Google rolled out a major change that will affect every business. Chief finance officers should be the ones to take note sooner than later. *HINT: Anyone applying big data to the incrimental increase in CPC that will affect businesses globally would probably head on to become an investor in Google. If you continue PPC conversion rate optimization with a good handle on cost, as campaign managers & media planners do, you need to read this and take some actions on your customer accounts today.
How one small retailer will save $800K over the next 3 years:
We used to produce a retroactive report on the highest converting keywords and then set top converters on “automated bidding” with manual reductions for low converters, all within the same ad group. Those who ran automated bidding for a campaign, will now see that manual bidding can no longer be done in the same campaign. The effect of this? You’ll be paying as much for low converters as you’d do for successful converters unless you make major changes.
We calculated the potential impact of not taking action for a clothing retailer in Europe: They’d pay around $800K more over 3 years. Low converters are essentially used as “branding” keywords to attract people to our site rather than the competition, on low bids. High converters run on auto, so that no competitor can outbid us. When Google nudge brands into treating all keywords the same – they need to escape the nudge.
This piece of advice will override what I’ve taught agency teams in the latest Adwords course. It’s quite simple really:
- Pull out low converters and create a new ad group for them.
- Stick the ad group on manual. Feel free to retain high converters within an “auto bid” campaign.
In a world of bid data it is not the major changes that affect our bottom line. It is the small incrimental actions we take that provide compounded saves over a longer time period.