PPC Growth
Hacking/Cheating
Strategies for explosive growth
Welcome
Phil Pearce
PPC and Analytics Expert
Freelancer
@philpearce
phil@precisionppc.me
www.linkedin.com/in/philpearce
Academy (UK)
750 GA
questions answered
#PPCGrowthHacking #SPWK
Fun fact, I`m an Identical Twin...
”I successfully cloned myself to increase my productivity” ;)
Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Traditional PPC model
What is Growth Hacking + Examples
What is PPC growth hacking + Examples
Learnings & Cross industry examples
So… Apply it to my Website
Take aways
Resources
What is PPC Growth?
Adwords
Marketing
Conversion
Data
Sales
Growth
Repeat until CPA threshold reached
Classic model
1. Create new marketing campaign.
2. If CPA data is within target threshold = then growth achieved
3. Then Increase marketing.
Repeat above steps, until threshold reached.
What is Growth Hacking for PPC?
Adwords
Marketing
Product
Data
And… needs to be Scalable, Repeatable and Sustainable.
Note: “Product” could be value-proposition or incentives
Growth
Hacking
So…
PPC is limited by CPA curve
2x Conversions = 4x CPA!
(not sustainable)
Although… ~free assists sales growth…
• When creating a GA custom Multi Channel funnel report, be aware
that Landing page & Google Organic KW not available
(i.e not easy to separate Brand/Non-Brand SEO for above example).
But… PPC growth for start-ups
is expensive!
Rapid growth using PPC,
that is that sustainable?
Yes, its possible…
• I`ve done it before!
 super affiliate with 90% ppc
and active for 5+years
But…
• You need to achieve Product Market Fit before
starting a growth campaign.
• Will anyone by your Product?
• If you stopped trading would 40%+ users complain?
Link to Product Market Fit test: http://survey.io/
Ok…
So you have passed Product market fit
test/interview.
Now what?…
Jump into Growth Hacking?
Growth hacking is a set of tactics adopted by startups which leverage creativity,
analytical data & viral marketing to sell products and gain exposure.
Growth hackers focus on “low-cost“, “high impact” alternatives to traditional
marketing.
They utilise techniques such as SEO, content marketing, online PR, email
marketing, web analytics & CRO testing. Ref : wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hacking
What is Growth
Hack-er?
A growth hacker is a person whose true north is
GROWTH.
EVERYTHING they do is scrutinised by its potential impact
on scalable growth.
Great growth hackers can come from:
• Engineering/Development
• Sales backgrounds
• or Analytics backgrounds
How do you know when you find one?
The key is they MUST have the ability to
1. take responsibility for growth
2. have an entrepreneurial drive
3. be regimented about the process of prioritising
ideas (their own and others in the company)
4. then quickly test & refine these ideas
… to find a sustainable hack.
www.startup-marketing.com/where-are-all-the-growth-hackers/
Lastly resourcefulness!
What could you do with just €100
(not thousands) to achieve growth?
PPC Growth Hacking Ideas…
1.
Standard Adwords $1 * 100 clicks?
2.
Open 2 Adwords accounts $50*2 + $150 credits
3.
Trending News phrases with Don’t Click this Advert Campaign = 100
clicks, but 10,000 impressions & PR story.
http://www.icrossing.co.uk/ann-summers-case-study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVU60NRuOJo
It leverages the Changes in the Algo for New advertisers in first 2weeks
Other ideas
Ask users to create ads for you…
Task: Tell a Joke using 25 characters + 70
characters.
Humour Examples :
Super Vacuum Cleaners
Your Dirty Language is the
Only thing it cant Clean!
supervacuumcleaners.com/super-vacuum-cleaners
Task: Write a poem using 25 characters + 70
characters.
100 Advert poems = 0 Clicks, but 10,000 PR visits –
Write your own poem, show to 100 of people.
PPC Algo
http://bit.ly/ppc-algo-v3
Growth Hacking examples
•
•
•
•
•
Hotmail – P.S. I love you
AirB&B – Made a Craigslist api.
Drobbox – Refer a friend
Facebook – Exclusive network appeal
Twitter – follow celebrities
Read more examples:
http://www.slideshare.net/matt
angriffel/growth-hacking
What is Growth Hacking for PPC?
