In-depth reveal of the search promotion ranking mechanism!

Yesterday a classmate asked me: "Why is the account not showing even though the bid is very high?"

You have to know that some things cannot be solved by spending a lot of money, such as Cao County household registration and your advertising ranking.

So if you want your creativity to have more opportunities to be displayed, we need to understand the ranking mechanism of bidding ads and seize the opportunity!

Search is becoming more and more intelligent, and it can display different faces for different search users. Even if two people from the same company use the same IP address to search for the same keyword at the same time, the results may be different, because the search engine has made fine adjustments to personalized features. The overall situation of the position can more clearly reflect the ranking competitiveness of the advertisement than the average advertisement ranking.

Its most direct function is that it allows us to not only clearly understand the detailed information of the advertising display positions in our account, but also clearly and specifically evaluate the competitiveness of the keywords in the account. The upper position is the golden advertising position for search ads. The appearance of ads in this position is the prerequisite for ensuring traffic.

If the account is not currently in the second stage of OCPC, the advertising performance of the upper position is an important reference for us to optimize the account and improve the account effect (if it enters the second stage of OCPC, the bid will be managed by the intelligent system, and the bid will be optimized in real time according to the set conversion goals. At this time, there is no need to deliberately pay attention to the performance of the upper position, and the focus of observation should be shifted to the cost and volume of leads). Only by knowing the underlying logic and correlation of these data can we better guide the account optimization work. Let’s talk about a few key data indicators below.

01Keywords top winning rate

Official definition:

The probability of keyword advertising winning and being displayed in the bidding ranking. The probability of keyword advertising winning and being displayed in the bidding ranking of the corresponding advertising positions. The display winning rate of the upper positions directly reflects the competitive strength of the advertisement in the upper positions.

The underlying logic:

This data reflects the space that can be further gained by improving the ranking competitiveness (bid * quality) under the current conditions of keyword delivery. It is an objective statistical result. Of course, it will not remain unchanged. It will change with the intensity of keyword competition, and will also fluctuate with changes in our bids and advertising quality.

Optimization method:

If we find that the winning rate of displaying above keywords is high, it means that the keyword advertising is highly competitive in the upper positions, and these keywords have been displayed in the upper positions of most search results that meet the current delivery conditions; if we find that the winning rate of displaying above some keywords is relatively low, it means that the competitiveness of these keywords in the upper positions is lower than that of competitors. Only by improving the competitiveness of advertising can these keywords increase their chances of displaying in the upper positions.

How can we improve the winning rate of the above display? There are two most direct and effective methods. One is to improve the quality of advertisements, optimize creatives and landing pages, and improve the quality of keywords. The other is to increase bids. For keywords that are not in the OCPC second-level plan, you can check the guide price and keep the bid higher than the guide price.

Optimization ideas:

① The winning rate shown above reflects the space that can be further gained by improving the ranking competitiveness under the current set conditions of keyword delivery;

② Through the indicator of top position display winning rate, you can effectively understand whether increasing bids or ad quality can make keywords get more display in top positions;

③The display winning rate is an objective statistical result. It is not static and will change with keyword competition, keyword bid adjustments, or quality changes.

02 Display the winning rate above the plan/unit

The underlying logic:

In addition to the keyword display win rate, there is also the plan/unit display win rate. By paying attention to this indicator, we can have a more holistic perception of the competitiveness level and maximum growth space of the keyword plan/unit in the upper position.

Optimization ideas:

The winning rate of displaying above keywords and the winning rate of displaying above plans/units are actually closely related.

We know that the structure of Baidu search account is a tree structure. Numerous keywords constitute different units and plans. Therefore, if you want to improve the display winning rate above the plan/unit, you should pay more attention to the display winning rate above the keyword dimension. If the display winning rate above a plan/unit is low, we can increase the competitiveness of keywords, increase more display opportunities for keywords, and optimize and improve the display winning rate at the keyword granularity.

This requires us to focus on the general direction first and then pay attention to details when optimizing the account. After the general direction is determined, the keyword dimension should be focused on. Continuously improving the upper display data of the keyword granularity is the fastest way to improve account performance.

If the winning rate of the plan/unit is high , it means that under the existing targeting method, there is limited room for growth. Even if we work hard to increase the click-through rate and optimize keyword bids, we cannot significantly increase the display volume. If we need to continue to expand the volume, we need to modify and expand the delivery conditions, expand the delivery areas and time periods, add more high-quality and intentional keywords, and regularly delete negative keywords to obtain more relevant traffic matches.

If the display win rate above the plan/unit is low , this is actually relatively easy to deal with. It means that the overall competitiveness is insufficient, but there is ample room for growth. You need to focus on optimizing the competitiveness of keywords, increase more display opportunities on keywords, and adjust the display win rate of the keyword dimension to obtain more display for the account as a whole.

03 Display the winning rate in the upper position (accurate trigger)

The above position shows the winning rate (accurate trigger) statistical formula:

The number of accurate triggering upper position impressions divided by the number of searches that meet the delivery conditions and whose search terms are exactly the same as the keywords

Optimization ideas:

If the winning rate (precise trigger) shown above is high , it means that the competitiveness in non-precise trigger traffic is insufficient. You can combine the search term report and focus on search terms with non-precise trigger but high search volume. Make value judgments on these search terms. If they are valuable, you can add them to the account as new keywords, and write creative ideas and set more relevant landing pages based on the keywords.

If the winning rate of the above display position (precise triggering) is low , the account needs to optimize the quality of the advertisement, increase creativity and keywords, the relevance of the landing page to the psychological needs of visitors, and combine key keywords with higher conversion rates to increase bids for better competitiveness.

