how to survive & thrive on the new serp
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Brave New SERPHow to Survive and Thrive
Amidst the ChangePresented by: Navah Hopkins
@[email protected]/in/navahhopkins
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A Little About Me
• Manage a portfolio of 140 clients across all industries and locations
• SEO’er who converted to SEM • I’m a cat-mom to two adorable Ocicats
@navahf
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How Cute Are They?
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Now, To The SERP!
@navahf
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It’s Been a Big Year For Change• Initial Right-Hand Side Change - February to March
• Being #1 Matters? - April to May
• Yellow to Green Ad Marker - June
• Expanded Text Ads - July
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The Initial Change – Right hand Side is Gone
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The SERP Went From This
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To This
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25% Gone
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Organic Sometimes Got the Shaft
50% Paid
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Sometimes Organic Reigned Supreme
90% Organic
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Pushing Paid To The Bottom
10% Paid
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Other Times, Google Answers The Question
60% Google Box
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Experts Started To Panic
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Clients Freaked!
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14.6% of Clicks Happened on Right-Hand Side Ads
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That Means That Means 85.4% Were Top 85.4% Were Top of Pageof Page
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Change Is Scary…But Not Always Bad
1000 Client Aggregate Data
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Rules of Engagement Change
Moz.com
Top of SERP now includes position #4…ad rules and bid rules change
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So How Do We So How Do We Win?Win?
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Problem: Problem: Budget Budget Runs Out Runs Out & & CustomerCustomers Left Outs Left Out
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Budget Allocation Issues: Some Ad Groups Get Fat While Others Starve
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Google Naturally Favors Older Campaigns/Ad Groups/Keywords
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High-Quality Prospects Miss Out On Ads.
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Solution: Determine & Bid On Power Hours
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Taking Two Hours Off Your Schedule Can Increase Clicks & CTR
Average taken from 100 client accounts
3.5%
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What Are Power Hours?Only Allow Power Hours In Your Kingdom
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Hunt High Click Through Rates
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Bask In The Glory of ConversionsBask In The Glory of Conversions
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Hide Your Budget In Low Average CPC’s
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Problem: Paid Placements Bellow The Fold
Not an ad to be seen
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Actually Not A problem – A Clue!
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Google Wants To Make $$$ Just As Much As You Do
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Queries With a Research Intent Will Favor Organic.
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Research Oriented
SERP 90% Organic
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Transactional Oriented
SERP 50% Paid
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Specific Transactional Oriented
SERP 80% Paid
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Solution: Audit Intent Of Keywords & Queries For PPC
What Wins For SEO Doesn’t Always Translate Well to PPC:
Question wordsDIY“Sample”/ “Example”
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Problem: It’s Expensive to Run Search Ads For All My Products
No one wants to read your text ad when they’re shopping for a specific product
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Solution: Shopping CPC’s Are Much Cheaper
Out of 3245 campaigns:
$0.91$0.91
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Shopping Ads Flourish On the New SERP
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Sometimes Shopping Has Only Top Paid Placement On SERP
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Shopping Ads Continue To Flourish On the New SERP
Credit: Andy Taylor/SearchEngineLand.com
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April Showers On Ad Extensions
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For A While Google Gave Everyone Extensions
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Sitelinks
Location & Call
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Then Google Got Feisty
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To This
Only Positon#1 Has All Extensions
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Position #1 Actually Mattered
VS.
#1
#3
#4
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Problem: Position #1 Can Be Expensive
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Positions #2-#4 Can Provide Bargain Profit
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Going For #1 on Mobile Has Benefits
Behold the Mighty Price Extension!
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Price Extension’s – The Hybrid Extension With Over 10% CTR
The aggregated data in this post is based on a sample of four WordStream client accounts with early beta access to Price Extensions who were advertising on the Google Search Network in May 2016.
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Problem: Which Extensions Will Show?
Notice anything missing?
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Location Extensions!
Location extensions always get added right?
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Locations Can Get In The Way Of A Sale…
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I Need A Plumber Now!
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Structured snippets can get the customers who may think they’re out of your service area, or keep the customers away who think you’re a good fit!
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Structured Snippets Save
The Day!
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Not A lot Of Businesses Doing This:
Opportunity!@navahf
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Solution: Audit Your Extensions!Too many cats, like extensions, can lead to broken dreams.
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Make sure you have exactly the right amount for: Sitelinks (4) Callouts (4) Structured Snippets (2) Call (1)Location (1)
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If the Extensions Isn’t Helping the Prospect Convert, Get Rid Of It!
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Don’t Be Lazy - Make Ad Group Specific Extensions!
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Summer Loving: Subtle But Important Changes in Color, Size, and Targeting
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Can You Spot The Ads?
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How About Now?
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Shopping and Content Boxes Make It Even Harder
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Average CTR Increases 15%!
*Based on 2,708 WordStream client accounts in all verticals who were advertising on both the Google Search Network and Search Partner networks between March 7 and June 9, 2016.
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Problem: Getting More Leads…Who Am I Kidding? This is Great!
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July/August: Expanded Text Ads
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So The Rules Changed Again…
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Relax Guys, This One is Pretty Magical
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The SERP Last Year
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Boom Goes the Expanded Text Ads!
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Problem: Ad Format We’ve Been Using For Years is Dead in 2017
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RIP 90 Characters of Hell
Headline One: Shop {KeyWord: Décor} For LessHeadline Two: Exclusive Deals, Up To 70% offNo Path: DKI makes path’s dangerousDescription: Daily Deals On {KeyWord: Décor} & More On Zulily. Styles Added Daily, Shop Now!
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Display URLs Evolving to Mimic Organic URLS
Paths make keyword stuffing super simple (example.com/awesomeness/winning)
Use lowercase keywords in the display url
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No Surprise: Old Ads Perform Worse
Data is based on a sample size of 11 accounts (WordStream clients) using Expanded Text Ads on the Google Search Network in June 2016.
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DKI Relevance Hurt Because Rest Of The Ad Fails
Ad Copy Halloween RelatedSite Links Halloween related
DKI Ad extensions have limited Halloween relevance
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Expanded Text Ads Won’t Save Bad Ad Copy
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Call To Action Takes Priority – Verbs Before Keywords!
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Callouts Might Make Sense As Copy. Revisit Concepts You Used To Save For Extensions!
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Test! Test! Test! Make Sure You Switch To Rotate Evenly While Testing.
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Let’s Recap: Navah’s Path To Profit!
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Step #1: Schedule Your Ads – Focus the Budget!
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Step #2: Audit Your Extensions – Prioritize Conversion Enhancers!
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Step #3: On Mobile, Go For #1
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Step #4: Prioritize Transactional SERPs
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Step #5: Write New Ads! You Have Till 2017 to A/B Test!
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When SEM & SEO Unite, Anything is Possible!
#SEOPuppySEMKitty
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