Marketers have always known that display (i.e. brand) advertising influences paid search and, ultimately, revenue. The missing link has always been the proof. As if on cue, here comes Harvard Business School with a new study, “Do Display Ads Influence Search?”, that begins to make the link. But the report doesn’t stop at making the connection, it also goes on to discuss the magnitude of the effect and what it means for future budget allocation. And that, my friends, is the core of the issue.

After all, proving your instincts are right is one thing, but taking action…that’s the hard part. It’s Bid Data’s big obstacle; using it to uncover meaningful insights into how display is effecting paid search results, and then putting those insights into action to improve the performance of both as the next logical.

In this, the era of optimization, there are several ways to take that step, most of which are hampered by limitations inherent in using cookies and clicks as the source of data, such as multiple device usage. Technology is responding to the issue with solutions that go beyond cookies, factoring in all display impressions and returning a full-funnel value for them.

Yes, Virginia, display ads to influence paid search results. Uncovering the relationship and acting on it is the first step to improving the performance of both channels – individually and collectively.

 @OptiMineInc

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It’s a question that paid search marketers who seek better performance should ask themselves more often. And who among us doesn’t want better performance?

Unfortunately, a lot of paid search campaigns suffer from a serious keyword bidding problem that most people don’t know about because it hides deep within their campaigns.

This video below will give you the tools you need to find and fix what ails your campaigns.

In just 50 minutes you’ll learn:

• The metrics you need to watch
• What to look for in each
• Strategies to tackle the problem when you find it

Don’t let a keyword bidding problem rob you of revenue and budget.

Do You have a Keyword Bidding Problem? from OptiMine Software on Vimeo.

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We’ve fielded a lot of questions recently about the potential impact of Google’s Enhanced Campaigns on bid optimization, specifically with respect to the new bid adjustment options. The official Google description of the new bid adjustment options is here. The bottom line is that the performance of campaigns that were previously device-targeted (PC, mobile, tablet) will change with Enhanced Campaigns. The exact nature and magnitude of the change will vary from advertiser to advertiser, depending on its current account structure and the relative importance of the different devices for its business.

From a bidding perspective, the key question is how the new device and location bid adjustment options will affect performance. The new options will function very much like the current ad scheduling options where you can bump all of the bids within a campaign up or down by a fixed percentage during certain days or times of day. In fact, the existing ad scheduling options have been merged with the new device and location options under a section called “bid adjustments.”

OptiMine recommends the following for testing the new bid adjustment options associated with Enhanced Campaigns:

• Treat all of the bid adjustments as an additional factor with which to experiment, separate from the actual keyword-level bids. The adjustments act on the entire campaign, so the level of testing will be much more granular than normal keyword-level bid tests.
• We recommend initially making changes weekly to test the effects of the new options. If you believe that mobile bids should be lower in general, reduce the mobile bid adjustment for a few campaigns and measure the effect compared to campaigns that were not changed.
• Once you’ve settled in on a reasonable adjustment factor (which may end up being no adjustment!), run tests once a month or quarter to double-check for changes. This should be similar to the way you test ad copy, landing pages, and campaign structure.

A good deal of paid search management consists of test-observe-react. The key is to execute carefully-selected manual tests of the new campaign-level bid adjustment features in order to explore and understand the impact of Enhanced Campaigns on your business.

@OptiMineInc

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ADOTAS has put forth an Op-Ed that takes a look at the at trends in the digital advertising space. It drew on several sources, including eMarketer and Forrester, and considered, among other things, spend – current and future, media mix, and influencers. Of the several conclusions drawn, three that pertain directly to paid search are:

1. Budgets continue to shift to digital advertising channels
2. Paid will remain number 1 for, well, forever it seems
3. Value is driving budget distribution.

The first two are not a surprise, but number three, that is something new. OK, maybe not new new, but definitely newer.

Where this plays a pretty major role is in display advertising. Long considered a branding exercise, marketers have struggled for years to tie display to any real monetary value. Paid is much easier: Clicks lead to conversions and conversions to revenue. With display it’s been all about eyeballs and, now, how many times a particular set of eyeballs sees a particular ad (vCPM). The great unknown is which, if any, of those views turn directly into revenue or, at the very least, contribute to a conversion through another channel.

But will vCPM drive more spend into display?

To the article we go:

This year our industry has seen the birth of a new acronym: vCPM. Viewability seeks to measure how frequently an ad is actually seen by a user, and not merely the number of times it’s served by a site’s ad server.

At the same time, Forrester reports that viewability will have a neutral effect on overall ad spend. If this is the case for 2013, look for brands to focus their display ad spend on viewable impressions.

Brand-awareness is still important, but most advertisers are shifting their focus to performance-based pricing models. Year-over-year growth in display related ad formats…is in outright decline. [emphasis added]

It’s the whole Jerry McGuire thing. If it can’t show ‘em the money, marketers are going to use the channel as little as possible. That, and everyone is still trying to figure out which half of their budget is being wasted and, without a clear link from display to revenue, display finds its way to the chopping block.

