Search Marketing Master Class - Kevin Lee, Didit

© 2016 Didit – All Content is Sensitive and Confidential
2-Hour
Search Marketing Master Class
Presented by
Kevin Lee
Executive Chairman

@kevin_lee_QED
Kevin Lee founded Didit in 1996, and has
grown it beyond SEM PPC campaign
optimization with nine acquisitions.
Didit offers an advanced stand alone bid
management platform at Bidit.Didit.com.
Kevin has written three books, over 550
columns in ClickZ and other publications,
and spoken at over 400 conferences.
At Didit, we believe “Marketing is Everything”
for any business and that why we made 9
acquisitions to become fell service.
2007
2007, 2008, 2009

Why am I here?
Over the last 18 years I’ve hired and interviewed
hundreds of PPC, SEO Content Marketing and Social
Media “specialists.”
• Many of you get REALLY important things WRONG.
• I don’t want you to be caught doing something wrong.
• SEO and SEM may be the most powerful tool in your
marketing toolbox.
Objective:
Get you promoted, a raise or a better job
because you’ll remember me when you need digital
marketing help. You can’t do everything yourself!

Your Greatest Enemy!
Time!

@kevin_lee_QED
What’s the best use of your time. Paid or
Earned Media? Testing?
• What should you do yourself?
• What should you hire others to do?
• How long will earned media investments take
to pay back?
Figuring out what to do first every day and
what will deliver the biggest improvement
in KPIs @ scale is the key.
What should you do first today?

@kevin_lee_QED
There are multi-day multi-track conferences on
SEM & SEO. But I’ll condense it down to:
• Paid Search
• SEO Basics / Webmaster Tools / Search Console
• SEO Content Marketing
• SEO Content Promotion
• Video SEO
• SEO for Mobile
• Reputation Mgmt. / Content Syndication
Elements of Search Marketing

@kevin_lee_QED
For Paid Placement & PLAs you have choices:
• Google AdWords including lots of extensions
• Google PLAs a few extensions
• Bing adCenter
• Bing PLAs
• Yahoo Gemini
• Others: International (Yandex, Baidu)
PPC (Paid Placement / PLAs)

Keyword Clicks Too Expensive?
Wall Street is
confused. Are
you?
Mobile Shift and
New Ad Types

@kevin_lee_QED
Media Auctions Can Be Painful,
The Winner’s Curse
There are only two kinds of marketers at the top of
the PPC search results:
• Brilliant Marketers
• The idiots. Irrational bidders, even in a recession
Success requires figuring out how to either:
a) Be the brilliant marketer that can AFFORD a top position (WHEN IT MATTERS)
b) Deal effectively with those buying market share irrationally
When irrational bidders bid very high on broad match terms long tail
keyword expansion strategies fade in effectiveness.

Leverage is Power, Profit
• Pre-click leverage = Quality Score
• Larger Shopping Cart or > lead quality
• Conversion Rate increases
Each of these provide you with leverage.
lev·er·age lévvərij
2. mechanical advantage: the mechanical advantage gained by using a
lever
3. power to get things done: power over other people, especially
something that gives an advantage but is not referred to openly

The Math Behind Compound Impact
Every improvement you make raises the possible
maxbid…

Bid Management Matters Most in your top 10%
We analyzed our top 25 clients, see what we found.
The top 10 % spending keywords spend 80% of $
spend 80 percent 90 percent total keywords with spend
Percent of keywords spending 80 Percent of
spend
Percent of keywords spending 90
Percent of spend
$913,655.01 910 1633 9515 9.56% 17.16%
$692,437.78 13 30 5190 0.25% 0.58%
6 10 11093 0.05% 0.09%
29 171 3598 0.81% 4.75%
440 788 4187 10.51% 18.82%
15 40 1118 1.34% 3.58%
2679 5225 50734 5.28% 10.30%
73 180 6264 1.17% 2.87%
897 2770 26196 3.42% 10.57%
246 447 3863 6.37% 11.57%
7 11 2194 0.32% 0.50%
39 79 1314 2.97% 6.01%
135 259 1740 7.76% 14.89%
31 64 1034 3.00% 6.19%
123 269 4837 2.54% 5.56%
1140 2205 11315 10.08% 19.49%
281 548 5256 5.35% 10.43%
7 23 1794 0.39% 1.28%
51 88 670 7.61% 13.13%
58 113 1122 5.17% 10.07%
137 275 16058 0.85% 1.71%
101 195 1269 7.96% 15.37%
474 868 4365 10.86% 19.89%

Your top 10%
Nearly ALL your efforts should be deployed against the top 10
percent of spending keywords.
• Have the right bids REAL TIME!
• Have the best campaign structure
• Have the right settings in Mobile and Desktop
• Best possible ad copy and ad extensions
• Best possible landing pages
• Best images in PLA ads (similar distribution)
• Optimal Geography (overlays on national)
• Time of Day (in TV it’s Drive-time vs Daytime)
• Day of Week (do weekends have an effect?)

