When a keyword converts at a cost which exceeds the targeted CPA, when do you give up on the keyword, and when do you stick with it?  The primary consideration should be relevancy.

Don’t Give Up on Relevant Keywords

If you believe a keyword is highly relevant, then don’t give up on it by pausing it.  Instead, just keep decreasing its bid until you find the price at which it converts efficiently.

An example is “Tax Attorney.”  Such a keyword can cost between $25 to $50 per click.  If you’re a tax attorney bidding the term at $50 per click, and have a target of $500 per lead, then you’re going to have to convert it at a 10% rate to achieve your target.  If you’re converting the term at a rate of only 2%, then you either have to give up on the term or bid it lower.

What if you bid the term at $10 with a 2% conversion rate?  You’ll lose most of the relevant impressions, due to rank, meaning your ad won’t usually be displayed, but when it is displayed and converts, you’ll hit your target of $500 for the lead.  So, rather than pause relevant keywords, just drop the bids.

Improve Conversion Rates

Of course, if you can improve your conversion rates, then you can afford higher bids, which will lead to higher traffic.  So with the above example, when you drop your bids for a highly relevant term, resulting in double digit ad positions, you should be asking yourself, “why is this advertiser unable to compete for a highly relevant term in first page search results.”  Investigate competitor ads and websites, and make some recommendations for improving the conversion rates.

Give Up on Keywords with Tangential Traffic

Dropping bids for terms which have problems with tangential traffic won’t work–you’ll have to pause the term.

An example is the term “A/C pad”  which can refer to a pad for a broken collarbone; the A/C element of the keyword refers to the “acromioclavicular” bone.  Of course, since only people who have gone to med school can spell”acromioclavicular, the device is widely referred to by laymen as an A/C Pad.  Of course, if you own an air conditioner with a pad type filter, then you also use the term to buy a replacement part for it.  And if you search for the term, you’ll find air conditioner dominates the search results by a large margin, with the first entry relating to the medical version not ranking in the results until the second page, item 16.

Bottom line, if you’re selling acromioclavicular pads or some other such item plagued by tangential traffic, you’re not going to be able to compete for your shortest search phrases, your best bet is the longer more precise phrases.

Ad Position Targets Take a Backseat to Performance Targets!

The concept of targeting ad positions should be applied to performance classes.  Develop one (best) target for your best performing keywords (like those in a Star campaign) and worse targeted positions for other groups.  This is essentially what most bidding algorithms do.

Regardless, you must deviate from your position targets to accommodate your performance targets.

Average Ad Positions

If a keyword is highly relevant, rather general, and highly competitive, it may be tough to convert it efficiently.  Or maybe not . . . maybe the problem isn’t the keyword, just the bid.

A few weeks back I was speaking with our Google Rep about our aversion to targeting second page ad positions.  She said:

“Don’t think of it as targeting the second page; rather think of it as targeting below the fold first page positions when and where competition is low, like at night and outside metro areas.”

AHA!  I see the light.  So much for our aversion to second page positions.  RIP!  I’ve since lost my superstitious bias against second page bids!  So, my new favorite targeted position for relevant keywords which are under-performing is 13!  Now I’m not alarmed by double digit keywords.

Is an account being carefully maintained?  Let’s assess that on the basis of whether there exists a logical correlation between bids and conversions!

Any Relevant Keyword, for a Price

If a keyword is relevant, then there must some amount at which we are willing to bid for it.  This is akin, albeit converse, to the old adage, everything is for sale, for a price.  The concept is truly liberating.

Bottom line for most accounts:  just keep bidding lower on relevant keywords until they convert at the targeted CPA.

Today I read an ad for hire:

Responsibilities include: Computer tech work, general admin assistance, ability to lift up to 50lbs, running errands, etc.  Experience with AdWords, PPC and SEO also beneficial.

Why not add, tuning up the owner’s BMW and performing occassional Lasik Eye Surgery to the list of responsibilities?

