Digital Marketing

Session III:

Understand digital marketing

tools and techniques
 Assessment Criteria

By the end of this session you should be able to:

• Appraise the scope of the digital marketing toolbox
• Applying a range of digital marketing techniques in different
contexts
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search
In essence, paid search allows advertisers (organisations, brands, and individuals),
an opportunity to advertise their offerings within the sponsored listings of a search
engine or a partner site
Costs are incurred when:
• A user clicks on an ad (CPC – most common model for paid search)
• When an ad is viewed (CPM – less common model for paid search)
• When a user engages in a specified action (CPA)
When compared to SEO, paid search gives advertisers more control over the
appearance of their advertisements on listings
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search
Common bidding models for paid search marketing
CPC – Cost per Click:
In this model of bidding, advertisers pay for each click on their advert
CPM – Cost per thousand impressions:
Refers to a way to bid (for advert placement), where the advertiser pays
per one thousand views (impressions)
CPA – Cost per Action:
Online advertising model where an advertiser pays (for the advert),
based on a specified action
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search
Other than SERPs, adverts can also be displayed on third party sites such as
publishers, aggregators, or social networks on what is referred to as the
display/content network. Adverts displayed on third party sites are based on the
relevance of the page content, on the site, to a user’s search phrase/word
{Aggregators are sites that collect data from other sources across the
internet and put the information in one place where users can access this
information. This can be done through collecting information from users,
webmasters, or RSS feeds e.g. ‘Rotten Tomatoes’, & ‘Feedly’}
Adverts in paid search can take various forms: text-based search ads, graphic
display ads, video-YouTube ads, and in-app mobile ads
 Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing:

Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
The ad auction:
Every time an ad appears on a SERP, it goes through an ad auction; a process
that decides which ads will appear and in what particular order
The process also determines, if at all, any adverts will show by determining if
any of the adverts meet the minimum required Ad Rank necessary to show at
all
In this process, the highest bidder does not always win, instead, some
additional considerations are made:
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
User’s search:
The starting point is the user’s search i.e. the combination of keywords and/or key
phrases used
Relevance - narrowing down of adverts:
Using the user’s combination of keywords and/or key phrases, all Ads are
narrowed down to those that are relevant i.e. those with the specific combination of
keywords and/or key phrases that match the users search e.g. could be based on:
 Location
 Timing
 Combination of words
 Interpretations etc.
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Elimination of Adverts:
Google then determines which ads have a sufficiently high Ad Rank to show and
eliminates those that do not exceed the minimum quality standards necessary to
show e.g. will the ads and landing pages provide the user a good experience?
Ordering of remaining Adverts:
The ordering of the remaining adverts is determined by several factors such as:
 Ad Rank and a combination of:
o Context of the user's search
o Quality of the ads and landing page
o Ad Rank thresholds
o Expected impact of extensions and other ad formats and Bid amount
 Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing:

Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Relevant Adverts displayed to user:
The user can then be able to see the most relevant ads on the SERP
Repeating of the process:
The process is repeated every time a user searches for information
If, for example, a user searches with the same combination of keywords/key
phrases, the auction process starts again. This means that there is the
possibility that different results will be displayed every time depending on the
context of the person's search, and competition among advertisers at that
exact moment
 Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing:

Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Ad Rank:
Ad Rank refers to the value that is used to determine an advertiser's ad position and
whether the ad will show at all
Most important aspect is that the auction process uses the advert's Ad Rank to
determine its position. So even if the competition bids are higher, one can still win a
higher position, at a lower price, with high-quality ads and landing pages
It is important to remember that Ad Rank is recalculated every time your advert is
eligible to appear and competes in an auction. Ad position can therefore fluctuate
each time depending on competition, context of the user's search, and landing page
quality at that moment
 Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing:

Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Ad Position:
This refers to the order of an advertiser’s ad in the auction results in comparison to
other ads. However, ad position does not necessarily point to the location of an
advertiser’s ad on a SERP
E.g.: An ad position ‘1’ means that the ad was the first ad to be shown, with no
other ads shown ahead of it. This does not necessarily mean that the ad is above
the organic search results. It can be the ad position, for example, if there are no
ads above the search results and the ad is the first shown beneath the organic
search results. This is true for ad position ‘2’ up to ad position ‘n’
 Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing:

Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Ad Rank is calculated based on:
• Bid amount
• Auction-time ad quality
• Ad Rank thresholds
• Context of user’s search e.g. location, time, nature of search terms, etc.
• Expected impact of extensions and other ad formats
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Factors considered for Paid Search on Google include
Bid amount:
Maximum amount an advertiser is willing to pay for a click on their advert. Amount
paid is often less, and the bid amount can be changed at any time
Auction-time ad quality:
Google looks at how relevant and useful an advertiser's ads and the website it links
to are in relation to the user's search. This is usually demonstrated through the
quality score metric
This includes factors such as: expected click through rate, ad relevance, and landing
page experience
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Factors considered for Paid Search on Google include
Ad Rank thresholds
Refers to the minimum bid necessary for an advertiser’s ad to show in a particular
position (reserve price). For Google to maintain quality ad experience, all ads must meet
the relevant quality threshold in order to be eligible to show
Ad Rank thresholds are determined by an advertiser’s ad quality and are adjusted based
on various factors such as: ad position, topic and nature of a search, users signals and
attributes (location, time, device etc.), related auctions.
Ad Rank thresholds help ensure that the right consideration is given to ad quality as well
as to an advertiser’s bid and value e.g. for an ad to appear above search results, it must
meet higher Ad Rank thresholds than what it takes to appear below search results
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Factors considered for Paid Search on Google include
Context of the user's search:
Context matters; this is based on the search terms a user enters, and other relevant
factors including but not limited to:
• Location of the user
• Device being used
• Time of search
• Nature of search terms
• Other ads and search results that show and other user signals and attributes
• Expected impact of extensions and other ad formats
 Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing:

Paid search: How Paid Search works on Google
Factors considered for Paid Search on Google include
Expected impact of extensions and ad formats:
When determining this, Google considers factors such as relevance, click-through
rates, and prominence of the extensions or formats on the SERP
When an advertiser creates an advert, they are provided with an option to add
additional information to the advert. This could include contact details, links to
specific pages on the advertisers site etc. -these are referred to as ad extensions
Google will estimate how extensions and other ad formats an advertiser uses will
impact the ad's performance
 Digital Marketing
Search Engine Marketing:
Paid search: Advantages
• It is a highly targeted form of marketing as a relevant ad with a link to the destination
is only displayed when a search engine user types in a specific phrase
• There is limited wastage in comparison to other forms of media as they are highly
targeted
• More relevant to users as those responding to a particular key-phrase or reading a
related article have high intent or interest
• Has good accountability as ROI for individual keywords can be calculated with the
right metrics
• It offers more predictability as ranking and results are generally more stable and
predictable in comparison to SEO
 Digital Marketing

Search Engine Marketing:

Paid search: Disadvantages
• Bidding wars can drive up bids to unacceptable levels due to the competitive
nature
• May not be cost effective for organisations with a lower budget
• Requires specialist knowledge to understand and keep up to date with changes
• It is time consuming as management may require constant checks to keep up
with changes in bidding in order to remain competitive
• Tools and best practices change frequently so keeping up to date can be
difficult
• Users may avoid clicking on sponsored links as they distrust advertisers
 Digital Marketing
Display advertising
Commonly known as ‘banner’ advertising, it involves an advertiser paying for
advert placement on third party sites
These ad placements can either be bought on specific (individual), sites, or
across different sites through an ad network. In addition, they are usually
purchased for a specific period of time and may be served on:
• An entire site
• A section of a site
• Or…according to the keywords entered on a search engine
Payment is result based where advertisers normally pay according to the
number of times an ad is clicked, according to the number of users who view the
page ( CPM cost per thousand), or page impressions.
 Digital Marketing

Display advertising
Display adverts can come in various forms
depending on the layout of a webpage.
However, the two most common formats
include:
Leader board: slot in along the top of a
web page
Skyscraper: slot in to either the right or
the left of the main content depending on
page design
Others: tiles, buttons, multi-purpose units
– all defined by their proportions and how
they fit on a web page
 Digital Marketing

Display advertising
Rich media offers marketers new opportunities:
Rich media ads:
These provide a more interactive way for advertisers to engage with users.
They contain advanced features such as video, audio, and other
interactive features such as games, puzzles, search boxes etc. that
encourage audiences to engage with an ad. This is unlike text ads which
only contain words and display ads which only contain pictures
 Digital Marketing
Display advertising
Advantages:
• This kind of advertising can generate a direct and immediate response via
click through
• Enhances brand awareness and reach through the flexibility in the media
types it can utilize as well as through repeated exposure to an advert
• Encourages user interaction
• Advertisers can achieve highly targeted marketing communications
activities
• Opportunity for small scale businesses to advertise
• Ad placement is much easier in comparison to traditional advertising. In
addition, there is flexibility in altering adverts as through time
 Digital Marketing

Display advertising
Disadvantages:
• This kind of advertising suffers from relatively low click-through rates
• In highly competitive markets, the cost for these advertisements can be
exorbitant
• If combined with low click-through rates as well as high placement costs,
these ads have the potential to be of low efficiency to the advertiser
• Brands can suffer damage to their reputation when adverts associated with
the brand are run on questionable websites and along questionable
content. It may be difficult for advertisers to monitor this especially if
adverts are bought over ad networks
 Thank you!

Any Questions?