3. • Online wholesaler of vacation rentals and
vacation packages
• Industry with 1 huge player, and lots of
small ones
• Large PPC Budget - $2 Million/year
– 160,000+ keywords, 4 accounts, 18 websites
3
4. Step 1: Break the System
• Broke campaigns into 100’s of adgroups
– Match specific, keyword specific, 3-5
keywords per group
– Even similar keywords got separate adgroups
• i.e. “park city cabins” vs. “park city cabins for
rent” vs. “park city cabin rentals”
– Do this for every type of lodging we offer-
hotels, condos, cabins, homes, townhomes, vi
llas, chalets, etc…
4
5. Results:
• Cross adgroup confusion
– Ads from one ad group showing up for another, keywords not
triggering matched queries (even exact match)
– Cross campaign confusion
– Negative keyword lists not being respected at campaign levels
• Complaints to Google, “account reps” couldn’t really help
• Infamous “the system isn’t designed to work that way”
from Google people
• Magically got a new account team, dedicated to us with
an adwords, analytics and mid-management specialist
5
6. Step 2: Digging into Interpretation Effect
• Google creates “buckets” for industries. The
system operates within these “buckets” and
will “interpret on your behalf”.
– Cabin means condo, hotels, lodging, vacation
rental, private home, etc…
• Solution was to manage/insert 10’s of
thousands of negative keywords to force
Adwords to respect keyword and override
interpretation
6
8. Interpretation Drives Google Systems and Product Development
1. Organic and Search are similar in intent
2. Stay on top of new features/trends to anticipate both arenas
8
10. • Google will continue to push out new features and merge
the line between paid and non-paid spots
• Keeping visitors on Google as long as possible in in their
best interest- in both paid and organic results
THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 10
11. • Location – places integration
• Call – phone numbers, click to call
• Sitelink – deep links
• Product – Product feed integration
• Social – Google+ integration
Dominate the paid space by utilizing each of these, and
you can anticipate organic results having the same
effect.
THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 11
12. Stay up to date with what you see
1. Your own industry searches
2. Popular changing industry searches:
– “ipod touch”, “dell latitude”
– “las vegas hotels”
– “credit cards”
• Do not do “ppc management” – apparently they arent
interested in having good ppc ads
THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 12
13. Coming Down the Road in PPC
1. Google Advisor/Finders
THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 13
16. Coming Down the Road in PPC
1. Google Advisor/Finders
2. Offer Extensions
3. Video Ad Extensions
4. Lead Form Extension
5. Extended Ad Headlines (ad and domain name)
http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/ for information on
the latest tests, trends and status of new releases
THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 16
17. 1. Beware of your “interpretation bucket” – check to see if
your ad is showing via Google’s tool
2. Stay up-to-date with industry searches + popular terms
1. Look for sign in both organic and paid
3. Utilize every single extension available
THE VACATION HOME RESERVATION NETWORK 17