Bid Management Tools

Finding good help: it’s like the great professional field leveler. No matter how good you are at doing what you do, it doesn’t really mean you’re gonna be great at finding someone else who is good at whatever you need them to do- and that’s an issue, because a terrifying percentage of important projects are contingent on everyone doing their business both correctly and intelligently. The problem, in terms of our industry, arises because whether you’re an expert PPC manager yourself or have no idea what I meant when I used the term PPC two seconds ago, finding the right person or team to handle your pay per click baby is complex. PPC managers can’t always see beyond their own methods to understand how others are successful. HR representatives from agencies needing a PPC manager don’t always understand the balance of technical skills and sales & marketing skills necessary to efficiently handle accounts. No one knows who they should be looking for.

After a good bit of time observing PPC managers, you can identify behavioral characteristics that are more likely to make your search for a good PPC account manager successful. Since everyone doesn’t have the opportunity, as I have been lucky enough to have, to observe lots of fantastic account managers, I’ve assembled a list of some of the personality characteristics they’ve shared.

Competitiveness

PPC is all kinds of a competition. It’s a competition against your…competitors. It’s a competition against yourself as you try to best your previous results. It’s a competition for your target audience’s interest and loyalty.  You don’t have to be the kind of person who wants to punch someone in the face because your soccer team came in second, but really, it should annoy you to lose. That way when you log in and you only got 85 leads last week and you usually get 105, there’s something internal motivating you to whip that account back into shape. Thinking of the business you’re losing or the person who may yell at you for poor performance might motivate you a little, but it’s not going to be enough if you’re looking for real success. You’ve gotta want it just for the sake of the accomplishment.

Capitalism

Don’t be silly and think this isn’t important. We’re spending money to try to make more money. That’s what PPC is, and anyone who doesn’t think the idea of trying to increase ROI is inherently cool is going to lose interest in the whole PPC project, and soon.

Creative/Analytical Balance

I think people who are inexperienced with PPC are more likely to overlook this important factor than those of us who manage accounts. It’s a lot of spreadsheets and data analysis and there are lots of numbers. But that’s only the surface layer. What’s important is what you can DO with that data, and that requires the mental flexibility and creativity to see patterns and meaning within and then be able to translate that meaning into action. That’s a lot of abstract thinking, and we haven’t even discussed the traditionally “creative” parts of PPC, like understanding your audience and creating keywords, ad texts, and landing pages that will appeal to them. People who think in a strictly technical “x+y=z” sometimes have difficulty with PPC management when things get complicated, because you need to have the intuition and flexibility to realize that sometimes x+y just equals x, or sometimes w.

Perfectionism

This is a bit of a double-edged sword. Too much and it’s completely inefficient and can become an obsessive quest to make things technically perfect without considering ROI in terms of time or money. At the same time, the little voice inside your head saying, “Do it right if you’re going to do it” can be a great asset when you’re tired and sick of looking at 38236 rows of Excel spreadsheet. Having a teammate with an internal self-disciplinarian is handy, because it makes it easier to rely on the likelihood that when you ask them to complete a task, it’ll be done correctly.

Courage

I’m naturally risk-averse, so I wish this wasn’t true. But it is: even though PPC is more easily monitored and maybe more predictable than some other forms of advertising, if you really want to further your account’s success, you’re eventually going to have to do something that makes you uncomfortable. Launch an experiment. Turn a campaign off. Start running content ads. Whatever it is, it will freak you out. And this is the only way to really see what works and what doesn’t: try it for your account. People who aren’t willing to risk a little to find greater return won’t be able to help grow business, they can only maintain the status quo. Of course the caveat here is: you don’t want a PPC manager who turns on seven new campaigns and leaves the country for three weeks with it on autopilot. That’s why attention to detail and dedication to the account’s quality are characteristics that need to accompany this trait in a good account manager.

Communication

Here’s a general rule: it’s good if people give you more info than you want. You can always ask them for less if you’re getting too much, but someone who is hard to get information out of from the outset is probably not going to get easier to get information from in the future. If you want to be involved in understanding what’s going on with your PPC account, make sure your manager knows how to communicate clearly and frequently.

Intellectual Curiosity

Anyone who isn’t a little bit excited when Google launches a new AdWords feature just won’t like managing a PPC account for long. You have to be the right kind of nerdy, and really be motivated both to continually learn and to think internet marketing is neat. A PPC manager with this characteristic will be able to keep your account current and take full advantage of new features and on top of upcoming changes, so you can stay ahead of the curve instead of developing a competitive disadvantage.