What marketers need, what will give them peace-of-mind, and the potential for a huge career boost, is the missing link; the connection that lights the path between display – not to mention other channels – and revenue. But why stop with a straight-line path. Let’s go for the kit and the caboodle: Honest-to-goodness cross-channel attribution.

True visibility into the effects across, among and between all digital channels so marketers can not only find the 50% of their budget that’s being wasted, but put it to work generating bottom line results.

Some say Utopia doesn’t exist, but it may be closer than you know.

@OptiMineInc

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MediaPost’s Online Media Daily takes a look at the future following a holiday season that saw an increase in digital advertising spend. Several experts were consulted, including OptiMine CTO Rob Cooley:

Rob Cooley, the CTO of OptiMine Software, suggests marketers keep an eye on macro marketing trends to determine transactional prices for display ads, as well as budget percentages for each media.

If you get to atomic level analysis – individual keyword in paid search, individual ad in display – you’ll discover better data, more insights and significantly better decision making.

You can find and read the entire article here. Then, come back in early 2014 to see how the experts did.

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Google says keyword bidding is the most critical driver of paid search ROI, but to get the best financial results, you have to do it right.

Recently our own Rob Cooley, OptiMine CTO, hosted a webcast that looked at the most common keyword bidding methods, with an emphasis on  how to significantly improve paid search financial results by applying the best of these:

- Rules-based Optimization
- Local Optimization
- Global Cluster-level Optimization
- Global Keyword-level Optimization

You can watch the recorded webcast below or download the presentation deck here.

Webinar: Increase Paid Search ROI Through Keyword Bidding from OptiMine Software on Vimeo.

@OptiMineInc

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If you’re wondering how consumers intend to behave this holiday shopping season, Google and Ipsos OXT have released a report that should take some of the mystery out of it for you.

For your convenience we’ve embedded the report below, or you can download the pdf here.

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Bid testing is critical to paid-search success and Rob Cooley, OptiMine CTO, makes the case for a robust testing program in the Fall 2012 issue of Search Marketing Standard.  In addition to the reasons you should have an ongoing bid testing program, “Bid Testing and Budgets” compares the three most common methods – current bid, position-based and value based – and explains why value based is the best for driving increased financial returns and generating data you can use to make your programs stronger.

Most every paid-search marketer engages in bid testing of some form, even if they don’t realize it.  But an ongoing, systematic approach is necessary to maintaining a strong program that will help you continually achieve your financial goals.

By now you know OptiMine places a great deal of importance on the practice of bid testing.  In addition to the new article, we’ve authored a white paper, and Rob addressed a live audience at SMX East on the subject (more on that to come in the near future).

So, yes, we believe bid testing is critical to building and maintaining a robust paid-search program.  We also believe value-based is the best of the methodologies in use today.   Download the article and white paper today and become a believer.

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We are getting to the time of year where two things occupy our minds: Ending this year with a head of steam and launching the next on the back of that momentum.  For those of you who manage complex paid search campaigns, OptiMine has a trial program that will help you do both: OptiMize 2013.

This industry-unique trial can be summed up with three numbers:

3- The number of weeks it takes for most advertisers to be up and running with OptiMine
5- The number of weeks until you start seeing financial results from OptiMine
8 – The number of weeks until you see how much OptiMine can move the needle

No other solution can take you from 0 to increased financial results in just 8 weeks.  And no other solution guarantees you an minimum increase of 25%.  In the most recent trials, 40% have seen increased financial results of more than 50%.

This time last year eBags took advantage of the trial program and enjoyed a record-breaking holiday season:

“eBags got up and running quickly last year with a trial at the onset of our most critical time of year, and we were delighted to experience our best-ever holiday shopping season for search.”

Amy Viverito
Vice President, Marketing
eBags

With 98% of OptMine customers realizing increased financial results, doesn’t it makes sense to take the first step towards a full-throttle 2013 now?

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By now you know that OptiMine is exhibiting at SMX East in booth 439, demonstrating the world’s most powerful bid optimization software and giving away cash to those who stop by and spin the prize wheel. You also know that our own Rob Cooley – performance-obsessed CTO and co-founder – is presenting bid testing best practices at the Mad Scientists of PPC session on Wednesday, October 3.  And that is why I write this today.

Rob penned an article on the very subject of bid testing for Search Marketing Standard.  It appears in the recently published Fall 2012 issue and here as a downloadable pdf. If you are attending SMX East and plan to sit in on the Mad Scientists session October 3 at 10:45, the article will serve as a good overview of the wisdom you will hear then. If you are not planning to attend, download it anyway because it’s good reading and will give you a new understanding of the practice of bid testing and what can be learned when it’s done correctly.

If you want more than an article, you can always opt for OptiMine’s white paper on the subject.  It, too, is a great resource for comparing and contrasting the three primary methods of bid testing.

Regardless of you get the information, bid testing is a serious subject and a critical practice for any paid search program. OptiMine’s materials will arm you with the information you need to understand how the different approaches can impact your campaigns.

@OptiMineInc

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