This week Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro) earned some well deserved praise this week and came up with a question set titled “Kick Ass PPC.” The following is the transcribed Streamcap from the live chat:
Q1: Why do you love PPC? In other words, why are you so eager to go to work every morning?
- Making a measurable difference every day. – Richard Fergie (@RichardFergie)
- I love the math behind it…and the results. Plus, everyday there is something different. Especially this year. – Mark Kennedy (@markkennedysem)
- Only if the results are good though. But at least knowing what to do if it isn’t is what makes it rewarding. – Brian Gaspar (@BGaspar)
- I love PPC because it’s competitive & I know when I’m winning. Also because it combines art + science. – Robert Brady (@robert_brady)
- Data + Demand = Marketers Dream. – Chris Kostecki (@chriskos)
- Where do I start? Every day is different; instant gratification w/data & results; the chance to be both creative & analytical. – Melissa Mackey (@Mel66)
- PPC is a non-stop puzzle with built in gambling. I KNOW if I/my client is winning, and if we’re losing we know how to fix it. – Aaron Levy (@bigalittlea)
- I mostly love the challenge. Find what works, find what doesn’t. Make things better everyday and use data as justification. - Michelle Morgan (@michellemsem)
- I love knowing the impact I’m having on client’s businesses! – Crystal Anderson (@CrystalA)
- Also, lucky to find a job that enables my excel additctions. – Chris Kostecki
- Analytics, hunting low cost converting keywords, psychological analysis behind word choices. – Meridian Interactive (@Meridian_Inc)
- Great people. The opportunity to work on amazing big data and machine learning technology. Happy customers. – BloomReach Inc. (@bloomreachinc)
- I love PPC because it’s extremely exciting and there are so many different awesome aspects of it. – Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro)
- I like the combination of concrete analytics, creative, and problem solving. Always something new. – Alma Smith (@Alma_Smith)
- There’s always more to learn (even though this is sometimes daunting). – Eric Bryant (@GnosisArts)
- Being able to track results, I enjoy seeing the $$$ flow my ads bring in for my clients. – Eric Mobley (@eric_mobley)
- Lots of data, certain rules to follow, and you get to use acronyms that make you sound like you’re speaking a secret language. – Michelle Morgan
- For me it’s a nice mix of my past in Finance/Banking and marketing related and the present and future using the data & analytics to make informed marketing decisions based on actionable data. – Brian Gaspar
- I love making a huge impact to the overall growth of the business! Learn what works with PPC & carry that to other channels. – Jessica Cameron Ruud (@Camruud)
- The creative strategy mixed with almost instantaneous results & analysis can be exciting. Plus happy clients are always great. - Nicole Mintiens (@Tregesy)
- I love PPC because it produces REAL results, and grows businesses. – Jef Nil (@jnil)
Q2: What is the best type of praise and/or recognition you can receive from a client?
- Attributing a record month of sales to me. Personally. Because I fixed their PPC account. Priceless. – Melissa Mackey
- “The leads are flooding in!” "Our phone’s ringing off the hook!" “Sure. We’ll sign up for another 6 months.” – Eric Bryant
- The first lead or sale on a new campaign. The small biz’s get very excited. – Mark Kennedy
- Definitely that we’ve helped grow their biz and set records for sales! – Crystal Anderson
- Praise from clients is always outstanding, but referrals are great as well. – Matt Umbro
- A contract extension. – Robert Brady
- “I trust you” – Chris Kostecki
- Unconditional trust. the holy grail of ppc management IMO. – Aaron Levy
- Best ever was being told to shut of campaigns as their sales staff couldn’t cope with lead volume. – Richard Fergie
- An elated client email forwarded by upper management accompanied by bags full of money. – Nicole Mintiens
- An unsolicited referral. – BloomReach Inc.
- Budget increase. – Luke Alley (@LukeAlley)
- “Don’t worry about budget” – Chris Kostecki
- “Ok, we’re gonna be hands-off going forward. We’ll let you handle it.” – Eric Bryant
- “I think you’ve done a great job.” I got a “I’m proud of you” from a client. Lastly a simple “Thank You” goes a long way. – Brian Gaspar
- When the client tells their mktg director that they won’t launch new mktg copy without testing it in PPC first. – Melissa Mackey
- In-house perspective: Best feedback on a question I asked the boss: “You’re the expert. It’s your call.” – Michelle Morgan
- In leaving, an amazing LinkedIn recommendation. Colleagues are important, but clients provide real value. – Brian Gaspar
- I have a client who always creates new remarketing image ads whenever a new campaign is launched – no prodding necessary. – Matt Umbro
- I’ve had “Why aren’t you guys turning a profit like this guy” (with me being this guy). – Chris Kostecki
- Another one was “I think we have everything on the site represented for PPC.” Although that can never be the case IMO. - Brian Gaspar
Q3: What is the most important item you’ve learned from your PPC peers over the last year, whether it be practical or theoretical?
- Test everything! Data trumps assumptions, and more often than not body slams them through the floor. – Chris Kostecki
- Be humble enough to ask for help if you’re stumped because the community is very helpful. – Robert Brady
- There is no one right way to do it across the board. It’s all depending on the client. My former mentor told me that. – Brian Gaspar
- That if I ever have a question, someone in PPCChat will be there to help. You guys are the best! – Melissa Mackey
- That you can fight Google and make a change! – Luke Alley
- The importance of understanding attribution. – Andrew Baker (@AndrewBaker72)
- @searchbeest did presentation at SMX about thinking strategically rather than tactically. – Richard Fergie
- Add punctuation at the end of desc line 1 to get it to appear in the headlines. – Chris Kostecki
- When my boss asks a question & I don’t know the answer, I just say “give me 10 minutes.” I now PPCChat will come thru for me! – Melissa Mackey
- Many strategies that work for large campaigns can be applied to the smallest campaigns (and vice versa sometimes). – Mark Kennedy
Q4: What are some methods you use to go above and beyond your normal PPC management?
