In-depth analysis | How to effectively control promotion costs and improve ROI

Search engine marketing has been carried out in my country for more than ten years. There are always some business owners or bosses who complain that search marketing is "ineffective" and "too expensive". But is it really as it seems in practice?

In fact, this is not the case. For advertisers who are highly dependent on search marketing and have large budgets, they have the financial ability to hire professional search marketers to handle the problem. However, most small and medium-sized enterprises tend to just hire a few new employees or interns who do not have much experience. Most of these people lack practical experience, professional experience, and patience for research, so they often easily come to the above conclusions.

Therefore, when we do search marketing, we must first make one thing clear, that is, for most advertisers, there is only one purpose for doing this: "to display products/services to users in need, to achieve clicks or form filling and ultimately promote transactions." Of course, big brand advertisers such as Tmall, JD.com, and Amazon are exceptions. They are buying traffic. Different from conventional search marketing, this time they are mainly targeting the situation where search marketing is used to generate revenue for the company under normal circumstances.

Well, today I will give you a systematic analysis of how to do search marketing well. I will conduct an in-depth analysis from the following three aspects.

i. Key factors to reduce costs and increase conversion rates

ii. Ideas and strategies for continuous optimization

iii. A brief discussion on the essence of Internet marketing

Now I will sort out these points for you, how to control costs and improve ROI when doing search engine marketing.

First of all, we must make it clear that the good effect of search marketing is attributed to low conversion cost + high conversion rate.

Low cost + high conversion rate = low click price + accurate traffic + high website arrival rate + high consultation rate + high order rate

1. Low click price

To lower the click price based on the target ranking, you need to know what determines the click price. Please see the following formulas:

Click price = (next bid * quality) / own quality + 0.01

Ranking = bid * quality

Quality = estimated click-through rate + creative relevance + landing page experience

Click-through rate = ranking + display style + business relevance

In summary, if you want to lower the click price, you need to increase the denominator (your own quality score). If you want to accumulate high quality scores, you need to have a high estimated click-through rate, high creative relevance, and a good landing page experience. Improving the click-through rate requires a good ranking, a good display style, and a relatively high business relevance. A good ranking requires a high bid and high quality scores. In general, it can be divided into three aspects:

1. Directly adjustable bidding and good display style (advanced style + flash)

2. Creative relevance and business relevance need to be constantly adjusted and optimized

3. Landing page experience that requires long-term accumulation and optimization

Simply put, if you want to lower the price per click, you must continuously optimize the quality and lay a solid foundation in the early stages of the campaign.

2. Accurate traffic

Search marketing is a way of promotion that purchases keywords and bids to gain traffic. The core operation is to buy the right keywords. What does it mean to buy the right keywords? In simple terms, it means buying business-related words and words that can promote conversions.

For example: words such as product manager training institution, product manager training class, product manager training course, product manager training school, but not words such as e-commerce operation course and e-commerce operation training class. We do not buy these words, but we may match these words. At this time, we need to use negative keywords to calibrate the traffic. For example, the product manager training institution sets e-commerce operation as a negative word.

Purchasing bidding keywords is charged by click, not by the number of keywords in your account, and display is also free.

Assuming there are 100,000 keywords in the account, there are 200,000 impressions per day, but the number of clicks is 0, no fees will be incurred. The more keywords the better, because there are a thousand ways to search for a thousand people, and more words means more users can find you through keywords.

For example: I want to buy a car, but the words I search for are different when I am in different stages of demand. I don’t have any idea about car brands now, so the keywords I might search for are: "What brand of car has a better price-performance ratio?" When I know which brands are better and I’m satisfied with a brand, I will search "How about Toyota SUV?" When I have financial constraints, I will search "Which Toyota SUV around 400,000 is the best?" "How much loan can I get for this brand of car?" "And so on. When you decide to buy a car and go to a 4S store, you will search for "Beijing Toyota dealers".

Moreover, words with the same purpose can be expressed in different ways. For example, price-related words include "quote", "how much", "price", "is it expensive", etc.

Therefore, don’t be afraid of trouble. Get to know your company’s target users in depth, analyze their user portraits, do a good job of analyzing the scenario needs, and cover all the keywords and user behaviors they will search for , so as to collect more accurate traffic.

3. High website arrival rate

With the current technical level, in general, if the website arrival rate does not reach more than 95%, it is considered unqualified. The main reasons for the low arrival rate are:

1. The website server has low bandwidth and small running memory, resulting in slow opening speed (more than 4 seconds)

2. There is a bug on the website, the page cannot be opened or the website jumps to the 404 page, etc.

Both of these situations will result in a waste of advertising budget, so it is crucial to purchase safe services and secure servers . In addition, you should always pay attention to the opening status of the website.

