Unlocking The Potential in Your PPC Campaigns

UNLOCKING THE
POTENTIAL
IN YOUR PPC CAMPAIGNS

“YOUR COMPETITOR’S OUTDATED
THINKING IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY”

“YOUR COMPETITOR’S OUTDATED
THINKING IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY”
- Lance Loveday

THEN
The Efficient Frontier
ROI
LEAD VOLUME

NOW
Winners & Losers
ROI
LEAD VOLUME
Exponential
Advertisers
Everyone
Else
THEN
The Efficient Frontier

FREE YOUR MIND
1
THIS IS NOT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

TRYING TO
GET HERE
YOUR
COMPETITOR
IS HERE

WINNING
FOR YOU
WINNING
FOR THEM

MYTH REALITY
Efficient Market Ad Market is Wildly Inefficient
(which creates opportunity)

MYTH REALITY
Incremental Exponential

MYTH REALITY
Advertising is Cost Center Advertising is Profit Center

MYTH REALITY
Ad is Strategy/Creative-Driven Advertising is Execution-Driven

MYTH REALITY
Ad is Strategy/Creative-Driven Advertising is Execution-Driven
Average is Average Average Is Losing

STEP 1. Look Up From the Spreadsheet
TAKE ACTION:
1.1 If your campaigns haven’t been completely rebuilt in the last 1-2 years…
• Evaluate rebuilding
1.2 Check which playing field you’re on
• Look at your impression share, relative CTR and auction insights reports
• Look at competitors spend using competitive insight tools

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

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

STEP 2. Find the Low-Hanging Fruit
TAKE ACTION:
2.1 Visualize the shape of your accounts
• Break out any campaigns & ad groups that take a large percentage of budget
• Prune any ad groups that are not performing
• Search CTR >1%
• RLSA (Remarketing) audiences built out
• At least 3 ads/ad group
• At least 4 Ad Extensions
• Ad scheduling (dayparting) in place
• Quality Scores improving
2.2 Identify any easy fixes that are holding you back

DON’T SPEND MORE
3
BUY THE MOST VALUABLE TRAFFIC FIRST

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

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

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

Geographic Performance Patterns
1 2
3 4

Geographic Performance Patterns
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.

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

Match Type Performance Patterns
1 2 3

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.

1 2 3
Our Target Allocation:
Spend 60%-80% on Exact, remainder to
Modified Broad

STEP 3. Buy the most valuable traffic first
TAKE ACTION:
3.1 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).
3.2 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.

• View-through conversions can’t be weighted as heavily as click-based
conversions
• Beware agencies pitching display-centric media plans for DR campaigns
• Beware of platforms and agencies attributing 100% of view through conversions on greater
than 1 day view
• Has a role in branding and generating awareness and can work in DR if
done correctly
• Ad servers are inefficient, unreasonably costly and overkill in most cases
• Manual ad buys don’t make sense for any but the largest advertisers
• Programmatic is a nice improvement and has its place, but it isn’t magic
• Paid Social has far more game-changing potential than Display
Tough Love About Display

STEP 4. Be Wary About Display
TAKE ACTION:
4.1 No more than 15%-20% of budget in most cases
• Can be more for branding/awareness-oriented campaigns
4.2 Standardize on 1-2 platforms
• E.g. GDN + 1 DSP are more than enough for most
• Don’t get spread too thin
4.3 Invest in good creative
• A small lift in CTR can be game-changing
4.4 Always separate view-through conversions from click through conversions &
value them differently in reporting
• We see that GDN will give you far more click through conversions than DSPs

USE QUALITY SCORE
5
TO GAIN AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE

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

Higher Ad Rank = Higher Position

Higher Position = More Traffic
Higher Ad Rank = Higher Position

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

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)

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

Ad Position Max Bid Quality Score Ad Rank Actual CPC
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

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
Max Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank

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
Ad Rank drives Ad Position

The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
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

The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
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
Your
Quality Score
$0.01

Your
CPC
The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
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
Your
Quality Score
$0.01

Your
CPC
The Ad Rank of the
Person Below You
Your
Quality Score
$0.01
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
Notice how Advertiser 1 pays
less for a higher position due
to high quality score.

