A powerful insight from our Paid Search statistical analysis is the impact of a single word or letter. Our Paid Search Health Check quantifies each word’s impact on either improving profit and revenue or simply draining marketing spend. As some words are only adjectives or slight derivations of a core keyword, marketing groups often overlook their significance.
In one example, a B-to-B services company had hundreds of ad groups with keywords “Discount” and “Custom”. As only adjectives, Discount and Custom were included liberally across most ad-groups. The external marketing agency who lack our parsing routines and statistical techniques could not quantify those words impact. The Anova Group parsed out these atomic words to discover that the adjective Custom ensured that those keywords-ad group combinations were the most profitable. On the other hand, the adjective Discount obtained sales at levels of marketing spend that were unprofitable.
In another example, Anova Group found that a keyword with an apostrophe S attached was an unprofitable drain on marketing. This finding stunned our client as the same keyword without the apostrophe S was a strong performer. After Anova Group identified the problem, the client recognized that the apostrophe S changed the meaning of the search enough to attract low quality visitors.
Over and over again, internal marketing groups are unaware of these subtle but critical impacts despite having both the talent and the best tools. The problem is that this analysis is beyond the capabilities of Google Analytics or software packages such as Omniture. If you are wondering what you might be missing and want to increase the return on your Paid Search spend, you may want to contact Anova Group.
Posted by Jeff Aliotta
