how to audit your digital marketing agency

@marketingmojo | #mojowebinar | marketing-mojo.com

Presented by

Janet Driscoll Miller President and CEO

Tad MillerVice President, Accounts

HOW TO AUDITYOUR DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY

TODAY’S PRESENTERS

JANET DRISCOLL MILLERPresident and CEOMarketing Mojo

@janetdmiller + Janet Driscoll Miller

TAD MILLERVice President of AccountsMarketing Mojo

@jstatad + Tad Miller

ABOUT MARKETING MOJO

• Originally founded as Search Mojo

• Demand generation marketing firm founded in 2005

› Search engine optimization (SEO)

› Paid media management» Pay-per-click advertising management (PPC)

» Social media advertising

› Content marketing

› Marketing automation

› Analytics consulting

• Headquartered in Charlottesville, VA

› Office in Charleston, SC

• Featured in the Washington Post, B2B Magazine,

MarketingSherpa, Visibility Magazine and many blogs

• Speakers at SMX Advanced, MarketingProfs, PubCon and more

OUR CLIENTS

THE SEO BUYER’S CONUNDRUM

WHAT IS THE CONUNDRUM?

• SEO changes EVERY DAY• How can buyer’s stay on top of the

right questions to ask?

QUESTION 1: HOW DO YOU MEASURE RESULTS?

• Rankings aren’t always indicative of success

› Rankings are highly personalized,

geographically focused

• Ask yourself: What do YOU want SEO to do for your company?

• Are goals set up in Google Analytics?

QUESTION 2: HOW OFTEN DO YOU RECEIVE REPORTS?

• Should be monthly at minimum in most cases

• Need some sort of interval measurement

QUESTION 3:HOW MUCH SHOULD YOUR AGENCYBE DOING?

• Consulting

› Most likely to give advice

› Client expected to execute

• Full service

› Advice + execution

› Level of execution varies

QUESTION 4:WHAT IS THE LINK BUILDING STRATEGY?

• Tread lightly here!

• Check Google Webmaster Tools for “unnatural link” notifications

QUESTION 5:WHAT ABOUT RICH SNIPPETS AND SCHEMA?

• Authorship• Rich Snippets• Schema/Structured Markup

QUESTION 6: HAVE THEY DISCUSSED A MOBILE STRATEGY?

2011 2012 20130%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%

YouTube Percent of Traffic from Mobile

A FEW QUESTIONABLE SEO TACTICS…

• Content

› Duplicate content

• Linking

› Links in press releases

› Article marketing

WE INHERIT PPC MESSES

EVER BUY A FORECLOSED HOUSE?• Many times taking over a PPC Account from another agency or

in-house department is the equivalent of inheriting a trashed foreclosed house…You have to gut it and start over from scratch

SAME MISTAKES – DIFFERENT AGENCY

• We have taken over for massive well-known agencies and “my brother in-law Steve”

• We see the same lack of diligence, misguided strategy and ignorance displayed in almost all of them.

=Steve!

EVER HEARD OF CONVERSION TRACKING?

• Believe it or not we still inherit Accounts that never ever bothered to install some form of conversion tracking…for years

› Some never installed it correctly

• Oh yeah, ever heard of Analytics?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN “THERE’S NO REPORT” ?

• We have seen large and supposedly reputable agencies offer NOTHING in the way of reporting

• Yes, Really…

BROAD MATCH EXCLUSIVITY

• The biggest turnaround success stories we have for taking over PPC accounts are the ones where they previously only used broad match keywords

BROAD MATCH IS THE DEFAULT• Google tells advertisers to ‘just let them do the

heavy lifting’ with broad match technology• Problem is that it’s incredibly broad to the point of

frequently being irrelevant• It’s lazy. If you are paying an agency for just broad

matching you deserve better• Max out Exact Matches

› Higher CTR

› Lower CPC

› More Clicks for less money

CHECK FOR NEGATIVE KEYWORDS

You should see negatives and additions here

• This is easily the most neglected tactic in PPC and it’s one of the most important

TOO MANY ADS WATER DOWN CTR

• Best practice is to test 2 ad search ad copies per AdGroup (3 Maximum).

