Luanne Marek has been working in the digital customer acquisition space for 12 years. During his six years leading Centerfield’s media buying team, Marek and his team have managed nearly a billion in ad spend, half a dozen Fortune 100 companies, several dozen Fortune 500 and many other brands in the B2B, e-commerce, wireless and insurance industries.
At SMX Advanced, Marek shared the ways they’ve been successful with some of the world’s leading brands, sharing six lessons his team has learned over the past few years.
1. Test your campaigns
Because brand campaigns have a lower funnel and high conversion, many brands don’t think there’s any reason to switch. Marek didn’t go into detail about what tests should be done, but he explains that in the tests they did, they were able to increase sales by 122%, as well as increase the quality of sales by another 313%.
2. Measure with third-party tools
Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and test your campaigns, the next step is to make sure your data measurement is well designed.
Too often they see tests fail because the data was not well presented.
There is also a lot of emotional attachment to the results of people who have been managing or working with search campaigns. When that happens, Marek explains, it’s hard to look at the data impartially.
Marek suggests bringing in a third party that specializes in this type of data analysis is the ideal way to:
Correct baselines Create balance Use symmetrical data and measurements Ensure there are clear performance-based outcomes Allow the test to run without emotional attachment to readings
3. Always be experimenting
Marek and his team perform thousands of tests per month on:
Keywords.Campaign structure.Bid strategies.Ad copy.Landing pages.
About 80% of tests fail, and winners usually win only 5-10%.
When you find a winning test, scale it to other campaigns. Try additional iterations and make sure you can measure them to your end goal.
In the example they provide, Marek explains that while the submit button resulted in more form submissions, the view package button generated the most sales per page view and ultimately won a 33%
4. Optimize your real estate
One of the areas where Marek and her team see many brands falling apart is not making the most of the real estate offered by paid search results.
She suggests trying several brand positions.
Since other brands may appear in your results, adding a second paid brand position in the SERP will bring the conquerors to the bottom of the page and instead of a user searching for your brand and seeing a compelling message from one of your competitors in between. your paid search ad and your organic ad will only see your brand message.
Testing this method resulted in a 121% increase in sales and only a 9% increase in CPA for Marek and his team.
5. Personalize the experience
Adding a bunch of keywords to your landing page isn’t enough anymore. It’s the minimum.
Marek suggests personalizing the whole experience. She suggests using technology that can personalize and talk to the user about what’s important to them.
His advice: Look for a technology platform that flows throughout the entire user experience, including the landing page. Choose one that offers contextualization and AI to personalize each step of the user journey to keep them engaged.
6. The buyer’s journey is not linear
The market is increasingly competitive. Users typically have three or more touchpoints before they convert.
Using automation and omnichannel optimization to get to know the customer at every stage of the purchase journey is the way to go, especially with the loss of cookies and other third-party data.
Marek gives us the example of using chat and SMS, which did not exist as a conversion channel a few years ago. Marek suggests getting ahead of trends before your competition and letting the consumer reach where and how they want.
3 keys to take away
Set up tests. Validate results with an external provider. Give consumers choices.
“There are a lot of options, so test your current paid brand search strategy with others. And making it easy to test is the next best thing. And finally, push the envelope on giving consumers options. The fact that a “Just because a conversion path worked well doesn’t mean it’s the only one you should focus on. It’s not about spreading the same conversions across alternatives,” Marek said.
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About the author
Nicole Farley is an editor at Search Engine Land covering all things PPC. In addition to being a Marine Corps veteran, she has extensive experience in digital marketing, an MBA, and a penchant for true crime, podcasts, travel, and snacks.
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