- I try to understand how PPC fits with the client’s overall marketing mix. We integrate our search & display reports, for ex. – Melissa Mackey
- Day parting analysis of campaigns. Got the OK to do so for a mobile version of one of our top non-branded campaigns. – Brian Gaspar
- Stay on top of the changes, new features and best practices so client campaigns don’t lag. – James Svoboda (@Realicity)
- Helping clients use PPC to improve overall business processes & lead/sales management. – Aaron Levy
- Testing calls to action & offers that can be used in other marketing channels. Getting solid KW data for SEO. Testing Locations. – Mark Kennedy
- Segment analysis, making pretty charts that show tangible trends. – Chris Kostecki
- Get to know their industry – read blogs & share them, attend conferences for their industry, etc. – Crystal Anderson
- A few come to mind > we work with other marketing teams (SEO, Social, etc), we give clients first of class features. – Andrew Baker
- Working on knowing how ppc plays in to the rest of the company. Knowing how a good/bad day of ppc effects everyone else. – Michelle Morgan
- Proactively try and get clients into betas, ask about other parts of the business, keep myself educated. – Matt Umbro
- Understand order fulfillment process. Think/Be like the customer. Easy for me in this area. Try to be more LEAN in your D2D. – Brian Gaspar
- Search Marketing has grown to be more than just search engines, keeping up w/ advancements (& knowing what to leave aside). – Chris Kostecki
- I’ve been told that for my company that is still catalog based, that PPC/SEO brings in the 2nd most amount of rev. But it all depends on the client. Here everything is code driven, so PLA’s & DSA’s are a challenge to track & manage. - Brian Gaspar
Q5: How do you use PPC performance and analysis to help influence other marketing channels?
- Testing copy/messaging/offers; keywords for SEO & content; gauging demand (impressions, clicks). – Melissa Mackey
- PPC is a great testing ground for copy, images, lps, etc! – Crystal Anderson
- We share! Keyword insights, copy tests, audience insights etc. – Aaron Levy
- KW data is great to help SEO and the SQR is great for blog topics. Local data can help other channels, and Results from CTA’s. – Mark Kennedy
- Have compared ROI of marketing channels with client to move budgets around. PPC got more budget in that case. – Luke Alley
- Lots of data shared between SEO and PPC teams, as well as targeting that gets brought over into sponsored content, display etc. – Justin Freid (@Justin_Freid)
- Find demand, move inventory, & test language for a variety of channels. – Chris Kostecki
- I’ve found that if ad copy works in one medium, it often works in a nother (but def. not always). – Eric Bryant
- Matched Search Query Reporting w/ conv analysis for SEO campaigns. Multi-Channel Funnels for attribution analysis for assisted conversions. – Andrew Baker
- For SEO, it helps clarify organic opportunity. For everything else, there’s conversions & LP testing. – James Svoboda
- Create demand for products before they’re available by using remarketing & then informing other marketing. – Melissa Mackey
- PPC can be a driver of conversions for more broad media – TV, outdoor, radio. – Justin Freid
- PPC helps soooooo much when you take text ad data and apply that to SEO for call to actions. Improves Organic CTR. – James Svoboda
- Great for new sites/technologies where SEO keywords are still undecided. – Elizabeth Marsten (@ebkendo)
- To give our SEO brethren credit, having a strong Organic presence can help improve PPC performance. – Brian Gaspar
Resources
- Google AdWords Editor (version as of today’s PPCChat 9.7.1)
- Microsoft adCenter Desktop
- http://www.google.com/ads/answers/
- PPCChat Member List (Twitter)
- adCenter Feature Suggestion
- Bing Keyword Research Tool
More PPC Chats
Don’t forget to stay tuned for the next #PPCchat on Tuesday at 12 noon Eastern, 9 am Pacific and 5pm in the UK. Same Chat time, same Chat channel.
Participants
Check out the PPC Chat Twitter list to see and connect with all current and prior participants.
- Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro)
- James Svoboda (@Realicity)
- Paul Kragthorpe (@PaulKragthorpe)
- Aaron Levy (@bigalittlea)
- Alma Smith (@Alma_Smith)
- Andrew Baker (@AndrewBaker72)
- BloomReach Inc. (@bloomreachinc)
- Brian Gaspar (@BGaspar)
- Chris Kostecki (@chriskos)
- Crystal Anderson (@CrystalA)
- Elizabeth Marsten (@ebkendo)
- Eric Bryant (@GnosisArts)
- Eric Mobley (@eric_mobley)
- Jef Nil (@jnil)
- Jessica Cameron Ruud (@Camruud)
- Justin Freid (@Justin_Freid)
- Luke Alley (@LukeAlley)
- Mark Kennedy (@markkennedysem)
- Melissa Mackey (@Mel66)
- Meridian Interactive (@Meridian_Inc)
- Michelle Morgan (@michellemsem)
- Nicole Mintiens (@Tregesy)
- Richard Fergie (@RichardFergie)
- Robert Brady (@robert_brady)
About Paul Kragthorpe (He does the streamcaps!)
This is a guest post by Paul Kragthorpe; WebRanking SEM Manager in Minneapolis, Minnesota, #PPCChat Streamcap Grabber, SEO Blog Author. Connect with me @PaulKragthorpe, and Google Plus.
Follow @PaulKragthorpe
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Tags: Pay-Per-Click (PPC), ppc, ppcchat