I know there are a hundred more characteristics that help contribute to success in PPC managers, but the above are some of those which are less apparently obvious, but have been threads that have run through successful account managers in our experience. If you have others, please share!

source: http://www.ppchero.com/whos-hot-who-not-finding-a-great-ppc-team/

Paid search teams operate differently as inhouse (within a large corporation) and within a search marketing agency. Roles of members who are required in an inhouse PPC team are also slightly different to those of an agency. Paid search marketing challenges in 2008 are no less than those in the previous years, and being able to build a world class PPC team is one big step closer success.

Over the years, with the experience that I gained by working in and leading PPC teams under both circumstances (inhouse and agency), I believe when setting up an effective inhouse PPC team, the roles below must be included.

Head of PPC (Strategist)

The strategist is the leader of the PPC team, due to both his thorough overall knowledge in this field and his leadership ability. This role oversees the entire PPC operations and is responsible for the overall strategies. He/she must fully understand the corporate’s business model and is to incorporate paid search into the overall marketing strategies for the corporate.

The strategist has to be aware of the different PPC business models and should be able to manage multiple PPC projects for different client expectations.

PPC Campaign Manager / Specialist

A campaign manager works with all members of a PPC team and involves in the setup, optimization and maintenance of PPC accounts. He/she is responsible for monitoring account budgets and ensuring the correct daily/monthly spending.

Not only does a campaign manager operate with the paid search platforms, his/her possession of the “know-how” in optimization is essential. He/she should also be able to provide clients consultations and communicate with web developers and designers for creating landing pages.

Depending on their knowledge, a campaign manager may be more specialized than others in managing platforms other than Adwords. If this is the case with a team, he/she is assigned to manage for instance the Y!SM platform or the Adcenter platform. Some campaign managers are more specialized in managing and optimizing content-targeted campaigns than others.

Some campaign managers may have multiple language skills. In that case, he/she is able to provide assistance to other members of the team (keyword specialists or copywriters) when setting up non-English campaigns.

Copywriter

A copywriter is mainly responsible for creating and updating text ads for PPC campaigns. Professional copy writing can greatly improve the CTR and conversion rate of a paid search campaign. A copy is the key role to involve in ad text split testing, in which he/she is to work closely to campaign managers and keyword specialists.

Keyword Database Specialist

A large corporate’s website usually consists of over thousands of web pages of products. In some cases, a company has multiple websites and hundreds of brands. Maintaining the lists of product names with keywords becomes a full time job, as this is equivalent to building a keyword database.

Essentially, managing a keyword database is similar to managing a product database. The tricky part is that the relationship of keywords-to-products is many-to-one, and it makes maintaining the keyword lists being most updated a difficult task. To add to the complexity, the keyword specialist is to work closely with the campaign managers in providing them support in new keyword suggestions.

Data Analyst

Paid search is a numbers game. Receiving an accurate report about the performance metrics of your campaigns on a daily basis makes decision making of campaign optimization much easier.

Trend spotting is another task that belongs to a data analyst who should be able to identify unusual fluctuations of traffic and notify the campaign managers almost immediately. The campaign managers will use the data analyst’s input and assistance to pinpoint the possibly affected area, and apply actions to their campaigns.

Software Engineer

With a software engineer on board, his/her responsibilities should be to create applications / tools that will improve efficiency in campaign management. Building an inhouse performance tracking system with a fully integrated campaign management system is this role’s mandatory task. Enhancing the tools for spotting click fraud is also one of his/her tasks.

With the large search engines like Google and Yahoo providing API access, nothing is impossible anymore. Eventually, you may want the software engineer to build an auto bidding system so that your business can be more financially profitable. The involvement of campaign managers with the autobidding tool is necessary, as no matter how smart machines are, expertise and flexibilities of human are difficult to be replaced.

Graphic Designer / Video Producer

With the addition of Google’s other ad formats such as images and videos, some advertisers are setting aside marketing budgets for branding campaigns. Effective branding campaigns will require expertise in the design of videos and images. However, unless your corporation is moving big towards branding, you may want to employ graphic designers and video producers on non-permanent and contractual basis.

source: http://www.gordonchoi.com/setting-up-an-inhouse-ppc-team-20080808

It’s been over a year that I posted a basic proposal for an SEO Consultant. So, I’ve been thinking it’s about time for a post that outlines the basic criteria within a PPC Strategy document.

This post is meant to describe what elements go into creating a PPC Search Strategy document that can be woven into the overarching digital marketing plan. This document should provide further detail to the buys, as well as the strategic, creative, and optimization recommendations.