04 The significance of the above data indicators

Within our acceptable cost range, we should strive for more upper-level display opportunities to enable our account to obtain more traffic. The mentality of cramming at the last minute is not advisable when it comes to account optimization. We need to pay attention to this data indicator not only when the effect deteriorates, but also when the effect is stable. We also need to pay attention to the data of various dimensions of the account.

Paying attention to the display volume during the stable effect period can help us determine the relevance of keywords, ad creatives and search users within the account, as well as intuitively determine the current competitiveness of the account among its peers, so that we can recognize the current situation, understand the market competitiveness from the side, and speculate on the promotion focus of peers;

During the period of effect fluctuations, we should pay attention to the upper position display volume, because the upper position advertising data is closely related to user demand and market competition. Therefore, when the account performance declines or fluctuates, analyzing the upper position data can help us find the next optimization direction quickly and specifically.

Generally speaking, the decline in account performance is mostly due to a drop in clicks, resulting in less consumption. As our consumption continues to decrease, we should focus on the upper display volume and make adjustments based on this data feedback:

① The display volume of the upper position is reduced

The decrease in the number of top-level impressions indicates that the competitiveness of the advertisement has declined. There are two reasons for this. One factor is that the market competition has intensified , which has led to the decline in the competitiveness of many keywords in our account. In the bidding ranking process, they cannot be qualified for top-level impressions. At this time, we can go to the [Optimization Center] - [Bidding Category] suggestions of the account and appropriately increase the bid for keywords with good conversion rates to obtain more top-level impression opportunities.

Another factor is the poor performance of creativity and landing pages . We can go to [Optimization Center] - [Creativity] [Landing Page] suggestions to check the quality of key keywords and the click-through rate of creativity, and focus on optimizing the correlation between keywords, creativity, and landing pages to improve the conversion rate of landing pages.

② The display volume of the upper position is stable

If the display volume of the upper position is stable, but the overall click volume of the account decreases, it is likely that the click rate of the key keywords of the account has decreased . We need to divide the units more finely and write more targeted advertising creatives to increase the click rate. In addition, we need to continuously expand new traffic , combine the working hours of the company's customer service staff and the product coverage areas, broaden the targeting conditions, expand keywords, increase the promotion time period, increase the promotion area, delete negative words, and other operations to obtain more traffic. Only by displaying advertisements in front of more potential customers can there be subsequent clicks, visits, consultations, conversions and other behaviors.

We know the marketing funnel model of Baidu search promotion . From the beginning of display to the final conversion and transaction, the number of potential customers will gradually decrease. The display data is what we must always pay attention to.

When the display drops, we are not sure whether it is due to keyword bidding problems or keyword quality problems. We can refer to the account's [Optimization Center]. The bidding suggestions and creative suggestions in the [Optimization Center] can help us quickly understand the account problems and optimize according to the suggestions given there, so as to improve the bidding competitiveness and creative relevance.

In fact, the most direct role of the above series of data is to enable account optimization personnel to know the specific problems of the account and its performance among competitors in a timely manner.

In the past, we optimized our accounts more by relying on our feelings and experience. However, as the market changes faster and faster, the search advertising backend algorithm is updated more and more timely. In the future, when we analyze accounts and make adjustments and optimizations, we will still look at real data more, and then we can come up with practical and effective optimization methods to improve account performance.

appendix:

1. What is top placement advertising?

The official definition is "In search promotion, top-level ads refer to ads displayed above the first natural result. Top-level ads usually appear between 1 and 3 results."

2. What are the characteristics of top-level advertising?

High click-through rate: It is located before natural results, which makes it easier to trigger advanced styles and attract user attention.

Strong traffic acquisition ability: The higher the ranking, the higher the click-through rate and the more clicks it can get, given that other factors are the same.

3. What does the above orientation data include?

Average ranking in the upper position: The average ranking of ads when the keywords in the account are triggered by the user's search terms and the ad creative appears in the upper position of the search ad. If "-" appears in the average ranking in the upper position, it means that the ad has not entered the upper position advertising area, that is, there is no corresponding ranking;

Top position impressions: The number of times the keywords in the account are triggered by the user's search terms and the ad creative appears in the top position of the search ad;

Clicks on the top position: The number of times the ad creative is clicked when it appears in the top position of the search ad;

Consumption in the top position: The total amount of budget consumed by clicks when the ad creative appears in the top position of the search ad;

4. How can I check my own upper position performance?

Enter the account data report and view the keyword report (custom columns will bring up the upper data)

5. How to make the account's advertising results appear more frequently in search results?

On the one hand, Baidu is committed to improving the effectiveness of merchants' advertising, and on the other hand, it must ensure the search experience of netizens. Therefore, it will balance the comprehensive pros and cons of netizens and promotion accounts, and will display more competitive ads in higher advertising positions.

If we want to make the creativity in our account more visible, we need to work hard in two aspects:

On the one hand, bidding: do refined data analysis, calculate keyword conversion rates, select appropriate and reasonable valuable keywords for delivery, and make competitive bids for effective keywords;

On the other hand, it is the quality of advertising creativity: enhance the relevance between keywords and advertising creativity, improve the click-through rate of creativity and thus improve the quality of keywords; enhance the relevance of landing pages and visitor needs, and improve page conversion rates.

Only by doing well in both aspects can more keywords in the account have the opportunity to be displayed in the current search ad positions.

Finally, I wish all the students who read this article will always rank first in creativity!