4. High consultation rate and high order rate

After users reach the website, we assume that the money has been spent and that they have brought in potential customers. At this time, we should consider showing them the information they need most in the most convenient way. To increase the consultation rate, we must follow the following three basic principles:

1. The page layout is simple and elegant, the navigation is convenient and fast, and the modules are clear and concise

2. Complete content to meet user needs

3. The consultation window (online consultation, telephone consultation) is convenient and easy to find, and there are actions to promote consultation

Finally, there is the training of online sales personnel, standardization and quantification of processes . Having professional online sales is the basic guarantee for not wasting advertising expenses. Standardization of sales processes (which region each visitor is from, gender, age, intention, intended product, main considerations, reasons for closing an order, reasons for not closing an order, etc.) is the guarantee for optimizing advertising delivery.

Normally, the purpose of most business owners to place advertisements on online channels is very simple, which is to sell goods. After all, most companies are not large brand companies with rich sponsors, and every penny spent must have results (orders or customer leads). Today I will talk about the ideas and strategies for continuously optimizing advertising from three aspects.

1. Clarify and implement advertising goals

If the goal is not clear when doing anything, it is very easy to go in the wrong direction or take the wrong path, resulting in half the effort and twice the result, or even no results. At the same time, just knowing what the goal is is not enough to make the goal clear. The goal must be implemented in every decision, and every link in the advertising process must reflect the consensus on this purpose.

For example, if the goal is to convert online consultations, then the benefits of online consultations should be reflected everywhere, from the advertising slogans and advertising styles to the advertising marketing pages. Convenient consultation methods and windows should be set up to guide users to consult. The creative advertising style can be added with buttons for online and telephone consultations, or forms for collecting leads. The landing page should take the issues that users are most concerned about as the entry point, and gradually guide users to consult, leave clues, or place orders by answering users' doubts, giving instant coupons, providing free services, etc. In addition, as many consultation buttons or forms for leaving clues as possible should be set on the page without affecting the user experience.

There is a saying that knowing is easy but doing is difficult. Knowing but not doing is the same as not knowing. Action is the origin of all good results. Only by implementing the goal in every step of the action process can we truly define the goal.

I once had a client whose goal of running an ad was to obtain customer leads online. However, from the creative to the online page, his ad did not even have a form or phone number to leave leads. This was tantamount to knowing what to do but not doing anything.

2. Strictly control the process

Many things are not as simple as we imagined, nor will they develop in the direction we planned. Therefore, we need to pay attention at all times and constantly correct mistakes. Especially when it comes to online marketing and advertising, these are usually long-term work and require continuous optimization to achieve better results each time.

This optimization process, the means of improving results, requires us to closely control every marketing action or advertising campaign, and clearly know where the problems lie and where improvements can be made.

For example, after an advertisement is released, how many times is it displayed, how many people click on it and pay attention to it, how many people browse it for how long, and how many orders are finally completed. The ratio of each link in these data reflects a key issue. The click-through rate reflects how attractive the advertisement is, the browsing time reflects the accuracy of the advertisement's expression, and the transaction rate reflects the success or failure of the overall advertisement. By controlling process indicators, marketing goals can become controllable to a certain extent.

There is a key indicator in search engine promotion called " arrival rate ", which is an indicator forgotten by most people (due to the current development of network communications, this indicator rarely has problems). When a user clicks on an ad, not all users will enter the landing page for browsing. So, wouldn't clicking on the ad mean they will reach the landing page? Where can they go?

They may close the page without opening it due to slow internet speed, or they may close the page without loading it because the page is too large, or they may be unable to open the page because it is damaged. In either case, it will lead to loss of traffic, so online advertising requires strict control of every link in the process.

3. Review and optimize delivery

Reviewing is Lenovo’s basic working method. Liu Chuanzhi once said that it was this working method of reviewing that made Lenovo what it is today. This shows the importance of reviewing.

We also know that a three-foot-thick ice does not form overnight. No one can make a marketing campaign perfect or an online advertising account (search promotion, information flow promotion, or DSP promotion) perfect right from the start. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly review, optimize, improve, correct the direction, and improve the methods to make every link more perfect and continuously improve the final advertising effect.

The so-called review is to replay the last activity or the advertisement promoted in the previous stage in its entirety, without missing any link or module. Re-examine from the perspective of a veteran bystander to determine which links could have better methods, which links had mistakes or wrong decisions, and what would happen if another method was used?

In addition, which links can be omitted, which links are too complicated, which aspects are extremely effective, and what will happen if another approach is used?

Going over the work we have done is called reviewing. Through reviewing, we can find the good and bad aspects, which can help us to maximize our strengths and minimize our weaknesses. In the process of reviewing, we can find better ways by deducing other methods.

When reviewing online advertising, special attention should be paid to changes in key indicators such as click-through rate , arrival rate , average dwell time , online conversion rate , etc., and it should be clear what actions were taken at the time that led to the changes in these indicators, how these indicators would change if other actions were taken, what actions would make the final result better, and what actions should be taken afterwards.

