This document outlines 3 steps to dominate pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in 2018: 1) Buy the most valuable traffic first by visualizing campaign data to identify high-performing keywords, ad groups, and traffic sources; 2) Use quality score to gain an advantage by improving ad relevance to increase quality score and campaign performance; 3) Optimize campaigns to deeper funnel metrics like sales qualified leads (SQLs) rather than just leads to improve ROI. Taking these steps includes data analysis, campaign restructuring, and optimizing to the deepest measurable metrics.

1. 3 Steps to
PPC Domination in 2018
Lance Loveday, CEO

2. 2
DON’T SPEND MORE
1
BUYTHE MOSTVALUABLETRAFFIC FIRST

3. 3
SO, DON’T SPEND MORE BEFORE
MAXIMIZING EFFICIENCY
Spending more guarantees diminishing returns

4. Visualize Your Spend & ROI Distribution
Size = Spend, Color = ROI
4
$90
Helps you to think
differently about
your campaigns &
spot opportunities
you might otherwise
miss.

5. Spend & ROI Distribution Patterns
5
Light restructure for
tighter granularity
3
Looking good…
5
Heavy pruning
2
Light pruning
1
Start over
4
Spend reallocation
opportunity?
6

6. Analyze Impression
Share for Top
Performing Keywords
• If strong performing
keywords (low cost per
conversion) are losing
impression share, rebalance
spend to max them out
FIRST
• Doing this across your
campaigns will maximize
budget and improve
efficiency
6

7. Visualize Your Geographic Performance
Size = Spend, Color = ROI
7
Uncover optimization
opportunities you can’t
see in the raw data.
Insights jump off the
screen at you when
presented in this way.

8. Geographic Performance Patterns
8
1 2
3 4

9. Geographic Performance Patterns
9
1 2
3 4
Low-Hanging Fruit:
Apply geo-specific bid modifiers in areas
where you’re clearly winning or losing to
boost ROI immediately.

10. Aggregate Match Type
Performance
Can help uncover easy
optimization opportunities just to
reallocate spend. Also a great
indicator of overall campaign
health.
10

11. Match Type Performance Patterns
11
1 2 3

12. Match Type Performance Patterns
12
1 2 3
Low-Hanging Fruit:
If Exact Match performs best but Exact
Match Impression Share is low (<80%),
reallocating more spend to Exact could
increase ROI immediately.

13. Match Type Performance Patterns
13
1 2 3
Our Target Allocation:
Spend 60%-80% on Exact, remainder to
Modified Broad

14. Quality Score by Match Type
14
Quality Score for Exact
Match keywords is >2x
higher than Broad
Match!!!

15. 15
STEP 1. Buy the most valuable traffic first
TAKE ACTION:
1.1 Visualize the shape of your campaigns
1.2 Sanity Check: What % of non-branded keywords haven’t converted in
last 90 days? If above 40%, you may need to prune (esp. if you have
upside elsewhere).
1.3 Check Impression Share
• For your best-performing keywords & ad groups. If below 100%, break them into their own
campaigns where you can max budget on those terms.
• For your best performing days of week, hour of day, geographic region, match type etc.

16. 16
USE QUALITY SCORE
2
TO GAIN AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

17. Ad Rank – The Hidden Metric That Limits Your Potential
17
Ad Rank Determines Ad Position

18. Ad Rank – The Hidden Metric That Limits Your Potential
18
Ad Rank Determines Ad Position
HigherAd Rank = Higher Position

19. Ad Rank – The Hidden Metric That Limits Your Potential
19
Higher Position = MoreTraffic
Ad Rank Determines Ad Position
HigherAd Rank = Higher Position

20. How is Ad Rank Determined?

21. How is Ad Rank Determined?
Ad Rank Max Bid Quality Scorex=

22. How is Ad Rank Determined?
(Max you can pay
for that click)
(Determined by ad relevance,
CTR and other factors)
Ad Rank Max Bid Quality Score= x
(Determines
traffic potential)

23. In other words…
Ad Rank Max Bid Quality Score
orMoreTraffic Pay More Improve Relevance
($$$$) (FREE)
It’s your choice. I’ll wait.
=

24. 24
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Why Quality Score Matters

25. 25
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Max Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank

26. 26
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Max Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank

27. 27
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Max Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank

28. 28
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Ad Rank drives Ad Position

29. 29
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Ad Rank drives Ad Position

30. How is Actual CPC Determined?

31. 31
The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC

32. 32
The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Your
Quality Score
$0.01

33. 33
Your
CPC
The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Your
Quality Score
$0.01

34. 34
Your
CPC
The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
Your
Quality Score
$0.01
Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank ActualCPC
1 $2.00 10 20
16/10 + 0.01 =
$1.61
2 $4.00 4 16
12/4 + 0.01 =
$3.01
3 $6.00 2 12
8/2 + 0.01 =
$4.01
4 $8.00 1 8 Highest CPC
Notice how Advertiser 1 pays
less for a higher position due to
high quality score.

35. What’s Your
Quality Score?
Know where
you’re starting from.
Quality Score has a huge
impact on your campaign
economics. It’s critical that
your higher spend terms
have the highest possible
Quality Scores - and that
your account overall has a
high Quality Score.
35
How many of your
keywords have a Quality
Score of 1, 2, 3… 10?
Brand
Non-Brand

36. Quality Score Distribution Patterns
36
Slightly less bad
2
Good
3
Bad
1
Brand
Non-Brand

37. Can You Really Improve Quality Score?
37
BEFORE AFTER

38. Can You Really Improve Quality Score?
38
BEFORE AFTER
WeightedAvg. QS:
3.8
WeightedAvg. QS:
5.2

39. Can You Really Improve Quality Score?
39
BEFORE AFTER
WeightedAvg QS:
3.8
WeightedAvg QS:
5.2
37%
Improvement
in QS

40. 40
Quality Score provides a
multiplier on both VOLUME & ROI
Aside from Conversion Rate, there is usually no bigger
lever to improve campaign performance than QS.
Learn it, Love it, Own it.

