Larry Kim's Presentation on Hacking AdWords for the Marketing Profs B2B Marketing Forum in Boston, 2014.

1. Hacking AdWords!
Winning at AdWords The Weird Way
Presented by: Larry Kim
Founder/CTO, WordStream, Inc.
@larrykim #mpb2b

2. @larrykim #mpb2b
About Me
Larry Kim (@larrykim)
•Founder / CTO of WordStream
•Commander of Quality Score
Rebellion
•Had Kid 5 Months Ago! #ppckid

3. @larrykim #mpb2b
Today’s Agenda
• The 10 Greatest PPC Hacks of All Time!
• 2 AdWords Account Audits

4. You’re an AdWords Hacker … and a
Traitor!

6. Slides Can Be Downloaded From Slideshare!
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• bit.ly/mpb2b

7. #10.
QUALITY SCORE IN
ADWORDS
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10. Why You Should
Care About
Quality Score?!

11. Quality Score Impacts Ad Rankings
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12. Quality Score Impacts Cost Per Click
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13. Quality Score Impacts Impression Share
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14. Impression Share 2x More Competitive On Mobile!

15. Quality Score Impacts Cost Per Conversion
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16. So Get a High Quality Score!
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17. How is Quality Score
Really Calculated?

18. Expected Click Through Rate
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19. QS is Based on Your CTR vs. Expected CTR
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20. A Crazy Hack To Increase Quality Scores
• Allocate 10% of Budget To
Raise Account Average
Quality Scores
• Delete the Bottom Third of
Your AdWords Account
(Shift budget to
Remarketing instead)
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21. Example Crappy Account
• 2/3rd of Keywords
Underperform
Expected CTR,
• 1/3rd of Keywords
Beat Expected
CTR

22. The Junk Keywords Kill The Account
• Even the above
average CTR
keywords have
very low Quality
Scores!

23. Example Amazing Account
• 1/3rd of Keywords
Underperform
Expected CTR,
• 2/3rd of Keywords
Beat Expected
CTR

24. High CTR Keywords = Get Out of Jail Free!
• Even the
Keywords with
0% CTR have
Quality Scores of
7/10 or 10/10!!

25. What’s A Good Quality
Score These Days?

26. Typical Quality Score Distribution
• Today, Average
~5/10
• Previously it was
7/10
• As average values
drift lower, above
average QS worth
up to 200% more
than before!

27. So What To Do With My Keywords?
@larrykim #mpb2b
• If Your Keyword’s Quality Score is…
– 1to 3: Delete Immediately
– 4 to 6: Fix / Optimize
– 7 to 10: Don’t Mess with Success

28. But.. High Quality Scores Aren’t
Possible In my Industry!!
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29. Real Estate Industry Quality Scores

30. E-Commerce Industry Quality Scores

31. Finance Industry Quality Scores

33. Low CTR = Losing
PPC Strategy

34. Quick Recap
• Below Avg. CTR = Low QS
• Low QS means…
– Less prominent ad positions
– Very low impression share
– Huge CPC penalties (+400%
Tax)
– High Cost Per Conversion
(+64%)

35. The HIGH CTR Game for AdWords
@larrykim #mpb2b
• Be Very Picky. Bid on Only the Best
Keywords and Get HIGH CTRs.
• Delete Junk Keywords (Bottom Third of
your Account)
• PRO TIP: Use impression weighted
average quality scores for Campaigns &
Accounts (ignore keyword-level QS)

36. @larrykim #mpb2b
#9.
UNICORN ADS

37. @larrykim #mpb2b
Which Ad Wins?
• Ad A
– 2,423 Impressions
– 453 clicks (1.4% CTR)
– Average Position: 2.8
• Ad B
– 36,223 Impressions
– 760 clicks (2.1% CTR)
– Average Position: 3.0

38. Trick Question! They Both Suck
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• Neither ad is worth
declaring a
“Winner”.
• Not even the 2.1%
CTR in the 3.0 Avg.
Position.
• Why??

39. What’s a Good CTR These
Days?
(It’s Higher Than You Think)

40. Google Expects More Of Your Ads

41. Big Performance Inequalities Here

42. Crap Ads Vs. Unicorns!!
Percentile Vs. Expected
CTR
Name
Bottom 50% Below
Expected CTR
CRAP ADS
Top 15% 2X Higher Awesome
Advertisers
Top 5% 3x Higher Super
Awesome
Advertisers
Top 1% 6x Higher!! Unicorns!!!

