This document discusses churn in the context of Google AdWords accounts. It defines churn as an AdWords account that has been inactive for 6 consecutive months. The document notes that churn is a detractor of growth and that retaining existing customers is important, as it is easier to sell to existing customers than new prospects. It shares that around half of defined churn cases are potentially controllable through partner actions. The document provides best practices for partners around tracking customer contracts, communicating value through reporting, and utilizing Google's predictive churn program and other tools to support retention efforts.

1. What does the Data Say
about Churn?
Kristin Coit
Head of Partner Acceleration
Google AdWords Channel Partnerships

2. Accelerating Growth
through Acquisitions,
Upsell, and Retention

3. GOALS:
● Share how Google views churn
● Give you 1-2 ideas to consider
● Invite you to work with Google

4. Setting the Stage: Growth DecompositionAdRevenue
Acquisition
Upsell
Churn
Previous
Revenue
Current
Revenue
Path to growth made up of three primary elements:
Acquisitions, Upsell, and Retention.

5. Google defines churn as an
AdWords account that has been
inactive for 6 consecutive months.
A lapsed account is considered an account
that has been inactive for 1 month.
How does Google define churn?

6. Two similar partners; different growth composition
Acquisition Upsell ChurnAcquisition Upsell Churn
Acquisition
Focus
Upsell + Retention
Focus
Partner A Partner B

7. Impact of Churn on Growth
Churn is a detractor of growth; aim to retain existing base.
The probability of selling to an
existing customer is 60 – 70%.
The probability of selling to a
new prospect is 5-20%.
– Marketing Metrics

8. Not all “churn” is true churn
Controllable Churn
termination because of sale,
relocation, reorganization, seasonal,
or permanent closure of the business
termination because of
dissatisfaction, price-value feedback,
or competing products
From a previous Churn study of select partners:
52% of Google defined churn is addressable by partner

9. Main reasons for controllable churn
Single biggest driver of churn is a function of expectations, perceived value.

10. Relationship between reporting quality and churn rate
Source: Internal Google study, U.S.
Communicating ROI
In two separate churn
studies, U.S. and
APAC, reporting was
identified as key to
delivering satisfaction
and meeting
expectations for
clients.

11. Customers who receive weekly or monthly reports are more
likely to be satisfied with their reporting
% rating reporting as Excellent or Very Good
Q24 What type of reporting did you see? Q26a How would you rate the reporting from [PARTNER] on your Google Advertising?
54% 48% 14%
Weekly Monthly Less often
Frequency of reporting

12. Best Practices:
● Diligently track customer
contracts and pro-actively
contact customers in advance of
their contract expiration or
renewal (consider contract auto-
renewals).
● Contract length: month-to-month
v. 6-12 mo.
26% were not asked to renew or extend their campaign
“No response from
them therefore we did
not renew”
“I wanted to renew the
contract but I couldn’t
contact the sales rep to
put in more money”“They didn’t inform me
about renewing”

13. How can you win accounts back?
There are opportunities
to recover lost business!
From a previous Churn
study of select partners:
58% indicated they
would resume if...

14. 58% indicated they would resume if they...
● saw results or better explanation of the results
● received additional/different pricing options: consider
offering a winback incentive, consider offering them a
month free where the account is optimized
● received more/better customer support: code for churn
reasons, or survey post cancellation to deep dive into
history

15. Service Best Practices
● Develop processes to handle downgrades, cancellations, and
discounts of product.
● Retention team to retain high probability churn customers, survey your
customers regularly. Keep your finger on the pulse.
● Provide ad hoc rewards to long standing customers. The little things
do matter.

16. How Google helps partners support retention
Predictive Churn Program: Receive Monthly “Accounts at Risk”
list, plus custom Churn Symptoms Report.
Tenure Analysis: Analysis on advertiser tenure, status of last
month, and historical performance.
Churn History Analysis: Historical view of partner churn against
peer set benchmark.
Customer Satisfaction Survey: Facilitate CSAT surveys to capture
feedback from advertisers and identify areas of improvement.

17. THANK YOU.
Kristin Coit
kcoit@google.com
Head of Partner Acceleration
Google AdWords Channel Partnerships