#passion4digital

#passion4digital

Chapter 10. Paid Advertising – Search, Social and Affiliate Rimantas Gatautis Elena Vitkauskaitė Kaunas University of Technology Lithuania #passion4digital

10.0 Learning objectives Understand the range of paid search, social and affiliate advertising opportunities Plan and implement paid digital advertising across multiple profiles Evaluate and benchmark paid communications and affiliate advertising activities #passion4digital

10.1 Paid Advertising in Context Unlike organic SEO (discussed in Chapter 7), paid digital advertising offers instant results. Most platforms offering paid advertising solutions claim that they can set up and get ads running in no time. In order to save time and costs by avoiding the most common mistakes it is essential to understanding how advertising works on each platform. Running parallel paid and organic campaigns is potentially beneficial in order to obtain synergies for content reach to a level that individual channels could not achieve in isolation. #passion4digital

10.2 Understanding Paid Advertising Search advertising is an advert that is triggered by a search engine user when they type a related keyword phrase into a search box. #passion4digital

Common types of paid search ads Text ads Contain only words. Text ads can also be enabled across the display networks. Image ads Ads use static or interactive graphics. They allow advertisers to showcase their product or service in a visual way, and to reach customers on websites in display networks. Video ads Video ads that show online. These ads allows advertisers to deliver a rich and engaging experience to customers, and to reach customers on websites in display networks. #passion4digital

Common types of paid search ads Mobile phone ads These are text or image ads for mobile phone devices. Usually, they have a smaller limit of characters to fit screens of non-smartphones. They allow advertisers to connect with their customers onthe-go, targeting their ads based on customers’ locations and offering different actions such as calling a phone number. Ad extensions Ad extensions are not full ads on their own. They extend other types of ads with more information, such as links to the website (site links), store address (location extension), or phone number (call extension) and others. #passion4digital

How does paid search advertising work? The listing position of an ad in paid search results is decided through an auction that happens each time the ad is triggered by a keyword that has been selected by the advertiser. Quality Score in Google AdWords is an important a factor in determining outcomes of the auction. Quality Score is defined as “an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing page” Quality Score is measured in scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is low and 10 high. It is also shared with the advertiser as a feedback mechanism. #passion4digital

10.3 Differences of paid advertising on various search engines in Europe Search engine market share in Europe by leads to websites of organisations, Feb 2016 (source: StatCounter Global Stats) #passion4digital

Google The most popular search engine in all European countries, with over 90% market share of the search engine market in most countries. Advertising service: AdWords (https://AdWords.google.com) AdWords provides advertisers with access to place paid search ads on Google Search Network, and Google Display Network #passion4digital

Yahoo! Bing Network Serves over 5% of search queries in Europe. Advertising service: Bing Ads (http://advertise.bingads.microsoft.com) Bing Ads is similar to Google AdWords and even enables importing AdWords campaigns. The most significant differences compared to Google AdWords relate to different targeting options and a different approach to calculating the quality score. #passion4digital

Yandex Significantly important in several countries in Eastern Europe, most notably in the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Ukraine. Advertising service: Yandex Direct (https://direct.yandex.com/). Major differences from Google AdWords include: fewer opportunities to structure campaigns higher limits for number of characters in the ads different approach to auctions and bidding less sophisticated reporting of campaign effectiveness requires minimum order size to start campaign offers discounts for large scope campaigns. #passion4digital

Mail.ru Could be an option for advertisers targeting Belarus, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Moldova and Estonia. Advertising service: Target (https://target.mail.ru/). Significant differences from Google AdWords include: absence of text ads type ads are not related to keywords but placements requires minimum order size to start a campaign auctions depend on CTR and competition in same target market (in relation to targeting options) interface is only available in Russian offers advertising services directly #passion4digital

Seznam The second largest search engine in the Czech Republic. Advertising service: Sklik (https://www.sklik.cz/en/) The service is similar to Google AdWords and provides similar functionalities. Significant differences from Google AdWords include: functionalities are more limited interface is only available in Czech language company offers campaign management services directly #passion4digital

