SEM for successful campaign management

Transcription

1 White paper SEM for successful campaign management Abstract In an era where digital marketing has taken precedence over conventional marketing methods, it becomes imperative for businesses to focus on key areas such as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in order to build and sustain advantage over competition. This paper articulates the typical challenges in the online campaign management services, and the insights that help not only alleviate these challenges but also achieve significant benefits to organizations that focus more on online marketing campaigns.

2 Introduction While the services under Search Engine Marketing (SEM) constitute the non-core activities of an organization, which make investments in this space (typically by way of advertising budgets) to improve their web channel effectiveness. With the emergence of these new services in the market, there is a compelling need to create competence in these areas. This has led the business process services industry to capitalize on this opportunity. Major service providers that possess capability in terms of skilled in-house resources and technological tools have started partnering with these organizations to deliver significant benefits in the SEM space. An online campaign created as a part of a SEM has different Ad groups. Each Ad group denotes a specific product lines/ service category, which in turn, comprises of two prime components: Ads and Keywords. A campaign can be made effective by improving: 1) Ad & Keyword quality and 2) Allocating optimum bids for the ads. Campaign objectives are distilled from the organization s business goals. For example, if an organization wants to increase the brand awareness of its products/services, the campaigns and the ads within the campaign target only the user impressions. Impressions are the number of times an ad is made visible to the user while she/ he searches the web. On the other hand, those organizations whose objective is to maximize their sale conversions, the campaigns target the user clicks/ conversions. When we talk about impressions and the conversions, it means that the organization will pay the search engine based on the number of impressions (cost per 1000 impressions) and the number of clicks (cost per click) respectively.

3 Typical challenges existing in campaign management Organizations striving to improve the campaign effectiveness typically face the below challenges: Targeted audience/market reach The campaigns set up for online marketing should target the right set of audience to ensure maximum reach and ROI for the advertiser Inconsistencies in campaign setup process Due to the dynamic nature of the search engine marketing process, there are a lot of variations in setting up the structure of the campaigns, thus leading to the inconsistencies. These inconsistencies can be minimised by following certain set of best practices while setting up the campaigns Continuous need to optimize the campaign Campaign optimization and on-going management offers good challenge for the campaign manager as each campaign is unique on its own and needs to be optimized on a continual basis to reach 100% performance level and generate maximum ROI through clicks and conversions Lack of best practices in structuring the campaign Organizations should strive to implement the best practices while setting up the campaign structure so that the campaigns can be effectively managed on an on-going basis once they go live on the search engines Multiple channels of communication In order to improve the campaign effectiveness, a campaign manager typically handles multiple communication channels ranging from advertiser to the target audience. Thus, it is imperative that these multiple layers of communication are managed properly and the outcomes are fed into, while setting up the campaign Longer campaign timelines Since the campaigns created are managed on a long term, the variations in the market and the end user interests affect the campaign performance. These offer significant challenges to the organization while they manage the campaigns on an on-going basis Inefficiencies in the use of third party SEM tools The inherent inefficiencies, such as time lags, while migrating the campaign data into the search engines provide reduced accuracy and consistency levels in the campaign output data Recommended approach to counter the challenges 1. Effective webpage design The success of a campaign is always driven by the quality of the landing page and in that respect, a user-friendly web page designing will help attract more users to the organization s landing page. Landing page design The webpage created should be user friendly and enable the users with smoother navigation through the other related web pages and links Ad creation Ads with relevant text and appropriate landing page URLs should be created. These ads would facilitate the required call for action from the users. The campaign management experts will not only look into the content of the ads but also decide on the Ad formats such as text ads, image ads, and multimedia ads depending on the campaign requirement. Ads are also created when a campaign is set up and are associated with that campaign 2. Content management The design of web pages should be suitably complemented with creation and publishing of relevant content. Content authoring Content authoring is the process of creation and editing of the web content in accordance with the products and services offered by the organization. The initial content is typically provided by the subject matter expert with adequate knowledge on its products and services and hence, usually retained by the client Content updation The initial content provided is usually tuned and undergoes sufficient localization and translation to fit into the web page Content Administration This involves administering the quality of the content and also managing access permissions to the specific user groups once the content is published on web 3. Campaign set up A campaign can be managed effectively by using suitable parameters made available while setting up and optimizing campaigns. A qualified campaign manager applies these parameters adjusting them suitably depending on the: Organization s business objective Organizations primarily have two main objectives while designing their campaign programs: a) creating brand awareness and b) increasing revenues through online sales Organization s products/services Campaigns can be customized to reach the right audience only when one has a good understanding of the products/ services. These will in turn decide the parameters such as geography, people, placements, ads, bidding options etc Search Engine marketing (SEM) Provider s capability Most of these parameters are largely configured and customized according to the SEM providers. SEM providers such as - Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing offer features and tools to execute campaign set up and optimization

