GOOGLE ONLINE MARKETING CHALLENGE 2012 Post campaign report

********

Steve Silk

Participants: Elias Kanja Kuan Wei Chen Quynh Anh Nguyen Vu Xiang Meng Zhao Yingyu

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1. Campaign Overview Four key goals were established for the Google AdWords campaign developed for Steve Silk the magician [http://magicianperth.com.au/], a magician based in Perth, Western Australia. The overall goal of the campaign was to leverage on Google Adwords to attract more potential customers to Steves current business. The goals were outlined at the beginning based on current situation faced by the client: 1) Achieve a CTR of 5%, 2) Target an impression rate of 4000-5000/day, 3) Maintain an Avg. Pos. from 1-3 in relevant Google search results, and 4) Optimise the limited budget of $250 over a short period of three weeks time. One AdWords campaign was created to achieve these goals: Steve Silk the magician. 1.2. Key Results With $243.57 of the budget spent, the account accumulated 352 total clicks and 202,928 total impressions. The best performing Ad Group was Party purposes which achieved an overall CTR of 0.17% and an average CPC of $0.66. However, due to short campaign duration, there were only three goals achieved including: achieve an average impressions rate of 9176 per day); maintain a high rank in relevant Google search results (Avg. Pos. is 2.6); and save on advertising costs. However, two unexpected outcomes occurred; specifically the final average CTR was 0.18%, which left a big gap between our desired objective (5%) and the real outcome. Secondly, there were only two leads generated for the website. 1.3. Conclusion Despite a moderate result achieved, our group has put great effort in the campaign by utilising provided Google tools (e.g., the Opportunities tab, Google Analytics, Traffic Estimator, AdWords Editor, and more), and a frequent monitoring schedule of the campaign. With the help of these tools, new keywords with high search volume were continuously explored with the aim to maximise clicks and CTR. 1.4. Future Online Marketing Recommendations It is highly recommended that Steve Silk continue to use AdWords to enhance his online marketing presence and to attract more customers. Due to the high competition within entertainment industry, we suggest that Steve should improve his website interface as well as content that are currently sparsely made. Future promotional activities should moreover concentrate on differentiating his services from other powerful competitors, and monitoring must be done carefully so as to filter the best functional keywords that deliver greater advertising efficiency.

INDUSTRY COMPONENT

2.1.Introduction This section will firstly identify the major goals that were established for the campaign, followed by the relevant strategies on how to achieve each goal. The operational methodology will then be discussed including initial budget allocation and ad groups used. The evolution of the campaign strategy will comprise of the major changes made during the campaign and their impact on the overall campaign. Key results will then be presented according to the campaign data gathered in three weeks time. To sum up all key aspects of the campaign, a conclusion will be briefly given. Lastly, with the aim to provide useful future implications on what the client should improve, applicable recommendations will be outlined with regard to online marketing. 2.2.Campaign overview The overall goal of the campaign was to utilise cost-efficient advertising tools to raise awareness of Steves magician service, thus expanding his customer base. Accordingly, four Adwords goals were outlined at the beginning based on current situation faced by the client: 1) Achieve a CTR of 5%, 2) Target an impression rate of 4000-5000/day, 3) Maintain an Avg. Pos. from 1-3 in relevant Google search results, and 4) Optimise the limited budget of $250. A frequent monitoring schedule was set up; therefore the allocated budget would not be expended too quickly. The table below summarises the strategy chosen to achieve each goal respectively:
GOAL Target an impression rate of 4000-5000/day STRATEGY Use Google display network Optimise keywords relevance Achieve a CTR of 5% Limit advertisement viewers through Geo targeting Maintain an Avg. Pos. from 1-3 in relevant Google search results Optimise the limited budget of $250 Target specifically using distinctive keyword matching options for a high quality score Exact phrase matching Eliminate unproductive keywords regularly

The group ran the Adwords strategy with solely one campaign Steve Silk the magician, and determine ad groups quantity based on customer segments, to which Steve offers his

service. The Search Term Report feature, the Opportunities tab, and the Keyword Tool were utilised to identify keywords and negative keywords to insert.
Ad group Keywords Party purposes Birthday party magician, birthday magician, magic show for kids, kids party magician, Perth magician, magician kids party. Ad copy Funny kids magician Magical shows for corporate events Negative keywords Cheap, free Cheap, free Magician service for social events Cheap, free Corporate events Mental magic, strolling magician, mind reading magic, magician corporate events Social functions magic entertainment, Perth magician, magic floorshow, strolling magician, close-up magic, funny magic, magician performance

The Opportunities tab especially provided us with fresh ideas on keyword and the potential function they may create. In conjunction with Google Traffic Estimator, ad copies as well as keywords were constantly adjusted based on prediction of search volume, clicks, and cost per day, in order to generate high search volume. Additionally, the Google display network was kept automatic at the beginning; however during the campaign process, we set up this to manual mode. Pertaining to Geo targeting, we selected a 400km radius from Perth CBD to ensure that only people who can see and click on our ads are supposed to be in close proximity to our business, thus maximising CTR and lowering the CPC. The account was run 24/7 in three weeks time from April 16 to May 7, 2012. Assuming that the first two weeks are the time when the campaign should put great effort in raising awareness of people, the budget allocated a greater amount of money for this phase. Especially, we focused on Mondays and Tuesdays as they are the most prevalent days for search. Another assumption made here was if the budget allocation of $100 were successful in the first week, we would use the same technique for the following two weeks. The table below shows the total budget spent throughout the campaign period:
Mon Week 1: $100 Week 2: $100 Week 3: $50 $30 $30 $7 Tue $15 $15 $7 Wed $11 $11 $7 Thu $11 $11 $7 Fri $11 $11 $7 Sat $11 $11 $7 Sun $11 $11 $7

Regarding account monitoring, each member was assigned to keep track of the campaign on a daily basis. In case any change is made, that member has the duty of reporting it back to all members through email with a screenshot of Before and After the modification e.g. Keywords can be changed if the productivity shown in Impression and Clicks is low. 2.4 Evolution of the campaign strategy All the changes made throughout the campaign were divided into two phases as following: Phase 1 (18th 25th April) Initially, CPC was kept at a high level of $1.21 to compete with other Australian magicians on high rank in search results. Underperforming keywords with low search volume were replaced with new ones (magic entertainment, magician

performance and local magician), which were supposed to reduce untargeted impressions, maximise the CTR, and minimize the CPC. At this phase, our group bumped into the misunderstanding of how to use negative keywords right. As a result, the insertion of relevant keywords instead of the right negative keywords reduced our impressions significantly. Soon after the impact had been recognised, we deleted these wrong ones and put back cheap and free as our sole negative keywords. Phase 1 result: Best Performing Ad Groups
Ad Group Party purposes Clicks 130 Impressions 106,195 CTR 0.12% Avg. CPC $0.57 Avg. Pos. 2.5

The other two Ad groups underperformed, specifically Social functions only managed to get 2 clicks and 2,332 impressions at an average CPC of $0.94. Corporate events had 0 clicks, therefore also 0% CTR. Based on these results, we decided to focus more on the underperforming ad groups so that we can get our campaign back on the right track.

Phase 2 (25th 30th April) Changes were made to the two underperforming ad groups. Reasons were probably due to the lack of exposure to relevant target audiences. Following that direction, we decided to switch the Google display network from automatic to manual mode by selecting the sites, on which the ads were placed. There are two main criteria for selection namely the impressions/day rate lied between 10000 - 500000, and the target audiences were supposedly most likely to visit these sites. The primary aim of this change was to increase awareness of relevant customers toward Corporate events and Social functions. Phase 2 result Despite using Display network, the Impressions rate was following a downward trend Social functions: From 16th to 25th April = 2,814. From 25th to 6th May = 345 Corporate events: From 16th to 25th April = 1,483. From 25th to 6th April = 205 Due to the unexpected outcome, we decided to completely divert focus to only search networks. Phase 3 (1 May- 6 May) As of 1 May, the budget balance was $67.27. The main object now was to minimise expenditure to keep the campaign running until 6th may. Several actions were carried out with the effort of minimising costs: Reduce geographic target range from 400 km to 300km radius Reduce the maximum CPC from $1.10 to $0.70; reduce our bidding power, thus the rank is high enough for maximum exposure. Therefore, we decided to compensate for the loss in bidding power by concentrating on developing high quality score keywords, which have lower CPCs, lower first page and top of page bid estimates, which means our ads would rank high at a very low cost. To generate high quality score keywords, we used exact and phrase matching options to

specifically target consumers namely kids party magician used in Party purposes. Phase 3 result The graph above shows the situation of the ad group Party purposes, in which the keyword Perth magician managed to achieve a quality score of 7/10. Furthermore, CTR rose from 0.08% to 1.91 %. Besides, the ad group Social functions managed to get 10% CTR from the 2 clicks it generated within this period. Our objective was to achieve saving on cost in this third phase of change. 2.5 Key results Total campaign cost was $243.57 at a daily budget of $12. Week
1 2 3

Clicks
130 119 37

Impressions
87,185 87,476 22,812

CTR
0.15% 0.14% 0.16%

Avg. CPC
0.67 0.74 0.59

Avg. Pos.
2.2 2.7 2.8

Best Performing Keywords for the Ad Group Party purposes:

Ad Group Party purposes Clicks 352 Impressions 202,928 CTR 0.17% Avg. CPC $0.66 Avg. Pos. 2.5

Social functions generated 14 clicks, whereas Corporate events underperformed the most with only 2 clicks regardless of numerous attempts such as keyword tweaking, use of display network and keyword matching. After thoroughly discussing, our group came to a conclusion that the main reason behind this was due to the lack of segment potential. Given that the campaign took place in April and May, there is supposedly a limited number of corporate events organised during this time; thus, the demand for entertaining services is low. 2.6 Conclusion In this section, we will discuss which goals we achieved and which ones we did not. Firstly, only two leads were attained, which is not considered a significant change. Secondly, the desired CTR of 5% was not achieved. However, a high rank in Google search (Avg. Pos. = 2.6) was achieved through high quality score keywords. We also achieved savings on advertising costs through narrowing down the target geo graphic area to only 300 km. Furthermore, the initial target impressions rate of 4000 to 5000/day was within our reach. In fact, we attained an average impressions rate of 9176 per day.

2.7 Recommendations Google AdWords clearly helped our client generate more traffic to his website. However, to turn visitors into customers, we suggest that Steve should combine the use of both Adwords and other currently popular social media due to the rapidly increasing role of word-of-mouth. Because the first ad group Party purposes had a CTR of 0.17%, as well as receiving the highest share of clicks, increasing the amount of the budget allocated to this segment should lead to an improved ROI. Another way to attract businesses is to offer the customisation services as one unique selling point. Another important point is the modification of the website as well as improving the appearance of landing page. At the same time, more specific information on service detail should be to the website to reduce bounce back rate (352 clicks but only 2 leads).

LEARNING COMPONENT

3.1. Learning Objectives and Outcomes The expected learning objectives from our participation in the GOMC included a proper understanding of how online advertising works, how to use Google AdWords as an effective tool in business promotion, and most important how to leverage on a tightly restricted budget to deliver expected outcome. According to that, the competition has provided our group the opportunity to carry out advertising activities for a small business using Google AdWords; not to mention the exact use of AdWords Tools in creating a relevant campaign for our client to expand his business. Furthermore, our group also learnt how to optimise the keywords and Ad Groups selection for different customer segments in order to increase traffic to our clients website. However, due to the lack of Adwords experience among group members at the beginning, we were faced with the difficulty in managing the AdWords account and running the campaign properly. Thanks to the GOMC competition guideline, we figured out the right way to get things worked. Another unexpected outcome is the short campaign period inhibited the team from identifying the right strategies after each strategy failed; due to the fact that we learn from failures. For instance, after analysing the market response, we realised the wrong use of some keywords and eliminated them. But it also took time to see whether the new ones work. 3.2. Group dynamics In general, we owned a great deal of advantages in working with each other. Firstly, we have group members at hand frequently; thus an open, interactive communication among us is available, which contributed to the construction of the campaign. The tolerance toward each other then delivered great team spirit. Moreover, each member possesses certain strength that can outweigh the other members weakness. The passion for the competition also allowed us to work effectively in a remote working environment using social network tools to communicate with each other. Lastly, being fast-learners in terms of the adoption of new technologies helped us utilise the provided Google tools. However, each members tight schedule made it difficult to arrange group meeting time, which suits all of us. So we came up with a solution of having meeting prior to the commencement of our class. Another problem is the conflict of opinions among us. Therefore, an open discussion to promote mutual understanding is necessary in giving us an

overview of what the others were thinking; thus, we can give relevant recommendations and argument if needed. By the end, there are several lessons regarding teamwork to be drawn, which are: tight collaboration, high responsibility, constant encouragement and support. 3.3. Client dynamics Lack of knowledge of the magician industry is the biggest challenge to us. Additionally, we also experienced the limitation of useful when browsing through online resources; thus, most of the information was provided by the client. Having said this, the client was very supportive in providing us with a two-way communication that contributed significantly to the strategy creation. Moreover, the client was willing to give the group valuable encouragement during hard time, and by the end, he also would like to receive further recommendations from us. 3.4. Future recommendations If we ever had another chance to help our clients online advertising activities, we would firstly do thorough self-training in terms of theoretical and practical Adwords knowledge to enhance outcome quality. We would then spend more time on doing market research properly, and at the same time, build solid relationship with the client to get to know them better. This will allow for the development of a more comprehensive Adwords strategy, providing a deeper understanding of the tactics needed. In the future, if the time frame were not limited, we would choose to obtain initial customer response on the campaign through clicks and impressions. To achieve that, we would set a higher daily budget and more geographical locations and then focus on the relevant strategy based on the data gathered. With this in mind, we hope to yield more positive outcomes demonstrated in the increase of sales and the rise in awareness.