Tool for Adwords

[rajsas7]

Hi. Is there any tool for giving the payment distribution for adwords for a keyword phrase?

Thank you in advance,

Raj

[AussieWebmaster]

no it depends on factors not able to be measured without info Google does not give up

[beeri]

Actually try MediaBoost.. i think they might work for u

[AussieWebmaster]

we are playing with it right now... will post an opinion next week

[beeri]

aussie.. how long did it take you to set up the trial with them?

[AussieWebmaster]

about a week

[beeri]

let me know how it goes im looking at their software as well

[SearchEnginePPC]

Aussie,

I'd be interested in hearing how your trial with Media Boost went as well.

I've now started a 30 day trial with the AdWordsBooster for 3 of my clients. The one that has been running for 2 weeks is seeing phenomenal results: 30% lower cost/lead, 15% more leads, on an already well performing campaign. Another new client that wasn't hitting their metrics is now just edging into profitability using their tool.

Anyone else tried them or have any results to speak of yet?

[Discovery]

From what I have seen tools like this are best for managing your campaigns from a cost per lead (CPL) basis. Some may have limited capability of incorporating sales data IF your products and services are sold online. Or you can enter a static estimated profit amount. Even so, you still can't account for returns/refunds in these campaign modeling/management systems.

If you wish to manage campaigns from other important business objectives where the data is produced offline after the online lead generation has occured these types of systems are less effective.

If the stats listed above, 15 more leads at a 30% lower cost for every 100 leads produced are true, then it may be well worth taking the chance. One might simply assume a 30% decrease in cost will loosely translate into higher profits. That could be a dangerous assumption. 30% is a HUGE increase in performance. Then again, results may very, I dont mean this to be offensive to the poster, however it is logical to assume that poorly created and managed campaigns may produce impressive results, aged campaigns that are well developed and managed may have significantly different results.

What performance metric are you managing against?
Does the tool evaluate your whole portfolio of keywords against each other and then attempt to balance your campaigns to meet your objectives, or does it blindly evaluate and adjust just one keyword and bid at a time ignoring the cost of opportunity of other keywords in your campaign?

In other words could you unkowningly start producing more leads for a less profitable product and decreasing the number of leads for a more profitable product?

I'm not against using "cloudware" to do the heavy lifting for us, but I think we have to be very careful when replacing the fine tuned decision making experience of a marketer with the blind number crunching power of an application.


Discovery

[SearchEnginePPC]

Discovery,

I hear your thoughts, and agree with the sentiment of most of them. I, too, have been wary of 3rd party bid management tools in the past. I've seen them fail spectacularly on more than one occasion, and don't generally recommend them to clients. I decided to try this tool because it was a free trial, and I knew I could very easily (and quickly) stop the optimization because it's from the SaaS model. The risks were minimal, and I've been very pleased with the rewards so far. No decisions made yet, which was why I asked Aussie for his experience as well.

If the stats listed above, 15 more leads at a 30% lower cost for every 100 leads produced are true, then it may be well worth taking the chance.

Actually, it was a 15 PERCENT increase in leads at 30% lower cost, so even more impressive than you thought. I am truly blown away at how the results of these two weeks have compared to our 90 day baseline. I should warn that I'm not sure they'll last, though I'm hopeful that they do. But, that was the reason I decided to try their system out for some of my other clients as well.

I dont mean this to be offensive to the poster, however it is logical to assume that poorly created and managed campaigns may produce impressive results, aged campaigns that are well developed and managed may have significantly different results.

That was my assumption as well. Media Boost's response was that their tool actually works better on a tightly managed account because they don't have to beat around the bush to find something that works. That being said, in this case, this is an account I've managed for over a year, and is very well optimized. I've already optimized the low (and middle) hanging fruit, which is where you usually see the impressive 500% stats from.

On the other hand, one of the other accounts I just started with Media Boost is new to me, and in fact not yet profitable. The account was previously poorly managed (ie, ignored), not at all optimized, and was without tracking history to work from. This account has been much slower to see improvements in the week that it's been 'boosted'. It has been jumping up and down, not yet settled into a good rhythm and certainly not what I would call optimized.

