A discussion of how to get budgets to win for you in all circumstances. We dive into strategies on combating over spending including auditing keyword champions, checking bidding strategies, and device/location auction prices. We also addressed underspending and how to solve structure issues that can cause it. Finally we addressed how to scale successfully.

1. | @navahf
SMX
End Of Under & Overspending In
PPC Campaigns
By: Navah Hopkins

2. | @navahf
SMX
I am a bounty hunter of happiness and profit
(& a Star Wars nerd)

3. | @navahf
SMX
• Am focused on the business metrics of
my stakeholders (clients).
• Know when to invest and when to
hold back.
• Live for the thrill of winning for my
stakeholders.
This means I:

4. | @navahf
SMX
Talking Money is Hard – Talking Profit is Easy

5. | @navahf
SMX
By the end of this session, each of you will have the
tools to be a fellow bounty hunter of happiness and
profit

6. | @navahf
SMX
What We’ll Be Covering
➔ Baseline/Questions to Ask
➔ Poor Performance Caused by
Lack of Budget
➔ Can’t Spend the Budget
➔ Account is Winning
➔ Casestudy
Navah Hopkins
CEO

7. | @navahf
SMX
Baseline/Questions to Ask

8. | @navahf
SMX
Before We Can Begin Hunting, We Need to Do Some
Reconnaissance

9. | @navahf
SMX
Are All Parts of the Business Equal, or Are Some Worth More?

10. | @navahf
SMX
Are There Hubs of High-Value Customers, or Are They Truly
Spread Out?

11. | @navahf
SMX
Are Phone and Website Leads Equal?
Do Conversion Rates and Auction Prices Align?

12. | @navahf
SMX
• Impression Share
• Auction Price
• Conversion Rate/Value
Three Trails Good
Hunters Follow:

13. | @navahf
SMX
Most Advertisers Struggle to Achieve 50%+ of
Available Impressions
Based on
2973
accounts
with at least
$.01 in
search
spend
Average
impression
share is 47%

14. | @navahf
SMX
Search Auction Prices Vary
by Industry – Don’t Bring A
Blaster To A Lightsaber
Duel

15. | @navahf
SMX
If You Know You Have An Easier Time Winning on
Mobile/Desktop, Don’t Be Afraid to Focus There
Mobile:
4.39% CTR
$34.79 CPA

16. | @navahf
SMX
All Devices Paint One Picture…Segmenting By Device
protects Against False Negatives/Positives
North Bay
Average
CPC: $2.75
North Bay
Conversion
Rate: 6.9%
East Bay
Average
CPC: $2.57
East Bay
Conversion
Rate: 9.4%
Average CPC:
$2.83
8% Conversion
Rate vs 3.4%
Desktop
conversion Rate
Average CPC: $2.62
9.2% Conversion Rate
vs 12% Desktop
Conversion Rate

17. | @navahf
SMX
✓Location Targets
✓Duplicate Keywords
✓Structure of the Campaign
✓Match-types of keywords
✓Bidding strategies
Raising Budget Is A Last
Resort – Check the
Following First:

18. | @navahf
SMX
Poor Performance Caused by Lack of
Budget

19. | @navahf
SMX
Wasted Spend is the Enemy

20. | @navahf
SMX
A Hint Of Wasted Spend Can Make
It Hard To Convince Clients To
Open Up Budgets.

21. | @navahf
SMX
A Budget Misaligned With The Structure It’s Asked
To Support Will Always Be Wasted Spend

22. | @navahf
SMX
If You Ask Google To Deliver on Volume, Don’t Hold
It Accountable For Value
Based on data from 3200 client accounts in
July 2019

23. | @navahf
SMX
Can Your Budget Support 10 “Top Of Page Clicks”?

24. | @navahf
SMX
If Not, Assess if You Can Get The Traffic With
Different Search Ideas

25. | @navahf
SMX
Check The Search Terms For The Real Heroes!
3% cheaper
& perfect
conversion
rate!

26. | @navahf
SMX
Broad Keywords Can Drag Your Budget into
Unintended Auctions
162%
More
Than
Average
“ “
“ “

27. | @navahf
SMX
If they’re all too high, find out if clients can live
without that Traffic

28. | @navahf
SMX
• Use extensions to communicate
valuable ideas without paying a
premium.
• Bid adjustments can focus the budget.
• Lumping strategic initiatives together
can cause all to fail.
Not all profit centers
are equal:

29. | @navahf
SMX
Daily Budgets Needed For AT LEAST One Lead
Based on 2022 Average CPC
Monthly
budget will be
30.4 X daily
budget

30. | @navahf
SMX
Starting Microsoft Is As Easy As Setting Up An Auto-
Import

31. | @navahf
SMX
• Be transparent about industry costs
and whether budget expectations are
realistic.
• Offer options that work within the
requested budget.
• Give realistic timelines for growth
When Crafting Marketing
Budgets/Assessing Clients:

32. | @navahf
SMX
Can’t Spend the Budget

33. | @navahf
SMX
It can be intimidating to ask for more budget, when you’re
struggling to spend existing budget.