We look at about half a dozen new PPC accounts per week.  No wonder two thirds of those look like they’ve been put together and managed by an office assistant in his free time.

Outsource PPC!

Do it yourself PPC doesn’t work well for small businesses because: a) companies can’t afford to hire a full-time genius just to manage PPC (so they delegate the job to any person with a pulse); and b) the owner himself is generally too busy, and so he ends up neglecting the account.

If you own a company and are sort of managing PPC yourself, you will appreciate and benefit from our daily PPC Management services.  We guarantee you improved economic results, and you will likely find that  Outsourcing PPC is cheaper than you think.  Our fees for small local businesses start at $350 per month.

Phone Hanna at 720 663 9595 for a PPC Management Quote.   Let her show you the ways we’ll improve your pay per click account.

Many Per Click versus One Per Click

Google Adwords — with the new interface, as well as in reports, you can now evaluate conversion results according to Many Per Click or One Per Click.  Over the past couple weeks, the issue of which metric is most important has come up repeatedly.  Here we define the terms and clarify the usefulness of the metrics.

Cookies & Conversions

If you click on an Adwords ad, as long as you don’t lose your cookies for their normal life of 30 days, then Google associates any conversion triggers to that initial event (clicking on the ad).  If you convert several times during a 30-day period, are the marginal conversions and the data about the marginal conversions valuable to the advertiser?  It depends . . .

Many Per Click for Online Stores

For an online store, there is generally marginal revenue associated with each additional conversion.  So, for most online stores, many per click is the most important metric.  For online stores, it makes sense to tune the account for the conversion metric,  many per click.  If someone makes a purchase, and then returns to the store and makes another purchase, that is important information.  Of course, the most important information for online stores, revenue per order, is not yet captured by Adwords.

One Per Click for Attorneys

Advertisers, like Attorneys, who harvest leads, not sales, generally don’t benefit from additional conversions per click.  Once an attorney harvests the lead information for a visitor, it’s unlikely that additional conversions associated with that click will result in additional revenue opportunities for the Advertiser.  Accordingly, for advertisers like attorneys who define conversions as leads via an online form, then the One Per Click conversion metric is most meaningful.

Reporting Standards

Previously, our reports included conversion data based on One Per Click.  Effectively immediately, we will begin displaying data in the summary section of our reports (first table in our reports) based on that metric which is most meaningful for each respective Advertiser.  If the one per click and many per click results are significantly different, then we will mention those stats in our discussion and analysis.

The reporting standard for each client as it relates to conversion metrics is explained and documented in each client’s respective Road Map.

For questions about Road Maps, Conversion Metrics, and Reports, please phone Hanna in Denver at 720 377 8431.

Millions of people check online maps each day to search for business listings by location.  Our experience shows that map searches for attorneys are often somewhat cheaper than the cost of standard text ads for Google keyword searches.

Adwords for Attorneys-Local Business Ads Cost Less

Based on a sample of attorney and lawyer Adwords accounts, Google Map searches (which serve local business ads) are 25% cheaper on a CPC basis than normal Adwords text ads, and are 18% cheaper on a cost per conversion basis.  In summary, on a dollar for dollar basis, on average, the Local business ads are outperforming the Google Search text ads.

Adwords for Lawyers-Local Business Ads are Lower Volume

Obviously, for lawyers and attorneys using Adwords the volume of map searches is much lower than for standard keyword searches serving Adwords text ads, but if you are an attorney using Adwords, and you are not complementing your regular text ads with Adwords local business ads, then you’re missing out on customers actively searching for you on Google Maps.

Our stats show that in terms of volume, the Google map ads account for only 5% of searches.  However, if you are currently buying only 10% of your available relevant “attorney” type keyword impressions, you may be able to significantly improve your ad costs by separating Local Business Ads into a separate campaign and allocating your budget across your campaigns so that you spend disproportionately more on local business ads than on your regular text ads.