In today's commercial society, many people view marketing in a crude way, thinking that organizing activities and attracting traffic are marketing. In fact, at best, that is just a means of promotion. Many people also think that opening a few promotion accounts online, doing Baidu search promotion, and Toutiao promotion are online marketing. In fact, at best, that is just using online channels for promotion.

Baidu, Toutiao, Tencent, Alibaba and other e-commerce, media and promotion platforms are just channels for pushing business information. The so-called marketing methods, group buying, lucky draws, question-and-answer fission, small games and other promotions on the market are just ways for businesses to attract consumers to experience and establish primary connections with consumers.

Marketing is the sum of a series of actions from product positioning to product design, product packaging, market positioning, user positioning, market entry strategy, sales strategy, event planning, channel construction, after-sales service, etc. In the current environment where the Internet has become the first generation of infrastructure in the commercial society, Internet marketing has become an important task that many companies must do, but Internet marketing is by no means simply advertising on the Internet.

So, how to do Internet marketing ?

When we do anything, we should start by understanding its essence, that is, the underlying logic. Internet marketing, as the name suggests, is marketing on the Internet. Internet marketing is to carry out a series of marketing actions on the Internet.

From the perspective of product positioning , any product is created to meet a certain market demand and a series of additional demands. For example, workplace education and training meets the needs of college graduates for skill enhancement and re-education before entering the society, as well as additional needs such as self-packaging and job hunting. When positioning a product, the only question that needs to be clear is what main needs and additional needs of the user the product solves.

The second is product packaging and display . Whether online or offline, companies must have a place to display their products. Offline is the exhibition hall, and online is the website. Every company attaches great importance to the feeling that its products bring to consumers. Therefore, mobile phone counters, gold display cabinets, electrical appliance stores, and even restaurants are all through packaging, counters, environment, atmosphere, lighting and other means to let consumers feel the value of the product. The Internet term is called "user experience."

Similarly, the website pays more attention to user experience. The construction of the website follows the principle of "Don't make me think". Because there are receptionists in offline exhibition halls, but there is no one on the website to stand by and introduce and receive visitors. Therefore, the construction of the website should allow users to effortlessly feel the strength and services of the company, understand what the company's products are, what advantages they have, and why they buy mine instead of others (explain the advantages of my product over other products in one sentence).

Then, there are a series of actions including market positioning, user positioning, market entry strategy, sales strategy, activities, etc. The purpose of doing these things is to find out who the users are (how old are they, which group they are in), what they care about, where they are located, what strategies to use to attract them, and what activities to conduct to open up the market and let users try or accept and recognize our products.

After all the above are prepared, it is time to lay the channels for publicity . Promote our products, activities, and companies in a certain form and through which channels to let more people know you and let those who are looking for you find you online.

As everyone knows, Internet promotion, such as H5 activities, Baidu search promotion, Tencent social advertising promotion, Toutiao information flow promotion, circle of friends promotion, WeChat business, e-commerce platforms, websites, etc., each promotion channel has its own way of playing. For example, H5 will emphasize fun, strong spreadability, and hitting resonance. Baidu, Toutiao, Tencent and other promotion channels will have professional advertising delivery backgrounds, and through the background settings, advertisements will be delivered to the corresponding groups of people. The more accurate the group positioning, the better the effect will often be.

Of course, not every company has sufficient funds for advertising. At this time, it is often necessary to select a channel from many advertising channels that can obtain higher returns at the same cost. Depending on the different promotional goals, each channel also has its own advantages.

For example, for precision performance marketing, Baidu can be given priority (it started out as a search engine, has huge search big data, and has a more accurate grasp of each person's needs), and for brand marketing, video media and Tencent can be given priority (video is more powerful in promoting brands, and Tencent's Moments has the highest promotion efficiency but is also relatively the most expensive). Similarly, Baidu and Toutiao can also be used for brand promotion. For example, Baidu's video delivery and guaranteed delivery are also very good choices.

Finally, the reason why marketing is important is that most products are not a one-time transaction. They require packaging and service from start to finish. Establishing long-term relationships between users and companies is not only about selling things to users, but also because of this transaction and all the services after the transaction, users and companies have developed some kind of feelings or relationship with each other. Therefore, " marketing is to establish long-term relationships between users and companies ."

Most people are always running after the times, but they can never catch up. When the PC era was popular, they learned and followed online marketing. When new media was popular, they learned to do new media marketing. However, the speed of development of the times cannot be caught up with. We must explore the essence and underlying logic of things. Once we grasp the essence, no matter how the Internet and new media change, the impact on us is just to add a new channel or change the environment scene. The essence of marketing will not change.

The above is today’s sharing, I hope it will be helpful to you.

Source: Zixuan talks about operations