Does the tool evaluate your whole portfolio of keywords against each other and then attempt to balance your campaigns to meet your objectives, or does it blindly evaluate and adjust just one keyword and bid at a time ignoring the cost of opportunity of other keywords in your campaign?

I think this is a good point, particularly if you look at areas of an account that may influence an action (lead, in this case), but not be the ultimate point of conversion. Or brand keywords that receive the benefit of those previous clicks, and get the credit for the conversion. But, then again, we struggle with that everyday and manage to handle it manually. At least in this case, I can put different business rule definitions for a lead's value on the AdGroup or Campaign level. This allows me to artificially modify the optimization so that it takes these issues into account.

In other words could you unkowningly start producing more leads for a less profitable product and decreasing the number of leads for a more profitable product?

Not applicable in this case, since my lead generation for this account is irrespective of multiple products. However, the above also applies in that you can set the rules for profit levels of AdGroups differently in order to value traffic at various levels.

I'm not against using "cloudware" to do the heavy lifting for us, but I think we have to be very careful when replacing the fine tuned decision making experience of a marketer with the blind number crunching power of an application.

I 100% agree, and in fact have already run into this problem. My client wanted to increase traffic from one of their regional campaigns to correspond with TV ads that were on the air for a certain period of time. Normally I would adjust my max CPC bids and increase the corresponding daily budgets. With the account 'boosted', I'm unable to adjust my bids, and merely have to increase the defined profit from that AdGroup's conversion, which means slower reaction time (coming and going), along with less control. I opted to pause the 'boosting' on that area of the account temporarily to get around the restriction, which makes my use of their tool less effective in the long run.


SearchEnginePPC

[Discovery]

SEPPC,

Thanks for you professional and well thought out response. I'm glad you didn’t take my post as an affront to your work, but instead you openly addressed my points of concern. It has made me want to give this product a closer evaluation.

If I understand the offer on the mediaboost website correctly, they allow for a 30 day free trial, and you don’t pay until your "profits boost". This seems like a proposition from a company confident in their product. I wonder exactly who determines what that baseline profit is? I could set it pretty high so that they don’t "boost" for some time.

Other tools I have evaluated involved excruciatingly long set ups which costs time, money and adds a lot of risk. In addition they charged set up fees and required contracts. The last item was the deal breaker, we needed to notify them every time there was a change to our campaign so they could reset the data model to track the new campaign/edit/change. WHAAA? This was unacceptable. Do you find there is a bottleneck in the workflow process using mediaboost?

Again, thanks for your responses, it has given me good information and made this thread valuable to all who are considering such tools.

Cheers - Discovery

[AussieWebmaster]

They are showing good results for us.... I will have someone pull exact numbers early next week and share.

[SearchEnginePPC]

Discovery,

We were offered a 30 day free trial, which they gave the impression would be extended if we hadn't boosted to profits by then. Even if you hit your profit metrics during the trial, you still get the 30 days free.

You set the profit metrics and value of a conversion (unless it comes in automatically from Google's conversion tracking code), so you could dupe the system into thinking you weren't making a profit. However, they manage bids based on getting you to the most profit, so doing so would cause your bids to be adjusted toward potentially lower traffic and less actual profit.

As for set up, that's been the best part about their system. I spent a day emailing back and forth with questions to make sure I had all the necessary info. We then scheduled a 30 minute call, and in that time period, the AdWords Booster account was all set up and hooked into our AdWords account. From there, I received their projection for the next 30 days, and was able to use that information to decide whether to turn on boosting. And turning it on was a simple click. Their system is all web based, and hooks into Google using their API. Nothing needs to be added to your website assuming you're using Google's conversion tracking or something similar. The process was actually surprising smooth.

Man, do I sound like a sales person for Media Boost! I guess I've just been impressed with the product, especially compared to what else is out on the marketplace. And, hey, I can't argue with the results I've seen so far. Time will only tell, though.

SearchEnginePPC