At DigiMarketeer, we work with all types of businesses to help them take control of their digital marketing programs.
With Search Engine Marketing* many people find that the leap from reading the Google Help Center to actually making effective and efficient changes to their accounts is much greater than they would like to admit.
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| Marketing Meme: Confession Kid |
'It seems so straightforward in the Help Center, I'm sure I'm just doing it wrong.'
I have heard variations of this phrase so many times, and the truth is, yes - they are probably doing something wrong. But, there's no shame in that!
Like the software engineers who quietly provide the technical infrastructure that keeps our modern world running, successful digital marketers must take a step back and focus on the ever-evolving process of optimization, which almost always involves recognizing areas of opportunity (ie, things you could do better) and fixing them in order to increase knowledge and improve performance.
In our Demystifying SEM series, I am addressing questions from real businesses and the many onion-like layers of knowledge that constitute the response to such simple-seeming questions.
Here's a question I got from someone who was optimizing their account for a local theater:
I am following your advice to better organize our account and made a new campaign for Christmas Performances, and I am thinking of each ad group as a target audience or theme.
There will be some keywords that will apply to every theme such as (Christmas pops, Christmas performances, Christmas musical shows, etc..) should I have keywords repeat across multiple ad groups? Or is there a way to make them apply to a whole campaign?
Short Answer:
Definitely don't use the same keyword in multiple ad groups within the campaign!
Onion Answer:
Let's start with a definition of the term 'keyword' and save a lot of confusion:
Let's start with a definition of the term 'keyword' and save a lot of confusion:
Keywords are the words or phrases that you can add to your AdWords account to which the Google system will try to match a user's search query in realtime. You sell picnic baskets, you add 'picnic baskets' as a keyword in your AdWords account and when a user searches for 'picnic baskets' on Google, your ad has a chance to show. Whether it *will* show depends on a number of factors, some of which you can control (quality score, bid, relevancy) and some of which you can't (competitors, auction dynamics, how results are displayed, etc.).
Basically all of fundamental SEM strategy is centered around maximizing the factors that you can control in order to minimize the amount you have to spend in order to get the user that you want to your website or business.
A "keyword" in the context of Google is the whole search phrase. "Christmas Music Performance" is the keyword. "Christmas music performance for kids" is a different keyword. The individual words that make up the phrase, such as 'music' and 'performance' are only considered a "keyword" if they appear on their own.
Basically all of fundamental SEM strategy is centered around maximizing the factors that you can control in order to minimize the amount you have to spend in order to get the user that you want to your website or business.
A "keyword" in the context of Google is the whole search phrase. "Christmas Music Performance" is the keyword. "Christmas music performance for kids" is a different keyword. The individual words that make up the phrase, such as 'music' and 'performance' are only considered a "keyword" if they appear on their own.
Keywords can contain any number of words, 2-3 word "keywords" are usually the most effective. Once you hit the 3-word phrase-length you hit an inflection point and the longer they are the less likely people are to search for them (this differs slightly by language and country, and is changing with features like search-suggest and mobile usage but in general is still true).
But, as with everything in SEM, there is a complex "but" hidden in this simple rule;). Typically, different types of users search for different length terms. Let's use an example:
An advertiser is trying to compare "music" and "berkeley christmas music performances" as keywords-> which one should she use? According to the length rule, the shorter one is probably better, right?
"Music" will certainly get the most traffic, *But* a user who knows what she wants and is ready to buy it is more likely to search for something specific like "Berkeley Christmas music performances." Both keywords are "relevant" and both keywords serve a purpose. More people will search the first term, but that includes tons of users who are irrelevant if you are trying to sell them tickets to your show- you will get people who want to listen to music, download music, etc. Fewer people will search the longer term, but those few are certainly more likely to click and to buy if you use the right ad language and landing page. So, to simplify the onion layer: whatever length it takes for your keyword to be relevant to your business is the right length. Relevancy is more important than length, and knowing which users you are trying to reach will help you make your own judgment.
But, as with everything in SEM, there is a complex "but" hidden in this simple rule;). Typically, different types of users search for different length terms. Let's use an example:
An advertiser is trying to compare "music" and "berkeley christmas music performances" as keywords-> which one should she use? According to the length rule, the shorter one is probably better, right?