Applying Local Business Ads for Attorneys

We have done this recently for an Advertiser and as a direct result of this change were able to reduce his cost per online lead by 6% in a single month, an improvement which has a lasting impact on the account, for as long as the Advertiser continues to target a fraction of available impressions.

For further explanation about adding your law firm to Google Maps and creating your online Local Business Ads, phone Hanna at 720 377 8431.

Related Attorney Adwords Posts:

See our Adwords Tips for Attorneys

See our Attorney Adwords Case Study

See our Sample PPC Report for Attorneys

See our Attorney Keyword Trends

See our Adwords Performance Guarantee

The following tips for managing Adwords apply specifically to Attorneys, Law Firms, and Lawyers.

Target your Adwords ads Precisely

Over half the ads in a typical attorney ad space are too general.  If someone is searching for Medical Malpractice, don’t display a general ad or a laundry list of services to someone searching for Medical Malpractice.  Make your ad text precise.

Our experience shows that general keywords like Lawyer or Memphis Attorney don’t convert efficiently.  Consumers ready to buy legal services generally use more precise search phrases.  Targeting more precise terms usually results in better results.   While attorneys generally cannot claim to specialize, it’s important to select areas of emphasis for advertising.  Following are some relatively more precise search phrases:

• Tax Attorneys
• Accident Attorneys
• Personal Injury Attorneys
• DUI Attorneys
• Business Attorney
• Medical Malpractice
• Hospital Malpractice
• Personal Injury Lawyer
• Probate & Trust Attorneys
• Divorce Attorney
• Internet Law
• EState Attorneys
• Wrongful Death

Further on that point, the way to make your ads correlate more precisely to search queries is simply to group them into more ad groups; place a fewer number of highly congruent keyword phrases in each ad group.

Run Broad Match keywords with Negatives

Don’t run Broad Match keywords without a comprehensive custom list of negative keyword phrases.  Generally campaigns for attorneys require minimum 200 negative keywords to effectively 

Let Prospects Determine Winning Ad Text

Don’t be too opinionated or close-minded about your ad text.  One thing about attorneys is they can generally write well.  However, that doesn’t mean they are better than the average Joe at determining what appeals most to the average Joe.  Let your prospects determine which ad text wins.  If you’ve properly structured your Adwords account, then it’s generating a ton of data.  Mine the data to determine best performing ads, and use that as a basis to continuously improve the ads so they appeal to your prospects.

Leverage Ads with Special Offers

Some of the most successful ads for Attorneys are those which offer something unique, like a free booklet about a specific type of claim, or a free video on something like Motorcycler’s Rights.  If you already have some marketing-related prnted material or video, consider using your internet advertising to leverage it.  In competitive geo-markets, a video can make you stand out from the crowd.

Don’t Buy Clicks in Bulk!

You know the old addage about half of your ad dollars being wasted–you just don’t know which half??  Well, that doesn’t apply to Adwords.  With Adwords, you have the ability over time to know precisely which ads, which keyword phrases, which hours of the day, which day of the week, which match types, which publications, which Do your homework, then just buy those clicks which convert–let your competitors buy the others.  Continuously improving an Adwords account involves number crunching and intelligent differentiation.  

If you’re not actively managing your account along these lines, then you should hire it out (to us).

Average Adwords Management Fee for Attorneys: $500

Our average management fee for managing Adwords for Personal Injury Attorneys, Tax Attorneys, Divorce Attorneys, and DUI Attorneys is about $500 and ranges from $350 to $750.  If you manage a Law Firm which is spending $6,000 or more per month in ad spending, then you’ll find that our fees will likely pay for themselves in ad dollar savings.

If you have already hired a firm to manage your Adwords and are paying more than $500 to manage your Adwords account, then you consider getting a Quick Quote from us; doing so involves no fee or further obligation.  Provide us access to your existing account for 24 hours and we’ll provide a list of improvements and a firm fee quote.  Our PPC Performance Guarantee applies to such accounts.

