Wouldn’t You Like To Be A Pepper Too?
If you’re old enough, you might remember the Dr. Pepper jingle – I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, she’s a Pepper, we’re a Pepper; wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too? And about now, you’re probably wondering what in the world this has to do with pay per click.
Good question.
One of the things I do for aspiring PPC analysts is help them prepare for “the Google test.” A lot of people want to take the Google Adwords certification exam. I’m not sure why but I think it has something to do with being a Pepper too because he’s a Pepper and she’s a Pepper so you can’t be as credible if you aren’t a Pepper too… get it?
There are a couple of key factors that seem to be forgotten about the Google Adwords Certification test. First and foremost, it’s a test over the PPC Gospel according to Google. Disproportionately loaded with questions about billing cycles, terms of use, where tabs are on the page, and editorial guidelines, there is very little on “the Google test” that actually has to do with effective PPC management. For example, Google’s answer to fix poor CTR is “increase CPC.” In real life, people can’t do that. You have to maintain some economic balance or you will bid yourself out of existence. If your ads suck, your CTR will suck – end of story. But the correct answer to “how do you improve CTR” on the Google test is “increase CPC.” This is a perfect strategy for Google, to whom you are paying all that increased CPC, but it’s a horrible first step in correcting poor click through rate.
Secondly, with the right assistance, anyone can pass this test. Sure it’s timed. Sure there are a lot of questions. Yes, it’s designed to confuse you. But come on, it’s on the internet… this is the most “open-book” test you will ever take. Groups of people routinely take the test, as a group, in order to help each other out. Been there, done that, still got the t-shirt, so to speak. I still assist colleagues and even clients who want to have someone around as a safety net when they take the test. Passing this test doesn’t make them qualified to manage anyone’s PPC though. It just means they know how Google works and how Google wants you to think about pay per click, which, quite honestly, is often not in your own best interests.
Having Google Certified staff on the roster is becoming ridiculously commonplace. Almost anyone can become Google Adwords Certified, but not everyone can understand and act on what it takes to operate an efficient, cost-effective pay per click campaign. So with that in mind, here are a few questions you might want to keep handy if you are considering hiring a Google Adwords Certified Professional to manage paid ad campaigns for you.
- how many accounts do you, personally, manage? Most analysts will sidestep this question because there is no “right” answer, but I will tell you, coming from the best and worst of PPC groups as I have, a single individual cannot effectively track, manage, analyze and strategize for more than maybe ten clients at a time… and that’s being extremely generous. Make them squirm but pin them down on this, even if they tell you it’s confidential. You’re not asking who these clients are, you’re asking about the feasible availability of your analyst – what slice of their time you can expect. You’re paying for that service – you have a right to ask this question. If the answer is more than a dozen, you should look elsewhere – that poor guy is overworked.
- how do you build your keyword lists? Automated tools are fine for people who don’t know any better, or for people who are researching keywords in order to choose a niche for affiliate marketing. However, these affiliate tactics do not work for the average web site. The human thought process needs to be involved in this step because whether you realize it or not, real people are doing the searching. Google’s keyword tool really does provide some of the best assistance in terms of research, providing more detailed information now than they did back when all you got for search volume was a little blue bar. Microsoft’s AdCenter keyword tools are also extremely useful in combination with Google’s tool. Keyword stuffing just mucks up the works so quantity of keywords should not really be a factor. Structure and grouping of keywords though, should be something you ask the potential manager to explain.
- how often do you research competitors and what are you looking for when you do this? Competitive research is one of the most often overlooked pieces of the PPC puzzle, which is sort of ridiculous because it’s so easy spy on everyone. There’s a plethora of competitive research tools that anyone can use, some you can use in a limited fashion for free. Before you start your search for the perfect PPC Manager, visit and play around with tools like SpyFu and Compete – get an idea of the intelligence that’s out there beforehand. Find out if your prospective analyst knows how to find out what percentage of the Adwords market on your favorite keyword the top three advertisers hold, or ask them if they have ever looked into using competitive ad cycles as a performance indicator for ad copy. If they don’t know what you’re talking about, they don’t do much useful competitive research, possibly because they lack time.
- do you help fix landing pages? A-1 primo step in fixing a broken PPC account is landing page analysis – anyone who attempts to “fix” your paid ad account without first analyzing the performance of your landing pages doesn’t have the proper respect for your money. Run away. Any PPC analyst worth their salt will turn around and ask you most of the following: do you have conversion tracking, does it work, does your page contain the correct key conversion elements, have you split-tested alternate layouts, different wording, tried a button that says something other than “submit,” offered the right incentives, allayed consumer anxiety, or come up with a unique benefit that only you have?
- how often do you make bid adjustments? This is a trick question. A good PPC analyst will know it’s a trick question. Unless you have an extremely high volume account with lots and lots of money, chances are you can go a whole day without a click on any number of keywords in your account that have had bids adjusted, just due to budget constraints. The fact is that any change made in a paid ad account has to be monitored before you know if the action you took was correct. You have to be able to see a measurable result before you know anything worth acting on. A certain amount of automation might be useful to a really large account if you already have data that proves you should bid to position, which is what constant bid changing can help with. But the average PPC account should NOT bid to position – they should bid to economics – don’t pay more than you can afford based on the overall PROFIT that keyword generates. If your PPC Pepper doesn’t make you aware of this, they’re too immature in terms of pay per click profitability and ROI.
Here’s the bonus question – when you say “we use proprietary software” do you mean you write your own software for this task or you just don’t want to tell me whose software you’re using? To put it simply, no “tool” can think like a human – a software package can’t give you any mojo. If an agency actually develops their own tools, that means they understand the playing field well enough to know that they need something different and they went the extra mile to come up with a solution. Agencies or individual analysts who only rely on pre-packaged PPC solutions for analysis and reporting are selling themselves short and doing their clients a disservice. I’m all for using tools in the proper context, but if you let your “proprietary” 3rd party platform run the show and for some reason it gets the hiccups, what are you gonna do then, huh? And in my opinion, if an agency or individual analyst is too afraid of losing your business to tell you what tools they use, there are other problems beneath the surface of that Google Adwords Certified logo.
Even though the Age of Certification has its uses, don’t forget that some certs are easy to come by as long as you can afford the test and know where to find the answers… just like any other hiring choice, you can’t “know” how someone will perform until you see it yourself, but being informed and asking a few very direct questions can sure help.
Oh Doc-tor Pepper, so misunderstood… if anyone would try you, they’d know you… taste… good…
