Decreased time spent on campaign management and reporting by 25%
Leveraged existing Omniture tracking system
Increased lead volume from content ads
A little about QualitySmith
QualitySmith provides a service that connects homeowners with reliable local contractors. By doing thorough background checks on high quality contractors and aggregating customer reviews, QualitySmith helps customers find trustworthy contractors for their home improvement needs. Most homeowners rely on QualitySmith to get started with estimates from a variety of local prescreened contractors. The company operates a large-scale paid search program, spanning more than 3.5 million keywords, which focuses on driving leads to QualitySmith’s network of local contractors.
It is not humanly possible to manually manage bids on over 3.5 million keywords. We have complete confidence in Marin’s bidding. This automation has enabled our team to focus on campaign optimization beyond bidding as well as expansion into new markets.
Mike Wienick
Director of Marketing at QualitySmith
QualitySmith tried another vendor, it didn’t work out
In order to more efficiently manage and optimize their paid search campaigns, QualitySmith selected and licensed a third party software solution. Six months into their implementation, however, QualitySmith was still unable to realize the time savings and financial lift necessary to justify their investment. Being able to automate bidding across more than 3.5 million keywords was a critical requirement for QualitySmith, yet the tool was not bidding effectively, requiring manual monitoring. Average costs-per-lead (CPL) varied greatly day-to-day and regularly exceeded target CPL by as much as 20%. QualitySmith needed a scalable and reliable bidding solution that could adjust to the seasonal changes in their business while consistently hitting business goals.
QualitySmith was also spending more time than necessary on day to day management tasks. The team was unable to use the tool for bidding on the Content Network, requiring bid calculations to be made by hand. This blocked QualitySmith from expanding their Content Network programs, an opportunity which the team saw as a potential source of incremental revenue. The team was also frustrated with the time it took to build URLs and append tracking codes by hand for new keywords. This painful URL management process prevented them from work that could have improved campaign performance such as expanding keywords and refining match types.
QualitySmith was looking for a solution that would enable them to more efficiently manage and optimize their paid search marketing program, allowing them to expand their reach and improve overall financial performance. Given their frustrations with the current tool, the company was hesitant to commit to deploying a new platform, fearing the on-boarding process would result in additional lost time and revenue.
QualitySmith now relies on Marin’s predictive automated bidding solution
After a thoughtful review, QualitySmith chose to implement Marin Software, in part because the on-boarding process would be quick and wouldn’t disrupt their marketing programs. Marin’s professional services teams delivered a seamless implementation, ensuring that QualitySmith did not have to rely on internal development resources. Moreover, Marin’s automated integration with Omniture made it possible for QualitySmith to start using the platform without making changes to their existing analytics systems or URLs. Additionally, the cleaner, more intuitive interface allowed marketers to get up to speed quickly without any loss in productivity.
Marin’s powerful and easy to use bidding solution allowed QualitySmith to set simple cost-per-lead goals for their campaigns, maximizing volume while consistently hitting business targets. With Marin’s proven bidding solution QualitySmith is now able to rely on automated bidding across publishers and networks, including the content networks.
Led by a 600% increase in lead volume, QualitySmith’s numbers improved across the board
The transition to Marin Software provided QualitySmith with both time savings and financial lift. Marketers are spending at least 25% less time with daily campaign management and reporting tasks and now have more time to focus on campaign expansion and optimization activities. The automated bidding solution has helped QualitySmith increase their lead volume while staying below their maximum CPL. Marin’s bidding has provided a decrease in cost-per-lead of as much as 43% in one vertical and an average decrease of 20% overall, while maintaining or increasing lead volumes. Furthermore, automated bid optimization on the content networks has increased QualitySmith’s lead volume from content ads by over 600%.
With the URL Builder, QualitySmith can now efficiently optimize for campaign quality using Marin Software’s integrated keyword expansion. Leveraging keyword suggestions from sources such as raw query reports, QualitySmith can now add keywords and negatives with a single click, instead of the painful URL generation and manual upload process they were using before. QualitySmith also uses Marin’s bulk-upload features to deploy new campaigns, relying on Marin to generate URLs and check for tracking code integrity.
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Marketing Data Pipelines: Turning Data Into Insights
Wrangling and making sense of all your marketing data is hard. For longer than a decade, we’ve been helping companies solve some pretty complex marketing data challenges – and we’ve compiled some of the knowledge we’ve gained over the years into a handy guide. The tl;dr? It’s complicated, but with the right tools, namely a marketing data pipeline (MDP), it doesn’t have to be hard! In this guide we break it all down to help you make sense of it, including breaking down:
What an MDP is
The stages of MDP maturity
Some of the key challenges with building an MDP
How to tell if you need an MDP
How to get started
And so much more!
