Turning PPC Auction Insights Into Actionable Data - 2017 MnSearch Summit

Maddie Cary, Director at Point It | @MaddieMarketer

Many know where to find their account’s Google auction data, but not how to translate it and make decisions off of it. During this session, Maddie Cary, Director of Paid Search at Point It Digital Marketing, will demonstrate multiple ways to take complex, muddy auction data and turn it into clear, actionable graphs & visuals to help you quickly and easily identify what competitors are doing and what steps you can take to drive better PPC performance. In this session, you’ll learn:
How to quickly & easily identify historical competitor performance and trends in your account
How to understand competitors’ bidding impact when you have multiple competitors in auction
Which “spying tools” are worth the time to use to get competitor insights.

1. Turning PPC Auction Insights Into ACTIONABLE DATA Maddie Cary, Director of Paid Search | Point It Digital Marketing

2. Director of Paid Search at Point It Based in Seattle, WA US Search Award winner: Best PPC Agency Lead awesome + talented paid search dept Small to enterprise Across verticals Maddie! @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

3. Let’s walk through a scenario… @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

4. Jim gets an email from his boss Hi Jim! I did some searches for our keywords and saw quite a few competitors alongside our ads What does our competitive landscape look like in PPC? Are we missing opportunities? How has our performance been impacted by our competitors? @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

5. Jim’s reaction SO EASY I’ll just pull an Auction Insights Report from AdWords & send a screenshot DONE! @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

6. The boss’ reaction? Uh, Jim… WTF does this table tell me? @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

7. Oh, she doesn’t understand the metrics! Impression Share How often a competitor received an impression as a proportion of auctions in which you were in Overlap Rate How often a competitor received an impr when you did Position Above Rate How often a competitor was shown above you Top of Page Rate How often a competitor was shown at the top of page Outranking Share How often you outranked a competitor @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

8. Not quite Get it together, Jim I know what the metrics mean. I need your help to understand the TRENDS, OPPORTUNITIES, & STORY @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

9. Stop looking at competitor data like this @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

10. Or like this! @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

11. RAW AUCTION DATA VISUAL TRENDS ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

12. Jim knows what he has to do… I need to go Olivia Newton-John on this thang @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

13. LET’S GET VISUAL, VISUAL @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

14. How competitive are the auctions you’re in? PIVOT To get Avg Impr Share & Avg CPC per competitor =COUNTIF To count number of times competitor shows up in the auction over your given time period TOOLS & FORMULAS DATA NEEDED SEGMENTED BY TIME (Month, Quarter) AUCTION INSIGHTS REPORT CAMPAIGN REPORT @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

15. Capitalized on opportunity to grow impression share when fewer competitors in auction @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

16. Lower CPCs during quarter with fewer competitors + maintained lower costs when auction returned to 8 @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

17. CRUSHED IT @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

18. Which competitors are consistently in auction? LONGER TIME RANGE Last 30 – 90 Days AUCTION INSIGHTS REPORT SEGMENTED BY TIME (Days) =COUNTIF To count number of days competitors showed in auction over X total days =AVERAGEIF To get Avg Impr Share per competitor over X total days =IF(AND( Conditional logic to define your parameters for when data indicates competitor is a bigger threat @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch TOOLS & FORMULAS DATA NEEDED

19. FORMULAS Days In Auction =COUNTIF ( range , criteria ) Competitor Frequency = ( Days In Auction / Report Range) Report Range = 90 days @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

20. =IF(AND Comp Frequency > 50% AND Avg Imp Share > 25% IF TRUE = “Take Action” IF FALSE = “Monitor ” Conditional Formatting Conditional Logic Formula @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

21. LET ME HEAR THAT DATA TALK @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

22. Where are you most competitive (and not)? PIVOT To get Avg Impr Share & Avg Pos per campaign PULL BY CAMPAIGN then consolidated together AUCTION INSIGHTS REPORT @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch TOOLS & FORMULAS DATA NEEDED

23. Could be worth bid testing in campaigns with lower Avg Impr Share & higher Avg Positions @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

24. CAN’T HANDLE THIS PPC MUSCLE @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

25. Where are you missing opportunity? PIVOT To get Avg Impr Share trends by device & time SEGMENTED BY DEVICE & TIME AUCTION INSIGHTS REPORT @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch TOOLS & FORMULAS DATA NEEDED

26. Some of your competitors aren’t bidding on mobile, which may mean Impr Share opportunity for you! @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

27. AUCTION GOT NOTHIN’ ON ME @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

28. How can you go from REACTIVE to PROACTIVE? AUCTION INSIGHTS REPORT SEGMENTED BY TIME CAMPAIGN REPORT AUCTION INSIGHT SCRIPT 3 rd PARTY MONITORING TOOLS @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch TOOLS & FORMULAS DATA NEEDED

29. Copy/paste BrainLabs script into Google Sheet Pull segmented Campaign report Pull segmented Auction Insight report Generates competitor charts alongside your trending CPC data @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

30. LET’S GET THIS (3 rd ) PARTY STARTED @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

31. Research US + INTL markets PLA vs. Paid Search trends Domain vs. Domain Desktop vs. Mobile ad copy Great for SEO, too! 3 rd Party Tools NOTE: I was not paid by any of these tools @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

32. Google vs. Bing ad copy First & last seen dates of ads Ad URLs with tracking params 3 rd Party Tools NOTE: I was not paid by any of these tools @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

33. Color-coded ad change grids Highlighted top performing ads Keyword Venn diagrams Segments top competitors (paid & organic) 3 rd Party Tools NOTE: I was not paid by any of these tools @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

34. Don’t let your PPC competitors drive you crazy GO O.N.J ON THIS THANG! Use visual graphs, tables, & 3 rd party tools to IDENTIFY TRENDS FIND OPPORTUNITIES TELL THE STORY @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch

35. THANK YOU! TWITTER: @ MaddieMarketer FREE EXCEL TEMPLATE: bit.ly/lets-get-visual-visual Maddie! @ MaddieMarketer | @ point_it | # MNSearch