Hudson Creative Documentation

Analyze Search Terms & Keyword Updates

Search Term Review

Use search terms data to make changes to keywords that can have a positive impact on performance.

1. If a search term isn’t relevant enough to the products or services, add it as a negative keyword. By adding irrelevant search terms as negative keywords, we can prevent ads from showing to people who are looking for something different.
   1. For example, if you sell eyeglasses, and you noticed that the search term “wine glasses” is triggering your ads, you might want to add “wine” as a negative keyword.
2. Using the match type column view how closely the search terms that triggered the ads on Google are related to the keywords in campaign copy. By seeing which match types are working well for which keywords and searches, refine match types for all keywords so that only the right searches cause the ad to show.
3. If a search term is working well, add it to the ad group’s list of keywords.
   1. To know whether a keyword is working well or not determine which match types are working well for which keywords in accordance with search term results. This enables you to refine your match types.
   2. Using the “Match type” column in the search term dashboard you can view how closely the search terms that triggered your ads on Google are related to the actual keywords in your account. By seeing which match types are working well for which keywords and searches, you can refine match types for all your keywords so that only the right searches cause your ad to show.

Keyword Review

1. Review keywords and weed out ones that are not driving high conversion relative to cost.
   1. Remove negative keywords and add Exact match high-performing keywords removing the broad match term.
2. The only loyalty you have to keywords is to the ones that convert for you. Keep looking for keywords to add.
   1. Descriptive, long-tail variants that people searched to trigger your ad
   2. Competitor PPC keywords–especially since they are targeting the same audience

Dig Into Negative Keywords

1. Use negative keywords for things such as brand names, competitors, or other keywords that you know won’t lead to a conversion.
2. To add negative keywords, go into the Google ads campaign manager, select keywords, Negatives, and add the keywords to the proper ad group.

Analyze Creative

Review Ad Performance

1. We have three ad groups running. We want to take a deep dive and see which are performing best and which one is performing the worst.
   1. What to look for:
      1. CPC
      2. Conversion Rate
      3. CPA
      4. CTR
2. Once the lowest-performing is identified, rotate out the lowest-performing group for a new ad group.
3. Based on the performance of the high-performing ad groups we should be able to identify what is working and why, and apply those to the new ad group.

Optimize Copy

Sub out low performing copy for new or high performing copy

1. Based on the performance of the high-performing ad groups we should be able to identify what is working and why, and apply those to the new ad group.
2. Make sure to align copy with landing page & keyword performance/ research

Analyze Demo/ Bidding Strategies 

Devices

Check performance by device and make bid adjustments based on your findings

1. Device (desktop, tablet, mobile, smart TV)
2. You can adjust bids up or down based on how each device performs. Start small and grow or lower as the data indicates. 

Geographic Location

Double-check your location options

1. When setting up your geotargeting, there is one nuance to pay attention to. When you click into the blue Location options tab, you can target by Presence (people in or regularly in your targeted locations), Search interest (people searching for your targeted locations), or both.
   1. We want presence selected for the most part

Keep an eye on granular location metrics

1. See which locations are generating the most traffic by clicking on the Locations tab in the second navigation column. Here you can view standard information such as clicks, impressions, average cost-per-click (CPC), and average position, as it applies to each of your specified locations.

Seek out and implement location-based negatives

1. Use the Search Terms Report to see which keyword searches triggered your ads. If you notice keywords from outside your target locations are triggering your ads, exclude these keywords by clicking the check box next to them, then selecting Add as a negative keyword.

Use bid adjustments to lower CPA

1. Apply bid adjustments by location based on the performance of said location and CPA.
   1. In the Locations section, you’ll see a bid adjustment column where you can apply a negative or positive percentage on top of your original keyword bids for the selected area.

Age Group

Review performance by age group to see which are interacting with your ads

1. Make bid adjustments where necessary.
2. Exclude the age group if there is high placement and low conversion.
3. If the age group is performing considerably well, take a look at what is driving success and potentially create a new ad group specifically targeted to that age group.

Target CPA

1. Look at account structure
2. Rebalance Campaign Budget
   1. Properly allocate budget to the ad group with the lowest CPA.
   2. If there are higher CPA ad groups, keywords, or audiences from which you can pull budget to ensure your most efficient campaigns are fully funded, do so, and make adjustments as needed.
   3. Additionally, make demographic adjustments & keyword adjustments which can lower CPA.

Bidding Strategies

Campaign Bid/Budget Alignment

1. Align bids to campaign budget to maximize efficiency.
2. If a campaign is constrained by budget – indicated by the Lost Is (budget), impression share, click share, and top of page IS metrics – analyze whether it makes sense to drop ad group and keyword bids.
3. Even for high-performing ad groups/keywords, it can make sense to drop bids to capture more clicks and conversions for that same budget.