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Bidding According to Match Type

January 21, 2015 by Brad Geddes Leave a Comment

Bidding According to Match TypeFrom the Market Motive Forum: I recently received the following fantastic question regarding bidding according to match type from a Market Motive student.

“I’ve seen people who split their ad groups into the three match types like this:

  1. Exact
  2. Phrase
  3. Broad

I understand that by taking keywords that perform well and moving them up, then adding them as negative keywords for the previous group, we can ensure that they show for the exact match and not the broad match.

Can we simply not leave the different match types in the same group ‘Marketing Training’ and adjust the bids so that the bid amount for exact match > phrase match > broad match? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: PPC Advertising Tagged With: Forum, pay-per-click, PPC

Phrase Match vs Broad Match Modifiers: How to Get The Best Results

December 9, 2014 by Brad Geddes Leave a Comment

Phrase Match vs Broad Match Modifiers

If you’re trying to improve your ranking in with Google, it’s important that you understand the differences between broad match modifier vs phrase match. It is helpful to equip yourself with a working understanding of PPC marketing. Understanding the differences will help you refine your SEO approach, and ultimately achieve better search rankings.

Phrase Match vs Broad Match Modifiers: Understanding the Differences

First, let’s clarify what phrase match, broad match and broad modified matches actually are.

Phrase Match

According to Google Adwords, a phrase match is a keyword setting that lets users find your content when their search includes either your exact keyword phrase or phrases that are a close variation of your keyword/keyword phrase.
This may include singular and plural forms, misspellings, abbreviations, and an extra word at either end of the phrase. For example, if you defined your main keyword phrase as “key lime pie,” your content would pop up in search results if someone searched for the following:

“key lime pie”
“key lime pie recipe”
“buy key lime pie”

See how the phrases are similar in all the above examples? Your content would show up in all three searches because the person conducted a phrase match search.

Broad Match

In broad matches, your content will be displayed when the search contains at least one of your defined keywords. Google uses a broad match option by default, and it will display results for any combination of words that make up your search term(s). It also returns results for slight variations on your search terms, like synonyms.

This might sound great in theory, but there’s a pretty major problem with it: a regular broad match can easily return irrelevant results. That’s where broad match modifiers come into play. Broad match modifiers ensure that your search queries return only results that exactly match the search phrases you’ve specified, or are close variants of them.

If there’s a plus sign in front of a search query you have ranked for, that’s a modified broad search. A search for cat toys formatted as “+cat toys” might also match:

“Cat food”
“Cat pics”
“Cat breeds”

The plus sign tells Google to make sure the word with the plus sign in front of it shows up in the search query, no matter what.

Phrase Match vs Broad Match Modifiers: The Pros and Cons

It’s important to note that each of the options outlined above has associated pros and cons. Before deciding to focus on one over the other, we highly recommend that you take some time to evaluate everything carefully since what you ultimately decide can – and probably will – have a very dramatic impact on the results of your SEO efforts moving forward.

Learn how to improve the SEO value of your website with our DMCA course.

So, without further adieu, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of broad match modifier vs phrase match.

Phrase Matches

Pros – More control over individual search queries means better clickthrough rates and pageviews from more interested customers.

Cons – Takes longer to set up individual phrases, and you’ll have a smaller audience reach than broad search matches.

Broad Modified Match

Pros – More search volume than phrase match, and less time spent customizing your search phrases.

Cons – Less targeted results than phrase match, meaning you’ll have to constantly check your search results against your keywords to identify negative keywords (keywords that drive untargeted, irrelevant traffic).

SEO TIP:

If you have the budget for it, we recommend using multiple match types for your different keywords. By casting a broader net, you’ll get more relevant queries, and the strengths of each search type will cancel out the weakness of the other.

Using Multiple Match Types for Target Keywords

Given that each keyword setting comes with its own pros and cons, it is best to use different match types to optimize ROI. Excluding things like budgets and some larger organizational items, there are a few reasons to use multiple match types for a given word:
-Bids
-Offer (the ads and landing page)
-View Quality Score (QS) of the actual word
-Impression share