10.4 Planning and managing paid search advertising Organic SEO of the web page, and ideally the entire website, should be completed prior to commencing with with paid search advertising this will help in isolating the impact that paid search advertising makes on the website and will reduce the potentially negative impact of poor user experience. It is essential to allocate regular times for monitoring paid search advertising activities paid search advertising can very quickly use up a budget if not monitored closely #passion4digital

Structuring your ad account Reflect the structure of your website and particularly the products and services offered. Account: Domestic appliances shop Campaigns: Washing machines ; Refrigerators;Cookers Within each of the campaigns there are different ad groups: Ad groups Refrigerators: Top Freezer Refrigerators; Compact Fridges; French Door Fridges Each ad group combines related keywords and ads triggered by them: Monitor your campaign performance, revise and remove non performing ads, keywords or entire ad groups. #passion4digital

Keyword alignment strategy Overall organisational goals and business objectives can help in identifying specific ad groups The number of keywords that are used to trigger an ad from a particular ad group depends on the granularity of the products and services being targeted (from 5 up to 15 keywords is a good benchmark) Regular exclusion and deletion of keywords from ad groups can help to maintain good quality score. Using broad keyword match types would allows you to catch users typing new search queries. Exact or keyword match type would be more appropriate if you have a high volume and high value search term. To limit irrelevant traffic, choose negative keywords which, should a user type them into a search engine, should not trigger your ad. #passion4digital

Budget and bid management Budget for paid search advertising should be based on the profitability and the return in the investment calculations The management of daily budgets helps to control the overall spend understanding the buyer persona. It might be useful to have a balance in keyword portfolio, with both high and low ranking terms, as always having ad rank as 1 might be expensive because you might have to bid higher than every other advertiser the lower positions usually do not yield good click through rates, though cost cheaper #passion4digital

Ongoing testing and optimisation To optimise ad creatives It is important to incorporate your targeted keywords in the ad creatives Highlight your unique selling points Continuously run three or four variations of ads and learn what makes the better performing ads more appealing. To optimise destination or landing pages These pages have to be optimised for organic on page SEO for the related search term. Using data from Google Analytics, regularly review if the content of the page follows the AIDA model and offers the user what they were hoping for User experience testing can help to refine landing pages For campaign review and optimisation The review should take into account the performance in relation to other channels, relative performance to historic time period, competitor activity etc. These reviews can take place on a weekly or daily basis, especially at critical points of a campaign #passion4digital

10.5 Paid social media marketing introduction It is not enough anymore for organisations to rely on free organic engagement methods on social media as organic content published by organisations on social media competes with ever increasing numbers of contributions from other organisations and other users. Social media platforms begin to apply filters to the content, to display only that which is supposedly most relevant to users of those platforms. This reduces times content to be displayed to the followers of the organisation. Therefore, paid social media advertising has gained increasing relevance, though organic engagement methods do not lose any of their importance. Paid social media marketing is used mostly to promote the organic content. However, it is even more beneficial for organisations seeking to reach new potential customers from wider audiences. Social media platforms provide more possibilities for advertisers to integrate their ads into the content of social communications between users and brands, as well as between users. #passion4digital

10.6 Advertising on most popular social media platforms in Europe Social media market share in Europe in Feb 2016, by leads to websites of organisations (source: StatCounter Global Stats) #passion4digital

Facebook Social networking platform most popular worldwide. In the setup stage of an advertising campaign Facebook leads advertisers through a pathway to create the campaign based on its objectives. In the next step Facebook would take the advertiser to their choice of location for placing the ads Desktop Feed Combined Feed Mobile Feed CPM 2.13 2.57 2.81 CPC 0.31 0.14 0.17 CTR 0.68% 1.86% 1.65% Advertisers can target their audience based on variety of demographic characteristics, as well as interests and behaviours A pet hotel company could target the ad to people interested in birds and intending to travel soon The advantages for SMEs include opportunities to increase brand awareness and reach of the message, foot traffic to physical premises or web traffic to the website Organizations with the potential to produce a lot of imagery may benefit most from advertising on Facebook (i.e. photography services, e-commerce, travel agencies, and caterers) #passion4digital