Check out the report to learn all about corralling your marketing data today!
5 Performance Max best practices, from a PPC expert
Advertisers are starting to see great success with their Performance Max (PMAX) campaigns. They have been growing in popularity in Google Ads and are now available Globally in Microsoft Ads, too! Many Paid Search managers now consider it best practice to have at least one Performance Max campaign running in their Google Ads account. They are great for finding high-converting customers not only on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) but across all of Google’s other channels like YouTube, Display, Gmail, and Maps.
PMAX campaigns learn as they go. While they take around 6 weeks to mature, they’ll continue to get more efficient over time. That said, there are several ways to speed up their learning process and set up your campaigns for success. Follow these 5 tips to get the best possible results from your PMAX campaigns.
1. Add high-quality creative assets
Adding high-quality assets is one of the most important steps in setting up a successful Performance Max campaign. Advertisers should add a variety of asset types to ensure that their ad can serve on many different channels and placements.
Text assets
Text assets include the headlines and descriptions for your PMAX campaign’s text ads.
First, you will want to add headlines. You can add up to 15, and filling all 15 slots with headline variations will allow you to include more keywords in your copy, which will improve ad quality. Think about the keywords that you would want to target if this were a traditional paid search campaign. Then, incorporate those keywords into your ad copy. The more relevant keywords you include, the higher the likelihood that your ad will serve.
Once you’ve optimized your headlines, you can add up to 4 descriptions. It is best to include a call to action in each of them. Descriptions can have up to 90 characters and it is best to use as many characters as possible to take up more space on the page and include as much relevant information and keywords as you can.
Image assets
Next, let's talk about graphics. There are two different types of graphics to include in a PMAX campaign: Images and Logos. It's best to add multiple variations of each type of asset so that they can appear in a variety of placements with different ideal image sizes. It is important that all images are high-quality.
For image assets, there are three different options to consider:
Landscape image
Landscape assets should have an aspect ratio of 1.91:1, meaning the width should be 1.91 times the height. The minimum size is 600 x 314 pixels, and the recommended size is 1200 x 628 pixels. The maximum file size for a Landscape image asset is 5120 KB.
Square image
Square assets must have an aspect ratio of 1:1, meaning the width and height are equal (it’s a square, after all!) The minimum size is 300 x 300 pixels, and the recommended size is 1200 x 1200 pixels. The maximum file size for a Square image asset is 5120 KB.
Portrait image
Portrait assets must have an aspect ratio of 4:5, meaning the height is equal to ⅘ the width. The minimum size is 480 x 600 pixels, and the recommended size is 960 x 1200 pixels. This asset type doesn’t have a maximum file size limit.
You can include up to 20 images for each type of image asset, and it’s best to provide as many asset variations as possible. While 20 portrait, 20 square, and 20 landscape images are ideal, it’s not always possible to produce that much relevant creative. It’s critical to have at least one of each type of asset in your campaign, but the more, the merrier!
Logo assets
You should also add logo assets to make your brand more recognizable in your ads. The options for logo assets are:
Landscape logo
Landscape logos are horizontal and must have a 4:1 aspect ratio, meaning the width must be four times the height. The minimum size is 512x128 pixels, with a recommended size of 1200x300 pixels. The maximum file size is 5120 KB.
Square logo
Square logos, like their image counterparts, must have a 1:1 aspect ratio. The minimum size is 128x128 pixels, with a recommended size of 1200x1200 pixels. The maximum file size is 5120KB.
You can include up to 5 logos for each type of asset. Like their image counterparts, including as many logo variations as possible will improve ad performance.
Video assets
Then, there is the option to add video assets. If you don’t add a video asset, Google will create one for you using your headlines and images. Though these videos can see positive results, they may not always reflect your vision of how you would like to present the brand, so it’s best to create your own.
There’s only one video format for PMAX campaigns, which is specifically designed for YouTube ads, though video ads can also serve on the Display Network. You have the ability to include up to 5 video assets per PMAX campaign, and it’s best to include as many as possible. Videos must be at least 10 seconds long. You can choose between horizontal, vertical, and square aspect ratios. Note that Google may resize your videos automatically to make them fit in different placements.
Grouping assets properly
Keep in mind that when setting up asset groups, you will not be able to control which assets get served together within the group. For example, if you sell both sandals and boots, these different product types should have separate asset groups because you wouldn't want a headline about boots showing up with a picture of sandals. Therefore, you want to make sure all the assets within a given group are cohesive. Separate asset groups will also allow you to set up different targeting for each type of product. Make sure that every asset group has video, image, and text assets.
