Are Google's AdWord Innovations Making In-House PPC Management a Thing of the Past?

Jan 29, 2010

How Google’s innovations are making PPC more effective – but also more time consuming.

By Brian Easter

Early AdWords pay per click (PPC) seems downright obsolete compared to the new interface-clad, multi-report processing, and advanced conversion tracking options of AdWords today. In the past, a good enough PPC campaign consisted of a strategic set of keywords, an understanding of the different match types, a few negative keywords, clean campaign and ad group structure, and basic geo-targeting. Today, using AdWords can be pretty intimidating. It has become both an art and a science that takes extensive time and knowledge to create successful campaigns.

In the past 12 months, Google AdWords seems to have undergone more renovations than it has in the prior decade. These updates have made it so firms must maintain a high level of specialization in PPC to maintain relevancy and understanding. Sporting a successful PPC campaign in-house is daunting due to the constant changes being made. Unless a firm is willing to dedicate substantial internal resources for PPC management, looking to an SEM agency may be the difference between campaign success or failure.

New Tools
A number of shiny new tools found their way into the AdWords mix over the past couple of years; arguably the most notable is the new and improved interface. Boasting an updated assortment of tabs and tools, the new AdWords interface barely resembles its old school predecessors. The new version requires a level of expertise and industry knowledge obtained only through AdWords familiarity and Google training to be fully utilized.

Other updates, such as the Opportunities Tab, are improvements that have excited many SEM professionals. Not only is this tab an entirely new concept, but it has proven to be a valuable asset to PPC campaign management. A holster to an arsenal of neat tools, the tab also serves as an automatic brainstorming gadget that suggests keywords and campaign budgets based on your current campaigns. The Opportunities tab resources give great insight into your campaigns, but without analyses by a trained eye, the data can easily be misinterpreted. Many opportunities to improve your campaign can be missed out on if you’re not looking at the right data.

Conversion tracking has also recently become a PPC focal point and AdWords has responded with its latest set of conversion metrics. The newly presented conversions-per-many tool tracks multiple conversions for each unique visitor. When deciphered by an AdWords professional, this metric is extremely informative, especially to ecommerce sites looking to evaluate of ROI goals. The metric gauges differently than the conventional “conversions per-one-click” but can easily be mistaken as either exactly the same information or entirely foreign and ignored completely. Let’s keep in mind each campaign will have unique key performance indicators (KPI’s), but excluding the metric when it could help your campaigns is a shame.

Employing a reputable PPC firm ensures that SEM specialists with experience and industry know-how will stay informed about new updates and effectively implement the new tools AdWords has to offer. Google gives us the tools, but we have to know how to use them effectively.

New Channels: TV, Content, and More
Who would’ve guessed that AdWords would eventually offer television ads? With the addition of image, video, mobile, YouTube, and television ads come the additional time and resources needed to proficiently manage the sheer number of ads per channel. Choosing the most effective ad channels for your campaigns can be overwhelming without proper training and familiarity with ad formatting. For example, mobile ads alone are able to target customers in a variety of different ways, including by cell company carrier, locations, and Internet capabilities. The trial and error process can be a big expense for your company, and no one wants to waste valued resources.

The new media advertisements are a great way to capture the attention of potential customers but can be a huge disappointment if mismanaged. Experienced PPC professionals can select the appropriate channel options for your campaign, which can notably increase ROI or branding goals.

KPI’s, Conversions, and Reporting
Adwords provides several tools that, if used properly, can optimize your PPC campaign to receive the highest number of conversions possible. The Website Optimizer tool allows for multiple landing pages with different content to be comparison tested, which helps to optimize your landing page strategy.

In the past, landing page testing consisted of a trial and error system of constantly revising landing pages for every ad until some conversion rate improvement reared its head. Website Optimizer completely changed landing page testing strategy and became an imperative tool to understand. Using the tool and interpreting feedback can potentially result in increased conversions, but again, if improperly supervised, could also be result in entirely useless information.

Companies lagging behind the AdWords learning curve often make the mistake of setting unrealistic and ineffective campaign goals. Tunnel vision focused solely on clicks or conversions is common, yet might not be the right performance indicators for a specific campaign. Working with a PPC firm helps you to determine relevant metrics and goals that fit your campaigns. For instance, in contrast to a branding campaign, a direct response campaign might focus on conversions, instead of impression goals. Relying on industry experience and your business goals, your PPC professional can help decide which KPI’s to consider.

Advances in reporting measures have allowed us to better understand the conversion process, such as tracking the when a potential conversion bounces. Unlike previous simple data tracking tools, new software permits a deep look into visitor trends and involves in depth interpretation of figures. You won’t see anyone forgetting to use supplementary analytics software, whether it be Google Analytics, Omniture, or another, to effectively manage PPC campaigns. The PPC novice may not realize the abundance of beneficial metrics, like tunnel visuals and process tracking, which offer additional insight into visitor trends and ROI. Setting up and understanding these advanced metrics requires experience and training that many, if not most, PPC beginners lack.

From its humble launch in early 2000, AdWords reporting capabilities have matured from a single report into an all inclusive look inside the workings of campaigns. Additions like multilevel reporting, exact column selections, and placement reports have created a valuable resource for extensive data reporting, but have also increased the difficulty in filtering which metrics are relevant to your goals. Focusing on irrelevant reporting metrics can skew your results and give the illusion of success or failure. For example, if an ecommerce site evaluating AdWords reports fails to include the conversions-per-many metric, valuable visitor information is overlooked. Failing to recognize truly inefficient results can be detrimental to any campaign.

Conclusion
The evolution of AdWords has been quite a journey, and one that still requires industry experts to fully immerse themselves in the world of AdWords in order to truly flourish. Pay per click advertising can be incredibly rewarding, but an abundance of details can be disregarded by the untrained eye. Now, more than ever, entrusting a reputable PPC advertising agency is essential for campaign success. John Seely Brown famously wrote, “The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there's gold in letting go of them”, and we couldn’t agree more.

Brian Easter is the CEO of NeboWeb

As CEO, Easter has led NeboWeb to explosive growth, attracting Fortune 500 clients and driving strategic partnerships, which have fueled NeboWeb’s expansion. He is well known in the interactive marketing industry and frequently speaks about capturing the power and potential of online marketing.

Contributors included:

• Kimm Lincoln, Director of Search Engine Marketing @ NeboWeb
• Chris Allison, SEO and Social Media Specialist @ NeboWeb
• Jennifer Vickery, Search Engine Marketing Specialist @ NeboWeb

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