34. | @navahf
SMX
Your Campaign is Likely Losing Impression Share to
Rank

35. | @navahf
SMX
• Too many targets
• Bids and auction prices not aligned
• Search volume isn’t there for
“important” keywords
Here are the most
common culprits:

36. | @navahf
SMX
There’re Only
So Many
Signals A
Budget Can
Accommodate

37. | @navahf
SMX
Targeting 5+ Locations Without Bid Adjustments
Can Cause Budget Allocation Issues

38. | @navahf
SMX
Different Locations Have Different Auction Prices,
Search Patterns, & Time Zones

39. | @navahf
SMX
Number Of Ad Groups Can Also Choke Budgets: 5-7
Is The Golden Ratio!
60% of
impressions
Budget
will only
go to
“winners”
instead of
everything

40. | @navahf
SMX
Mixing Strategic Objectives Will Cause Budget
Allocation Issues
Competitor terms at least $2 more per
click

41. | @navahf
SMX
Bid To Budget Ratio Is Only
Part Of The Equation:
If The Bids Are Too Low, You
Won’t Even Enter The Auction

42. | @navahf
SMX
While it is true Google can up to double your budget,
you can’t bank on it delivering premium volume if
you’re consistently under bidding

43. | @navahf
SMX
Search volume is an important mechanic in account
health

44. | @navahf
SMX
Google’s not going to
waste its time or your
money on pages that
lack transactional value

45. | @navahf
SMX
Those Pages May Be Important To Clients

46. | @navahf
SMX
• Turn important low volume keywords
into site links/callouts
• Make a low budget “experiment”
campaign to house these ideas
• Ask the client if they’d be open to
content marketing being responsible
for those ideas.
Here are three easy
solutions:

47. | @navahf
SMX
Account is Winning

48. | @navahf
SMX
Congratulations! You’ve vanquished your enemies
and achieved profit!

49. | @navahf
SMX
But we’re bounty hunters of profit and
happiness…there’s always more to be had

50. | @navahf
SMX
• Can your client handle more leads or
are they at capacity?
• Is this seasonal – should we invest
now, or hold for next season?
• Should the budget go to existing
initiatives, or would you rather expand
to new platforms/parts of the
business?
Before we continue:

51. | @navahf
SMX
Scale Means Investment – Not
Spending For The Sake Of Spending

52. | @navahf
SMX
•Adding in a channel to expand
eligible market
•Targeting a new location
•Adding new services/products
Scale Can Take
Many Forms:

53. | @navahf
SMX
Important: Never dump large amounts of money into
a winning campaign all at once!

54. | @navahf
SMX
Gradually increase budget by 10-15% each week over a
month

55. | @navahf
SMX
New Campaigns Are Expensive – the
first 1-2 months of a campaign will be
about data acquisition

56. | @navahf
SMX
Meet Koru K9:

57. | @navahf
SMX
• $2,700 monthly costs
• Conversions weren’t tracking properly
• Struggling to get enough business to
justify keeping staff
Before We Found Each
Other, Marketing Their
Business Was Stressful

58. | @navahf
SMX
Koru K9 Had A Pretty Stellar Evolution
Benchmark (November 2015)
➔ Spend: $1,295.75(Google Ads)
➔ Impressions: 30,570
➔ Clicks: 368
➔ Average CPC: $3.85
➔ Conversions: 23
➔ Conversion Rate: 6.25%
➔ CPA: $56.34
Post Optimizations (March 2019)
➔ Spend: $6,100
(Google Ads/Microsoft/Facebook)
➔ Impressions: 59,000
➔ Clicks: 2,000
➔ Average CPC: $2.69
➔ Conversions: 225
➔ Conversion Rate: 9.6%
➔ CPA: $27.07

59. | @navahf
SMX
• Built trust by identifying and
eliminating wasted spend brought in
by broad terms and tangential
searches.
• Focused budgets by geos served and
replicated winning structure across
those areas.
• Layered in display to educate markets
on why their approach to training
works.
How did we achieve
victory?

60. | @navahf
SMX
How Koru K9 Scaled

61. | @navahf
SMX
We Expanded Markets + Invested In Proven
Ones

62. | @navahf
SMX
Some Markets Really Struggled – Driving Up Costs

63. | @navahf
SMX
We Had To Make Some Budget Allocation Choices

64. | @navahf
SMX
Not All Markets Deserved “Focus” On High Value
Board & Train

65. | @navahf
SMX
We Added in Educational Display!

66. | @navahf
SMX
Brand Lift In Branded
Impressions
up 63%
CTR up 7.31%

67. | @navahf
SMX
More Customers For High Value Board Train!
Inquires went down
YOY, but conversion
rates went up!

68. | @navahf
SMX
We Changed Hearts & Minds With YouTube!
https://youtu.be/NfY381TwmW
4
50% make it to 15 seconds –
18% make it all the way
through

69. | @navahf
SMX
• $.04 Views
• A list we could rekindle with
search
• Opportunity to correct
misinformation
YouTube Brought Us:

70. | @navahf
SMX
The Landing Pages
Had Multiple
Numbers – Lost
Local Focus

71. | @navahf
SMX
New Site Doesn’t Force Local Number

72. | @navahf
SMX
We Were Able To Unlock Profit In One Month!

73. | @navahf
SMX
For Profit!

74. | @navahf
SMX
Build trust
through
transparency
about budgets
and timelines.

75. | @navahf
SMX
Use extensions
to promote
expensive ideas
when your
budget cannot.

76. | @navahf
SMX
Honor thy bid
to budget ratio
and conversion
rates

77. | @navahf
SMX
Check for
alternative ways
to achieve
expensive
traffic, but if the
ROI is there,
invest!

78. | @navahf
SMX
Acquisition
costs go down
with increased
exposure to
brands –
Display +
YouTube brings
the audience!

79. | @navahf
SMX
Thanks! Questions?
navah.hopkins@gmail.com
@navahf