By Lydia Chen Shah, Director Marketing Communications
Back in May of 2009, we submitted a session proposal about attribution for MarketingSherpa’s B2B Summit. Although we weren’t selected for the summit, the story was shared in a recent MarketingSherpa case study about search engine marketing – Attributing Conversions to Assisting Keywords Lowers CPA: 5 Steps to Optimize Bids.
The case study features how non-brand keywords and tail terms assist branded conversions in search engine marketing for the American Management Association. Ultimately, proper attribution and not just giving credit to the last click, helped develop a PPC strategy that reduced non-brand cost per acquisition (CPA) over 25% while increasing sales by over 15%. Not too shabby, one might say.
The 5 steps outlined in the case study include:
- Implement technology to track visitors from entry search to conversion -This goes beyond Google Analytics. Our DSMM Advantage™ technology was used to track multiple touch points.
- Establish groups of non-branded keywords to test - Keywords were grouped into clusters based on behavior/intent.
- Track search activity to determine which keyword groups assisted conversions - Clusters were then evaluated for performance. Having insight from assist tracking and latency played a critical role.
- Adjust keyword bids according to assist value - We became more aggressive in our bidding with top-performing clusters since those drove conversions and could stimulate demand.
- Track impact of bidding strategy changes - All campaigns are under constant refinement. There is no set it and forget it mode.
Notice the word track appears frequently within these 5 steps. Big kudos to our DSMM Advantage team, the folks working hard at making sure our technology supports our search engine marketing strategies and our clients’ tracking needs.
I digress. Back to the topic at hand. Attribution. With proper attribution, we got rid of over 20,000 non-performing keywords. Non-brand budget increased from 70% to 75%. While this doesn’t seem like much of an increase, the major shift was in weight. We significantly shifted dollars from certain underperforming keywords to clusters of tail terms that were truly driving rich brand engagements that led to traceable conversions via brand terms, email and print.
To read the full case study, visit MarketingSherpa (open access until Jan 2, 2010).