SEM has grown very fast in terms of click spend and sophistication for several years running. The Google AdWords interface (both web and AE) continues to get more jam-packed with various bells and whistles (ways of looking at & controlling your click spend). 3rd-party technology for reporting, optimization, keyword discovery, ad optimization, etc., is as prevalent as ever.

CMOs need to know what’s important – what should their focus be, in order to get the best return on their time and effort. The answer gets back to the core of what search is all about, and it brings to mind the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

1) Focus on what your company brings to the table – what is the true value proposition, or need that your company fills?

2) What sorts of keywords might searchers use to seek out your products & services? Remember – the beauty of search is that users can find what they are looking for (rather than stumble across things they didn’t know they wanted! — that’s more for display!). Sure – go crazy with the long tail if that’s what makes you feel good – but don’t stray too far from your relevance curve.

3) Strive for a consistent thread in terms of user experience, starting with: a) bid on relevant keywords where user intent likely has to do with your value proposition; b) match keyword categories with ad text that is both relevant to your keywords and which encourage the click, but that also stays true to your value proposition; give the user a consistent post-click experience, with a landing page that messages benefits, additional info, and that includes the same offer/call-to-action mentioned in the ad, if possible.

4) Ask whether you are tracking and measuring the right things. It’s easiest to move SEM programs forward with a lot of daily conversion data. But at the end of the day we also need to measure actual revenue or lifetime value, or a suitable proxy for those. The trick is to be able to use a metric that gives the SEM manager enough data to do their job, but still (via an internal tracking system) be able to match that daily conversion data up with ‘harder’ metrics.

5) How good is the data? CMOs need to understand the data that they are looking at in order to gauge the accuracy of the data and the degree to which it’s telling them what it’s telling them. Google AdWords and Google Analytics often provide great data for making correct directional changes; but they are no substitute for a company’s internal database, which should be used to check against data discrepancies on a regular basis.

If the CMO stays focused on these big-picture items (where, actually, the details are all-imortant!) she will have the wind to her back.

CPC Search was tasked with improving the SEM program’s efficiency by lowering the cost/lead submission as reported by Google, and with lowering as much as possible the cost/prospect (lead submissions excluding duplicates, bad data, and current customers) as reported by the client’s CRM system.

Within 5 months after engagement, CPC Search was able to make very significant progress towards those goals. In terms of lead submissions as recorded by Google AdWords, we were able to show:

Medical B2B SEM Case Study

• 75% growth in leads/month
• 44% decrease in cost/lead

The results that were achieved for prospects were even more significant:

• 343% growth in monthly prospects
• 78% decrease in cost/prospect

One of the first things we noticed was that the landing page being used by the client was very rich with content – typically that can be a good thing. In this case, though, the page was not leading to lead submissions. First of all, the page did not have a simple call-to-action; rather, the user had to self-select whether they represented a hospital, physician group, acute care facility, etc. Then the user had to choose which solution category they were interested in. There was no lead form on the page, and the multiple calls-to-action were not featured prominently on the page. At our suggestion, the client re-worked the primary landing page with the form on the page, a simple call-to-action, and a more streamlined, easy-to-digest page. This has proven to have a very positive impact on the SEM program.

Another significant change was that we worked to separate out certain ‘branding and positioning’ keywords that are important to the client. We now have more visibility on these keyword categories; if they result in relatively high cost/lead and cost/prospect, the client can now see and understand this more easily. In the future, this may lead to a decrease in spend for these types of keywords, and improve measurable ROI.

In addition to the above, we have also continued to invest in keyword generation and testing, ad testing, expanding campaigns with additional ad groups, and all the other things that go into best-in-class SEM programs, and we expect to be able to report additional improvements for this client in the future!