SEM – The Benefits of Campaign Optimization

Optimizing your paid search Ad Copy can not only improve the performance of campaigns but it can also provide valuable research for your other marketing strategies.

It is widely accepted that search engine marketing is not ‘push’ advertising. However ‘creative’ a 25 character title and a 70 character description might be, it cannot ‘grab’ in the same way as a multi-colored press ad or billboard can.

This is not to say search engine marketers should not and do not experiment with creative messaging, but the purpose of doing so is not so much to ‘grab’. If used effectively, Ad copy optimization can not only help to improve campaign performance, but also provide valuable market and customer insight which can be fed into other marketing strategies.

The analysis outlined below is Adwords-centric for three reasons:

1. Google Adwords was the only platform which allowed rotation of more than one text ad against the same keyword (the imminent launch of Panama in the UK accommodate Ad copy rotation in the same way).
2. Google’s market share is so large that it allows you to build up statistical relevance much quicker than the other search engines.
3. Adwords and its accompanying editor allows for a speedy technical set-up which means multiple text ads can be uploaded in a matter of minutes.

This being said, it should not be assumed that better performing Ad copy on Google will translate across the other search engines. In the US, where market share is more even between Google and Yahoo!, studies have proven that better performing ad copy on one engine can be poorer performing on the other, and audiences between search engines can differ for certain vertical markets significantly.

There are some technical considerations that should be taken for effective Ad copy optimization implementation:

1. Track each text ad to conversion/s.
2. Text ads should be rotated to show ads more evenly, until enough data has been recorded for you to implement a rule based programme.
3. Consider which keyword to optimize ad copy against

• By including the price in the Ad copy, one consideration in the buying cycle has been brought to the searchers’ attention before they click. In other instances it is better not to pre-qualify traffic in this way as rules will change for different brands or markets.
• Searchers were more likely to convert when they felt they were being offered choice rather than forced into taking an action.
• Paid Search is potentially the only advertising medium that allows you to build up statistical relevance quickly and transparently enough for you to make informed decisions about your products. This can be achieved by running separate promotions in ad copy concurrently and seeing which one consumer respond to.
• Competitive analysis can be the key to effective Ad copy optimization.