Many know where to find their account’s Google auction data, but not how to translate it and make decisions off of it. During this session, Maddie Cary, Director of Paid Search at Point It Digital Marketing, will demonstrate multiple ways to take complex, muddy auction data and turn it into clear, actionable graphs & visuals to help you quickly and easily identify what competitors are doing and what steps you can take to drive better PPC performance. In this session, you’ll learn: How to quickly & easily identify historical competitor performance and trends in your account How to understand competitors’ bidding impact when you have multiple competitors in auction Which “spying tools” are worth the time to use to get competitor insights.

1. Turning
PPC Auction Insights
Into
ACTIONABLE
DATA
Maddie Cary, Director of Paid Search | Point It Digital Marketing

2.  Director of Paid Search at Point It
 Based in Seattle, WA
 US Search Award winner: Best PPC Agency
 Lead awesome + talented paid search dept
 Small to enterprise
 Across verticals
Maddie!
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

3. Let’s walk through
a scenario…
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4. Jim gets an email from his boss
Hi Jim!
I did some searches for our keywords and saw
quite a few competitors alongside our ads
What does our competitive landscape
look like in PPC?
Are we missing opportunities?
How has our performance been impacted by
our competitors?
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

5. Jim’s reaction
SO EASY
I’ll just pull an Auction Insights Report
from AdWords & send a screenshot
DONE!
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

6. The boss’ reaction?
Uh, Jim…
WTF
does this table tell me?
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

7. Oh, she doesn’t understand the metrics!
Impression Share
How often a competitor received an impression
as a proportion of auctions in which you were in
Overlap Rate
How often a competitor received an impr when you did
Position Above Rate
How often a competitor was shown above you
Top of Page Rate
How often a competitor was shown at the
top of page
Outranking Share
How often you outranked a competitor
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

8. Not quite
Get it together, Jim
I know what the metrics mean.
I need your help to understand the
TRENDS,
OPPORTUNITIES,
& STORY
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

9. Stop looking at competitor data like this
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

10. Or like this!
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11. RAW
AUCTION
DATA
VISUAL
TRENDS
ACTIONABLE
INSIGHTS
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

12. Jim knows what he has to do…
I need to go
Olivia Newton-John
on this thang
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

13. LET’S
GET
VISUAL,
VISUAL
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

14. How competitive are the auctions you’re in?
 PIVOT
To get Avg Impr Share &
Avg CPC per competitor
 =COUNTIF
To count number of times
competitor shows up in the
auction over your given time
period
TOOLS & FORMULASDATA NEEDED
 SEGMENTED BY
TIME (Month, Quarter)
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
CAMPAIGN
REPORT
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

15. Quarter Avg Impr Share Number of Competitors
Q1 2015 86% 8
Q2 2015 84% 8
Q3 2015 85% 7
Q4 2015 93% 4
Q1 2016 87% 8
Capitalized on opportunity to grow
impression share when fewer
competitors in auction
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

16. Quarter Avg CPC Number of Competitors
Q1 2015 $4.89 8
Q2 2015 $3.42 8
Q3 2015 $3.12 7
Q4 2015 $2.10 4
Q1 2016 $3.54 8
Lower CPCs during quarter with fewer
competitors + maintained lower costs
when auction returned to 8
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

17. CRUSHED
IT
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

18. Which competitors are consistently in auction?
 LONGER TIME RANGE
Last 30 – 90 Days
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
 SEGMENTED BY
TIME (Days)
 =COUNTIF
To count number of days competitors
showed in auction over X total days
 =AVERAGEIF
To get Avg Impr Share per competitor
over X total days
 =IF(AND(
 Conditional logic to define your
parameters for when data indicates
competitor is a bigger threat
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch
TOOLS & FORMULASDATA NEEDED