Top down sort is the most powerful free tool you have
Tactical, opportunity identification
Impressions = opportunity
Position may not be “affordable”

Chasing the Long Tail, the Wrong Tail
In PPC the long tail is DEAD if you want a raise and
promotion focus on the head of the keyword
distribution.
• Going long won’t work because someone with
broader match type will likely prevail
• What do you actually win when your adrank is
high enough for you to serve?

@kevin_lee_QED
“How many Segments are you running?”
Segmentation levers are best used on power
keywords. So, use targeting against the power
keywords!
Pick the clicks you want most and target to segment
predicted profitability. Your levers:
• Syndication, Content vs Search (same creative? different?)
• Syndication site targeting in content networks (image ads?)
• Geography (overlays on national campaigns)
• Time of Day (in TV it’s Drive-time vs Daytime)
• Day of Week (do weekends have an effect? certain days?)

Strategic Bidding, Dayparting
Not bidding based on daypart and day of the week?
Congratulations, your bid is right as often as a broken clock is correct
Use API-based tools or use the GUI to do the best you can.

Dayparting, Out Of Stock, Feedback Loop
Dayparting is only one reason why you
might want a real-time bid management
solution.
Faster reaction time to:
• Inventory issues
• Site outages
• Broken tracking
Why we never did the Google Analytics API
integration with Maestro or Bidit.

USER
User served display
Ad User Searches
User served display
Ad
User Visits
Website User Converts
Touch Point Analysis
Attribution Modeling isn’t enough.
Media mix modeling, Marginal Elasticity
Marginal elasticity of every media option is key!!
In economics, elasticity is the ratio of the percent change in one variable to the percent change in another variable. It is a tool for
measuring the responsiveness of a function to changes in parameters in a unit-less way. Frequently used elasticities include
price elasticity of demand, price elasticity of supply, income elasticity of demand, elasticity of substitution between factors of
production and elasticity of intertemporal substitution.
Elasticity is one of the most important concepts in economic theory. In addition when understanding how to allocate
media dollars, nothing beats knowing the elasticity of the market in every direction.

Elasticity: Google can’t tell the full story
Elasticity estimates assume complacent
competitors.

What keywords are more or less elastic?
Think about how keyword elasticity impacts your
optimization strategy.
If a keyword is inelastic, less reason to move to
improve:
a) Quality score / CTR
b) Conversion rate
Sure more conversion would be great but if it
doesn’t have the multiplier effect of higher position,
might be best to focus elsewhere.

Is your bid management “hooked up” correctly?
Many bid management / campaigns management
platforms “make it easy” - use your GA tags to
communicate conversion rate by keyword.
Remember that averages don’t reflect reality.

SEM and the Buying Cycle
Campaign Goals and Objectives should line up with the profile
of the searcher. Some people also classify the keywords based
on commercial intent (how interested in commerce are the
searchers?) Problem with letting Google run the bids for you.

Microconversions - Avinash Kaushik
Which of these apply to you? What value?
• E-mail Newsletter Registrations
•Visits To The Contact Us Page
•Phone Calls
•Deep Navigation from the landing page
•Facebook Likes or Apps Twitter Follows / Tweets
•LinkedIn Share (particularly for B2B)
•Google G+ Engagement
Will management give you credit for these? Sell them on it.
(It will empower your marketing)

Sort by different variables. Top Down or Bottom Up
Top Down within Geo-Analytics too

- Average conversion
rate: 1.5%
- New York City DMA
conversion rate:
2.1%
→ You can bid over
25% more for NYC DMA
clicks.
Geotargeting:
Conversion Rate Differences

Geotargeting: higher spenders
Las Vegas DMA shopping
cart: $178
Average shopping cart: $122
→ you can bid 45%+ more for
Vegas metro clicks.

Geotargeting: higher LTV
Chicago DMA customers
from search order more often
and for more years
Average number of orders
over 3-years: 10
Chicago DMA number of
orders over 3-years: 15
→ you can bid 50% more CHI

B-to-B? Can you Predict Lead Quality?
What targetable variables predict lead quality?

