PPC Attempt 2
Reasons My Campaign Failed
- Adgroups not targeted to keywords
- No keyword conversion data
- CPC too high
- Qualiy score too low
Problem 1) Adgroups Not Targeted To Keywords
Right off the bat one of the biggest problems was the sheer number of keywords in my adgroup and their lack of focus. 150-200 keywords cannot all be targeted for an adgroup. I also used the KEYWORD command in almost every ad so I was getting quite a few clicks, but they weren’t converting because they were unrelated to the dating site offer.
Lesson 1) Selecting tons of unrelated keywords and using the keyword command is a recipe for disaster. Getting lots of non-targeted clicks with no conversions is a great way to lose money.
Solution 1) Take the top 10-15 keywords, based on Click Through Rate (CTR) and relevancy. Create an adgroup for each individual keyword and at least 2 ads to split test.
Problem 2) No keyword Conversion Data
After pausing the campaign and looking at my conversions I had one lump number: 6. I had 6 conversions, but which keywords converted? I don’t know because I didn’t set up Sub-IDs. What is a Sub-ID? A Sub-ID is a phrase added on to the end of your affiliate link that lets you know which keyword your target entered to find your offer. Example:
http://www.your-affiliate-link.com/AffID=123&SubID=Keyword
The syntax varies from offer to offer but that is the general format. Your affiliate manager can talk you through putting in your first Sub-ID. So now instead of our conversion screen looking like this:
http://www.you-affiliate-link.com/AffID=123 12 clicks, 2 conversions (Where AffID is just your individual affiliate code)
It looks like this:
http://www.your-affiliate-link.com/AffID=123&SubID=BlackCars 7 click, 0 conversions
http://www.your-affiliate-link.com/AffID=123&SubID=YellowCars 5 clicks, 2 conversions
Now isn’t that a lot more useful? Clearly we can see that people searching for Black Cars aren’t converting at all (conversion rate = 0/7 = 0%), and people searching for Yellow Cars are (conversion rate = 2/5 = 40%). You can include as much information in your Sub-ID as you’d like. Just remember to use - or _ to seperate words and not spaces. This should be obvious but it’s extremely important so to repeat: Use - or _ to separate words, not spaces in your Sub-IDs! For this campaign my Sub-ID will include which search engine was used (Y for Yahoo) and the keyword entered. Example:
http://www.my-dating-site-offer.com/AffID=123&SubID=Y-Free-Online-Dating
Currently I’m only working with Yahoo Search Marketing (tackle one search engine at a time) and it is a bear to implement Sub-IDs with yahoo. You have to put a custom destination URL for each and every keyword. Very tedious and time consuming.
Problem 3) Cost Per Click Too High
Avg CPC Avg Position CTR%
There were plenty of keywords I bid far too much on. Considering historical conversion averages of 5-8%, I was often putting in bids that would require a 30% conversion rate to break even. However, I want to overpay at first to get higher placement and thus a higher click through rate then bringing bids down over time. Why not just bid low right off the bat? Because you will end up lower in placement and get fewer clicks, a lower CTR, and thus a lower QS.
Problem 4) Quality Score Too Low
What is Yahoo’s quality score? In summary, the quality score is Yahoo’s way of weeding out crappy, non-converting ads. Your quality score directly affects the amount you bid and often makes the difference between a profitable campaign, and a loser. You want, you need, to get your quality score up to 5 bars. There are a lot of theories about how to increase your quality score for yahoo and I’ve come up with 4 things that supposedly increase your quality score.
- Click Through Rate
- Keyword in Ad Title
- Keyword in Short Description
- Keyword in the URL
- The Word “Free”
The CTR seems to affect the quality score quite a bit. Yahoo’s not stupid, if people aren’t clicking, they’re not making any money so they raise your minimum bids so high they’ll still make decent money when that rare soul clicks on your ad (You just won’t make any money). How do you increase your CTR? Make better, more relevant ads. The second quality score item is the keyword in the ad title. If you notice, when you put the exact keyword in your title, it gets bolded. I’m not sure if this only shows up in your ad management or if the actual ad in the search engine results is bolded as well. Anyway, for each individual adgroup and keyword I make sure to include the exact keyword in the title.
Third, keyword in the short description. Again you’ll notice if you put the exact keyword in your short description it will become bold. I make sure my exact keyword is in the short description as well. The keyword in the URL supposedly affects the quality score as well. However, I’m not about to register a separate domain for each keyword for a cheap dating offer so I’m not implementing this. An experiment for the future would be setting up subdomains that match each keyword on 1 main domain. Lastly, the word “Free” seems to be a real trigger word for search engines. Placing it in the ad might create a lower quality score or more intense developer scrutiny. So I’ve created a third ad in each adgroup/keyword that has the word “Free” in the title and short description. We’ll see how that affects the quality score and CTR.
Results Of Tweaking
Another crash and burn. Instead of increasing my quality score, in many instances, my quality score bottomed out at 1 bar. There was so little traffic going to these keywords that there were very few clicks and the CTR suffered. Back to the drawing board…
