Brighton SEO 2024 - How Intelligent Use of Data & Machine Learning Can Drive Incrementality From Total Search

Ensuring incrementality of PPC above SEO has always been tricky, and is becoming even more challenging with developments like PMax & Hagakure structures making PPC even less controlled.

In this talk Max will talk you through how by not managing Text Ads, PMax & SEO in unison is a sure fire way to waste time, money & opportunity and how some campaign setup tricks and machine learning models can help you take back control of PPC and ensure your business is realising the true value of all your Organic efforts. All resulting in maximised incremental returns from total search.

Transcript

1. How Intelligent Use of Data & Machine Learning Can Drive Incrementality From Total Search Max Flajsner Incubeta linkedin.com/in/max-flajsner Speakerdeck.com/username
2. Global Local ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. Incubeta Overview 2 We are a growth partner. expertise. reach. Incubeta is an international team of digital experts who design bespoke strategies that unite data, technology, media and creative to deliver unique customer experiences that maximise the effectiveness of your investment for business growth. We are devoted to delivering performance through creativity, collaboration and connection nurtured by our local experts who understands regional nuances. 24 International Offices +800 Employees +1200 Clients
3. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 3 1. The Total Search Challenge
4. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 4 4 4 Is paid search actually worth it? If I were to turn it off, how much would my organic pick up? How can I find a way to only spend money when it’s adding value? The Age Old Questions of Search
5. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 5 5 Total Search, to us, refers to the collective output of Text Ads, Shopping & Organic. We spend money on all three. All through separate ranking systems. PMax Spend PPC Spend SEO Time, Effort, Expertise
6. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 6 6 So what’s the result of isolated search? Incredible levels of wasted ad spend . Devaluation of SEO as a practice. Missed opportunity to truly measure the value of SEO
7. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 7 2. How Do We Solve For Total Search?
8. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 8 Defining our goal. Total Search efforts can often be derailed by trying to solve everything, let’s just focus on the overlap and ensuring incrementality We only want to leverage paid channels when they add value above Organic We need to switch from individual Paid & SEO KPIs to optimising towards Total Search Profits i.e. Paid Revenue + Organic Revenue - Paid Costs It then needs to be fully reactive to any changes in the environment - Paid Auction Changes - SEO Ranking Changes - Performance Changes - Feed Changes Text Ads Shopping Ads Organic Listings Cannibalisation Cannibalisation Cannibalisation Cannibalisation
9. 9 ©2023 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 9 The Scraping Method Keyword X Your Organic Your Paid Keyword X Your Organic Organic Competition Organic Competition All overlap of paid and organic is bad - right? ➔ What is the impact to CTR? ➔ What does that mean in terms of revenue? ➔ How much does the paid listing cost? There will always be a price where having both listings drives better performance, it’s not a black & white decision. Would it be the same for a similar keyword Y?
10. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 10 10 Essentially we need a machine learning bid strategy that factors in Organic. By setting the bid for text ads relevant to Shopping performance and, even more importantly, Organic data - we can ensure we reduce any areas of cannibalization as well as any missed opportunities.
11. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 11 Solving the initial data challenge. To analyse the Total Search Profit of the overlapping areas we need to understand the revenue contribution of Organic at an individual query level Google removed our access to that data in GA about 15 years ago! Google also removed Shopping query data with the advent of “Smart Shopping” mid 2021 Thankfully Shopping query data has returned, for Organic we will need to build this ourselves! Impressions Clicks Position Everything! Incl. AOV CR
12. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 12 12 Now we have the baseline data to train our machine learning model. By slowly increasing and then reducing the bids we can evaluate the bid elasticity and provide the model with the data enough to learn and find the optimum point of production.
13. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 13 Now we just need to activate the data. Model the organic revenue data from the corresponding paid keyword and map to the paid data to build the picture of total search Leverage our Machine Learning model to find the optimum bids to drive maximum incremental returns Push the bid via the Google Ads API every day for each keyword, by each device ML Modelling Conversion Modelling
