What Happens When You Remove Paid Search Efforts

Posted onMay 17th, 2012 byadmin

Even if your website ranks #1 organically, paid search is an important part of your marketing plan.

Last year Google released the Search Ads Pause research study that looked at the correlation between paid and organic search results. Google concluded that if you were to remove your paid ads you would see an 89% drop in clicks. Scrutinizers immediately started asking questions. What happens if your brand is the top organic result for the keyword? Surely the results would be different than if your organic result was on the second page.

Our sales team here at Keyword Search Pros has been telling advertisers for years that they can’t pull their paid ads when they get higher organic rankings. In the quest to save some cash, companies come up with this strategy and feel it’s a revelation. Finally there is a study to go along with the argument.

“When we released the first paper, we had a lot of questions coming back, asking for more details-under what situations can you expect different numbers.” said David Chan, Google’s lead researcher for this study.

Chan went back out and furthered his research and released a new study on the interaction of organic results and paid search ads. After looking at the new study results, the 89% number makes a little more sense since paid search ads appear without an accompanying organic search result on the page 81% of the time, on average. A paid ad is accompanied by a top ranking organic result only 9% of the time, accompanied by a 2 to 4 ranking organic result 5% of the time, and accompanied by a lower ranking, 5 or lower, around 4% of the time.

The reality is that if sponsored ads are accompanied by organic ads 9% of the time, then out 100 keywords being bid on in Adwords, only 9 of them would have an organic result on the first page. So you can achieve higher (than organic position #1) exposure on (81%) more keywords than you could rank for organically. Now that’s easy exposure.

The study goes on to explain that even when advertisers have an organic ranking in the # 1 spot, 50% of clicks they get on ads are not replaced by clicks on organic search results when the ads don’t appear. “It is a very surprising result, and, I think in someways, it runs counter to what people would think but the data speaks for itself,” said Chan.

The Big Picture: Those who ponder an “either/or” philosophy when it comes to PPC vs. SEO will have to learn the hard way. All stats aside, if an advertiser does paid search, he will develop a certain level of return. Improving organic exposure will only serve to increase the return level from that previous benchmark. He then will be accustom to this new level of return. If he stops running the paid search campaigns, he will immediately see the drop in sales and scatter to get the return levels back to where they were.

Here at Keyword Search Pros, we advise clients to evaluate what’s working and not working. If paid search represents a positive return, then do it. If organic results drive visitors and returns, then do that too. We have to let go of the “either/or” and replace it with “and/both” when they both drive results. Advertisers who focus on cutting cost from things that work are really focused on cutting sales.

Check out Google’s Impact of Organic Rank on Ad Click Incrementality for some great visuals to help better understand the study.

Is Your AdWords Account a Hidden Horror?

Posted onApril 28th, 2011 byadmin

Have you ever watched a horror movie and seen a character do something so counter-intuitive it makes your brain explode? The victim walks into a dark basement without a flashlight knowing the killer is in the house. You’re already thinking, “Turn around! Don’t go down there!” But it’s no use, it’s too late. The victim’s fate has been written.

An unmanaged AdWords account is a lot like a B-rated horror flick and every day thousands of business owners walk into their own dark basement. Without a flashlight they are subjecting themselves to the hidden horrors that lurk in the dark. These business owners are allowing themselves to get slaughtered, financially speaking, by setting up Pay Per Click campaigns without understanding Google’s rules.

Pay Per Click is a thousand tiny knives slicing open the throat of your business. A click is a click and they add up fast. This is especially true when you’re paying for clicks regardless of how relevant they are, whether those clicks convert to a sale, or how much your products cost. The results can be savage. Advertisers commonly complain about spending up to $60k on AdWords yet they still can’t make a sale.

When the Keyword Search Pros look inside an unmanaged AdWords account it’s like turning the lights on in that dark basement for the first time. What we find will rattle even the most seasoned bones. (more…)

4 Easy Steps to Reviewing Google Analytics

Posted onApril 25th, 2010 byadmin

Before we jump straight into Google Analytics I want to set the approach strategy with everyone. Sometimes advertisers are forced into making decisions about search marketing from the pressure lacking campaign performance. They’re not getting enough sales, leads, inquires, and often they are paying good money for these limited results which causes them to look for answers inside Google Analytics.

My only disclaimer is that advertisers who are specifically going to Analytics for answers of what to change in their Adwords account might be quick to jump the gun before learning all the answers. I want to remind you guys that Analytics should be used, not as a change agent, but as a tool that allows us to get the entire story about your campaigns before making any decision at all. In other words, we use Analytics to paint the entire picture so that we can process all the information and eventually come to a justifiable conclusion about what is actually happening when people visit our website.

So for the purpose of this segment, I only want to give you tools that might help paint that picture clearer for you. In reality, everyone who follows these steps will achieve different results that will eventually demand different actions. What you learn today might be change the way you see your campaigns and even your business. Once the picture is clearer, what you do about it should become clearer too.

Note: Because Google Analytics contains information about your website from all referring sources, it is important that you observe the correct source segment (Adwords or Google) and compare to others.

1. Explore Bounce Rates in Comparison to Other Referring Sources

2. Explore Exit Pages (Top Exits and Percentages) in Comparison to Other Referring Sources

3. Explore Average Time on Site

4. Examine Content Page Views and Sort by Source

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Great job. By now you should have a stronger approach to Analytics and because you have more of the story, your decisions will be more informed and you won’t put yourself in a bad position because you took action prematurely.

Google Is On The Move Again. Are You Coming?

Posted onJanuary 6th, 2010 byadmin

Google Caffeine and Google Merchant Center is Stirring Up the Pot for Advertisers.

When it comes to Google Search, it becomes increasingly obvious that it’s evolving faster than ever. Advertisers who make a living from either natural search or paid search (or both) are now being forced into evolving with it. If you haven’t done anything NEW with you search marketing in the last year or so, you’re probably in for a rude awakening. Google Caffeine 2010 and the new Adwords updates are basically what’s taking off and leaving lazy, conventional advertisers in the dust.

Caffeine is the name of Google’s new method of ranking websites that has been in beta since last summer and has been tested on at least one of their known datacenters on IP: 209.85.225.103 since then. With it, come some new changes in how Google prioritizes websites. This week, Google is said to be officially rolling out the new changes on a permanent level. At this time, we will be conducting thousands of keyword tests to update ourselves on what strategies we will take to leverage these changes.

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