4 Basis the criteria listed above, following are the components that make the structure of a campaign: Keywords Quality of the campaign can be enhanced to a great extent by using the right keywords for the ad. When a user searches for a term, the company s ads are displayed based on the relevance of the search term with the keyword. Hence, associating the right keywords with the ad groups and the campaign is critical for a campaign s success. Geographic targeting While setting up the campaigns, it is extremely important to target the right geography and people. When we select a particular region (country, territory, address etc.) or people (based on the interest, age group gender etc.) we ensure that the campaigns are targeted to the right audience, which will further improve the campaign quality, effecting the click through/conversion rate in a positive manner. Landing page URL (Destination URL) tagging Every ad should be accompanied with a URL to the organization s web page, and the landing page URL should be updated according to the ad description and the desired call for action from the user. Ads with the right landing page URL experiences higher clicks, subsequently leading to increase in the sale conversions. Ad and Ad text creation Ads that are created for campaigns should convey right messages, targeting the right audience and inviting them to take action as desired by the campaign. Ad text should be updated with very clear and specific statements that give the users complete clarity on what is in store for them when they click the ad. Bid and budget allocation Every campaign has a budget allocated and the amount is decided based on the campaign s objective and the discretion of the company/campaign manager. The campaign managers can place bids on their campaigns and individual ads depending on the ability of the ads to attract the users. Bid amount and quality of the ad are the parameters in evaluating the Ad rank and if the ad has a higher rank, it will attract more visibility to the users. Hence, choosing an optimal bid is critical in maximizing the ROI of the campaign. Extreme care has to be taken while setting up a campaign to check if the advertisers products/services follow all the industry and regulatory advertising guidelines.

5 4. Campaign Optimization Once the campaign is set up, it must be continuously monitored and optimized on an ongoing basis to ensure that it is performing as expected. This will include tasks that could be iterative and need frequent fine-tuning. The following services will help the organization optimize the campaign effectively. Search Engine Analytics Search Engine Analytics helps organizations to track the campaign performance by generating various performance reports on campaigns, ads, keywords etc. The analytics include tasks that are not structured and are customized according to the requirements, some of them being regular reviews of campaign spend and campaign quality. Traffic estimation Campaign can be optimized using some of the tools that will estimate the traffic that the campaign and the individual ads generate. This traffic will constitute both the viewers and the people who click/make a sale in the organization s website. The traffic in-flow can be simulated by changing the bid amount and improving the ad quality (through relevant texts and keywords) on a periodic basis and monitoring the performance continuously. Optimize conversion Clicks or sale conversions can be optimized by evaluating the ROI of the campaign and arriving at a trade-off between the amount that is spent on the campaign (budgets and bids) and the sale conversions achieved. There are tools provided by SEM providers such as conversion optimizer that identify the valuable keywords that are likely to get more conversions and assign higher bid amount to those. Keywords/Ads performance Performance reports are generated where the keywords and ads are constantly monitored for their performance. Low performing keywords & ads can be pruned while the keywords with high performance can be allocated higher bids to gain more visibility, thus improving the campaign quality. How is the campaign effectiveness measured? Campaign effectiveness is measured by the Ad rank which, in turn is the product of the Quality score of the Ad and the Bidding amount. Ad quality: Ad quality is determined by the quality score, the outcome of which depends on parameters such as relevance of the ads, keywords, targeting the right geography and people, quality of the landing page etc. Bidding Amount: Bidding Amount is the maximum cost per click that the customer is willing to pay to the search engine service provider if the ad is viewed, clicked or sale conversion takes place (depending on the bidding option set during the campaign). Ad rank: Ad rank is the product of the above two parameters and the campaign manager has to ensure a higher page rank which will in turn improve ROI of the campaign. Ad Quality Bidding Amount Ad Rank

6 Campaign Management Benefits An efficiently managed campaign with the recommended approach not only helps eliminate the challenges listed above but also reaps the following benefits: Increased brand Implementing these Ogranizations can focus Increase in the volume awareness of the products/services the stated best practices will help in building on their core activities by partner with service of sales and the overall profit of the organization is offering an effective campaign providers with expertise organization. and has the potential to structure and adhere in SEM domain to reach prospective to the advertising manage their campaigns customers world-wide. industry regulatory Maximum ROI, because the initial investment guidelines and search required is much lesser engine disapproval than the conventional policies. marketing methods. Conclusion The world is shrinking due to the digital presence and consumers demand is ever increasing where they expect to get the products and services far more quickly. This has forced organizations to invest more in the digital marketing area to reap more benefits with quick turnaround. An effective management of online campaigns will make sure that organizations get the maximum ROI. Organizations, when promoting their products or services online are commonly referred to as the advertisers. Business Process Management (BPM) organizations can effectively manage an advertiser s campaign by partnering with established Search Engine Marketing providers, leveraging their knowledge and the tool repository. BPM s can bring in more credibility by building a resource base, which has all the required skill sets to perform not only the campaign setup process but also the ongoing assessment of the campaign performance using all the best practices described above. About the Author Aswin C Senior Associate Consultant, Sales and Fulfillment Practice, Infosys BPO Aswin has 5 years of professional experience in different areas of Quality Control, Sales, Supply Chain & Post Sales Operations. He is a certified Google Ad words professional, specialized in Search Advertising services. Aswin is responsible for designing outsourcing solutions and executing short term projects for clients across Sales & Fulfillment domain. He is a graduate engineer, with a B.E. (Hons) Mechanical from BITS Pilani and has done his Post Graduation (MBA) in Operations and Marketing from Symbiosis Centre for Management & HRD, Pune.

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8 About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in business consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions. We enable clients in more than 30 countries to outperform the competition and stay ahead of the innovation curve. With $7.4B in revenues and 155,000+ employees, Infosys transforms enterprises to thrive in a changing world through strategic consulting, operational leadership and co-creation. Visit to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) is Building Tomorrow's Enterprise today. Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys, provides integrated end-to-end outsourcing and delivers transformational benefits to clients through cost reduction initiatives, ongoing productivity improvements and process reengineering. For more information, contact [email protected] Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India. All Rights Reserved. Infosys believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice. Infosys acknowledges the proprietary rights of other companies to the trademarks, product names and such other intellectual property rights mentioned in this document. Except as expressly permitted, neither this documentation nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Infosys Limited and/ or any named intellectual property rights holders under this document.