Lawyers choose Denver PPC because:

1. We squeeze more leads from fewer ad dollars–we guarantee it!
2. Our fees are competitive, and our terms are month to month.
3. We offer a PPC Performance Guarantee.
4. We are experienced in managing Adwords for attorneys.

Next Steps

Check out our Adwords Case Study for an Attorney, and our Sample PPC Report for an Attorney.

Use our online form to drop us a line, or quiz Hanna at 303 975 2810.

The first thing any new aspiring PPC Expert invariably does when assigned to a manage a new PPC account is to increase bids.  It’s the easiest thing to do, but for any mature and well managed PPC account, it is almost without exception the worst solution.  The results can be immediate and painful!

When to Increase & When to Decrease Bids

If a PPC account is Disengaged, then by definition, it has not been properly managed.  The solution is generally to increase bids, and most often at the ad group level.  For all other Economic Modes, the arbitrary increasing of bids will almost always denigrate the economic performance of a pay per click account.   Maximize performance of a PPC account by bidding for high positions for star performers, and minimizing bids for all other keywords.

When in Doubt . . .

It’s easy to say just bid high on star keywords.  However, the reality for any account is that there exist a lot of keywords about which we lack sufficient evidence to justify either promoting or pausing them.  Additionally, since we as a matter of policy continuously improve every PPC account, then many of elements of an account, at any one time, are undergoing improvements, the combined impact of which has not yet been determined.  Such improvements might include the addition of new negative keywords, breaking keywords into multiple ad groups, writing new ads and development of new or revised landing pages.  If we’re going to give the improvements a chance to take effect, then we can’t pause the underperformers in the mean time.  Until we have gathered sufficient statistics to evaluate the impact of such improvements, then a certain element of doubt may exist about the future performance of related keywords or ad groups.  So, in such cases, when in doubt, leave keywords set at their default ad group bids.  Whatever you do, don’t ratchet up ad group level bids, without having a good reason for doing so.

Fix Keyword Losers

If a keyword is highly relevant and has converted, but not efficiently, then fix it.  One fix may be dropping the targeted range and bids for that keyword.  At a lower bid / position, you’ll get fewer clicks, but at a cheaper cost per click.  This may also apply to complete Ad Groups.  If you purposely drop an ad group or keyword bid to achieve a position lower than your previously targeted range, then we would expect that decision to be clearly documented in the change history, as well as the definitions section of the Road Map. Changing the targeted positions is a reportable event.  Accordingly, this sort of decision would be included in a special or monthly report, never simply implemented as part of daily maintenance.  

If you find that the keyword / ad group still doesn’t convert efficiently, even at the lower position, and you’ve taken every other possible step to fix it, then you may finally label it a loser for life in the Road Map, and give up on it (pause it).

PPC Reviewers Beware!

If you’re a PPC Expert assigned as the reviewer / supervisor for a new PPC Analyst, then it’s your responsibility to monitor the average CPC for the account.  Ask the new PPC Analyst to show you average CPC by week for the account, for the past 6 months, and investigate any increase!!  Especially in the current economic environment, a well-managed account should have more of a chance of having a declining CPC, than an increasing CPC.

Review the Road Map for warning signs — look at the change history and ensure that every bid increase is carefully justified and explained.  If you find a lame comment like this in the change history of one of your Road Maps, then beware:

“Momen 15 Feb – Increased 143 keyword bids to achieve targeted positions.”

If you are a new PPC Analyst, ask yourself daily, “Am I increasing more bids than I’m decreasing?”  If the answer is yes, then you please re-read this article!

Questions:

For Pay per click, when should I increase bids?

For Pay per click, when should I decrease bids?

Which economic condition would generally require one to increase keyword or ad group level bids?

How can a reviewer of a PPC account quickly determine if a New SEM Pro is inflating bids?

Some Advertisers like bidding on their competitors’ names as keywords.  We don’t bid on them for search, because we’ve never been able to convert them efficiently.  But then, that’s for search; what about buying tangential keywords, like competitors’ names, for content advertising?

