Is there a way to optimize a SEM campaign without using Google Analytics or Adword tools?

Google Adwords, Yahoo and MSN provide some cool tools that show you how to optimize your SEM campaign. You can set up your search ads to show during certain days of the week, time of day and regions. If you have the time to play with all these tools, that is great. However, if you are looking for an easy and effective way to optimize a search campaign without wasting hours diving into these tools, you should perform a volume/efficiency keyword analysis.

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 free tutorial that can be downloaded here, I will show you step-by-step how to set up a volume/efficiency keyword analysis.

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.

In your paid search campaign, do you know what percentage of search spend is being allocated to bad performing keywords?

Wouldn’t it be nice to quickly find out how to increase paid search ROI? Well you can once you begin using the search volume efficiency analysis!

This analysis can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in your paid search campaign. We want to know whether certain keywords are performing bad in efficiency and volume in relation to other keywords. A Volume/Efficiency analysis can help identify 4 key areas (Classification) that allow for campaign optimization. Download the free tutorial now!

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

www.smartdigitalspending.com

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