While your modified broad match should capture most relevant queries, it might not always capture them (this is usually due to budget, rank, or QS of the actual query). By adding the keyword as an exact match, you can then set higher bids for an exact match than the modified broad words.
Look at the actual QS (you might have some queries for the same modified broad match word with a 3 QS and others that are a 10). By adding the exact match versions, you can get better insight into the QS by queries and also view your impression share for your exact match words to make sure you have high IS on your top exact match versions.
It’s usually a good idea to add exact match versions of your top keywords. If you’re using automated bidding (or can take the time to look at all the actual keywords), then adding the exact match version of all your words is a good idea. This is a question more of time vs. possibility when you start getting into adding exact match versions of words that only get 20-50 impressions a month.
Phrase match is a tough one these days since it often converts about the same as modified broad. If you have word ordering issues (contractor license and license contractor are two completely different items) then you need to use phrase match over modified broad.
If you’re using third-party bid technology and therefore have the time to bid on each match-type version, then it can be good to add. If you have a small- to mid-sized account with little technology powering it, then phrase match can often be skipped.

General Tips to Follow
In general, a broad modified match is a great option that will nab the most relevant hits and deliver fairly well-targeted traffic.

Phrase match doesn’t see as much use these days because it performs about as well as modified broad search, but modified broad search takes less effort. Targeting phrase match queries may not be a good choice if resources are tight. That said, if you’re getting low clickthrough rates and unwanted traffic with modified broad search and need to use something more specific, a phrase match is the way to go.

So keep the pros and cons of each method in mind, and don’t be afraid to mix and match as you see fit, according to your goals, needs, and resources. It’s ultimately going to be a judgment call on your part. If you keep these tips in mind, you should be well on your way to improving your search rankings.

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: PPC Advertising Tagged With: Forum, PPC

Using Keywords in Search and Display Ads

December 4, 2014 by Brad Geddes Leave a Comment

Using keywords in search and display ads

I recently went through an article where the current modified use of keywords and ad group was mentioned, making me realize the bidding on keywords has now a whole different approach. Considering the fact that owning the keywords on a search engine which further displays your advertisement on a priority basis is the new revolution in marketing. The whole process is not as complex once you learn about it. There are numerous tools that can help you learn PPC, in case you’re just getting started. 

For various search campaigns, you have to select a group of keywords. You certainly can’t choose the same set of keywords for different search campaigns as they will end up competing against each other.  Hence, your keywords will only be utilized in one search campaign. That’s certainly a loss. To reuse it, you can change the topics for the same set of keywords in different display campaigns. But that is just one angle to it.

Let us see what else can be done to use the same set of keywords in different display campaigns:

As long as the keywords don’t compete against each other, it’s not an issue. Consider a scenario where your one of your campaign’s active in Middle East Asia and other in North America. You can use both your campaigns with the same keywords here as they do not compete.

Now let’s look at ad groups.  

Say you have the same keywords in various ad groups and each of your ad group has been mapped to a particular topic. If you consider using the same ad group across multiple campaigns, then it makes no sense. Also, if you are just ‘bidding’ then it is the same.

However, if you are doing ‘target and bid’ for the topic, then it brings out a whole different picture. A keyword’s primary purpose is mostly targeting an advertisement so when you do ‘target and bid’  your keywords won’t  compete against each other, solving your problem.

The other option is ‘bid only’. It is for topics and keywords. However,  it will lead your keywords to compete against each other because you are only using topics to change the bid and not to target an ad.

There happens to be an option that will serve all purposes. Multiple ‘bid only’ topics with a keyword. By doing this, you can put all topics in one ad group and do your bidding on topics. Now if you do ‘target and bid’ on these topics then you are free to put the same keywords in multiple ad groups and target these topics to a particular ad. The next time you have to change the keywords,  you don’t have to worry about targeting ads because it has already been done by your ad group and its topic.

Below are some examples and suggestions that will eventually help you in bidding on the right keyword and topic.

  1. Making Ad groups for keywords: Generating a list of keywords won’t help in the advertisement. The trick is to make particular groups out of these long tail keywords. All relevant keywords in one group and so on will not just provide you a better visibility but also frequent searches. Effectively grouping keywords are essential. For Example:

Search_Display_Ads
The organization of keywords in the above example is one way to use  your keywords more efficiently.

 

  1. Finding keywords from recent searches: There are many tools available online which will give you the exact keywords that people have been frequently looked for in the search engine. Look at the example in the below picture:


Keywords_hit_by_users

In the above image, we can see the keywords that are hit by users all around the globe on the search engine. It is now easier for you to find the right keyword and group them accordingly.

