What Percentage of Your PPC Spend is in the "Short
Head"?
Notice in the chart below that on average the single
highest spending keyword phrase in an account typically represents over
34% of the total PPC account spend.
Spend Most of Your Time Where Your Time Matters Most
As the "short head" of your search campaigns, that
handful of phrases obviously carries a lot of weight in determining the
success or failure of your account. Every search marketer should know what
his top 10 highest spending keywords are and be aggressively testing,
measuring and evaluating numerous ad creative and landing page variations.
For
those of you who advertise in Yahoo Search Marketing, be sure to flag
these keyword phrases on your "watch list" so you can easily manage
them from your dashboard.
Conversion Analyst provides an easy to use report
that will identify your highest spending keyword phrases. Find that
report in 5 easy steps:
- After
logging into your Conversion Analyst account, select the appropriate
date range.
- In
the Reports section, select Marketing, Campaign Summary.
- Click
on the plus sign next to "Paid Search" to see all of the paid
search campaigns.
- To
view the activity by keyword phrase, place your mouse over the
magnifying glass and select "Show
Search Listings".
- On
the next screen click on the down arrow button next to the Cost column
to sort by cost descending.
There are a couple other key metrics on this report
you'll want to look at when optimizing these keyword phrases.
An indication of the effectiveness of your landing
page is measured by the bounce rate - the percentage of visitors who
land on your landing page and then exit without going any further into the
site. The bounce rates associated with your "short head" keyword phrases
should be the lowest values on your report.
And,
if you're an eCommerce site, you'll want to pay close attention to
your return on ad spend (ROAS = Revenue/click costs). This metric is a
more accurate reflection of the profitability of your keyword phrases than
CPA because it also takes into account the revenue generated from those
keyword phrases.
Total Body Management - The Essence of Successful Search Marketing
A combined approach of appropriately managing the
"short head" and the "long tail" of your accounts is obviously a
sound strategy. Allocate your time and testing resources based on the
potential return. Be sure not
to get carried away by the seemingly endless possibilities of the "long
tail" at the expense of your highest spending "short head" keyword
phrases.
