Google recently made changes to its Search Engine Results Page layout, reducing advertising opportunities. There are now four top ad spots that are highly valuable but difficult to obtain. The document outlines four strategies for improving pay-per-click campaigns and competing for these top spots: being strategic with ads and messaging, getting more specific with targeting, taking advantage of shopping improvements, and considering other advertising channels if the top spots cannot be obtained.

1. Google AdWords
Workshop:
Four Strategies for Winning Top
Spots
Presented by KeywordFirst

2. Changes to Google’s SERP Layout
• Google recently made significant changes to the layout of its Search Engine
Results Page (SERP):
• One additional paid search result has been added at the top, for a maximum total
of four.
• Side ad positions have been removed.
• Three ads have been added to the bottom, but they are much less valuable.
• Net effect: there will be 30% less advertising opportunity on the page (a
maximum of 11 spots is now down to a max of 7).
• Winning one of those four places is very important but difficult.

3. Competing for Top Spots
• These changes continue Google’s concentration on large advertisers with
significant budgets since they’re usually in the best position to bid on those
coveted positions.
• Small-and mid-sized businesses will be less likely to be able to compete for those
top spots.
• If your organization is one of the fortunate few that can take advantage of
this expansion at the top, there are four things that you can do to improve
your pay-per-click (PPC) and click-through rate (CTR) campaigns.

4. Be Strategic with Ads and Messaging
• Google has a number of criteria they use to determine who gets the top ad
spots.
• You can produce better results by making effective use of manual
AdWords™ ad extensions, such as apps, calls and locations.
• There are seven, including structured snippets, that can be used to maximize real
estate, carry a variety of messages to your audience and encourage immediate
action.

5. Be Strategic with Ads and Messaging (continued)
• It’s important to eliminate redundancies, especially if
multiple people are working on your AdWords campaign.
• Have someone perform an audit to understand what consumers
are seeing on the SERP so that you can make adjustments and
continually evaluate and make tweaks.

6. Get More Specific with Targeting
• AdWords continues to evolve, making it easier to reach highly qualified
audiences.
• Last year, Google rolled out Customer Match, which provides greater
control over which customers you can include and exclude in your ads.
• As long as you have a customer’s email address, you can use Customer Match to
serve up the right ad based on where they are in the buying cycle (provided they
are signed in to their Google account).
• It’s very effective at pulling customers through the sales cycle and gets better with
the more data you have on your customers.

7. Get More Specific with Targeting (continued)
• Another great option is remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA), which
makes it easy to tailor your search ads and campaigns for people who have
already visited your website, whether or not they made a purchase.
• If they had enough interest to click on your site once – they’re likely to click again if
you show them the right message. You can use RLSA to capture one of those top
spots based on previous history.
• Other targeting features allow you to use Google AdWords to tailor ads and
campaigns based on factors such as income and geography.

8. Take Advantage of Shopping Improvements
• Smart retailers can use shopping campaigns and Product Listing Ads
(PLAs) to gain additional advantages.
• If typically you’ve been in one of the top spots, it’s likely that you’ll now see an
increase in traffic. If you’re not in one of the top spots, shopping ads are a good
way to stand out if/when customers scroll to the bottom of the page.
• The best thing that you can do is to hone your skills on feed optimization,
negative keyword fencing and other techniques that will help you ensure
that the right ads are being served to the right customers at the right times.

9. Consider Other Channels
• If you’re having trouble competing, you may want to
consider other channels, such as Bing or Yahoo!, which
can still yield excellent results.
• By testing ads on multiple platforms, you can determine
whether you need to keep all of your investment with
Google or if you can branch out to others where you can
gain a more dominant position.

10. Consider Other Channels (continued)
• You may also want to consider alternatives such as
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, which also have high
traffic.
• While once considered second tier, many advertisers now find
them to be very effective.
• YouTube is now the second-largest search engine, with more
searches than Bing, Yahoo!, Ask and AOL combined.

11. Summing Up
• Google recently made significant changes to the layout of its Search
Engine Results Page (SERP), resulting in a 30% reduction in ad space
and fierce competition for top spots.
• There are four things you can do to compensate for the changes and
improve your PPC and CTR campaigns:
• Be strategic with your ads and messaging
• Get more specific with targeting
• Take advantage of shopping improvements
• Consider other channels

12. Analytics and paid search article on our FirstWord blog: http://keywordfirst.com/nuts-
bolts-five-ways-analytics-make-paid-search-campaigns-better/
Turning browsers into buyers article on our FirstWord blog:
http://keywordfirst.com/retailers-turn-browsers-buyers/
Google Adwords™
•Ad extensions: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2375499?hl=en
•Customer Match: https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6276125?hl=en
•Remarketing lists for search ads:
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2701222?hl=en
•Shopping campaigns and product listing ads:
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454022?hl=en
Resources

13. Mark Smith
http://keywordfirst.com/about-us/our-team/
Co-Founder, KeywordFirst
Mark@KeywordFirst.com
Contact