how to create, test and optimize paid search ads

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Creating, Testing, and Optimizing Paid Search AdsDusty Haws, Creative Lead, Yahoo

SMX West

March 12, 2014

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Source: Yahoo! Internal Data

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• Long Ad Titles

• A/B Testing Controls for

Ads and Landing Pages

• Landing Page Relevance

Quality Score

• Optimizing Ads for Match

Type Delivery

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Long Ad Titles – What are they?A feature that automatically reformats your mainline ads to improve performance.

DASH ( – ) Description

If the first sentence of the ad

description ends with a period,

question or exclamation mark,

and fits on the title line (62

characters on Yahoo and Bing).

PIPE ( | ) Domain URL

If the first sentence of the ad

description copy does not fit,

the display URL will be

appended to the title instead.

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Why concentrate on the mainline?

Mainline currently wins 88% of all clicks (up from 77% last year).

Optimizing for Long Ad Titles can help increase overall CTR.

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Long Ad Titles – A Recent Example

The advertiser saw over 35% lift in CTR across brand and non-brand

ad groups serving in the mainline.

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How Many of Your Ads are in the ML?

Use the Ad

Performance

Report in the

Bing Ads UI to

see how many

of your ads are

serving in the

mainline.

Bing and Yahoo search - Other

19%

Bing and Yahoo

search -Top44%

Syndicated search partners - Other

9%

Syndicated search

partners -Top28%

Impressions

Utilize the Ad

Performance

report to modify

any existing ads.

Simply filter the

“Top vs Other”

column, sort by

impressions, and

edit.

Ad title Ad description Impressions Top vs Other

{KeyWord:Prom Dress Sale} Don't Wait to Be Asked! Buy Your Prom Dress Today! 367202Bing and Yahoo

Search - Top

40% Off Prom GownsSave More on Your Prom Gowns When You Buy

From Us!333679

Bing and Yahoo Search - Top

Prom AccessoriesSave Money for Your Date! Order Prom Accessories

at Discount.200351

Bing and Yahoo Search - Top

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How to Write Ads for Long Ad TitlesUse the Ad Preview tool in the UI and Bing Ads Editor

If you are creating new ads on a bulk sheet, it’s a solid idea to keep the

first part of your ad within 35 characters (including punctuation).

Description limit is 71 characters with end punctuation.

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Long Ad Titles – Best Practices

• Include your best deals and offers, such as

Discounts, Promos, Holiday Specials, Free Shipping

& Returns, etc.

• Be sure your best offers are unique and competitive

with other ads.

• Create a sense of urgency with phrases like, “Hurry!

Limited Time Offer”, “Prices Just Dropped”, “Don’t

Wait – Limited Supplies”.

• Have fun…but like prom, follow the

guidelines!

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Match Type Delivery and Ads

In the ad above, the content is available on the site but the ad copy and

the landing page could be refined by adding the search query as a

keyword on Exact Match.

Phrase and Broad Match are important to capture more traffic and

conversions. But sometimes your ad may need tweaking to improve

relevancy.

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Converting Match Types for AdsIt’s important to note that on Broad/Phrase match, the same search query

can map to several different keywords in your account; thus creating a

variety of different ads and landing pages.

When the client added “skechers sandals” as a keyword, they enjoyed

higher ad relevance, CTR, and rank.

Search Query Keywordskechers sandals skecher shoeskechers sandals sketchers saleskechers sandals sketchers shoeskechers sandals sketchers bootsskechers sandals skechers muleskechers sandals skechers sneaker

When adding Broad/Phrase queries as new Exact Match keywords, the

algo will rank Exact with a higher relevancy score. The typical outcome

will usually be more relevant ads with lower CPCs or higher positioning

with less to pay.

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Checking for Match Type Delivery

Running a Search Query report is the fastest way to check your account for

match type delivery and which search queries you will want to add as new

keywords.

Broad34%

Exact56%

Phrase10%

Clicks

Search query Keyword Delivered match type Impressions Clicks

kate spade outlet kate spade flip flops Broad 2034 450

osiris shoes buy osiris footwear Broad 1264 430

lilly pulitzer Lilly Pulitzer clothing Broad 5717 406

ugg boots clearance ugg Phrase 2836 313

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Great ads everywhere…which to choose?

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Ad Copy + Landing PageAttractive ad copy is a great way to win clicks and improve performance.

But where the user lands is just as important!

So we need to go beyond looking at CTR to measure

successful ads.

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A/B Testing and Landing Pages

The ad optimized for LAT plus the cleaner and more modern landing

page showed increased user engagement.

The advertiser saw over 90% YoY increase with conversions for two

keywords. CPC decreased approximately 25%.This travel advertiser tested high volume flight-related keywords with two

unique landing pages (existing LP vs newer modern LP) and ads on O&O

only, PC/Tablet, and even ad rotation.

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A/B Testing and Landing Pages

It’s important to find the right ad copy/landing page combination that

works best toward the overall user experience.

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Pop Quiz!

How many signals do you think are measured by

Bing Ads to gauge the quality of your ad?

Can you name all those signals for me,

please?

Approximately

600• Landing Page Text

• Ad Text

• Click-back rates

• User dwell time

Includes:

• Page load time

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Checking for Poor Landing Page Relevance

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

4,000,000

Exact Phrase Broad Exact Phrase Broad

1 2

Impressions

Poor No ProblemYou should expect to see more Broad/Phrase impressions with “Poor LPR”, but

if you see more “poor” Exact impressions then you’ll need to investigate these

first.

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Ad Testing – Where to Start?

• Filter your keyword report and develop an idea of why the ads and landing pages might

be underperforming.

Network

Distribution

Ad

Rotation

Device

Targeting

Keyword ImpressionsDelivered

match typeLanding page relevance Destination URL Conversions

7 10528 Exact 1 http://www.rms.com/redirect? 0

michael kors 7084 Exact 1 http://www.rms.com/redirect? 1

uggs 5208 Exact 1 http://www.rms.com/redirect? 2

Hugo Boss 2529 Exact 1 http://www.rms.com/redirect? 3

ugg australia 2177 Exact 1 http://www.rms.com/redirect? 1

ash 1991 Exact 1 http://www.rms.com/redirect? 0

• Concentrate on where you want to test your idea with new ads and landing pages, such

as poor LPR ad groups, or high spend/low conversion ad groups.

• Consider the options you have to keep your test focused, including:

Match

Type

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Thinking About LP and User Intent

How well your landing page is measured and scored can depend on

how well it may satisfy the user intent to end their search.

“london hotel”“spirit airlines”“hp”

Strongly SatisfiesWeakly Satisfies

Likely Satisfies

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And Finally…

• Every vertical and marketplace has its own challenges and sometimes has

more specific guidelines, such as pharma and adult.

• Know what is essential within your marketplace in order to know how to be

unique.

• The mainline is increasingly becoming more competitive because that is

where most of the clicks and conversions happen. The engines will continue

to experiment with new SERP layouts and features. Make sure your ads

take advantage of these features to increase your real estate.

• Don’t let your third-party management tools do all of the work. There are

always opportunities that you can find to increase efficiencies and improve

your ads by utilizing the UI reporting.

• The goal of your ad is to not only to win clicks but to build trust with the user

for future conversions.

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Time’s Up!(thank you)