Try Bidding on Competitors’ Names for Content

Many consumers research vendors before buying, especially for high dollar purchases.  It’s not uncommon for a buyer to refer to review sites, blogs, and forums, as well as social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, to research a company.  Whether the information about your competitor is positiive or negative, we believe it often makes sense to show ads alongside such content.

Conclusion – Bidding on Competitor Names

We’ve yet to find an instance where it has been efficient for any Advertiser to bid on their competitors’ names as keywords.  However, for advertisers selling high dollar items, it may make sense to bid on competitor names for content, and we often recommend doing so.

Your Adwords CPC prices are set by auction.  What if the economy were slowing?  If 2 of 15 advertisers were to withdraw from your ad space, or slow their ads, then why shouldn’t the results of that be felt in your actual average CPC?  Maybe it can be.  When is the last time you tried DECREASING your Adwords bids?   

Bargain Hunting? Decrease your CPC Bids!

This is not a trivial point.  In our experience, ROAS almost always increases when we decrease bids / ad positions.  If you haven’t tried it lately, you should.

This doesn’t work for all accounts (certainly not for any account which is starved for traffic or disengaged!!!).  Advertisers with accounts in bargain hunting mode (accounts which are spending their daily budgets and displaying ads for a fraction of their potential impressions), can generally improve performance substantially by decreasing bids.

Marginal Advertisers – Below the Fold

If you are a marginal advertiser (struggling to make the economics of Adwords work for you) above the fold, try dropping to the bottom of the first page of the paid search results – a lower CPC will almost certainly improve your economic performance.

Run Bargain & Free Offers Below the Fold

If you are an Advertiser offering bargain basement prices or something free, then try decreasing your bids and dropping below the fold, because shoppers searching for a bargain don’t mind scrolling!

Step, Two, Three, Four

Just imagine if everyone in your ad space were to attempt to advertise below the fold and decresase bids in-step, together!  The bids in your ad space might go into free fall, especially for local advertisers.  If you like this idea, then just send the competitors in your ad space a link to this webpage!!  Maybe they’ll get the hint.

Good Luck.

Warn Investors!

Somebody should call Alan Eustace of Morgan Stanley and inform him of the development. I’m sure it’ll interest his investors since PPC revenues accounted for over $3 billion of the nearly $5 billion in revenues earned by Google in the fourth quarter of 2007.

PPC Revenues Double!!

Looking at Google’s quarter on quarter results, PPC revenues have doubled in just 5 quarters. Our revenues have also doubled even more recently (admittedly from a smaller base:), if that’s further evidence.

If PPC is going in the dumper, then this is certainly going to have a bigger effect on investors and consumers than the death of betamax.

Here’s Your Sign!!!

PPC Companies the Betamax of SEO??   That’s one of the lamest remarks of the year . . . so far.

Quality Scores should be monitored weekly at the keyword level.  Include a list of poor quality scores in each report and describe what you will do to remedy the scores (if anything).  Sometimes PPC Analysts struggle with finding recommendations for monthly reports.  However if you are performing your daily maintenance in a thorough manner, you’ll almost always find ways of improving the account by focusing on keyword quality scores.

How to Monitor Keyword Quality Scores

Presently, there is only one way to monitor keyword quality scores–that is to open every ad group, select show/hide, choose quality scores.  Then click on heading to sort worst to best, to identify any lower than “OK.”

How to Fix Poor Quality Scores

There is an entire blog post on Poor Quality Score Remedies.  Suffice it to say here, that: 1) not all keywords with poor scores should be repaired; and 2) remedies often involve landing page and / or site improvements.

Reporting Poor Quality Scores

Poor Keyword Quality Scores are a reportable matter.  Don’t permit these to hang out in the account; recommend remedies.

Kaizen PPC?  Repair the worst elements of your account month in and month out.  Focus ad spending on the best performing elements of your account, and your PPC advertising performance can continuously improve.