• We frequently take over Accounts that use anywhere from 7 to 10 active search ads in the same AdGroup

• This lowers CTR. Raises CPC and as a result lowers the number of clicks you can afford

MIXING SEARCH & DISPLAY IN THE SAME CAMPAIGN

• Search and Display don’t perform the same and shouldn’t be in the same campaign together

› Share the same budget but not performance

› Allows for more granularity and better performance

› Allows for better bidding by keyword on Display

BIGGER ISN’T BETTER FOR CAMPAIGNS

• It’s common for us to take over Accounts that just have 2 or 3 Giant Campaigns that should really be 5 or 6 smaller Campaigns

• Too many AdGroups with wide variation in performance

• Need to separate the great from the not-so-great so budget for the great can be maximized

• Need to separate Brand from Non-Brand

WHERE TO LOOK

TAKE A LOOK UNDER THE HOOD

• You just have to know where to look

YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN TROUBLE WHEN…

• If you go to the change history and find it blank. This Account is on “Set it & Forget it” mode

Activity Should Be Here…

THAT’S ONE BUSY ROBOT

• If the only change history in your account happens in tight clusters at the same time everyday at an incredibly fast ratio, chances are its an automated bid management system running things

• This isn’t bad in and of itself, but their needs to be a human being also looking after things occasionally

• Algorithmic formulas can work really well (the opposite is true as well), but they still need human judgment and occasional intervention

• Ask what role human account management plays

BIDS ARE UP! NEVER DOWN

• Check out the keyword bidding. Are bids only being increased?

• Not all keywords are created equal. Is bidding performance based?

• Agencies paid by percentage of media spend can be more interested in getting the budget spent than on improving account performance

DAILY SPEND MAKES A FURIOUS END OF THE MONTH COMEBACK

• Spend and performance always looks weak for the first 3 weeks

• Activity logs indicate much more aggressive attempts to spend it before the end of the month…but conversion performance in that last week doesn’t improve

• The pattern keeps repeating itself with no conversion improvements

HOW ABOUT SOME NEW KEYWORDS?

• When is the last time they added any keywords?

• They should regularly be adding new relevant keywords or new negative keywords

Look for these

EVER HEARD OF BUDGET ALLOCATION?

• Do all the campaigns have exactly the same budget?• Or are they budgeted by performance• Are the best performing campaigns under funded?• When is the last time budget allocations were changed?

85% of Conversions Come From This Campaign and it Needs More $

BID MANAGEMENT FROM ON HIGH

• Not all keywords are created equal

• Are your accounts only using AdGroup level bids?

• Are there any keyword level bids?

• AdGroup bidding is “Cruise Control” Bidding. It won’t max out performance

WHAT ARE YOU SPENDING MY MONEY

SPENDING MORE TO LOSE

• Go to the keywords tab and do this filter:

WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH THOSE LOSERS…

• Are Average Positions high for non-converting keywords?

› Do they ever decline?

• Do clicks on non-converting keywords keep increasing?

› Have they ever decreased?

SPENDING MORE TO KEEP LOSING

• Are your costs per click on non-converting keywords going up?

• Do they ever go down?

• Why pay more to keep failing?

IT WORKS IN REVERSE TOO

• Analyze performance on what converts with this filter

• Is the average position on converting keywords too low?

• Is CTR on converting keywords improving

WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE’RE OUT OF BUDGET?

• Is all the budget being spent before 3:00 AM?

• What hours of the day convert best?• Check out the Dimensions Tab• Should your budget be saved for when it

converts?

WHY AM I ADVERTISING ON CELEBITCHY.COM ?

• If you advertise on the Display Network you need to watch it and exclude placements that don’t convert or have questionable content

• Check out what placements you are spending budget on here:

ARE YOU STAYING OUT OF BAD NEIGHBORHOODS?

• Check to see if category and placement exclusions are being used

E-COMMERCE SHOULD MAKE $

• First question: Are you making more money than you are spending?

• Is your agency measuring ROI?

PRODUCTS FIRST. CATEGORIES SECOND.

• Emphasis first on product specific ads and Product Listing Ads (PLAs)

• Secondary emphasis on non-branded category keywords

HERE’S WHERE YOU CAN PUT YOUR “AWARENESS”

• Do your agencies reports emphasize concrete results like conversions, sales, leads, etc.

• Or is the emphasis on Impressions, “Awareness”, “Engagement” or “Building a Brand” ?

VANILLA IS OK…BUT

• There are so many great new features to use now.

› What are they doing with mobile,

tablets, geographies, age, gender,

history visiting your site, etc.

• You shouldn’t have to ask why not

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Jenny DeGraffDesign Optimization ManagerMarketing Mojo

The Secrets of Landing Page Success: Optimization Best Practices and Case StudiesMarch 13, 20142:00 p.m. ET

REGISTER TODAY ATwww.marketing-mojo.com/LPSuccess

CONTACT

JANET DRISCOLL MILLERPresident and CEOMarketing Mojo

@janetdmiller + Janet Driscoll Miller

TAD MILLERVice President of AccountsMarketing Mojo

@jstatad + Tad Miller

LOOKING FOR HELP?Contact Marketing Mojo

Sean McCusty800-939-5938 ext. 116

smccusty@marketing-mojo.com

MARKETING MOJOTwitter: @MarketingMojo

Facebook: facebook.com/MarketingMojoAgencyGoogle+: +Marketing Mojo

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