Background:
This paid search program is geared to support the overarching marketing efforts surrounding *your client*.

Objectives:
Primary:
- State what the business objectives are here. The measurement for success will be stated below.
Secondary
- Reaching and connecting with the targeted demographic audience to generate buzz & awareness.

Destinations:
http://www.clientsite.com

Recommended Search Engine(s):
Google – Paid Keywords across Google.com, Google Content Network, and Google’s syndicated network which includes: AOL, Ask, HotBot, Iwon, Lycos, and Netscape)
Yahoo - and their search distribution network: (AltaVista, and AllTheWeb)
MSN

Timing & Budgets:
$24,000 budget.
- Pre-Launch:
Brief and pre-plan: Complete (1 week).
Approval, copy development and placement: Complete (1 week ).
QA and live: (1 week)
- Flight Dates (tentative):
October 22, 2007 – February 22, 2008

Keyword Strategy:
- Determine which keywords will pull in qualified traffic, how many searches do these terms/phrases receive, how should keywords & copy be used in combination to attract search traffic.
- Determine which keywords and campaigns are most popular and effective within their market segment.
- Keyword Bucketing – Terms separated into 4 (or as many as you feel is relevant) audience segment buckets:
1. Bucket Name #1
2. Bucket Name #2
3. Bucket Name #3
4. Bucket Name #4

- Bidding on Similar brand terms to capture the genre audience.
- Perform a thorough keyword analysis to identify under-priced keywords and keyword combinations.
- Utilize various keyword matching options; broad, exact, phrase, and negative.

- Keyword List: Initial keyword list will be adjusted (+/-) as performance data is accumulated

Creative Strategy:
- Tone of ad creative customized with keywords to appeal to the targeted audience demographic.
- Combination of Broad terms/Specific creative, and Exact terms/Specific creative.
- Deliver ads to a broad audience, and appeal to specific demographic.
- Bi-Weekly Ad copy optimization.

Copy:
- Two sets of copy for each of the keyword buckets will be utilized initially for this campaign.
- Test multiple versions (A/B Splits) of Ad copy per search engine.
- Optimize ads on a bi-weekly basis.

Targeting:
- Nationally targeting.

Demographic:
- Gender: Men/Women
- Age Groups: 18-55
- Geography: USA
- Ethnicity: Caucasion

Bid optimization:
- By tracking & optimizing keyword level performance metrics, we will be able to execute a high level of campaign efficiency in relation to campaign objectives.

Forecast:
- Initial Media Plan – (Option #1)
- Based on the approved initial digital media plan, we estimate 51,151 available clicks across 3 engines for the remainder of the year. The CPC for these terms varies which is reflective of more competition for these terms by other etailers. The terms would average $6,000/month and would drive over 12k monthly brand engagements.

- Expanded Opportunity – (Option #2)
- Expanded Opportunity: If *Client* can find additional funding, there is room to expand the brand/products “findability”. Using the same search engines and the same keywords, the opportunity is over 1,030,877 available clicks from Sept thru Dec. And, over 257K monthly brand engagements. Average CPC is lowered due to the overwhelming opportunity on Google.

Budget Recommendation: As seen from the options above, the opportunity exceeds the initial budget. In order to increase efficiencies, drive a more effective CPC, & generate a higher SOV, we recommend a minimum monthly spend of $10,000. ($40,000 Total Spend)

Success Metrics:
– perhaps create Primary & Secondary Success Metrics? –
– Ideally, only identify 1 or 2 success metrics. Below are some examples.–
1. Rank (1 – 3rd position sought for prominence and syndication benefit)
2. Efficient volume of qualified visitors to site (Manage to a Avg CPC Performance Metric ($0.45-$0.47 Avg CPC)
3. *Describe a specific ROAS objective, or a Conversion Rate*.
4. *Another metric for success*

Dependencies:
- Measurement requirements: Install tracking code on appropriate webpage(s) associated with paid search.

Next Steps:
- *Client* to authorize approval to begin Search Campaign.
- Install Tracking Code on appropriate webpages.
- Launch 11/1/07

Source: http://www.shimonsandler.com/example-of-a-ppc-strategy-document/

The SEO Consultant must start with understanding the clients’ business and marketing goals to develop the strategy and approach for a winning SEO campaign.

Ideally, the SEO Consultant should understand things like: Business Objectives, Marketing Strategies, Demographics of Target Audience, Media Mix & Flight Dates, Creative considerations, Messaging, Success Metrics, Dependencies, and Methods of Measurement.