41. 41
STEP 2. Use Quality Score to gain an unfair advantage
TAKE ACTION:
2.1 Put together a Quality Score Distribution analysis, calculate your
weighted avg. Quality Score (by impressions)
2.2 If below 5, treat it like a Code Red situation and immediately prune/rebuild
campaigns to increase relevance/CTR
In general…
• Monitor Quality Score for your higher spend terms
• Break those terms into their own Ad Groups if needed
• Apply MatchType recommendations to help reduce waste & increase CTR

42. 42
OPTIMIZE
3
TO DEEPER FUNNEL METRICS

43. Full Funnel
Optimization
Don’t settle for front-
end optimization.
Go as deep as you can.
Even one step deeper
can have a massive
impact.
43
Impressions
Clicks
Leads
MQLs
SQLs
Sales
Revenue







LTV 
Front
End
Back
End

44. Campaign A Campaign B
Costs $200,000 $200,000
Lead 1600 1000
Cost Per Lead $125 $200
Conversion Rate to MQL 15% 30%
MQLs 240 300
Cost Per MQL $833 $667
Conversion Rate to SQL 15% 30%
SQLs 36 90
Cost Per SQL $5,555 $2,222
Conversion Rate to Sale 15% 30%
Sales 5 27
Cost Per Sale $37,037 $7,407
Which Campaign is Top Performer?
Often, there’s
a lot of focus
on
Cost per Lead;
however…

45. Campaign A Campaign B
Costs $200,000 $200,000
Lead 1600 1000
Cost Per Lead $125 $200
Conversion Rate to MQL 15% 30%
MQLs 240 300
Cost Per MQL $833 $667
Conversion Rate to SQL 15% 30%
SQLs 36 90
Cost Per SQL $5,555 $2,222
Conversion Rate to Sale 15% 30%
Sales 5 27
Cost Per Sale $37,037 $7,407
Which Campaign is Top Performer?

46. Campaign A Campaign B
Costs $200,000 $200,000
Lead 1600 1000
Cost Per Lead $125 $200
Conversion Rate to MQL 15% 30%
MQLs 240 300
Cost Per MQL $833 $667
Conversion Rate to SQL 15% 30%
SQLs 36 90
Cost Per SQL $5,555 $2,222
Conversion Rate to Sale 15% 30%
Sales 5 27
Cost Per Sale $37,037 $7,407
Which Campaign is Top Performer?

47. Which Campaign is Top Performer?
Campaign A Campaign B
Costs $200,000 $200,000
Lead 1600 1000
Cost Per Lead $125 $200
Conversion Rate to MQL 15% 30%
MQLs 240 300
Cost Per MQL $833 $667
Conversion Rate to SQL 15% 30%
SQLs 36 90
Cost Per SQL $5,555 $2,222
Conversion Rate to Sale 15% 30%
Sales 5 27
Cost Per Sale $37,037 $7,407
Cost per Lead
is not always
correlated
with true ROI.

48. ClosedLoopmanagementbegins
Optimize to Lead Optimize to SQL
2015 2016
48
How Spend Shifted
Our spend mix changed substantially when we shifted to optimizing to SQL.
Optimize to Lead Optimize to SQL

49. 49
How Spend Shifted
Our spend mix changed substantially when we shifted to optimizing to SQL.
ClosedLoopmanagementbegins
Optimize to Lead Optimize to SQL
2015 2016
Previously “expensive”
leads turned out to be
worth it
We’d been overpaying
for “cheap” leads by
30%

50. How Else Can You Improve Traffic Quality?
e.g. Can you generate more medium/large company leads?
Micro Business 2-20
Small Business 21-100
Mid Market 101-1,000
Commercial 1,001-5,000
Enterprise 5,000+
Company Segments
50
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1

51. The Impact
Fewer small company leads
Micro Business 2-20
Small Business 21-100
Mid Market 101-1,000
Commercial 1,001-5,000
Enterprise 5,000+
Company Segments
51
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1

52. The Impact
More medium/large company leads
Micro Business 2-20
Small Business 21-100
Mid Market 101-1,000
Commercial 1,001-5,000
Enterprise 5,000+
Company Segments
52
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1

53. $0
$5
$10
$15
$20
$25
$30
0
5K
10K
15K
20K
25K
30K
35K
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
Qualified Leads CPL
ClosedLoopmanagementbegins
53
The Impact

54. 54
STEP 3. Optimize to deeper funnel metrics
TAKE ACTION:
3.1 Create trackable events for signals that correlate to higher customer
value (e.g. company size)
3.2 Pass all customer and campaign data through to CRM to enable
audience segmentation and lookbacks by traffic source – at least at
Campaign level
In General…
• Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good
• Optimize to deepest funnel metric you can and you’ll be ahead of 95% of advertisers

55. NOW, GO FORTH
& DOMINATE YOUR
PPC CAMPAIGNS!
THANK YOU
3 Steps to PPC Domination | CLOSED LOOP | www.closedloop.com | @closedloop

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56
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