40% reduction in time spent on reporting and campaign management
Increased conversions by 11%
SBoosted overall revenue by 20%
Century Novelty, party supplier since 1951
Founded in 1951, Century Novelty offers an extensive selection of party favors, supplies, and decorations for nearly every occasion. Started as a retail store outside of Detroit, Century Novelty became a web-only business in 2004.
To see such a sharp decrease in costs was amazing, as we’ve been increasing our spend on paid search by 50% a year every year – and with Marin we not only cut spending by over 60%, but at the same time increased revenues 20%. We’re blown away at the power
of Marin Software.
Ian MacDonald
VP and General Manager at Century Novelty
Century Novelties paid search programs were getting too large and very complicated
Century Novelty derives over 80% of its revenues directly from paid and organic search, so getting search engine marketing right is crucial to the company’s bottomline. Century Novelty has been using paid search for eight years, making it one of the first retailers to experiment with SEM. Paid search helps Century Novelty attract first-time customers, who are crucial in the party supply industry, where “every customer is a new customer,” said Ian MacDonald, VP and General Manager of Century Novelty. Often, customers make a single purchase for a standalone event, so Century Novelty must use every tool at its disposal to attract new customers on an ongoing basis.
Paid search has delivered impressive results for Century Novelty. Growing its paid search spend 50% a year on average since it began its SEM program, the company has grown overall revenues by 20% a year, every year. But Century Novelty soon realized its paid search program, which today encompasses more than 45,000 keywords, was becoming too large and complex to manage, measure, and optimize with the tools it had been using for the past few years. Century Novelty needed a sophisticated paid search management application that would enable it to accelerate the growth of search-driven revenues, while at the same time continuing to optimize its current SEM program.
Setting granular ROI goals for bid management paid off well for Century Novelty
After a comprehensive review of the paid search management applications on the market, Century Novelty chose Marin Software based on the strength of its robust technology, cutting-edge features, and expert client services team. In addition, Century Novelty chose Marin Software for its easy-to-use interface, cross-publisher automated bidding platform, and sophisticated analytics features. In particular, Century Novelty was impressed with the ability to set granular ROI goals for bid management that take into account the true cost of goods sold at the keyword, ad group, and campaign level, as well as the ability to easily replicate campaigns across all publishers. Century Novelty also liked Marin’s automated reporting features that allow its search marketing team to get an accurate picture of daily ROI and profit margin, comparing results across publishers from one integrated interface.
SEM costs cut by 62%
Marin Software has delivered impressive results to Century Novelty. Due to streamlined bidding across all three publishers, optimized bidding based on granular and true-cost ROI goals, automated reporting and analytics, and increased visibility into campaign effectiveness, Century Novelty was able to decrease spending on paid search by 62% – while at the same time increasing conversion by 11% and overall revenues by 20%.
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Marketing Data Pipelines: Turning Data Into Insights
Wrangling and making sense of all your marketing data is hard. For longer than a decade, we’ve been helping companies solve some pretty complex marketing data challenges – and we’ve compiled some of the knowledge we’ve gained over the years into a handy guide. The tl;dr? It’s complicated, but with the right tools, namely a marketing data pipeline (MDP), it doesn’t have to be hard! In this guide we break it all down to help you make sense of it, including breaking down:
What an MDP is
The stages of MDP maturity
Some of the key challenges with building an MDP
How to tell if you need an MDP
How to get started
And so much more!
Check out the report to learn all about corralling your marketing data today!
We all know that Performance Max campaigns on Google Ads offer significant opportunities for growth. However, even the most experienced marketers can stumble into common pitfalls. We’re only human, after all.
I’m going to assume you know the basics, like having lots of asset variations, using audience signals, etc. For a refresher on those, check out our post on PMAX best practices. Let’s dissect some of the trickier mistakes you may not even know you’re making with your PMAX campaigns.
Mistake #1: branded search conversions inflating your data
If someone is Googling your brand name, they’re probably trying to go directly to your site. If PMAX ads are running on these terms, you’re paying for traffic that you otherwise would be getting for free. Of course, defending your position at the top of your branded SERP is important. Your competitors could be bidding aggressively on your brand terms in hopes of convincing searchers that they are the better choice. To defend your brand’s presence in the SERP, make a separate traditional search and/or shopping campaign optimized toward an impression share goal and bid on branded keywords. Then, exclude brand traffic from PMAX.
You can check the impact of brand terms on your PMAX campaign in Google Ads by going to Insights > Consumer spotlight > Search term insights. This report tells you the number of conversions and asset groups associated with each search category. If brand is one of your top search categories, you’ve got a problem.
Solution: Exclude branded traffic from your PMAX campaigns.
There are two ways to exclude brand traffic from PMAX: brand exclusions and negative keyword lists. Negative keyword lists apply to all traffic, whereas brand exclusions work only across search and shopping traffic.
To apply brand exclusions, simply navigate to your PMAX campaign’s settings. Scroll down to Brand Exclusions, then enter the name of the brand list you wish to exclude. If you haven’t created a brand list yet, you can do so right in the PMAX campaign’s settings or in the Shared Library.
To apply a negative keyword list, you have to fill out the Performance Max Campaign Modification Request Form. This form will provide you with a Google Sheet template you can use to apply negative keywords. You can also request to apply a negative keyword list that already exists in your Google account if you’ve already got one that you’re using for traditional nonbrand search campaigns.
