PubCon Vegas 2017 Rebuild or Restructure

Restructure or
Rebuild?
Navah Hopkins

| #PubCon @navahf e:nhopkins@wordstream.com 3
I work across my company’s entire book of business as
a bounty hunter of happiness
• Work with hundreds of agencies and
advertisers of all skill levels across the
globe.
• I’ve been having fun with digital
marketing since 2008
• Work directly with AdWords and Bing
on innovating how our partnership can
continue to drive value to the team and
our the customers

I know PPC often gets associated with the “Dark Side”

Let’s begin with an analogy on structure

• Holds the money and power
• Sets the strategic objective
• Delegates tasks to opratives it
trusts (read has data)
Campaigns are the Sith Lords (CEOs)

• Cares about employees
(keywords) and wants them to
get raises (access to budget)
• Has some strategic autonomy.
• If promoted too early, could get
ignored.
Ad Groups are the trusted operatives (managers)

• Doing all the work (entering the
auction) and always wants a raise
(more access to budget)
• Always fighting to prove
themselves and hates competition
• Can steal credit or get completely
ignored depending on the culture
(account structure)
Keywords are the troopers (employees)

We’re going to talk a lot about device
specific mechanics, but this analogy is
really important

Know What Kind of Organization You Want to Build

Were You Set Up for Success, But Now Aren’t Sure if
Existing Strategies are Viable?

Know What Each Stake
Holder in Your Account
Cares About and How They
Think.
Have They Changed?

So Mobile…
1 Device Agnostic Bidding
2 Mobile Specific Campaigns
3 Mobile Ad Groups
4 Keyword Theory by device
5 Let’s Make a Choice

14| #PubCon @navahf
Device Agnostic Bidding

Let’s Take a Trip Back in Time

Do you
remember
when the
SERP looked
like this?

And then changed
to this?

The reason some folks
freaked out is because of
enhanced campaigns
With enhanced campaigns, instead of having to cobble
together and compare several separate campaigns,
reports and ad extensions to do this, the pizza restaurant
can easily manage all of this in one single place. Enhanced
campaigns help you reach people with the right ads,
based on their context like location, time of day and
device type, across all devices without having to set up
and manage several separate campaigns.
- Google Blog, 2013

But the panic was
unwarranted

The use of bid adjustments to focus
budget towards or away from
specific devices (computers, tablets,
and smart phones).
Because device agnostic
bidding soon followed:

Essentially We Took This Guy

And Asked Him to Delegate

Some Opted to Sell Off Parts of Their Business (Build
New Device Specific Campaigns)

While others began empowering managers (bid
adjustments)

Everyone’s “Right” Answer Will Be Different – Let’s
Find Yours!

27| #PubCon @navahf
Mobile Specific
Campaigns

#PubCon @navahf 28
Conversion Rate and
Value Better by
Certain Devices

Unless You’re Ecommerce, Phone Calls are Usually the
Most Valuable
40% OF MOBILE SEARCHES HAVE LOCAL
INTENT (GOOGLE MOBILE MOMENTS STUDY)

Here’s the problem: Phone Calls Don’t Get Equal SERP Share
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
60.00%
Search Only Search Including Partners & Display Select
Impression Share For Phone Calls 9/15/17 – 10/14/17
> 50% Impression Share Lost to Rank 50%-25% Impression Share Lost to Rank <25% Lost to Rank
*Data collected
from 4000
campaigns that
have at least 1
phone call

Why were we only getting 50% of available
impressions?

Some Customers Search
When We’re Not Open

Client Case Study: Koru K9

Breakdown of All Conversions from July 2017
Conversions
Computer Mobile Tablet
Tablets only had
10 conversions

Tablets Historically Have a Lower Conversion Rate
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate By Device

Averages Can Be Deceiving

Devices Can Go From Hero to Zero Depending on Day
of the Week
$0.00
$5.00
$10.00
$15.00
$20.00
$25.00
Tuesday Sunday
Average CPA By Device & Day (7/17 – 9/17)

Auction Prices Have a Lot to Do with This
$0.00
$0.50
$1.00
$1.50
$2.00
$2.50
$3.00
$3.50
Tuesday Sunday
Average CPC By Device & Day (7/17 – 9/17)

Schedules are Campaign Level Settings in AdWords
You Can Join the Bing Rebellion if You Want Ad Group
Level Schedules

So we decided to craft a
weekend campaign for
tablets (mobile was still
invited).

We Dropped Sunday’s CPA Down to $10.41 from
$16.32
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Mobile Weekend Campaign Tablet Weekend Campaign Mobile Pre-Weekend
Campaign
Tablet Pre-Weekend
Campaign
Mobile & Tablet CPA & Conversions
CPA Conversions

Device Potential Might be Equal, but Intent is Not.
Budget For Profitable Intent!

