PART 4 - Setting Campaign Goals & Success Metrics

Introduction

This is Part 4 of a 9 part series dealing with the planning and steps required to build a successful sponsored Search Engine Marketing (SEM) / Pay-per-Click (PPC) campaign. In Parts 1, 2 and 3 we explored and identified:

• Your main reason for contemplating a sponsored SEM campaign,

• Your main target customer group and what they want from your site/products/services

• Your main online competition – the strengths and weaknesses of their sites/products/services as well as your own, and

• Your Unique Selling Feature,

In Part 4 we will identify your main sponsored SEM campaign goal (in clear, measurable and achievable terms) and we will identify the site performance metrics (Success Metrics) that will assist you in achieving and monitoring your goal.

Before we begin, let’s take a moment to review from Part 1 - why having a main sponsored SEM campaign goal is so essential to your success:

“Like most successful business endeavors, successful sponsored SEM campaigns require vision, focus and follow-through. It is essential that you clearly identify the main goal of each campaign and that you keep your focus on that goal throughout the entire campaign. Use the power of clear, measurable goals to succeed in Sponsored Search Engine Marketing.”

“Use the power of clear, measurable goals to succeed in Sponsored Search Engine Marketing.”

Setting the Main Campaign Goal

In Part 1, we discussed the main ‘reason’ you had for wanting to run a sponsored search campaign. This was the first step in establishing your main campaign goal. You will now need to dig deeper into your ‘reason,’ keeping in mind the things you have learned in Parts 1 – 3 as listed above.

Initially, you may have thought your main ‘reason’ was to get more traffic to your site, but now you may realize you really meant to get more pre-qualified traffic to your site. Pre-qualified traffic is traffic made up your target customers, who are more likely to make a conversion on your site. A site conversion is when a site visitor performs a buying-behavior action that is of value to your company. Such actions could include filling in a form to receive more information, registering for a newsletter, making a purchase, etc.

Even though you have refined your initial ‘reason’ in the above example, it may still not be your real goal. You may want more pre-qualified traffic to increase the sales being made through (or as a result of) your site. In turn, you may want to increase sales on/through your site in order to increase the profit being earned on/through your site. In this case your main goal may really be to ‘increase the profit being earned on/through your site.’

However, as we learned in Part 1, in order for a goal to be effective it needs to be specific and quantified with metrics. A goal of “increasing profits” is quite broad, but a goal of “increasing online profits by 5% in the next 6 months” is focused and measurable.

Having completed the work in Parts 1-3 you are now better able to create a specific, measurable and achievable main goal for your sponsored SEM campaign.

Success Metrics

Does that mean that in order to succeed in a sponsored SEM campaign the only thing you have to monitor is the profitability of your website? No - as you now realize, there are a number of factors (Success Metrics) that you will need to monitor and use as guides to achieve your main goal. Success Metrics are usually actions taken by visitors to your site, but they can also be metrics from outside your site such as the cost of PPC ads.

In addition to standard site monitoring, you will need to monitor:

• Total sponsored search traffic to your site - broken down by keyword, source and campaign

• Sponsored search conversions (number and dollar value) on your site - broken down by products/services, keyword, source and campaign

• Sponsored search cost - broken down by products/services, keyword, source and campaign

• Sponsored search profitability – broken down by products/services, keyword, source and campaign

• Length of time sponsored search visitors spend on your site

• Where sponsored search visitors go on your site after leaving the ‘landing’ page

• Effectiveness of sponsored search destination pages

• Sponsored search visitor form/purchase drop-out behavior and rates

• Other sponsored search visitor actions that are important to your main goal and that can be monitored

It may not be possible for you to track a sponsored search visitor beyond their initial visit. You will need to account for this in your analysis.

Once you have determined the Success Metrics that you wish to track, you will need to establish ‘baseline’ metrics that will be used to judge your performance. Document the values of your metrics at the time you begin your campaign to allow for effective comparisons.

To allow for accurate comparisons between sponsored search traffic and non-sponsored search traffic, you will need to continue tracking the performance of the overall site traffic – breaking the sources and behaviors down as far as possible.

There are many tools for measuring site metrics - from log files and Google/Overture conversion tracking, to the extensive conversion and site behavior tracking of SiteCatalyst. The sources you choose will be based on your site/business’ needs and budget. You may not be able to track everything you would like to, but be sure to track and monitor what you can.

It is very easy to get buried under the mound of data that is available. The key is to remain focused on your main goal and use the important Success Metrics that you have identified to support that goal. By tracking your Success Metrics in a clear and logical manner, you will be able to make the adjustments you need to achieve your main goal.

In Part 9 of this series – “Campaign Management - Monitor Your Success” – we will delve deeper into managing your main sponsored campaign goal and Success Metrics.

Summary

You now have the tools necessary to identify your main Sponsored Search Engine Marketing Campaign goal in clear, measurable and achievable terms as well as identify those Success Metrics that will assist you in achieving and monitoring your goal.

Once you have achieved your initial goal, you will create your next main sponsored SEM campaign goal. In this way, you will be able to continue to use the power of clear, measurable goals to succeed in Sponsored Search Engine Marketing.

Part 5 – “Best ‘Keywords’ for Your Campaign” will allow you to combine your sponsored SEM main goal, with the information you gathered in Parts 1-3 to choose the ‘right’ PPC / sponsored keywords for your needs.

**PART 1 - Campaign Goal Building, Focus and Product Identification
**PART 2 - Target Audience – Identification and Understanding
**PART 3 - Online Competition & Your Unique Selling Feature
**PART 4 - Setting Campaign Goals & Success Metrics
**PART 5 - ‘Best’ Keywords for Your Campaign
**PART 6 - Campaign Strategy
**PART 7 - Successful Landing Pages
**PART 8 - Successful Sponsored/PPC Ad Creation
**PART 9 - Campaign Management - Monitoring Your Success