Star wars themed deck on how to trouble shoot budgets (can't spend the budget, over spending, and scaling success) looking at impression share, auction price, and settings.

1. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Unlocking ROI In Any Budget
By: Navah Hopkins

2. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
I am a bounty hunter of happiness and profit
(& a Star Wars nerd)

3. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Am focused on the business
metrics of my stakeholders (clients).
• Know when to invest and when to
hold back.
• Live for the thrill of winning for my
stakeholders.
This means I:

4. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Talking Money is Hard – Talking Profit is Easy

5. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
By the end of this session, each of you will have
the tools to be a fellow bounty hunter of
happiness and profit

6. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
What We’ll Be Covering
➔ Baseline/Questions to Ask
➔ Poor Performance Caused by
Lack of Budget
➔ Can’t Spend the Budget
➔ Account is Winning
➔ Casestudy
Navah Hopkins
Services Innovation
Strategist

7. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Baseline/Questions to Ask

8. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Before We Can Begin Hunting, We Need to Do
Some Reconnaissance

9. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Are All Parts of the Business Equal, or Are Some
Worth More?

10. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Are There Hubs of High-Value Customers, or Are
They Truly Spread Out?

11. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Are Phone and Website Leads Equal? Do
Conversion Rates and Auction Prices Align?

12. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Impression Share
• Auction Price
• Conversion Rate/Value
Three Trails Good
Hunters Follow:

13. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Most Advertisers Struggle to Achieve 50%+ of
Available Impressions
Based on
2973
accounts
with at least
$.01 in
search
spend
Average
impression
share is 47%

14. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Search Auction Prices
Vary by Industry – don’t
bring a blaster to a
lightsaber duel

15. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
If You Know You Have An Easier Time Winning on
Mobile/Desktop, Don’t Be Afraid to Focus There
Mobile:
4.39% CTR
$34.79 CPA

16. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
✓Location Targets
✓Duplicate Keywords
✓Structure of the Campaign
✓Match-types of keywords
✓Bidding strategies
Raising Budget is a
Last Resort – Check the
Following First:

17. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Poor Performance Caused by Lack of
Budget

18. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Wasted Spend is the Enemy

19. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
If there’s a hint of wasted spend, it
can be hard to convince clients to
open up budget.

20. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Here’s the problem: a budget that isn’t aligned
with the structure it’s asked to support will always
be wasted spend

21. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Can your budget support 10 “top of page clicks”?

22. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Here’s what,
“Top of
Page” looks
like:

23. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
If Not, Assess if You Can Get The Traffic With
Different Search Ideas

24. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Check The Search Terms For The Real Heroes!
3% cheaper
& perfect
conversion
rate!

25. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Broad Keywords Can Drag Your Budget into
Unintended Auctions
162%
More
Than
Average

26. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
If they’re all too high, find out if clients can live
without that Traffic

27. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Use extensions to communicate
valuable ideas without paying a
premium.
• Bid adjustments can focus the
budget.
• Lumping strategic initiatives
together can cause all to fail.
Not all profit centers
are equal:

28. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Daily Budgets Needed For AT LEAST One Lead
Based on 2019 Average CPC
Monthly
budget will be
30.4 X daily
budget

29. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Bing’s Auction
Prices Can Be More
Forgiving

30. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Starting Bing Is As Easy As Setting Up An Auto-
Import

31. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Be transparent about industry costs
and whether budget expectations
are realistic.
• Offer options that work within the
requested budget.
• Give realistic timelines for growth
When crafting marketing
budgets/assessing clients:

32. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Can’t Spend the Budget

33. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
It can be intimidating to ask for more budget,
when you’re struggling to spend existing budget.

34. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Your Campaign is Likely Losing Impression Share
to Rank

35. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Too many targets
• Bids and auction prices not aligned
• Search volume isn’t there for
“important” keywords
Here are the most
common culprits:

36. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf| #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
There’s only
so many
signals a
budget can
accommodate

37. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Targeting 5+ locations without bid adjustments
can cause budget allocation issues

38. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Different Locations Have Different Auction
Prices, Search Patterns, & Time Zones

39. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Number of ad groups can also choke a budget: 5-7
is the golden ratio!
60% of
impressions
Budget
will only
go to
“winners”
instead of
everything

40. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Bid to budget ratio is only
part of the equation: if the
bids are too low, you won’t
even enter the auction

41. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
While it is true Google can up to double your
budget, you can’t bank on it delivering premium
volume if you’re consistently under bidding

42. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Search volume is an important mechanic in
account health

43. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Google’s not going to
waste its time or your
money on pages that
lack transactional value

44. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
But those pages may be important to clients

45. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Turn important low volume
keywords into site links/callouts
• Make a low budget “experiment”
campaign to house these ideas
• Ask the client if they’d be open to
content marketing being
responsible for those ideas.
Here are three easy
solutions:

46. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Account is Winning

47. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Congratulations! You’ve vanquished your enemies
and achieved profit!

48. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
But we’re bounty hunters of profit and
happiness…there’s always more to be had

49. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Can your client handle more leads
or are they at capacity?
• Is this seasonal – should we invest
now, or hold for next season?
• Should the budget go to existing
initiatives, or would you rather
expand to new platforms/parts of
the business?
Before we continue:

50. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Here is what I look for in a winning campaign
Consistently
above 75%
impression
share!
Campaign live for at least three months

51. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Important: Never dump large amounts of money
into a winning campaign all at once!

52. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Gradually increase budget by 10-15% each week
over a month

53. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
A great way to expand is to layer in display!
In-market display
ad with affinity
content!

54. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Display Average CPC’s Are Cheaper – Build Your
Perfect Audience to Be Picked Up By Search
Remarketing
10%
conversion
rate vs 4%
conversion
rate

55. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Display Can Bring Users Your Branded and
Remarketing Search Campaigns are Poised to
Pick-up
$500
Monthly
Budget
168550
Monthly
Impressions
701
Monthly
Clicks
*Average monthly budget, impressions and clicks across
4000 accounts (no budget over $50 and no budget under
$1)

56. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Don’t Forget About Facebook!
26% Of Clicks Result In A
Conversion (Spark Central)

57. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Average CPC is $1.72, but this is
determined by how many folks
click on your ad!
• Now that budgets are campaign
level choices, be sure you’re
choosing the right objective for
how you judge ROI!
• 19% of time spent on mobile is
on Facebook.
Facebook Budgets

58. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
By running campaigns on other networks, you can
expand your Google market:

59. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
New Campaigns Are Expensive – the
first 1-2 months of a campaign will be
about data acquisition

60. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Client Story: Koru K9

61. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Budget conversations are a game of transforming
“cost” into “investment”

62. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• CTR
• Quality Score
• Impression Share
• Extensions
• Match-types
Clients won’t care
about:

63. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Quality of leads
• Return on ad spend
• Volume of leads (as long as quality
isn’t impacted)
• Year over year growth
• Growing the value of a customer
Clients will care about:

64. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
If we want to grow the budget, we need to speak
their language

65. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Meet Koru K9:

66. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• $2,700 monthly costs
• Conversions weren’t tracking
properly
• Struggling to get enough business
to justify keeping staff
Before We Found Each
Other, Marketing Their
Business Was Stressful

67. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Koru K9 Had A Pretty Stellar Evolution
Benchmark (November 2015)
➔ Spend: $1,295.75(AdWords)
➔ Impressions: 30,570
➔ Clicks: 368
➔ Average CPC: $3.85
➔ Conversions: 23
➔ Conversion Rate: 6.25%
➔ CPA: $56.34
Post Optimizations (March 2019)
➔ Spend: $6,100
(AdWords/Bing/Facebook/Display)
➔ Impressions: 59,000
➔ Clicks: 2,000
➔ Average CPC: $2.69
➔ Conversions: 225
➔ Conversion Rate: 9.6%
➔ CPA: $27.07

68. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Built trust by identifying and
eliminating wasted spend brought
in by broad terms and tangential
searches.
• Focused budgets by geos served
and replicated winning structure
across those areas.
• Layered in display to educate
markets on why their approach to
training works.
How did we achieve
victory?

69. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Naturally They
Wanted To Scale

70. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
We Expanded
Markets!

71. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Some Markets Really Struggled – Driving Up Costs

72. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
We Had To Make Some Budget Allocation Choices

73. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Not All Markets Deserved “Focus” On High Value
Board & Train

74. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
The Landing
Pages Had
Multiple Numbers
– Lost Local Focus

75. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Too Many Data Acquisition Sources

76. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
“Dog Training” Just As Broad – Worse Quality

77. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
• Paused dubious “dog trainer” in
favor of long-tail broad.
• Removed extra numbers
• Used “borrowed” budget to
invest in educational display
So We:

78. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
We Were Able To Unlock Profit In One Month!

79. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
For Profit!

80. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf| #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Build trust
through
transparency
about budgets
and timelines.

81. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf| #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Use extensions
to promote
expensive ideas
when your
budget cannot.

82. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf| #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Honor thy bid
to budget ratio
and conversion
rates

83. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf| #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Check for
alternative
ways to achieve
expensive
traffic, but if the
ROI is there,
invest!

84. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf| #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Acquisition
costs go down
with increased
exposure to
brands –
Display brings
the audience!

85. | #AdvancedSearchSummit @navahf
Thanks! Questions?
nhopkins@wordstream.com
@navahf