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.
How many of your
keywords have a Quality
Score of 1, 2, 3… 10?
Brand
Non-Brand

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

Can You Really Improve Quality Score?
BEFORE AFTER

BEFORE AFTER
Weighted Avg. QS:
3.8
Weighted Avg. QS:
5.2

BEFORE AFTER
Weighted Avg QS:
3.8
Weighted Avg QS:
5.2
37%
Improvement
in QS

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.

STEP 5. Use Quality Score to gain an unfair advantage
TAKE ACTION:
5.1 Check: Put together a Quality Score Distribution analysis, calculate your
weighted avg. Quality Score (by impressions)
5.2 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 Match Type recommendations to help reduce waste & increase CTR

OPTIMIZE
6
TO DEEPER FUNNEL METRICS

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.
Impressions
Clicks
Leads
MQLs
SQLs
Sales
Revenue







LTV 
Front
End
Back
End

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…

Costs $200,000 $200,000
Lead 1600 1000
MQLs 240 300
SQLs 36 90
Cost Per SQL $5,555 $2,222
Sales 5 27
Cost Per Sale $37,037 $7,407

Costs $200,000 $200,000
Lead 1600 1000
MQLs 240 300
SQLs 36 90
Cost Per SQL $5,555 $2,222
Sales 5 27
Cost Per Sale $37,037 $7,407
Cost per Lead
is not always
correlated
with true ROI.

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

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

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
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1

The Impact
Fewer small company leads
Micro Business 2-20
Enterprise 5,000+
Company Segments
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1

The Impact
More medium/large company leads
Micro Business 2-20
Enterprise 5,000+
Company Segments
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1

$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
The Impact

STEP 6. Optimize to deeper funnel metrics
TAKE ACTION:
6.1 Create trackable events for signals that correlate to higher customer
value (e.g. company size)
6.2 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

A Complete Audit Contains Over 30 Areas of Analysis
 Account Structure
Campaign & Ad Group Organization
 Key Metrics
Impression Share, Spend by Match
Type, CPA
 Spend Hierarchy
Channel & Platform Spend Distribution
 Account Settings
Dayparting, Ad Rotation, Distribution,
Geotargeting, & more
 Bidding Strategy
ROI vs. Position
 Keyword Strategy
Match Type, Depth, QS, Search
Query Reports, & more
 Landing Page
Continuity, Design for Conversion
 Ad Copy Creative
Continuity, Testing,
Differentiation, CTA, Automation
& more
 Tracking & Metrics
Conversion Tracking, GA Usage
 Display Campaigns
Placement, Ad Formats,
Multivariate Ad Testing
 Remarketing Campaigns
Audiences & Conversions
 Social Campaigns
Placement Targeting, Audience
Targeting Expansion,
Campaign Budgets, Video
Strategy, & more

A CAMPAIGN AUDIT IS LIKE AN
ANNUAL HEALTH EXAM
POSSIBLY UNPLEASANT,
BUT CAN SAVE YOUR ASS

YET ALMOST NO ADVERTISERS
REGULARLY AUDIT THEIR
CAMPAIGNS

Want These Insights For
Your Campaigns?
If you’re spending more than $50K/month,
we’ll audit your campaigns for free.
POTENTIAL UPSIDE:
35-40%
Our comprehensive audit:
• Includes over 50 data visualizations
• Pinpoints areas of opportunity
• Will help you grow qualified leads & maximize ROI
Visit: closedloop.com/audit
Get a Free Audit

NOW, GO UNLOCK
THE POTENTIAL IN
YOUR PPC
CAMPAIGNS!
THANK YOU
Unlocking the Potential In Your PPC Campaigns | CLOSED LOOP | www.closedloop.com | @closedloop
#DGU18

Unlocking The Potential in Your PPC Campaigns

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