Twitter Microblogging service, the second most effective social media site in referring leads in Europe There are three types of Twitter paid Ads: Promoted Accounts Promoted Trends Promoted Tweets Ad campaigns can be categorized by objective which will impact expected campaign costs. Advertisers can target their audience based on common demographic characteristics as well as networks of targeted audience members The advantages for SMEs include: reaching a strong dedicated Twitter fan base who use it frequently, targeting mobile market in a not overly intrusive way and extensively customizable targeting functionalities. #passion4digital

LinkedIn Social networking service for building and maintaining a professional network. Important social media marketing channel for B2B communication despite low popularity with general public. There are three main types of LinkedIn paid Ads: Premium Display Ads Email Marketing via Sponsored InMail Direct Sponsored Updates Besides the opportunity to target ads based on common demographic characteristics, LinkedIn provides advertisers with larger options to target based on business and position-related features. #passion4digital

10.7 Affiliate marketing A commission based arrangement where referring sites receive a commission on sales or leads sent to merchants’ e-commerce sites. #passion4digital

Common types of affiliates Cashback/ Loyalty websites. Users receive money back on purchases made. Comparison websites enable users to compare products and prices online. Content websites. Websites of this type include blogs, where the content is written by a company or individual. Email providers. These publishers specialise in advertising to users via email. Voucher code/Discount websites. Publishers hosting money-off deals capitalise on consumers who increasingly seek vouchers and discounts before making certain types of purchases. Mobile publishers. There are a diverse range of mobile publishers. They all drive sales via a mobile app to an advertiser’s mobile-optimised site or app. #passion4digital

10.8 Benchmarking and monitoring paid advertising activities The simplest way to measure paid advertising activities is through the comparison of financial investment into these activities and the corresponding benefits in terms of completions of call to action. Paid advertising activities can have devastating results if left unattended, depending on a budget, therefore campaigns should be reviewed regularly – ideally on a daily basis for a smaller budget campaigns on an hourly basis if the campaign is new and involves high budgets Keep in mind that the last click is not always the one that generated the customer interest in your products or services, so wider awareness of metrics is useful to evaluate the branding and exposure generated by a channel. #passion4digital

Sample KPIs and monitoring tools Paid marketing type Key Performance Indicators Example Tools Paid search marketing Quality Score for individual keyword Click through rate Cost per click Conversion rate Conversions Impressions generated by the ad Native paid advertising management tools e.g. AdWords or Bing Ads KeywordSpy.com Wordstream.com Weatherfit Google Analytics Paid social media marketing Post reach of content Engagement with your ad Cost per click Conversion rate Cost per lead / customer Native paid advertising management tools e.g. Facebook.com or Twitter.com Wordstream.com SocialFlow Google Analytics Affiliate marketing Leads generated Conversions specific to your call to action Conversion rate Cost per acquisition Revenue Return on ad spend Many affiliate network specific tools such as AffiliateWindow, LinkSare, Zanox #passion4digital Google Analytics

Sample paid advertising benchmarking tools Google Analytics - a free powerful tool for tracking paid activities related to a website. Using the free URL builder allows an extension of Google Analytics where each campaign can be specifically tracked. It integrates particularly well with AdWords. KeywordSpy - offers an overview of the average cost being paid for a keyword by some of competitors targeting the same market. Wordstream - brings all your paid advertising accounts from AdWords, Bing and Facebook into one place and offers paid advertising grading reports and landing page grading as well advise on how to optimise your efforts. SocialFlow - allows for managing and reporting on multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter campaigns. Weatherfit - a weather based AdWords management software that helps online retailers to link their weather related paid search ads and automatically control campaigns based on the weather conditions and its location. #passion4digital

10.9 Summary This chapter outlined the different paid advertising opportunities by focusing on Search Engines, Social Media and Affiliate advertising. By reaching out through paid channels a brand can increase its presence and its opportunities to remind the buyer persona of its products and services. Although paid advertising is fast to set up when compared to organic optimisation of content, it has the obvious drawback of relying on financial resources to achieve presence. The affiliate payment model is much more flexible and acceptable to those who are able to sell in volume and essentially pay a referral commission. However there is a need for a product or services that would be acceptable by the affiliate network and compared to paid search marketing the set up process is longer. Experimenting with the most relevant options, carefully monitoring the impact of your paid digital advertising efforts, then adjusting them accordingly is the best way to discover the models which will reap the most rewarding results for your business. #passion4digital