19. FORMULASDay Display url domain Impr. share Avg. position Overlap rate Position above rateTop of page rateOutranking share
1/1/2016 Competitor 1 83.87% 1 83.87% 0.00% 96.15% 100.00%
1/2/2016 Competitor 1 47.37% 2.2 49.54% 0.00% 64.81% 95.61%
1/3/2016 Competitor 2 50.66% 2.2 52.38% 1.30% 74.03% 96.05%
1/4/2016 Competitor 2 51.59% 2.2 53.74% 1.27% 59.26% 92.99%
1/5/2016 Competitor 2 44.03% 2.2 44.16% 0.00% 70.00% 96.86%
1/6/2016 Competitor 2 39.31% 2.6 39.58% 0.00% 70.18% 99.31%
1/7/2016 Competitor 3 44.44% 2.2 44.44% 0.00% 75.00% 100.00%
1/8/2016 Competitor 3 37.58% 2.3 37.58% 0.00% 66.07% 100.00%
1/9/2016 Competitor 3 43.75% 2.1 43.75% 0.00% 61.22% 100.00%
1/11/2016 Competitor 3 52.74% 2.1 53.10% 0.00% 70.13% 99.32%
1/12/2016 Competitor 3 48.65% 2.7 49.51% 0.00% 55.65% 86.97%
1/13/2016 Competitor 3 51.41% 2.7 52.49% 0.00% 55.26% 85.79%
Days In
Auction
=COUNTIF
(range,criteria)
Competitor
Frequency
= (Days In Auction/
Report Range)
Report Range
= 90 days
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

20. =IF(AND
Comp Frequency > 50% AND
Avg Imp Share > 25%
IF TRUE = “Take Action”
IF FALSE = “Monitor”
Competitor URL Days In Auction Competitor Frequency Average Impr Share Threat?
You 90 100% 89% -
Competitor 1 90 100% 34% Take Action
Competitor 2 84 93% 16% Monitor
Competitor 3 5 6% 16% Monitor
Competitor 4 5 6% 14% Monitor
Competitor 5 56 62% 13% Monitor
Conditional Formatting Conditional Logic Formula
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

21. LET ME
HEAR THAT
DATA TALK
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

22. Where are you most competitive (and not)?
 PIVOT
To get Avg Impr Share &
Avg Pos per campaign
 PULL BY CAMPAIGN
then consolidated together
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch
TOOLS & FORMULASDATA NEEDED

23. Campaign Avg Impr Share Avg Pos
Branded 95% 1.1
Shoes 83% 3.4
Pants 80% 2.6
Shirts 68% 4.3
Socks 54% 5.5
Belts 47% 6.7
Scarves 36% 5.4
Could be worth bid testing
in campaigns with lower
Avg Impr Share & higher Avg Positions
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

24. CAN’T HANDLE
THIS
PPC MUSCLE
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

25. Where are you missing opportunity?
 PIVOT
To get Avg Impr Share
trends by device & time
 SEGMENTED BY
DEVICE & TIME
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch
TOOLS & FORMULASDATA NEEDED

26. Competitor Computers Mobile Tablet
You 100% 98% 100%
Competitor 1 31% 49% 24%
Competitor 2 16% 12%
Competitor 3 14% 16%
Competitor 4 10% 16%
Competitor 5 12% 14% 11%
TOTAL 36% 55% 44%
Some of your competitors aren’t
bidding on mobile, which
may mean Impr Share
opportunity for you!
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

27. AUCTION GOT
NOTHIN’
ON ME
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

28. How can you go from REACTIVE to PROACTIVE?
AUCTION
INSIGHTS REPORT
 SEGMENTED BY
TIME
CAMPAIGN REPORT
AUCTION INSIGHT SCRIPT
3rd PARTY MONITORING
TOOLS
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch
TOOLS & FORMULASDATA NEEDED

29.  Copy/paste BrainLabs script into Google Sheet
 Pull segmented Campaign report
 Pull segmented Auction Insight report
 Generates competitor charts alongside your trending CPC data
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

30. LET’S GET THIS
(3rd) PARTY
STARTED
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

31.  Research US + INTL markets
 PLA vs. Paid Search trends
 Domain vs. Domain
 Desktop vs. Mobile ad copy
 Great for SEO, too!
3rd Party Tools NOTE: I was not paid by any of these tools
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

32.  Google vs. Bing ad copy
 First & last seen dates of ads
 Ad URLs with tracking params
3rd Party Tools NOTE: I was not paid by any of these tools
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

33.  Color-coded ad change grids
 Highlighted top performing ads
 Keyword Venn diagrams
 Segments top competitors
(paid & organic)
3rd Party Tools NOTE: I was not paid by any of these tools
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

34. Don’t let your PPC competitors
drive you crazy
GO O.N.J ON THIS THANG!
Use visual graphs, tables, &
3rd party tools to
• IDENTIFY TRENDS
• FIND OPPORTUNITIES
• TELL THE STORY
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch

35. THANK YOU!
TWITTER:
@MaddieMarketer
FREE EXCEL TEMPLATE:
bit.ly/lets-get-visual-visualMaddie!
@MaddieMarketer | @point_it | #MNSearch