8 Experiments to Restore Your Faith in PPC Ad Testing. Let’s face it. When it comes to PPC ad testing, only a few of us are actually testing as often as we should be. One of the main “excuses” advertisers give is that they don’t gain enough lift from testing to justify the resources that went into running the experiments. It's time to lift your testing spirits and restore your faith by sharing some PPC ad copy experiments that yielded great results for their advertisers. Not only will you feel good about testing after seeing them, but you’ll also walk away with some best practices you can apply to your own ads.
Ready to feel good? Here we go. 189 Percent Increase in CTR Main takeaways: Breaking up one sentence on two lines negatively affects readability and flow.Generic ad copy like “celebrate in style” is a waste of characters. 197 Percent Increase in CTR Appealing to the searcher’s psychology.Understanding which stage of the buying cycle your searchers are in.Putting yourself in their shoes. 259 Percent Increase in CTR Volume. What Is a Good Click-Through Rate for PPC? Lisa Raehsler | December 26, 2012 | 33 Comments inShare126 Why do people care so much about click-through rates? A commonly asked question in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is "what is a good click-through rate (CTR)? " There is no easy answer and it can vary greatly depending on channel, targeting, keywords, and more.
First, the basics of the CTR: Defined: The number of clicks received divided by the number of impressions generated. Channel differentials: Search and display channel results are very different. Why do people care so much about CTRs? Several factors can impact CTR on an ad, which is why there is no definitive answer to the question. Audiences and targetingB2B or B2CBrand or non-brandedA keyword's place in the search funnelAd copy's creative messaging - CTAType of offerDisplay URLImages/designIndustry competitiveness There are some observed trends in the industry based on PPC managers' experience and the channel's own data. Facebook: Facebook offers two different types of CTR. Adoption of Facebook's Social Ads Grows Fourfold. Advertisers are warming to Facebook's new social ad formats: Over the past 12 months, the proportion of Facebook ad budgets allocated to "social ads" has increased fourfold, from 5% in March 2011, to 23% in March 2012, according to a report from Marin Software.
Moreover, social ads are expected to account for 50% of Facebook ad budgets, on average, by the end of 2012, the study reports. Below, other findings from Marin Software. Unlike Marketplace Ads, which operate similarly to traditional display ad units, Facebook's new social ads (such as Sponsored Stories) incorporate word-of-mouth recommendations, bringing a social context to traditional ads. Some key findings: Cost-per-click (CPC) rates of social ads are rising: Over the previous 12 months, the CPC of social ads increased 86%, whereas CPC for Marketplace ads fell 15% over the same period.
Google+ Enhanced Ads Are Up to 10% More Effective, Says Google. As Facebook has proved, the social graph can be a valuable marketing tool. Google's new social network, it seems, is no exception — the company says ads incorporating Google+ social data have seen an uptick in engagement. Google Vice President for Engineering Vic Gundotra told the New York Times Tuesday that advertisements on Google sites with "social annotations," such as thumbnails that indicates someone you're connected to once clicked a +1 button on an ad, have experienced a 5% to 10% increase in click-through rates. 'We have been in this business for a long time," Gundotra said, "and there are very few things that give you a 5 to 10 percent increase on ad engagement.”
This sort of social recommendation is a proven boon to online advertising. Ads that told users their friends had liked or interacted with a brand page saw a 55% rise in ad recall. Gundotra pointed out to the Times one advantage Google has over Facebook in the social advertising arena. PPC Searcher Needs and Behavior: Reading Between the Lines. Lisa Raehsler | February 7, 2012 | 0 Comments inShare9 There are hidden gems in each PPC account.
The majority of our PPC world centers on the use of keywords to reach our prospects. Typically, advertisers will select keywords based on what they think is important, or simply keywords that describe the product or service offering. Searcher queries and behavior can reveal their mindset. PPC query reports are a great starting place to unearth this data. In the example below, we see that "metal paint" is triggering ads quite a bit, but has a lower CTR than other close options like "metallic paint. " We also see that half of the keywords are related to environmentally safe paint. Placements on the Google Display Network offer another great area to gain insights into searcher behavior. While only two examples have been provided, you can see the opportunity exists within the current performance data to gather more insights than appear at first glance.
Why Targeted Ads Must Account for Changing Consumer Context. Tom Wentworth is chief marketing officer at Ektron Inc., a provider of web content management and marketing optimization solutions. Millions of parents have bought Hannah Montana albums online for their young daughters and nieces. Marketers seized the opportunity to launch ads for Hannah lunchboxes and accessories — which unfortunately appear on adult profiles. And guess what? The Bieber ads are next. For adults whose tastes trend more toward U2 and Smashing Pumpkins, ads that offer deals focused on teen idols miss the mark completely. Few adults are Bieber fans, and they’re likely uninterested in spoiling their preteens with Bieber gifts all year long. Still, one look at adults' social media profiles indicates that the users are inundated with ads for teen swag, simply because they've purchased the items for family members.
The key to any successful marketing program is personalization. On the other hand, there is value in identifying the precise moment a shopper assumes a new context.