Have enough budget and time?
Split the country (or other geography)
• Raise spending in some areas but keep control groups
• The bigger the spend the less time you’ll need for data
• Watch for increases in brand search impression counts
• Watch for increased CTR on brand and category ads
• Re-normalize the geographies
• Repeat switching the on and off geographies to be able
to validate both lift and decay.
Was there Brand lift, Quality Score lift?
Assist KW or Mobile Assist - Prove it!
Interaction Test - Mini Mix Model

If you’ll be repeating an analysis a lot:
• Check to see if you can do the optimization with an
AdWords script (lots of preexisting ones).
• Check with your bid management platform to see what
they facilitate.
• Ask your agency if they have a solution (although for
many of these best practices, I’d hope they proactively
are doing them.)
How do you do all this

The POWER
SEGMENT:
A Perfect Storm
of large,
divergent
Segments.

SEO: You need the right site strategy
There’s a major algorithmic shift happening at
Google and the other engines.
To achieve a strategy that works for immediate
results and future ranking requires that we
understand the rapid evolution of the
algorithms.
So, I’ve highlighted the collective wisdom of
the industry, from Google to Moz.

SEO is a Meritocracy
Don’t expect to rank / positions you don’t
deserve. Search engines are on a mission.
Find the SEO “white space”

Before Delving Into Specific Recommendations
There’s a major algorithmic shift happening at
Google and the other engines.
To win now and also get future ranking
requires understanding the evolution of the
algorithms PLUS things that haven’t changed.
So, I’ve highlighted the collective wisdom of
the industry, from Google & SearchEngineLand
to Moz.

SEO is Chemistry meets Cooking
Mostly science with a bit of art
(SearchEngineLand periodic SEO chart)

Goog/Bing
decided
links > content
I doubt Rand’s %
could be that
accurate
Courtesy: Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz

From Language, Comes Intent. Not Just Keywords

Comingling of data sources. Beyond universal search
Google has separate databases for images,
news, videos, etc. That’s universal search.
But they have gone beyond that to use shema
and other data to understand the relationships
between the data sources.

When Does Freshness Matter? Google Knows!

Google Imputes Likely Intent

Google admits to using Machine Learning for Image
Recognition & Classification

Machine Learning in Image Recognition & Classification
ViaJeffDean’sSlidesonDeepLearning;aMustReadforSEOs

MLin Image Recognition Emotion/Behavior

“Watson” Style Learning:
Via: IBM PPT on Slideshare

Google’s RankBrain is taking over.
Google’s RankBrain

No Human Will Know Why Something Ranks
Metrics Drive TheAlgo
Long to Short Click Ratio Relative CTR vs. Other Results
Rate of Searchers Conducting
Additional, Related Searches
Metrics of User Engagement
on the Page
Metrics of User Engagement
Across the Domain
Sharing/Amplifcation Rate
vs. Other Results

Still need the old ranking inputs
There are two major classes of factors:
On-The-Page: factors that are largely within the control of site owners
Off-The-Page: factors are influenced often by others or not directly tied to a
site
Within these two classes are seven categories of factors, which are:
Content – factors relating to the content and quality of your material
Architecture – factors about your overall site functionality
HTML – factors specific to web pages
Trust – factors related to how trustworthy & authoritative a site seems to be
Links – factors related to how links impact rankings
Personal – factors about how personalized search results influence rankings
Social – factors on how social recommendations impact rankings

Layer in Searcher Behavior Outputs
• Visits (search, direct and other)
• Time on site
• Bounce rate
• Pageviews per session
• Sharing via Gmail?
• Repeat visits

Classic On-Site SEO
(rankinginputs)
New On-Site SEO
(searcher outputs) via Moz
Keyword Targeting Relative CTR
Short vs. Long-Click
Content Gap Fulfillment
Amplification & Loyalty
Task Completion Success
Quality & Uniqueness
Crawl/Bot Friendly
Snippet Optimization
UX / Multi-Device

Get your CTR up, your position will rise
Aclick (and low bounce) is a signal of
relevance. So, get your CTR up.
Via Philip Petrescu on Moz
So, is this why sites that get more site traffic rank higher?
Causation and correlation aren’t the same ;-)

Every Element Counts (Inspired by Moz)
Is the title compelling? Is the URLaligned?
Is your domain relevant
Did you get organic
sitelinks?
Does the description
support action &
relevance?
Brand dropdown?