Then, the SEO Consultant starts the process of leveraging the client’s strategic marketing and messaging information (industry segment, target market, value proposition or offer, etc.) for keyword selection and creative development.

Here is a summarized task list for the SEO Consultant.

1) Understanding Client’s Business Objectives & Strategic Marketing Plan
2) Comprehensive Website Analysis
3) Keyword Research and Analysis.
4) Baseline report
5) Competitive analysis for main keywords/keyword phrases in Search Engines.
6) Content Analysis & SEO Copywriting
7) Analysis of information architecture and linking structure.
Analysis of HTML and page layout.
9) HTML validation.
10) Recommendations for necessary modifications to essential page text elements for achieving satisfactory search engine placement.
11) Recommendations to optimize source code including the URL, filenames, page titles, descriptions, javascript, etc.
12) Search Engine Saturation / Link Popularity Analysis
13) Link Relevancy & Co-Citation Analysis
14) Internal & External Linking Strategy & Recommendation.
15) Ongoing Monthly monitoring, reporting and recommendations.
16) Continually optimize according to the client’s needs and business objectives

Below is an SEO Proposal that I’ve used in the past:

SEO Process, Deliverables, and Pricing

The following provides details on our 9-Step SEO process, along with pricing. Our 9-step SEO Process ensures that we provide a thorough and comprehensive analysis and recommendation.

Step 1: Identify initial webpages for SEO: We will identify and optimize the most important pages on your web property first.

Step 2: Identify the main and alternate keywords for each web page: Identifying the right keyword phrase that will drive results is critical for successful SEO. Our findings show that in many cases, a phrase is better than single word, especially in an online competitive situation.

Step 3: Interim Client Approval: Review the webpage’s and keywords with you to obtain agreement or make adjustments before beginning the actual SEO analysis and recommendations.

Step 4: Baseline Reporting: Generate a baseline report for the primary & secondary keywords. The baseline, as the name implies, gives us an indication of where your pages are ranked on the leading search engines, and will be used to measure results.

Step 5: Critical element analysis: We provide a deep analysis on the key elements that, when adjusted & optimized, leads to an overall successful SEO campaign.

Step 6: Recommendations: Leveraging the analysis performed in Step 5, we create a comprehensive document that addresses specific changes and additions for your site. In some cases we include sample copy and the exact HTML code, suitable for cut & paste by your programming team. Further, we will explain in detail each of these attributes and include industry standards. We will review this document with you in detail and address any questions.

Step 7: Programming: The actual implementation of our detailed recommendations. Once all the changes have been completed, we will run an audit to verify that the recommendation was implemented correctly and identify any changes, if needed.

Step 8: Submission to Search Engines & Web Directories: Although search channels regularly spider new & existing pages, we recommend submitting pages to the key channels. We will, as part of the recommendation, identify the key search channels where we should submit your webpage’s, and any fee associated with each. (Eg: Google Sitemaps, BOTW, etc.)

Step 9: Monitoring and Optimizing: SEO takes patience and continuous monitoring and optimizing to achieve success – more so in a highly competitive keyword segment. We will provide monthly reporting and optimization recommendations. The reporting is compared to the baseline (or previous month’s results) to identify trends and help guide additional adjustments.

Optional SEO services include:
1) Writing Press Releases that are optimized for Search.
2) SEO Copywriting Service

SEO Consultant Pricing:
We charge a fair fixed price per project. The price depends according to the complexity and industry competitiveness, so we charge a retainer fee starting at $2,000. A monthly budget cap can be instituted.

source: http://www.shimonsandler.com/seo-consultant-and-pricing/

An exasperated in-house SEO recently asked colleagues on Twitter how to respond after upper management had met with an agency that had offered suboptimal, but eagerly digested, SEO advice. How indeed. Sooner or later, most in-house SEOs will face a similar situation, and how you respond may impact the budget you have to work with, the size of your team, and even your continued employment.

I should start by noting that “agency” is all-encompassing term, and that companies of any size are increasingly being approached by a wide variety of vendors offering search marketing products and services. These may include link builders, content providers and tool developers, in addition to dedicated SEO agencies or marketing agencies with a search component.

Given that you have an in-house SEO program can these proffered products and services be dismissed out of hand as either unnecessary or redundant? Absolutely not. For any number of reasons – a lack of internal resources, perceived competitive advantage of adopting a new technology, cost savings – it may benefit an in-house SEO program to work with external vendors. And as the in-house expert, you have a responsibility to give any proposals due consideration.

