What is your primary objective?
10-11-2009
Do you remember my previous blog post when I spoke about understanding the user as an individual rather than all the users as numbers on a spreadsheet? Perhaps you didn't so in any case, here is a quick recap.
One of our search executives successfully introduced a line of copy to a regionally targeted ad that increased the CTR% significantly. The long and short of it was that using the county as well as the town actually influenced a higher CTR%, despite the search term not being as prevalent in the ad copy (Google like that!).
"Good work team" I said. Taking real life search scenarios, add some common sense and some initiative and you can get a better performing ad.
We look to tailor the ads to the user to encourage them to click on them, whilst at the same time making sure that the ads are relevant. After all, there is no point in achieving a high CTR% if your bounce rate goes through the roof or your CVR% (site conversion rate) falls through the floor. A former boss of mine called this "mass niche marketing" which covers a wide spectrum of digital marketing principles but I think it sums up the paid search ethos perfectly.
Anyway, this brings me round to the title of this blog post – 'What is your Primary Objective?' Our approach is to develop a strategy that deliverers maximum ROI for the client. In this case mentioned above, the ROI was measured by the number of MOTs, or servicing appointments booked through the site - a tangible figure not open to interpretation or speculation.
The rub comes when a client sets too many objectives, well primary objectives. In my book, too many primary objectives equates to more than ONE! Let me try to explain in a fictitious scenario.
Client/ Advertiser - "Dan – I want you to achieve 200 bookings a week at a £CPA of £25, and pay no more that £0.75 per click".
OK, this is pretty prescriptive from the client but at least they know what they want. Realistically though, how can you manage to hit these targets? Say for instance in order to hit 200 bookings a week you need to drive a certain amount of traffic. Assuming the site conversion rate is 3%, you need to drive 6,667 clicks to achieve this. If you are in a competitive market place, you may need to bid more that £0.75 to appear near the top of the first SERP, which is where you will need to be in order to hit the click volume you need. You have therefore failed to achieve at least one of the client's targets. You either have to exceed their £CPC cap, or you will fail to hit their booking volume targets.
Similarly, what if the client does not want to pay more that £25 per booking but wants at least 200 booking per week. On paper at least, these numbers work. You need to drive 6,667 clicks to achieve 200 bookings (at a 3% CVR). At a £CPC of £0.75, this will cost you £5,000, therefore a £CPA of £25. In practice however, what happens if a strong competitor bidder enters the market. Not only does your £CPC have to rise to maintain a click volume, but in all likelihood on site CVR% will take a hit. Your click volume may also take a hit. Before you know it, your nicely balanced spreadsheet is out of the window. Do you bid more to hit the click volumes required and jeopardise your £CPA? Do you lower your £CPC assuming a fall in on site CVR% to hit the £CPA but fall well short of your booking volume targets? You get the picture.
So, to re-address my earlier point, you can only have one primary objective. If this is to achieve 200 bookings a week, then that is my goal. What you have to do to achieve that falls on your shoulders. How many clicks do you need to buy? How much do you need to spend on that number of clicks? How well is the clients site converting? How well are your ads converting searchers into clickers and into buyers? Sure, the advertiser can have as many secondary objectives as they like, so they may say they want 200 bookings and aim for a £CPA of £25, but they can only ever have ONE true primary objective. It is up to you and the client to decide and agree what this is from the outset, or you will be having long winded back and forth conversations with your client about campaign performance until Easter.
Written by: Dan Hills