Search Marketing Bid Strategies
Search Marketing Bid Strategies are becoming increasingly important to the value of Search Marketing Campaigns, not only can they save you 60%-70% of your daily budget, they can easily increase your return on investment.
I'm often told by clients to make sure they are at the top of the sponsored listings and ahead of their competitors - don't argue, no buts, just get us there. But is this the best scenario?
Many will tell you yes, it's essential to beat your competitors and being in that first position gets a higher click through rate which means more customers to your site, reading your content and viewing your offering. Which means a better chance of getting conversion, right? That's all a pretty good reason to pay top $$, but is it the best option for your campaign?
Chances are that it's not, it's costing you excess spend, lowering your conversion rates and helping your competitors. Web users are getting more savvy, they know more often than not know the workings of sponsored listings and it's these savvy users you want to target with your campaigns.
It's all too easy for the lazy people at the start of the buying cycle to click that very top ad. Even more so if it's highlighted in blue :) Remember, people are price conscious just like you. They will click that juicy link at the top of the page, review that product and then go hunting for the cheaper product. So in that case, if you're number 1 - you have just been burnt.
So lets use a Position Bidding Strategy.
Get out of the bidding war at the top of the pile, escape the lazy searchers at the start of the buying cycle (lets face it, they just aren't ready to purchase today) and lets target a bid position of 4. While it might be pretty scary that your competitors are now getting 2.5 times the traffic you are, they are also getting 2.5 times the number of lazy searchers.
By dropping our search marketing bid position to number 4 we are effectively now getting 40% of the traffic while only paying 14% of the cost. That's a nice little saving, but what is even more important is that the users clicking our targeted ads are actually reading the ad text and selecting us from the page because of our ads content rather than a our position just being the most convenient.
That means our campaign is now much more highly targeted and gives us the chance to post a better return on investment or leads capture with a more optimal campaign. Of course this kind of a strategy certainly differs depending on your competitors actions and the nature of your products.
I'm often told by clients to make sure they are at the top of the sponsored listings and ahead of their competitors - don't argue, no buts, just get us there. But is this the best scenario?Many will tell you yes, it's essential to beat your competitors and being in that first position gets a higher click through rate which means more customers to your site, reading your content and viewing your offering. Which means a better chance of getting conversion, right? That's all a pretty good reason to pay top $$, but is it the best option for your campaign?
Chances are that it's not, it's costing you excess spend, lowering your conversion rates and helping your competitors. Web users are getting more savvy, they know more often than not know the workings of sponsored listings and it's these savvy users you want to target with your campaigns.
It's all too easy for the lazy people at the start of the buying cycle to click that very top ad. Even more so if it's highlighted in blue :) Remember, people are price conscious just like you. They will click that juicy link at the top of the page, review that product and then go hunting for the cheaper product. So in that case, if you're number 1 - you have just been burnt.
So lets use a Position Bidding Strategy.
Get out of the bidding war at the top of the pile, escape the lazy searchers at the start of the buying cycle (lets face it, they just aren't ready to purchase today) and lets target a bid position of 4. While it might be pretty scary that your competitors are now getting 2.5 times the traffic you are, they are also getting 2.5 times the number of lazy searchers.
By dropping our search marketing bid position to number 4 we are effectively now getting 40% of the traffic while only paying 14% of the cost. That's a nice little saving, but what is even more important is that the users clicking our targeted ads are actually reading the ad text and selecting us from the page because of our ads content rather than a our position just being the most convenient.
That means our campaign is now much more highly targeted and gives us the chance to post a better return on investment or leads capture with a more optimal campaign. Of course this kind of a strategy certainly differs depending on your competitors actions and the nature of your products.
Labels: Search-Marketing
posted by Aden Hepburn at
10:08 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting article - certainly a fresh way to look at AdWords.
Can you specify the highest position you want, or is it a bit of trial and error with your bid price to achieve the desired position?
Hey Cameron,
You sure can, Google gives you the options of max cost per click and bid preference - so you can elect to bid say $2.10 per click on your keywords and also select positions 4-5. (or 4-4, 1-7, 3-6 .etc)
This means Google will aim to place your ads in positions 4-5 with a max click cost of $2.10 which should never be reached unless your bidding for some crazily competitive word.
What i've been doing for a lot of clients is weighing up wether the need the commanding exposure of a top 1-2 position for branding and awearness, or if they would benefit more from double the clicks at half the cost?
Don't get me wrong, this strategy only works for some clients - either with small budgets or clients that rely on great conversion rates over exposure.
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