Paid Search: Holiday Ramp-Up

As you're getting ready to ramp-up your PPC campaigns for the holiday be sure to check out the major retailers in your category for valuable competitive information. When you look at the major retailers or competition look for product identifiers. While you and a competitor might carry a similar product, your competition might use a different product identifier and its an opportunity for you to capture new traffic and customers.

On retailer sites like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, look for information like:

• ISBN-10


• ISBN-13


• ASIN


• Item Model Number


• Item #

Don't forget to add the product's name and manufacturer ID in your list of keywords/phrases. Let's use the Garmin nuvi 780 as an example:

• On Garmin's site, you'll see Part Number: 010-00657-05


• On Amazon's site, you'll see ASIN: B0011UEUNG and Item model number: Nuvi 780. If you're savvy enough, you'll also pick out the unique identifiers in the URL.


• On Crutchfield's site you'll find Item #150NUVI780.

For one product on three sites, there are at least three unique identifiers (I'm not including the Item model number from Amazon). While these may generate small amounts of traffic (and typically a very low CPC) in your campaign they may convert more often. The Internet is ultimately a research tool and many people will research a product before buying. The buying decision may be based on several factors including price, taxes, shipping costs, etc. The more often you appear in the search funnel the more likely you are to convert a visitor into a customer.

Successful Paid Search Optimization

Its only been four days since we optimized this account, but, we're really excited about the results so far. When we calculated daily averages before and after the optimization we saw some incredible improvements in such a short time:

- Average CPC decreased 33%
- Clicks increased 63%
- CTR increased 42%
- Conversions increased 58%
- Cost/Conv. decreased 36%
- Cost rose just 8%

Long Time

Its been a while since we posted anything on our blog. Its mostly due to the fact we have so many projects right now that we don't have time for ourselves. Its the case of of the cobbler's son.

I do have to blog about the extraordinary success we're having with two tanning salon campaigns we're running. The two salons are owned by the same company, but, target different geographical areas. Combined they have locations from coast to coast and now is the peak season for the franchises.

We started a PPC campaign for one of the salons last year and it works incredibly well. The campaign incorporates some lifestyle ad groups focusing on needs. For example, brides and bridesmaids will be working on their tans soon. Bodybuilders tan before a contest to further accentuate their muscle definition. Of course, the impression rates for these ad groups are lower than the others, but, they get a better click through rate and conversion rate. Users are directed to print a coupon for use at their nearest location and the parent company reports a 35% increase in salon foot traffic.

The sister salon was started on a PPC campaign in March and it is doing even better than the other. Click through rates are running about 10% and essentially the same keywords were used for this campaign. I attribute this to a few things:

1. We're running it ;)
2. Conversion tracking is helping identify winners from the get go
3. The promotion is better...or at least that's the way we see it
4. These salon locations are in more heavily populated areas
5. Campaign organization. There are 12 franchise owners with their own budgets. The way its organized now we can better manage the campaigns.
6. Acquisio's PPC management tol is helping us better run campaigns and the reporting feature allows us to focus more on actual campaign management. I hated doing reports, but, Aquisio is making tha a lot easier

That's it for now, but, we'll back soon. We've got a lot in the pipeline and we'll be telling the world pretty soon.

Numbers to Chew On

For those online marketers or business managers who engage in PPC and SEO take a look at these numbers from Nielson ReelResearch:

- When a brand name appeared in both natural search and paid search results, the brand attracted 92% of the total clicks
- Natural placement without paid search attracted only 60% of clicks

I’m going to write about advertising’s impact on search queries and how you can monetize other people’s efforts…so come back soon.

Google Matching Strategy: Broad, Phrase or Exact?

Google AdWords allows users to enter identical search terms with different matching options. For instance, you can purchase the broad match term Buy Books. Any search query that contains "Buy" and "Books" regardless of order or other terms used may display a paid search listing because of the broad match term Buy Books used.

However, most paid search should not stop here. Broad match terms are often more expensive because you are competing with more matching and, hence, more competitors. A good option is to also include phrase match and exact match for the same terms. In this way, users can often pay lower cost-per-clicks when search engine users type in exact phrases.

In this case, you would enter and bid on the following keywords:

Buy Books -- Broad Match: Any search query that contains Buy and Books in any order and with any additional terms may serve your ad.
"Buy Books" -- Phrase Match: Any terms outside of the term Buy Books will result in this being served as long as "Buy Books" is in this exact order.
[Buy Books] -- Exact Match: only this exact term will generated a served results. Any additional terms, e.g. I Buy Books, will cause this to not be a match.

Remember, you can also set negative keywords. Negative keywords are terms you set in Google and will cause your ads to not display if certain terms are included with the search query.

Using matching options and negative keywords allows users to target different search niches and also gives better bidding options. Often times broad-match terms may need to be removed yet phrase and exact match options will yield positive results.

For help with your paid search campaigns, visit MJM Ecommerce.