According to the latest data released by experts, the top three paid keyword ads on Google gets 41% of the clicks. 41% is not a small thing. In fact, even 10 % is not if we are considering the ROI received on these keyword advertisements. A study shows that you can earn 43% more than your initial investment in bidding for keywords. The chart below will help you get a better understanding of the same:

Paid_keyword_data

Click through rate:

The click through rate is more like a benefit that you get along with your keyword search. Google’s AdWords provide this unique feature to help monitor  data you run for your ads and keywords. It tracks the clicks and gives you a click through rate for your keywords. Judging by the name we can say that CTR is nothing but the percentage of clicks that people did once they saw your ad. Below is the example screen of Google’s AdWords that shows the CTR calculation of a keyword and its ad:

GSC_Data

To understand it in a better way let me take you through a case study in which the primary goal was the lead generation for people buying Audi cars.

The campaign had the below results:

  1. 92606 keywords
  2. 1059 converting search queries
  3. 161 queries with 2+ conversion
  4. Top 20 queries

Now the main task was to find the most suitable keywords from the above data for which top performing queries were taken into consideration. These keywords are then placed in single ad groups. This resulted in two major ad groups i.e.

  1. Audi – Search- General
  2. Audi – Search – Specific models

Below is the listing and their clicks:

GSC_Data_Audi

Now the top performing keywords from these ad groups are put into one.  Then you need to exclude them from their previous ad groups. The results that came out with this approach were amazing with this approach. There was a 22% increment in the previous Click through rate. Along with that, the cost per action was also reduced to half.

The above case study is a very nice example of how we can do more testing and find out the meaningful data from which impactful keywords can be extracted. In the end, your keywords are the key to your ad’s success. Choose them wisely.

Want access to this kind of training and support?

 

Learn more about Market Motive’s PPC Training Course Here!

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: PPC Advertising Tagged With: Forum, PPC

Does Adding Conversion Tracking to Websites Decrease Quality Scores?

October 28, 2014 by Brad Geddes Leave a Comment

market motive quality scoresFrom the Market Motive Forums: Trying to Determine Why Quality Scores Went Down

Quality scores are critical to an AdWords account as they influence the rank and cost-per-click (CPC) of ads. I recently fielded a great question in our member’s only forum regarding the decrease of quality scores and if this happened due to adding conversion tracking to a website.

A student had an AdGroup with solid overall quality scores of 7+. There was even one term that had a perfect 10 out of 10 score. When conversion tracking was added to the website, there was a dramatic decrease in quality scores on that very same day.

So what’s the deal? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline Specific, Discipline: PPC Advertising Tagged With: Forum, pay-per-click, PPC

How to push customers over the edge at the end of a buying funnel

September 24, 2014 by Brad Geddes 1 Comment

endofbuyingcycleblogFrom the Market Motive Forums: Why display benefit copy instead of features copy at the final buying stage of the buying funnel? Aren’t the customers already sold and ready to buy using features as their guide?

People fall off at every stage of the buying funnel.

Someone might want a product/service, but then still doesn’t finish buying it or engaging in the service. It’s common for someone to forget, have something else comes up that distracts the user from their task, or they need a bit more of a push.

At the very end of the buying funnel, it’s a good idea to push a user to finally take action; and people buy products/serves based upon what it’ll do for them.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline: Conversion, Discipline: PPC Advertising, Online Marketing Tagged With: Forum

Should You Buy Your Brand Terms? Probably.

September 10, 2014 by Brad Geddes Leave a Comment

From the Market Motive Forums: Is it a good strategy to spend money for brand terms?

In most cases, it is worth buying your brand terms and company names. A lot of companies test buying their brand vs. not buying it, and then make a decisions based off the revenue delta. Testing is always a good idea!

As a general overview: Here are the top 4 most common reasons companies buy their brand terms.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline: PPC Advertising, Online Marketing Tagged With: Forum, PPC

Too Many Impressions, Not Enough Clicks

July 16, 2014 by Brad Geddes Leave a Comment

C

From the Market Motive Forums: How Can I Get More Clicks From The Impressions I Have?

Getting too many impressions and not enough clicks? There are three main ways to increase clicks from your current impressions:

  1. Examine your search queries
  2. Raise your position (increase bids or quality score)
  3. Test ads (increase CTR)

The first step in examining your account is to understand the actual search queries that are showing your ads. If you find irrelevant queries, then you need to add negatives or refine your match types so that you are only showing for relevant queries.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Discipline: PPC Advertising, Online Marketing, Teaching Tagged With: Forum, PPC

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