boots
Rain boots
Desert
boots

14. KEYWORDS

15. Keywords: Best Practices
15
Relevant
Specific
Variations
Negatives
Optimized For Performance

16. Keywords: Best Practices
16
Have
Variations
Be
Relevant
Expand
Negatives
Be
Specific
Optimize for
Performance

17. Keywords: Best Practices
17
Keep keywords short-tail (up to 4 or 5 words maximum)
• Keywords that are too long will not generate high traffic volume
Include different keyword match types to expand reach
• Match types include, broad, broad match modifier, phrase, and
exact match

18. Exact Match: Only matches exact term and close variations of exact
term (plurals)
Matches exact term and close variations
of exact term (plurals)
Keyword: [cat food reviews]
Query:
cat food
reviews
Query:
cat food
review
Query:
best cat
food
reviews
Query:
cat food

19. Phrase Match: Must contain phrase or close variations of the phrase
Query must contain complete phrase or
close variations of the phrase
Keyword: “cat food reviews”
Query:
best cat
food reviews
Query:
2017 cat
food reviews
Query:
cat food
brands
Query:
wet cat food

20. Broad Match: Includes misspellings, synonyms, related searches,
and relevant variations
20
Matches to misspellings, synonyms, related
searches, and relevant variations
Keyword: cat food reviews
Query:
best reviews
for cat food
Query:
2017 cat food
reviews
Query:
cat food
brands
Query:
wet cat food

21. Broad Match Modifier: Append a “+” to individual words in a keyword
phrase, that “+keyword” (or very close variants) must appear in the query
21
Matches to misspellings, synonyms, related
searches, and relevant variations
Keyword: +cat +food +reviews
Query:
best reviews
for cat food
Query:
2017 cat
food reviews
Query:
cat food
brands
Query:
wet cat food

22. AD COPY

23. Pricing
Offers
Holiday Greetings
Flash Sales
Local Messages
Ad Copy: The Art & Science
AdWords Ad Copy is an opportunity to reach out to new and existing
customers so put your best foot forward

24. 24
New Format: Expanded Text Ads
Expanded text ads are designed to maximize presence on search
results
Headline 1 – 30 Characters
Headline 2 – 30 Characters
Display URL – removed, now auto
extracts domain from final URL
Description Line – 80 Characters
Character Restrictions:
Example:

25. Ad Copy Building Best Practices
25
Make sure the ad copy is relevant to all keywords in the ad group
Feature a strong, direct headline
• Having the Brand name in the headline, “Official Site,” or
asking a question can help draw attention
Include a clear and succinct Call-to-Action. i.e. “Watch,” “Listen
to,” “Read,” or “Subscribe now”
Ad copy should accurately reflect landing page content to ensure
that users have a positive experience and consistent messaging

26. AD EXTENSIONS

27. 27
Ad Copy Extensions: Sitelinks and More
Sitelinks allow advertisers to include additional links and information in a
standard text ad at no additional cost
Rating extension
Social extension
Customer rating
extension
Promote new content
Include navigational links to
parts of your site
Sitelinks are just one ad copy extension, here are some other examples:
Review
extension

28. Callout Extensions
Add descriptive text to your ad to help people
learn more about what you have to offer

29. Click To Call
Let people click a button to give you a phone call

30. Click To Download
Show a link below your ad text that sends people to
the app store or begins downloading your app

31. And More! Seriously, They Keep Coming.
Visual
Sitelinks*
Price
Extensions
Promo
Extensions*
*Currently in beta

32. DAY- TO- DAY
MANAGEMENT

33. Daily Alerts
33
A few examples of alerts we receive from our Search Management
tools include:
• Campaign budgets: When our budgets reach their daily caps,
we are prompted by the publisher to increase budgets to take
advantage of additional traffic
• Ad Copy Disapproval: When ads are disapproved our
publishers will alert us with details as to why our ads are not
showing (most commonly, due to broken destination URLs)

34. 34
Account Monitoring & Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting tools within publisher interfaces provide insight
into keyword and ad copy delivery

35. Account Performance: Bid Optimizations
35
Increase bids
• Budget available
• Low rank/low Impression Share
• Low traffic
• High engagement/low CPCs
• Low CPA/high ROI
Decrease bids
• Low budget
• High rank/high Impression Share
• High traffic
• Low engagement/high CPC’s
• High CPA/low ROI

36. Account Performance - Monthly
36
Ad Copy Performance
• Use monthly data to assess ad performance, rotate in new variations,
and remove poor performers
Competitor Insights
• Competitor tools allow us to track activity over time (i.e. – how often are
we outranked, which competitors overlap on our terms)
Quality Score Distribution
• QS moves slowly and trending should be reviewed monthly

37. THE BIG BROTHER
PART

38. Audience Capabilities
38
Google, Bing, and Yahoo offer unique audience
overlays to refine traffic
• Use Similar Users to reach users similar to your
current audience
• For DR campaigns target users similar to
converters
• In-Market Targeting reaches users in a purchase
mindset
• E-mail Audience Overlays comb Yahoo’s email
inventory and allow you to target users conducting
searches on Yahoo who receive emails from specific
domains you outline
• Demographic Targeting allows you to bid on or
exclude specific ages and genders

39. We See You…Sometimes
39
What We Know
• What search terms our ads are showing for (Search Query Reports)
• Phrase and Broad/BMM allow modifiers to be pulled in with the keywords
so we can see how users are searching for us and adjust the keyword set
accordingly
• What competitors are serving at the same time as us (Auction Insights)
What We Don’t Know
• What competitors are serving in auctions we are not in
• What Organic Searches are going to our site
• As soon as you click on an Organic listing advertisers cannot see what the
search was due to encrypting measures
• The workaround? Paid tools such as BrightEdge.

40. • Currently accounting for
long tail searches with
different keyword match
types
• 20% of Google searches
are now via voice
• Accuracy of voice search
is now 92%
• Mobile voice searches are
3X more likely to be local
than text searches
Voice Search: The Next Frontier

41. WHERE’S MY AD?

42. • Did you try searching in incognito mode?
• Has the budget been depleted?
• Have you checked the 2nd page in the SERP?
• Are you searching from within the geo targeting?
• Is day parting enabled?
Remember –
Every auction is
unique!
Where’s My Ad?

43. YOU’D LIKE WHAT?

44. • Forecasting for an existing campaign?
– Base metrics on historical data and whether you are limited by Budget
• Forecasting for a new campaign?
– Base KPIs on a comparable campaign (if available)
– No similar campaign? Use Google’s Keyword Planning Tool to get forecasting for
a specified keyword set.
• This involves building a keyword set from scratch so can be very time
consuming depend on the ask
• Heavily caveat that Google does not factor in your Quality Score and these
numbers are purely a benchmark.
How We Approach New Campaign Requests

45. THINGS TO
REMEMBER

46. Things To Remember
Success
Be Relevant
Right Content
Right
Keyword
Right
Message
Be In The
Moment