For the competent SEO, fielding and responding to a vendor or agency pitch should not present significant problems. When that same pitch is made directly to your CEO, head of IT or other management stakeholder it can, however, present a significant challenge. On one hand, an interloper might cast unfounded doubt on the focus or effectiveness of your SEO efforts. On the other, an executive might be seduced by an illusory promise of search engine domination. Both can deplete your resources and hard-won credibility, and need to be dealt with deftly.

My robot thinks your SEO sucks

“Your title is 50% relevant. … Your SEO score is 70%.”

If there is any doubt where this unsolicited email is going, it is clarified by the next paragraph, which goes on to say that “if you can stomach more bad news about what your site needs” then their sales team would be delighted to talk with you.

As absurd as this may seem to the seasoned search professional, a missive like this can raise doubts about your competency in the mind of an executive with little SEO knowledge, as evidenced by the fact that this was forwarded to an SEO from his employer. You need to nip this in the bud. Explain, caustically, that this was an automated message generated on the basis of a script with no actual insight regarding your site’s structure, business goals or the or industry space it occupies, let alone any knowledge of search marketing efforts already underway.

If it was even produced as a result of a robotic assessment… I’m 50% certain that 70% of site owners receive this exact email.

The blind pitching the blind

That same uneducated executive may also be susceptible to pitches that rely upon an antiquated, inaccurate or flat-out wrong-headed understanding of SEO best practices. This is often the case with agencies that do not actually specialize in search marketing, but nonetheless cast themselves as SEO experts. This is as good an opportunity as any to embark on educating your CEO, as a rebuttal of suggested tactics is the prudent course.

No, the secret to our success is not six percent keyword density for a core term on every page. And yes, our link-building scheme is considerably more expensive than the proposed reciprocal link exchange that has been recommended, but it’s considerably more effective.

Magic bullet syndrome

There are many competent and enterprising search marketing agencies out there, and they well approach your boss with a very professional audit, itemized recommendations and a price tag. Perversely enough, the fact that an agency attaches a price tag to a proposal is often very attractive to marketing executives, even when that proposal mirrors the requirements that have already identified in-house. It creates the appearance that your search challenges are easy to solve: all I need to do is write a check.

Of course, just because this advice is coming from an outsider, it does not mean the solution being offered is going to be any easier to implement than it is in-house. Indeed it is likely to take longer, be more difficult to accomplish and be more expensive. It may well be that the excited executive is unaware that you are already addressing issues that the agency has identified, but that the process requires continuing perseverance, not the wave of a magic wand. Bring him or her up to speed, and be sure to enumerate any resource issues or lack of internal support that may be impeding your progress.

A nasty variation on this theme is the miraculous technology solution. Forget building links and content, quit spending precious time on keyword research: plug, play, and watch the search traffic pour in! I was not long ago approached by a vendor peddling a product that promised I would “never have to do on-page SEO again.” Perhaps smoke and mirrors to an SEO, but potentially tantalizing to a senior manager as a quick, cost-efficient fix. De-constructing the product in the context of a necessarily holistic SEO strategy usually a sufficient response.

The risks of a risk-free guarantee

Executives can get downright giddy when they have been offered a “risk-free” SEO guarantee. You don’t pay unless you see an increase in search traffic, or the vendor is paid in proportion to a site’s increased search traffic, either at a set rate or through revenue sharing (this is becoming increasingly popular from vendors of SEO tools and content optimization overlays.)

If you have a viable in-house SEO program that is actually rolling out optimization improvements on an ongoing basis, you should never allow an outside agency or vendor to be paid on the basis of improvements to organic search engine rankings or traffic. The reason, obviously, is that it is impossible to determine which efforts resulted in improved organic search metrics. In fact, if your in-house SEO work continues at pace, your outside SEO services provider could do nothing at all and still be rewarded under such an arrangement.

Again, this is not to say that you should not avail yourself of such services if you deem them useful and necessary, and if you have the budget to support them. This is not uncommonly the case where an SEO department is understaffed, but lacks either the funds or desire to add new hires. But pay by the hour, the link, a set contract price or some other basis that is independent of search-derived traffic.

With any luck your organization boasts a competent management team, with a good collective grasp of SEO and faith in your professional abilities. Do not be chagrined, however, if you must occasionally defend yourself in the light of vendors that cast doubts on the effectiveness or efficiency of your SEO program. The same expertise that has you guiding your company’s search marketing efforts is the key to weathering such storms.

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