Quickly identify which keywords to drop and which paid search terms to invest more in!
It is quite easy to set-up a paid search campaign in Google or Yahoo! Google even provides some neat tools to show you which keywords are not showing up in top positions or receiving clicks. The problem with these tools is that there is too much information to look and play with (this is okay if you have lots of time to kill). Wouldn’t it be easier to classify keywords in 4 different categories?
Search Efficiency Matrix Analysis
Top Performers – High traffic generating keywords with low cost per clicks.
Potentials – Low traffic generating keywords with low cost per clicks.
The Uncertains – High traffic generating keywords with high cost per clicks.
Bad Performers – Low traffic generating keywords with high cost per clicks.
Performing a Volume/Efficiency Matrix can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in your paid search campaign! A volume/efficiency analysis will tell you whether certain keywords are performing poorly in efficiency and volume in relation to other keywords.
So how do we perform this analysis?
All that is required is a basic keyword report from your search engine that shows name of keyword, clicks and spend. By following along with the Smart Digital Spending tutorial, I will show you step-by-step how to process the data using an Excel spreadsheet and the keyword report from the search engine. The written instructions are 6 pages and length of video is just over 11 minutes.
Paid Search Keywords
Volume Efficiency Matrix Video
The tutorials include written, audio and video instructions along with an Excel spreadsheet that contains sample data so you can see how the analysis was completed from beginning to end. Analysis so easy a caveman can do it!
Written Instructions on how to perform a Volume Efficiency Matrix
Volume Efficiency Matrix Classification
The End Result?
The best part about performing a Volume / Efficiency Matrix is the findings. This analysis will give you a rough estimate on how much money you would save if you were to remove a certain group of keywords and show you how much click activity would be lost. It is a fantastic way to optimize a search campaign on an ad hoc, quarterly, semi-annual, or yearly basis. More importantly, your clients will be pleased that you are monitoring their search campaign wisely.
If you have any comments or thoughts, please share. Thanks.
Eric Melchor
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Very informative. This article helps me to see how easy it is to try to find the best keywords for my site!!! Thanks much!
Good information to know, really helps.
A very good article on Assess keyword performance. This sounds very interesting and very useful for those who are on this line of job. I had a good time reading this article. Thanks.
This blog is very useful because it shows how to save money while using paid search most effectivly with perfect analysis
How do you factor statistical significance into this model? That is, when you classify your keywords, how do you know if you have enough clicks to make a valid determination?
I recommend you only include keywords that have at least 3 clicks for this classification. Statistical significance is not factored in to this type of analysis. You can perform a test for statistical significance, but with another type of test where you would compare each keyword to its own performance on a different time period. For example, lets say you had the keyword ‘hand bag’. For 4 weeks you had the keyword running in the top position (no bidding caps). Then, you ran the keyword in lower positions (by bidding less). You could then test for statistical significance to see if there was a significant lift or drop.