"Music" will certainly get the most traffic, *But* a user who knows what she wants and is ready to buy it is more likely to search for something specific like "Berkeley Christmas music performances." Both keywords are "relevant" and both keywords serve a purpose. More people will search the first term, but that includes tons of users who are irrelevant if you are trying to sell them tickets to your show- you will get people who want to listen to music, download music, etc. Fewer people will search the longer term, but those few are certainly more likely to click and to buy if you use the right ad language and landing page. So, to simplify the onion layer: whatever length it takes for your keyword to be relevant to your business is the right length. Relevancy is more important than length, and knowing which users you are trying to reach will help you make your own judgment.
Why duplicate keywords are bad:
Having the same keyword in multiple places is confusing. It makes it hard for you to manage your accounts, and a properly structured account should not need keyword duplicates (see the exception below). The google system will only show one variation of your ad per keyword, so you get no system benefit from plopping it all over the place. What you will get is unusable data and therefore constraints in your ability to properly optimize your account over time. The system will split the performance data so that some of the traffic for the keyword shows up in one place, and other traffic stats show up in another place. While this might not seem like a big deal, if you really care about optimizing your campaign, you basically can't do it in an informed way with this situation - plus, there's usually no reason to have duplicates!
Exception: The only exception to this would be if you were segmenting your campaigns to be duplicates for targeting or budget reasons:
1) You are targeting different locations in different campaigns in order to better manage your budgets. For example, if you wanted to pay more for users in San Francisco than in Berkeley, you can create duplicate campaigns and then set a higher budget for your San Francisco campaign. In this case, you'd likely have many of the same keywords but you should customize your ads for each place to make them more relevant.
2) You are using the same keyword in campaigns targeting different languages. For example, the word for 'poster' is used in english and spanish. If you wanted to target spanish speakers separately from english speakers in the US, you would create a spanish-language campaign targeting the US in addition to your English one. You would put the keyword 'poster' in both your english and spanish targeted campaigns. You could then pair the spanish keyword with a Spanish-language ad that would only show to US users who have Spanish set as their default language. This is an advanced example that only applies to people with multi-lingual advertising needs.
Because your campaigns will show to clearly defined different audiences in this example, these keywords are not technically "duplicates." Also note that different match-types are actually different keywords. Advanced post forthcoming on that topic, but basic/intermediate advertisers do not need to worry about this.
So, to return to the question that the advertiser asked - how do you choose keywords and structure them so that there are not duplicates?
Choosing and structuring (non-duplicate) keywords:
Basically, the game is to make each ad group unique, or else you don't need more ad groups. So, here is an example of some ad groups within the campaign:
Ad group: Christmas Performances
Keywords:
Christmas performance
Christmas show
Christmas shows
Christmas music performance
Christmas musical performance
Christmas musical show
Christmas musical shows
Ad group: Christmas Music for kids
Christmas music for kids
Children's Christmas music
Christmas music performance for kids
Christmas music shows for kids
Christmas music show for kids
Christmas music show for kids
Christmas music for children
Christmas music performance for children
Christmas music shows for children
Christmas music show for children
Ad group: Christmas Music Berkeley
Christmas music berkeley
Christmas performance Berkeley
Christmas performance Berkeley
Christmas show berkeley
Christmas shows berkeley
Christmas music performance berkeley
Christmas music shows berkeley
Christmas music show berkeley
Note that the campaign is targeted to the SF Bay Area - that geographical targeting is the single most important way for them to hone their budget on the users that matter.
With these keywords, the ads will also need to specify that the theater offers live performances, because not all users searching for "christmas music for kids" are looking for live performances in their neighborhood. That doesn't necessarily mean that the theater shouldn't run on that keyword, if a reasonable % of users would find their ad relevant, but in order to not pay for clicks from confused users, the advertiser needs to make their service very clear in the ad text so that users self-select before they click.