Adwords
Marketing
Product
Data
And… needs to be Scalable, Repeatable and Sustainable.
Note: “Product” could be value-proposition or incentives
Growth
Hacking
What is PPC growth…
… And is`nt “growth at low cost CPA”
in mature markets impossible?
No, not impossible but really hard!
Compare and Save example
1.
Reverse Economies of scale due to CPA tiers
2.
BPF: Google +3% kickback +5%growth kicker
3.
Regulation preventing Direct Players writing good ads (e.g must mention
APR variable)
4.
User confusion – 1st Advert not clear it was paid (compare to now).
5.
Display URL that had Call-to-action within it (save-here-now.com)
6.
Very high CTR on generic terms
7.
Obsession over one metric: CTR (no conversion tracking in early days)
8.
Algo that rewarded volume with lower cpc (e.g CTR 50% weighting)
Compare and Save example
continued…
1.
Explosive growth
2.
Position 1 became cheaper than position4! (This is due to CTR factoring,
and t the time position preference)
3.
Exceeded all CPA tiers.
4.
Also built strong relations with Direct providers, offering state of the
market reports, to add value.
But it would never work now :(
But it would never work now :(
Due to reduced ppc CTR on SERP
and all-time KW level QS decay
Luck / Improvisation / Flexibility
Weapon of Choice
PPC Tools
http://bit.ly/spwk-list-ppc-tools
Importance of a Great Team
Tea boy &
Product
Specialist
[Image of MICreative
team]
Mean
Developer
Marketer
Hot
Data Scientist
But… its like music – some of the
best tunes are mixes of other
peoples work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael
_Jackson%27s_Thriller
Product Idea
• Bid by Quality score
(for Charities using Google Grants)
• Hack might be
“prove to donators that Fund well spent”
Growth Hacking a PPC tool…
Have you Heard of “Battleships”?”
Growth Hacking a PPC tool…
Download CTR battleships
http://bit.ly/battleshipsctr
Growth Hacking a PPC tool…
Adwords
Marketing
(capture/test
initial lead)
Product
(Variation on
QS grader)
Adwords API
Data
And… needs to be Scalable, Repeatable and Sustainable.
Same product but different UI/Landing page - value proposition
tweaked and made fun / viral… e.g every one likes to show off :)
Growth
Hacking
Growth Hacking a PPC tool…
Or take a photo them holding
the Prize! #ctrbattleships
Winner must tweet winning
strategy #ctrbattleships
Download CTR battleships
http://bit.ly/battleshipsctr
Also… Test hacks internally
& see if they win.
[Image of the A team]
Learn from failed Hacks
VacuumCleaners4u.com (1999)
“Free vs Fast postage example”
InkinaBlink.com (1999)
SEO link buying penalties (e.g.
RapGenius)
Account level Tests/Hacks
{Param2}
Article by Chad Somerville
Click Fraud Tool – I built
(using 3rd party call data & mathematics)
This equates to:
• 39% of Spend
over 60 refunded
• 3% over 18month
log duration.
Equates to:
Download template here:
Bit.ly/clickrefundtemplate
The Catch22: Disclaimer
Its not entirely Google Fault…
No Click2Call Conversion Data (CallMetrics) =
Increase in Invalid Clicks
But client unable to enable CallMetrics
No inbound API for submitting
structure data to Google, and no gclid lookup.
Auto campaigns
(Free version of SpeedPPC that I built)
http://bit.ly/ad-mutation-tool (MS access)
PPC growth hack to test
Search from mobile
Lead capture via QR code – invoke vCard
SMS to Win.
App download via Paid search
PPC Growth
Hacking/Cheating
Your mission
should you choose
to accept it…
So… Apply it to my Website
Not so easy… Hack needs to be
customised to fix business.
Quesitons
Resources
e.g. Growth Hacker TV (join)
Don’t Hang around then!
Don’t share this PPC video…
bit.ly/ppc-rap (Turn up sound)
GTM dev guide:
bit.ly/gtmdevguide
And join GTM community on Google+
bit.ly/gtmcommunity
Report Automation (Require Adwords API key)
Gazel for Excel using Free trial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYOuxgCzWQ