Keyword Performance Management
When analysing a campaign’s performance, all keywords fall into 2 main categories and then 6 sub categories.
Main Categories:
- Non-converting
- Converting
Sub Categories:
- Non-converting - No Change Required
- Non-converting - Delete
- Converting - Alert Bid Manage
- Converting - Opportunity Bid Manage
- Converting - Low Priority Campaign Manage
- Converting - Investigate Campaign Manage
Non-Converting Keywords
Non-converting keywords are defined as keywords which have not contributed to a conversion during the specified reporting period.
All non-converting keywords are plotted on the matrix (see left); where they fall on the matrix determines what action should be taken.
The bottom left quadrant contains all of the keywords that have not yet spent enough money to exceed the target CPA, and have not exceed the number of clicks required to achieve the target conversion. However, within that quadrant, there is the ‘investigate and campaign manage’ category, which is a buffer zone that provides advance warning that a keyword is about to exceed one of the metric parameters.
The objective for the Account Manager is to target the keywords that fall into the ‘investigate and campaign manage’ category and implement one, or a combination, of the actions outlined in the Process-driven Campaign Management section.
Converting Keywords
Similarly to the non-converting keywords, all keywords that have converted are plotted on a matrix. And again, where they fall on the matrix, determines what action should be taken. (see left)
Alert: Bid Manage
Any keyword that falls into this quadrant is exceeding the target CPA, has a poor overall conversion. This combination has such a detrimental effect on the campaign that the best and first course of action should be to lower the bid. How much the bid should be lowered is a judgement call for the Account Manager using all the metric data provided by JUMP.
Having had the bid cap lowered to an appropriate level, keywords in this quadrant will usually move into either the ‘low priority’ or ‘investigate” quadrants where they would then be subject to campaign management.
Opportunity: Bid Manage
Keywords in this quadrant are the top performing keywords which are not already in position 1 on the search engine landscapes.
They come in under the target CPA and have conversion rates which exceed the target levels. These keywords are such strong performers, with such great opportunity, that the first course of action must be to maximise the traffic levels by raising the bid caps.
Having had the bid caps raised, keywords in this quadrant will usually move into the ‘investigate” quadrant where they would then be subject to campaign management.
Investigate: Campaign Manager
Keywords in this quadrant have conversion rates and volumes which exceed the target; however, the cost of the traffic, usually inflated by the competitive nature of the landscape, is very high therefore causing the CPA to rise above the target.
The idea with these keywords is to try and maintain the levels of traffic whilst lowering the average CPC. This requires campaign management as opposed to bid management.
With effective campaign management these keywords would normally move to the “opportunity – bid manage” quadrant where the bids can be ramped up inducing even more traffic.
Low Priority: Campaign Manager
Keywords in this quadrant have very low volumes, do not exceed the CPA target; however, most importantly do not have a very high conversion either, making it unfeasible to raise the bid caps to increase volumes.
The idea with these keywords is to try and increase the levels of traffic whilst maintaining or increasing the conversion rate. This again requires campaign management as opposed to bid management.
With effective campaign management these keywords would normally move to the “opportunity – bid manage” quadrant where the bids can then be ramped up to induce more traffic.
All Converting Keywords
Through process-driven campaign management, the aim is to get all keywords to gravitate towards the centre point of the matrix. (see left)
Although in an ideal world every single keyword would sit on the centre point, achieving the desired CPA and conversion, we know this is not possible. Try and ensure that you achieve a balance where the opportunities and low priority keywords are off-setting the Alert and investigate keywords; thus achieving the target CPA for the whole campaign.