Why does social activity predict SEO success?
Google is clearly looking for things it can see
that correlate with social media metrics, if not
the social data directly:
• Dwell time
• Bounce rate
• Deeper navigation from the landing page
• Email data (look for shared links in Gmail?)
• Google G+ Engagement
Will management give you credit for these? Sell
them on it. (It will empower your marketing)

Google doesn’t use raw
social shares as a
ranking input.
We share based on
publisher and headline.
Via Chartbeat

Google Could Be Using a Lot of Other Metrics/Sources to Get
Data That Mimics Social Shares. From Moz
Clickstream (from Chrome/Android)
Engagement (from Chrome/Android)
Branded Queries (from Search)
Navigational Queries (from Search)
Rate of Link Growth (from Crawl)

Buzz Index: Social Engagement Per 1,000 Visits

Return Visitor Ratio Over Time
Total Visitor Sessions
÷
# of Returning Visitors

Knowing What Makes OurAudience (particularly
influencers) Share is Essential
From an
analysis of the
10,000 pieces of
content
receiving the
most social
shares on the
web by
Buzzsumo.

Keyword Targeting Relative CTR
Short vs. Long-Click
Content Gap Fulfillment
Amplify & Return Rates
Task Completion Success
Quality & Uniqueness
Crawl/Bot Friendly
Snippet Optimization
UX / Multi-Device
Engines People

From Theory to Strategy
How do we create great content that humans love
enough to send Google and the other engines the
ranking signals that the AI will react to?
How do we continue to double down on the
ranking actors that while less important in the
future are still important now? Links in particular
are still tie-breakers.

Departments Can Lend a Hand
SEO isn’t purely a marketing function.
Other departments have information that makes
for great content and relationships that help SEO.
The key is having the right strategy.

Where should content live?
SEO may be superior when content
“lives” elsewhere.
• LinkedIn
• Medium
• Industry Magazines
• Influencer Blogs
• Op-Ed pieces

Content & Profiles for Reputation Management
Reputation management problem for
company or exec name?
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Medium
• Industry Magazines
• Influencer Blogs
• Op-Ed pieces

Department List
Some departments may be able to help SEO with
little additional effort on their part.
1. Buyers / Supply Chain
2. HR
3. Talent Relations
4. Store / Store Managers
5. Facilities / Real Estate
6. Customer Service
7. Product Development
8. IT
9. Public Relations
10. Purchasing (non resale)
11. Investor Relations
12. Operations
10. Marketing

Explore Ideas
Each department may be able to move the ranking
needle in very different ways. By understanding
Google’s current and likely future algos, we can
brainstorm.
How can the department contribute to:
a) Delighting customers / UX (online and off)
b) Creating content
c) Driving links and other ranking signals

Supply Chain
Who is your supply chain?
Links does it also help them if they link to you?
Hosting your co-created content?
Are they influencers? Or socially active?

HR
Links: Job board links aren’t worth much. Links
from a recruiter are & if you let the recruiter
mention you, get a link.
Content: HR can facilitate creation of content by
staff outside the marketing department. Have a
system to steward that content and reward
creators.
Buzz: Happy employees probably delight
customers, create positive buzz.

Facilities / Real Estate
Links: Most stores have a landlord. Often a mall
operator. Links from mall sites will strengthen both
local SEO and overall.
Content: Partner with malls to create content that
delights customers. Use that content and get buzz
and links.

Customer Service
Links: While customer service delighting customers
might result in links, it’s more likely to generate
positive buzz socially.
Content: Customer Service knows how customers
are using products or services and the problems
and challenges they face.

Public Relations
Links: Press release links are not seen as very
valuable by search engines.
However hard links from publishers or
broadcasters are still valuable.
Content: That’s what PR does, tell stories and
create content.
Buzz: Influencers of all types are being solicited by
PR teams (internal and external)

Investor Relations
Links: Links from research reports, sites that list
the ticker and company bio and investing press.
Content: There may be some content
opportunities.

Marketing
Links: Links from agencies and all those providing
marketing services including sign makers, printers.
Content: Agencies like to brag. They also create
content for a living.
Buzz: Are they influencers?

SEO Conclusion
Strategic SEO requires initiatives driving quick
results, plus assure future success.
Sometimes a third party can:
1. Do SEO training across the enterprise
2. Facilitate and organize
3. Help prioritize based on both SEO and non-SEO
value
4. Provide continued strategic and tactical
guidance.

Conclusion
Stay Educated, best practices.
Focus on the head of every data set.
Use the right bid management technology and
strategy.
Be a mad scientist, an inventor! I am ;-)

Search Marketing Master Class - Kevin Lee, Didit

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Search Marketing Master Class - Kevin Lee, Didit