Mistake #2: relying on Google Ads conversion data
Don’t trust the conversion and revenue data Google Ads provides. Google Ads conversions are ‘estimated’ because data privacy laws prevent the ad-serving platform from using third-party cookies to accurately track users across the web.
Solution: Implement a solution that tracks every conversion touchpoint in your funnel.
Choosing one that uses first-party cookies like Google Analytics or Marin Attribution will ensure that there are no tracking gaps after third-party cookie deprecation.
Google Analytics is the most common choice, but marketers far and wide are having issues with the new Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Common complaints include data discrepancies, a poor API, and an overly complex, unintuitive UI. To quote Reddit user NewAccountPlsRespond, “Why does creating an insanely straightforward and simple report involve having 5 dimensions, 3 audiences, and numerous inputs? Like holy hell. And don't get me started on the API”.
GA4 may get the job done, but try an independent solution like Marin Attribution if you’re looking for something more user-friendly. Marin Attribution tracks conversions and revenue across all marketing channels and lets you choose the attribution model that best fits your business. All your conversions are displayed side by side in a straightforward UI.
Regardless of which tracking solution you choose, ensure that your tracking codes are placed correctly on every page of your website where a conversion could occur. Then, make sure that data is being fed back into your Google Ads account via the API. Review your PMAX campaign’s settings to ensure that its conversion goals reference that first-party data.
Mistake #3: Leaving “auto-apply recommendations” on
Sometimes, Google’s recommendations seem to be more about increasing revenue for Google than actually optimizing your campaigns. While some of their recommendations are helpful, auto-applying all recommendations is never the right move. I wrote another post about the importance of using publisher-independent platforms for things like tracking and recommendations, and you can check that out here for more details. In summary - did your teacher let you grade your own homework? No? Then why would you trust Google to auto-optimize your Google campaigns?
It’s critical that you understand how, when, and why changes are happening in your account. Sure, you can review Google’s recommendations and apply any that align with your goals, but there will likely be many recommendations that you choose to dismiss.
Solution: Turn off auto-applied recommendations
Navigate to the ‘Recommendations’ page and click ‘Auto-apply’ in the upper right corner. Then click ‘Maintain Your Ads’. Here you’ll find a checklist of all the different types of changes Google can auto-apply to your campaigns. I recommend unchecking all of them. You’ll still see them in the Recommendations tab, and you can manually apply them if you see fit. Here’s a step by step video guide that will help.
Mistake #4: ‘Presence or Interest’ location targeting
PMAX location targeting defaults to ‘presence or interest’ meaning it will serve ads not only to people in your target locations but to those ‘interested’ in those locations too. ‘Interested’ users are usually people who plan to travel to your target location soon. It can be good to target travelers if you’re in the hospitality or entertainment industry, but if you’re a dentist, for example, people probably won’t make an appointment at your office while they’re on vacation.
Solution: Switch your location targeting settings to ‘Presence’
This will only target people who live in or regularly visit your target locations. You can do this under campaign settings > location options.
Mistake #5: Leaving URL Expansion on
URL Expansion is on by default for PMAX campaigns. This means that your PMAX campaigns will send users to whatever landing page on your site Google deems most relevant to the search term, NOT your final URL. This sounds good in theory - searchers are sent to the most relevant LPs possible. But you don’t want to be paying for ads that send traffic to an LP with no call to action!
Solution: Opt out of final URL expansion or exclude URLs
In campaign settings, under ‘Final URL Expansion,’ you’ll find two options:
Your first option is to leave final URL expansion on but exclude certain URLs. You can either list out URLs to exclude or use a ‘URL contains’ rule to exclude URLs that contain certain text strings. This option may be the best of both worlds if the majority of your site’s landing pages are paid search optimized and feature CTAs.
Your second option is to turn off URL expansion entirely. Choose this option if you have only one LP you want to send paid search traffic to.
Can you trust Google?
PMAX was sold to paid search marketers as a sort of set-it-and-forget-it, self-optimizing campaign type. I don’t know about you, but I don’t let the house set my bets for me when I gamble. Similarly, I’m not going to let Google spend my money for me.
A lot of the pitfalls I described above occur due to Google auto-applying optimizations in an illusive way. If you want straightforward, publisher-agnostic help improving your cross-channel campaigns' performance, Marin’s Insights can help.
Insights are customized, cross-channel recommendations designed to improve campaign performance. Powered by AI, they will uncover opportunities to reduce wasteful spending and maximize performance across all your publisher accounts. Schedule a demo today to learn more.
Multicomp Pro Sees Over 150% Increase in Amazon Revenue with Marin
Background
Multicomp Pro offers a diverse range of electronic components, including semiconductors, passive components, connectors, and more. As a supplier of a wide variety of electronic parts, Multicomp Pro caters to the needs of engineers, hobbyists, and professionals in the electronics industry.
Their product line is designed to meet the demands of electronic projects, from basic circuits to advanced applications. Multicomp Pro is recognized for providing reliable and cost-effective components, tools, and equipment, making it a popular choice for those seeking quality electronic parts. Whether one is working on prototyping, repairs, or production-level applications, Multicomp Pro strives to deliver components that meet industry standards and specifications.