#PubCon @navahf 43
Auction Prices Better
by Device

You have to go for #1 on mobile
Android iOs

But if Our Budget Can’t Support the Bids, it Won’t
Matter

Can We Afford the Auctions?
Will the cpc fit in the budget once we account for first position?

Remember – we’re going for at least 10 clicks a day

All Devices Paint One Picture
All Device Clicks
East Bay North Bay
414
247
North Bay Average CPC:
$2.75
North Bay Conversion Rate:
6.9%
Eaast Bay Average CPC:
$2.57
East Bay Conversion Rate:
9.4%

Budget for the Volume We Need By Device & Don’t
Reward losersMobile Clicks
East Bay Mobile North Bay Mobile
Average CPC:
$2.83
8% Conversion Rate
vs 3.4%
Desktop conversion
Rate
Average CPC: $2.62
9.2% Conversion Rate vs 12%
Desktop Conversion Rate
293
160

In Both Cases, Mobile Accounted For 70% of Traffic:
Mobile Specific Campaigns Makes Sense!

However We Will Absolutely Play Favorites: By
Average CPC & Conversion Rate

• More control over auction prices
and budget allocation
• Capture consumers at the right
level of intent.
• Allow a closer marriage of “real
world” business metrics and
account success
So what would we achieve
by having device oriented
campaigns?

• More campaigns = more
budget/budget spread thin
• Data equity revamp = slower
performance
• More to manage
What are the down sides?

54| #PubCon @navahf
Mobile Ad Groups

Some Have Held Back and Are Using Bid Adjustments

#PubCon @navahf 56
Campaigns are old

Predictable Performance is Profitable

No One Wants to Manage an Account with Hundreds
of Campaigns

Average CPC By Device Shows Minimal Difference
$0.00
$0.50
$1.00
$1.50
$2.00
$2.50
Average CPC
Average CPC
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Conversions
Conversions

Conversely There Are Clear Winners By Day of the
Week
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Conversions
Conversions by Day Of Week
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Saturday
CPA $9.29

This is a Sign to Use Bid Adjustments in existing
Campaigns

#PubCon @navahf 62
Short Term vs Long
Term Success

Can’t Afford to Slow Current Leads at this Time

New Campaigns Need at Least 3-4 weeks to Get
Ramped Up

Structure is Sound, but Certain Keywords Have More
Mobile Intent

Bid Adjustments Can Act as a Proof of Concept Before
Taking the Plunge

• Keep the data
• Less Campaigns to manage
• No interruptions to lead-flow
So what would we achieve
by having device oriented
ad groups?

• Less control over budget allocation
• Keyword sacrifices to maintain 5-7
ad group structure
• Not able to perfectly attribute
traffic
What are the down sides?

All of This is Great But it Needs to be Grounded in Your
Business

70| #PubCon @navahf
Keyword Theory By
Device

Questions Used to Belong Almost Exclusively to SEO

Because this is what it would pull up:
Organic
Organic

But then Search Networks Got Smarter

Will There Be an Ad for this Query?

Desktop

Mobile

Tablet

The Line Between Research and
Transaction is Blurring

My Campaign/Ad Group Averages Were Biasing Me

Voice Search Made Me Rethink My Position

Does Your Business Benefit From in the Moment
Queries?

Or is a Long Research User A Better Fit?

Depending on the Answer We May Want to Revisit
Our Negatives and SERPs

• Full sentences: broad, exact
• “near me”: mod. broad, phrase,
exact
• “…reviews”: phrase and exact
Keywords for Mobile

• Sentence fragments: mod. broad,
phrase, exact
• “…price”/ “…quote”: mod. broad,
phrase, exact
• “…platform/software”: mod. broad,
phrase, and exact
Keywords for Desktop

• Remarketing audiences: broad
• “reviews”: mod. broad, phrase,
exact
• “…deals”: mod. broad, phrase, and
exact
Keywords for Tablet

87| #PubCon @navahf
Let’s Make a Choice!

Here are the action steps you can take today to decide
what path makes sense for you!

Step One: Segment Ad Groups by Device, and Look For
Winners.

Step Two: Audit Auction Prices Against Keywords and
Device Specific Trends.

Step Three: Assess Leads, Conversion Rates, and
Quality by Device

Step Four: Consider Current Campaigns and Whether
Their Equity is too Valuable to Interrupt

Step Five: Restructure or Rebuild

PubCon Vegas 2017 Rebuild or Restructure

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