With these keywords, the ads will also need to specify that the theater offers live performances, because not all users searching for "christmas music for kids" are looking for live performances in their neighborhood. That doesn't necessarily mean that the theater shouldn't run on that keyword, if a reasonable % of users would find their ad relevant, but in order to not pay for clicks from confused users, the advertiser needs to make their service very clear in the ad text so that users self-select before they click.
Balancing the battle between ROI and CTR:
This situation is a good example of the balancing act that exists between ROI** and CTR***
because for ROI reasons, the advertiser doesn't want to pay for irrelevant or non-converting clicks, but the Google system rewards CTR and over time will punish advertisers who have a CTR that is too low. Therefore, before choosing a keyword and while writing ad text, all advertisers, no matter what the business, must put at the front of their strategy how to find the proper balance of ROI and CTR optimization - because they often are at odds and they both matter. More detail on dealing with this conflict in this post!
Hopefully, you now know more about:
because for ROI reasons, the advertiser doesn't want to pay for irrelevant or non-converting clicks, but the Google system rewards CTR and over time will punish advertisers who have a CTR that is too low. Therefore, before choosing a keyword and while writing ad text, all advertisers, no matter what the business, must put at the front of their strategy how to find the proper balance of ROI and CTR optimization - because they often are at odds and they both matter. More detail on dealing with this conflict in this post!
Hopefully, you now know more about:
- A clarified definition of a keyword -> it can have multiple words!
- Duplicate keywords are bad, with some advanced exceptions
- How to choose and structure non-duplicate keywords into relevant, unique ad groups
- Considerations about balancing your need to not pay for irrelevant clicks, and Google's reward for getting lots of clicks.
Stay tuned and subscribe for more posts on SEM and many other topics near and dear to the 2014 Digital Marketer's heart!
For help customized to your business needs, contact us at www.DigiMarketeer.com!
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*I am referring to paid search marketing with the major search engines, primarily Google. With very few exceptions, Search marketers should mainly focus on Google. Their market share and the quality of their users, tools and platform make it the highest value priority. Concepts around account structure, relevancy, quality score, bid dynamics etc. generally apply to Yahoo and Bing as well, with a few exceptions, but in general, it is a most efficient and effective use of your limited time to focus on Google. When I managed SEM at a large e-commerce company, despite millions of keywords on Yahoo and Bing, only a few hundred keywords drove any traffic, ROI was worse as well. If you start with Google and then want to expand, you can copy your Google accounts over to Bing (which absorbed the Yahoo platform years ago) for a good start there. Also, if you want to perform on "Ask.com" (I won't suggest that you do, since I've found the traffic to be generally worthless), they are a Google search partner - you can just check a button in the Google interface and your ads will appear on Ask.com.
**ROI: return on investment - how much revenue you are getting compared to the money you spend on clicks
***CTR: click-through-rate, the % of users who see your ads who click on them. One of the most important metrics for all search ad systems (and most other ad systems) to determine how relevant you are to users which thereby determines how much you have to pay for your ads to show (lower CTR ads cost more per click to show).
*I am referring to paid search marketing with the major search engines, primarily Google. With very few exceptions, Search marketers should mainly focus on Google. Their market share and the quality of their users, tools and platform make it the highest value priority. Concepts around account structure, relevancy, quality score, bid dynamics etc. generally apply to Yahoo and Bing as well, with a few exceptions, but in general, it is a most efficient and effective use of your limited time to focus on Google. When I managed SEM at a large e-commerce company, despite millions of keywords on Yahoo and Bing, only a few hundred keywords drove any traffic, ROI was worse as well. If you start with Google and then want to expand, you can copy your Google accounts over to Bing (which absorbed the Yahoo platform years ago) for a good start there. Also, if you want to perform on "Ask.com" (I won't suggest that you do, since I've found the traffic to be generally worthless), they are a Google search partner - you can just check a button in the Google interface and your ads will appear on Ask.com.
**ROI: return on investment - how much revenue you are getting compared to the money you spend on clicks
***CTR: click-through-rate, the % of users who see your ads who click on them. One of the most important metrics for all search ad systems (and most other ad systems) to determine how relevant you are to users which thereby determines how much you have to pay for your ads to show (lower CTR ads cost more per click to show).
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