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Maximise Visibility & Minimise Waste: PPC Optimisation Beyond Human CapabilitiesStewart Robertson – Technical PPC Manager
Agenda
Granularity
Difficulties of scale
– Lots of products
– Staying up to date
Bidding at scale
– Low volume terms
– Comparison groups
– Smoothing
Summary
The benefits of a granular approach
Granular ad text
If you searched for ‘purple scarf’ which ad would YOU click?
Granular bidding
Which of these users is more valuable to you?
Granularity
Granularity means:
– More specific, better performing ad texts
– Bidding the correct amount for every possible keyword
– Higher ROI, less waste, better returns
The problems of scale
Example
A company specialising in Red Armani Fedora Hats could end up with ad groups such as these:
– Red Armani Fedora Hats
– Armani Fedora Hats
– Red Fedora Hats
– Red Fedoras
– Red Hats
– Fedoras
– Hats
– Headwear
We also might show ad text such as “Up to 25% off Red Fedora Hats” or “Armani Red Fedoras from £30”, etc.
The problem of scale
But what do we do if the company also sells:
– 10 colours?
– 10 brands?
– 5 sizes?
Plus a similar range of top hats?
… And caps too?
Very quickly the numbers get too big to deal with
How do we solve it?
More people or less granularity?
Equivalently:
– More operating costs or lower return?
How about a third option…
Tailored automation
Unique
Bespoke
Flexible
Creation
Updating
BiddingError checking
Integration
KeywordsAds Ad groupsCampaigns
PricesStockSalesPauses
Keyword-levelStructuredMathematical
Double checksManual & automated
Ad platform API
Process overview
Item Id Brand Product Classification Colour RRP PriceA0001 Armani Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £40.00 £30.00A0002 Nike Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £38.00 £10.00A0003 Haat Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £27.00 £27.00A0004 D&G Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £412.00 £299.00A0005 Prada Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £38.00 £30.00A0006 Kangol Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £29.99 £29.99A0007 Boss Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £99.00 £67.00A0008 Nike Headwear > Hats > Fedoras Red £18.00 £14.00
Process overview
Red Armani Fedora Hats
Armani Fedora Hats
Red Fedora Hats
Red Fedoras
Red Hats
Fedoras
Hats
Headwear
Extract fields from feed
•Convert into usable text-strings
•Manually build Synonyms
•Derive categories from taxonomy or classification
Plan targeting item types
•Combinations of fields
•Multipliers
Derive keyword & ad logic
•Synonyms
•Multipliers
•Templates
•Thresholds
Write automation
•Parse feed into targeting items
•Generate campaigns, keywords, ads, etc.
•Sync with Ad Platform
Process overview
Process overview – key points
Product level alone is not normally enough
– Cover higher level categories
It’s not enough to have business-specific templates
– we need business-specific logic
Setup needs a high level of human input
Ask the right questions!
Bidding at scale
The bidding problem
What is the conversion rate of a keyword with 1 conversion from 7 clicks?
Only 95% sure that the Conversion Rate is between 0.36% and 57.87%
The bidding problem
Determining the conversion rate on broad high-volume terms is easy
The problem occurs in low-volume long tailed terms
How can we get the most accurate measure of conversion rate?
– Look to other similar terms
– External data
Similar terms
Group keywords based on user intent:
“Red Armani Fedora”“Blue Armani Fedora”“Green Armani Fedora”
“Cheapest Armani Fedora”“Discount Armani Fedora”
“Armani Fedora”
“Armani Fedora Hat”
Comparison groups - Smoothing
Pool statistics from the comparison group
– But don’t ignore the keyword’s own stats:
Keyword 3%150 clicks
Group 1.5%10,000 clicks
2%
2.5%Keyword 3%300 clicks
Group 1.5%10,000 clicks
Comparison groups - Smoothing
So how do we incorporate external data? We believe our keyword out-performs the group by 50%
2.5%Keyword 3%300 clicks
Group 1.5%10,000 clicks
2.75%Keyword 3%
300 clicksAdjusted
Group Rate 2.25%
BidLabTM – How it works
Custom tree structure based on intention
All keywords will use the most relevant data
Very tightly-grouped in a natural fashion
Hats
Top Hats Fedoras
HeadBrand Based Colour
Based
Head Terms
BlueRedGreen
BidLabTM
Daily process
Download Statistics from API
Calculate Conversion
Rates
Perform Autobidding Calculations
Post New Bids to
Account via API
Summary
Summary
Maximising visibility from PPC campaigns depends on:
Granularity
Up-to-date, focussed, relevant ad copy
Full product & category coverage
Accurate bidding
Minimising waste means knowing how to automatically:
Add or update hundreds of new campaigns
Add or update hundreds of thousands of ad texts & keywords
Accurately manage bids on millions of low-volume keywords
Every single day!
Questions?