14. ©2023 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. True Search Reporting True Search Bid Optimisation Organic Position INTERNAL FACTORS Device Targeting Promo Periods EXTERNAL FACTORS Paid Position Site Performance Ad format Organic Competition SERP Structure Seasonality Paid Competition Consumer Trends Economic Trends What Seamless Search does What we’re left with is a pipeline to manage paid and organic search activity in unison 14 14
15. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 15 3. What Does This Mean For SEOs?
16. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. Total Search solutions are obviously designed to get maximum value from SEO 16 But there are several ways for SEO’s to derive even more value from the tool.
17. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 17 Connecting the data can give unprecedented insights.
18. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 18 With this system SEO’s can… Put monetary value to organic ranking improvements Give guidance for areas of opportunity Understand how competitor paid strategies affect your SEO Features By leveraging organic CTR in paid bidding models, any improvement to Organic Position means ad spend can be automatically reduced Value This means spend can be saved to achieve the same amount of revenue, giving a monetary value to the great work from SEO’s Perfect For SEO’s trying to get more value out of their organic across branded or generic terms - or anyone struggling to convince the business to invest more in organic efforts Features • Dashboard gives complete clarity on Total Search • Reporting can flag areas where SEO improvements could drive large CTR gains or CPC decreases Value • SEOs getting live data on highest spending keywords with sub-optimal organic rankings • SEOs receiving data on lowest Total CTR terms with sub-optimal rankings Perfect For • Understanding where Paid is having to do more of the heavy lifting, and using those terms as a hit list to reduce the need for the paid investment Features • Track your Organic CTR on a term side by side with Paid Impression Share data • Spot when competitor action has affected your revenue contribution Value • SEOs get a clear picture on what dynamics are truly driving the SERP and your performance Perfect For • Explaining performance fluctuations to the C-Suite across Total Search without needing to consult PPC
19. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 19 Model Suggests Areas of Further Opportunity Organic Position Improves Model Sets Paid Bids to Optimum Levels for Total Search SEOs Optimize Pages The Total Search Flywheel
20. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 20 4. Why It’s More Important Than Ever
21. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 21 21 More and more Google are pushing PMax and “Hagakure” based Broad Match strategies leveraging “Google’s AI” The Problem Google are encouraging paid teams to give up even more control on strategy The Solution The Result These strategies certainly have their benefits, but left unchecked they will freely spend on terms where traffic will have been picked up SEO - further cannibalizing and wasting SEO efforts By adding negative keywords to these campaigns, and managing these as exact match via our bidding model we can get the best of both worlds All the benefits of Google’s AI, but with complete confidence it’s not coming at the expense of your Organic
22. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 22 Google have recently made a major update to the SERPs. ➔ Ads are now eligible to show in the middle of the page below organic listings ➔ This gives even more potential for getting the most out of your organic, or gives even more chance for unnecessary cannibalization if managed incorrectly ➔ Also makes always on/off or scrape based strategies even more inefficient than previous
23. ©2024 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 23 23 So how can you get started monitoring Total Search performance from tomorrow? Link Up Search Console To GAds Isolate Your Top SEO Terms In Paid Get Familiar With Paid + Organic Design Some Tests You can’t complain about Google if you don’t use the one tool they give you! For high organic volume terms, create exact match keywords and negative them from other campaigns. Hagakure can wait! This is the easiest way to get a view on total search performance. With these reports we can track total clicks over time. By adjusting paid strategy and monitoring total click volumes over time by each keyword, you can develop an approach to deliver better total search value Key Takeaways
24. ©2023 Incubeta. All Rights Reserved. 24 We have championed, pioneered & driven the Monday.com roll-out D’nel passed her Google PM Foundations Course Level Up Your Search. Level Up Your Search Get Your Forecast Request a personalised forecast. Be Inspired. Access our Success Stories booklet. Revisit our talk. Access Max’s presentation slides. Stay Informed Subscribe to our newsletter. SCAN ME