43. Unicorns Ads?! (6x Avg. CTR!)

45. 1. Keywords With High Commercial Intent
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46. 2. Dynamic Keyword Insertion? (DKI)

47. 2. DKI Doesn’t Produce As Many Unicorns

48. 3. Use of Ad Extensions?

49. 3. Use of Ad Extensions? (Impact on CTR)

50. 3. Ad Extensions has Small Impact on QS

51. 3. Ad Extensions has Small Impact on QS

52. How To Write
“Unicorn” Ads
(Top 1%,
6x Average CTR)

53. Most Ads Suck (+90%)
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54. The Hack: Try Ads That Trigger Emotions!
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55. This Beats Avg. CTR by 6x !
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56. .. Because All The Other Ads Suck!

57. Ad Unicorns are Rare & Beautiful Creatures!
Name Percentile Relative
Abundance
Vs.
Expected
CTR
Awesome
Ads
Top 15% 1:6.7 2X Higher
Super
Awesome
Ads
Top 5% 1:20 3x Higher
Unicorns Top 1% 1:100 6x
Higher!!

58. You Need To Test 100 DIFFERENT Ads..

59. The Bar is Very Low Here…

60. 5% of Ads Soak Up 85% of Impressions
• You Just
Need to
Find 1
Unicorn
Ad!!

61. #8.
CRAZY OFFERS
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62. What’s a Good Conversion Rate for PPC?
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63. The Top 10% of Landing Pages Have 3-5x
Higher Conversion Rates
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Distribution
Point
All accounts Ecommerce Legal B2B Finance
Median
Conversion
Rate
2.35% 1.84% 2.07% 2.23% 5.01%
Top 25%
Conversion
Rate
5.31% 3.71% 4.12% 4.31% 11.19%
Top 10%
Conversion
Rate
11.45% 6.25% 6.46% 11.70% 24.48%

64. Landing Page Unicorns?!
(+3-5x Avg. Conversion Rate!)
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65. The Great Landing Page
Optimization Fairy Tale
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• We Changed the:
– Font Type
– Spacing
– Button Color
– Image
– Etc.
• We got a 5%
Increase in Conversions!!*

66. PTD- Premature Testing Dilemma (aka
“Optimizatitis”)
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67. Conventional Landing Page
Optimization is Over-Rated
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• Small Changes Result In
Small Changes
• % Change You Think You
Got is Often Just Noise
or Wishful Thinking

68. Re-Arranging Deck Chairs On the Titanic..

69. Aim for 3-5x Improvements! (not 3-5%!)

70. What Do Landing Page
Unicorns
Look Like?

71. 1. Change Your Offer
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72. @larrykim #mpb2b
The New Offer
• How To Know If
Your Offer
Stinks:
– 2% Conversion
Rate or Less
– Ask Your
Prospects!

73. 2. Radically Change The Flow

74. 2. New Registration Flow

75. 3. Let Users Choose / Leverage
Emotional Triggers
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76. Landing Page Unicorns are Rare &
Beautiful Creatures!
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Name Percentile Relative
Abundance
Vs.
Expected
Conversion
Rate
Awesome
Landing
Pages
Top 25% 1:4 2x Higher
Unicorns Top 10% 1:10 3-5x
Higher!!

77. @larrykim #mpb2b

78. Note: This is the Same Landing Page
with Different Spacing…
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79. The Bar is Pretty Low

80. 80% of Impressions go to 10% of Landing Pages
• You Just
Need 1
Killer
Offer!