Reviewing asset performance
Once your PMAX campaign has run for a while and has gathered data, you will be able to check the Asset Report and see how each different asset is rated. It will state low, good, or best. However, if there are not enough impressions for Google to calculate a performance category, then it will state that there is not enough data. It is best to switch out low-performing assets with new ones and continually test new assets. But be sure to wait a few weeks before switching out assets so that they gather enough data to receive an accurate quality rating.
Including ad extensions
While setting up your assets, you should also include ad extensions. Treat the ad extensions as you would in search campaigns and make sure that they are relevant to the campaign and to any asset combinations within the campaign.
2. Apply specific targeting
Adding targeting when setting up a PMAX campaign will help speed up the learning process. You can use data from existing campaigns with similar products to help decide what targeting to apply. Depending on your goals, you can target more specific audiences that you know will convert, or you can include audiences that have similar interests to expand your reach.
Audience signals
Adding audience signals to Performance Max campaigns helps guide the algorithm. The algorithm will use these audience signals as suggestions when selecting the right users to serve ads to. Adding all of the possible audience signals is not required, but it will speed up the learning process. To select the right audience signals, use data from active campaigns and audiences and incorporate successful audiences and demographics into your PMAX targeting.
Interest categories
You can use industry knowledge to select interest categories that are related to the products you sell. Adding interest categories is a good way to capture your target audience as well as audiences that may have similar interests.
Demographic targets
There are other targeting options, such as demographics, that you can add right away. Or you can let the campaign run, analyze the data, and then set the demographics based on the results. For example, you may notice a specific age range is more likely to convert, and add that age range as a demographic target. And, of course, you can use data on users who previously interacted with your site, such as website visitors, to create retargeting audiences.
Search themes
Search themes are words or phrases that you expect your audience to search. These are similar to keywords, but they will be used as a suggestion to the algorithm rather than a requirement. The algorithm can still serve your ad to people who are not searching for those words or phrases. Adding search themes will improve targeting for new campaigns and for campaigns whose targeting settings aren’t specific enough. These are optional but are a great way to provide additional guidance to your campaigns.
3. Optimize your feed
When creating asset groups, it's important to optimize your product feed. Make sure that the products in each group match the assets. If your assets are split up by content category, then the products in each asset group should be split up the same way.
Product titles should provide an accurate description of the product, as any confusing language will decrease the click-through rate.
If there are products that are consistently driving low ROI, you should either exclude them from the asset group or put them into their own campaign with a small budget.
Also, be sure to regularly check that your feeds have been approved.
4. Don’t just rely on PMAX
It is best to use performance max campaigns alongside search campaigns. Using both will maximize visibility.
Search campaigns offer more control and the ability to target exact keywords. With PMAX, you can’t control which search queries your ads are served on. Rather, PMAX’s AI-powered technology analyzes your landing page content, product feed, and assets to decide which queries are relevant to your ads. Therefore, it’s best to target specific keywords with search campaigns and allow PMAX to drive incremental conversions with its AI-powered targeting.
5. Choose the right bid strategy
When selecting a bidding strategy for a new performance max campaign, choose either Maximize Conversions, which will aim to get as many conversions as possible within the provided budget, or Maximize Conversion Value, which will aim to get high-value conversions. The latter may drive fewer conversions, but the conversions it does drive will be more valuable.
Using Target ROAS or Target CPA is still an option, but it is best to wait to use them until the PMAX campaign has matured and gathered sufficient revenue and conversion data for the algorithm to reference.
Final thoughts
We highly recommend testing performance max campaigns to understand what they can do for your advertising program. To ensure the best outcome, set up your PMAX campaigns with quality assets and relevant audiences. The learning period can take up to six weeks, and making changes to the campaign during this period will make it take longer, so try to sit back and let it do its thing.
If you’re looking for a solution that enables you to manage your Google and Microsoft PMAX campaigns in one place, look no further than Marin. In our centralized interface, you can analyze, optimize, and report on all your cross-channel campaigns. Marin can even track your campaigns' performance for you and provide unique, publisher-independent recommendations for improvement. To learn more, click here to chat with a Marin Rep!
Yotel Increases Revenue by 323% Using MarinOne’s Google to Microsoft Sync
Background
Established in 2007, Yotel is a hotel group that offers guests an experience that challenges the status quo; with a promise to deliver a different kind of stay through awesome people, smart design, and the creative use of technology.