81. OMG - Just One Landing Page?!!
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Larry Kim (@larrykim) #mnsearch

82. YES - One Unicorn is Usually Enough!
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Larry Kim (@larrykim) #mnsearch

83. #7.
GMAIL SPONSORED
PROMOTIONS
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84. @larrykim #mpb2b

85. Subject Line and Teaser
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86. Email Ads! (HTML)
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87. The Hack: Target Your Competitor’s Emails
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88. #6.
PEOPLE BASED
MARKETING (NOT IN
ADWORDS!)
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89. Custom Audiences in Facebook
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90. Tailored Audiences in Twitter
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91. The Hack: Think of PPC More Like Email
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Marketing
Email Marketing
• Limit Number of Blasts To Reduce
Unsubscribes
• 0.5-2% Unsubscribes Each Blast
• People Need To Opt Into Your List
• Tons of Unqualified Emails on the
List
People Based Marketing
• N/A
• N/A
• N/A
• N/A

92. @larrykim #mpb2b
#5.
CRAZY MOBILE
STRATEGIES

93. Mobile Changes The Flow In a Big Way
OMG a
Call
Button!!
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94. Mobile Changes The Flow In a Big Way!
Desktop Search Conversion Funnel
1. Sees Ad 1. Sees Ad
2. Clicks On Ad
3. Visits Website
Landing Page
4. Captured Lead
Mobile Conversion Funnel
2. Calls
Business
3% Avg.
Conversion
Rate
3. Lead
Captured!!
Calls to Businesses worth on Average 3x More Than
Clicks to Websites!!

95. The Hack: Forget about Mobile Sites and
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Landing Pages!

96. #4.
QUALITY SCORE FOR
GOOGLE DISPLAY
NETWORK
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97. Quality Score Exists on Google Display
Network!!
Higher
CTR =
Lower
CPC
Higher
CTR =
Lower
CPC
A 0.1%
increase/decrease in
CTR yields ~20%
increase/decrease in
CPC!

98. The Hack: Create Display Ads With Above Avg. CTR
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99. 1. Push Ads To Your Offers

100. Do a Conversion Path Analysis
Define audience
segments using the
pages that most often
lead to a conversion
event

101. 2. Push Ads To Your Content
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102. 5% of Articles Generate 50% of Social Media
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Engagement

104. The Hack: Same Emotions Make People
Click on Ads and Content

106. Mark Your Calendar!
• Remarketing and Retargeting in 2014
• Wednesday 3:50, Salon F
– Erin Sagin – WordStream
– Tim Mayer – Trueffect
– Sean Dolan – PushFire
– Rob Garner - Advice Interactive Group
@larrykim #mpb2b

107. #3.
REMARKETING LISTS
FOR SEARCH ADS
(RLSA)
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108. Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA)
• Customize Ads To
Users Who Previously
Visited Your Site
• On Average Doubles
Click Through Rates
(Raises Quality Score)
and Cuts CPC’s in
Half!!

109. @larrykim #mpb2b
#2.
IN-MARKET
SEGMENTS

110. In Market Segments & Similar Audiences
to Increase Reach!
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111. @larrykim #mpb2b
#1.
FIRST MOVER
ADVANTAGE

112. A Thousand New Features Each Year
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• Over 1000 New Features
in last 12 Months
• Innovation is Accelerating
• Much more if you Include
Bing Ads, Twitter,
Linkedin, Facebook, etc.

113. +Post Ads on Google+
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• Released in April 2014
• Google+ Updates Show
Up All Over The Web as
Ads!

115. Impact on G+ Page Visibility Before &
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After
After
Before

116. The Flywheel Effect: Paid Social Promotion
Generates Organic Engagement
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117. TrueView Ads on YouTube
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• People spend 6 Billion
Hours on YouTube /
Month
• Pay Nothing if People
Click “Skip Ad”
• Ridiculously Powerful
Targeting Options

118. ADWORDS ACCOUNT
AUDITS
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119. Summary: The Top 10 AdWords Hacks of All Time!
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1. Say No to Low CTR!
2. Unicorn Ads Get Up To 6x
Average CTR
3. Unicorn Offers Get 3-5x
Average Conversion Rates
4. Forget About Mobile
Websites and Landing
Pages
5. Quality Score has Huge
Impact on Display Ads
6. Use RLSA to Double Click
Through Rates / Reduce CPC
in Half
7. Expand Display Ad Reach with
In-Market Segments
8. Get in People’s Gmail
Inboxes!
9. Target Specific People on
Facebook and Twitter
10.Always Be the First Mover!

120. Flywheel Effect: Paid
Don’t Settle For Average – Be a Unicorn Among a Sea of
Donkey Advertisers!
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121. Thank You Marketing Profs!
• Download Slides Here: bit.ly/mpb2b
@larrykim #mpb2b