Paid channel advertising—or SEM— is a traffic acquisition technique that virtually every marketer has encountered at some point in their career. Traffic acquisition is only half the marketing equation — you need to turn that traffic into customers. Learn how to use A/B testing to improve the efficiency and return-on-investment of your SEM campaigns.

1. How to Use A/B Testing to
Amplify Your SEM

2. Why are you here?
•
To create higher performing ads.
•
To create higher performing landing
pages.
•
To increase your return on investment
from paid search.

3. We’ll cover…
1
The paid search funnel.
2
Why A/B testing should be part of the
process.
3
A/B test ideas + examples for everything
from keywords to landing pages.
4
Tips for making this a reality.

4. SEM in a nutshell:
!
Spend money to
make more money*
for your business.
*The amount of money you make should
be more than the amount of money you
spend.

5. From a user’s perspective
!

6. I search for something.

7. I see ads in search results and (hopefully) click one.

8. I click one, the company advertising pays.

9. I land on a page.

10. Ideally I take an action.

11. From an advertiser’s perspective
!

12. The goal of SEM
Keyword bids ($$$)
Ad impressions
Clicks
Landing page
visits
On page
conversions
Leads, customers, revenue ($$$$$)

13. A/B testing in a nutshell:
!
Try two different things.
Measure which one
performs best*.
*The definition of “performs best” is
entirely up to you.

14. An example from EA.
A
B

15. A or B?
A
B

16. And the winner is… B
A
B
+43.4% more preorders

17. What metrics you should optimize for? Well, it depends.
Consumption

18. What metrics you should optimize for? Well, it depends.
Consumption
•
Page views
•
Shares
•
Average time on site/page
•
Bounce rate
•
Video views
•
Engagement metrics to increase advertisement
impressions

19. What metrics you should optimize for? Well, it depends.
Transaction

20. What metrics you should optimize for? Well, it depends.
Transaction
•
Add to cart
•
Checkout
•
Sign up
•
Download
•
Specific actions often led to by a series of
pages

21. Why SEM and A/B testing?
You can A/B test SEM campaigns in three
places:
1
The keywords.
2
The ads.
3
The landing pages.

22. “
If you're spending thousands of
dollars on search, you’d be crazy to
not be spending on tools and
software that can help you optimize
your website.
Larry Kim
Founder, CTO
Wordstream

23. Testing the entire SEM funnel.
Keyword bids ($$$)
Ad impressions
Clicks
Landing page
visits
On page
conversions
Leads, customers, revenue ($$$$$)

24. Testing the entire SEM funnel.
Keyword bids ($$$)
-Test which keywords you bid on.
-Test negative keywords.
-Test bid amount.
Ad impressions
Clicks
Landing page
visits
On page
conversions
Leads, customers, revenue

25. Testing the entire SEM funnel.
Keyword bids ($$$)
-Test which keywords you bid on.
-Test negative keywords.
-Test bid amount.
Ad impressions
-Test which ad serves for which keyword.
-Test ads themselves.
Clicks
Landing page
visits
On page
conversions
Leads, customers, revenue

26. Testing the entire SEM funnel.
Keyword bids ($$$)
-Test which keywords you bid on.
-Test negative keywords.
-Test bid amount.
Ad impressions
-Test which ad serves for which keyword.
-Test ads themselves.
Clicks
This just happens. (You paid for it!)
Landing page
visits
On page
conversions
Leads, customers, revenue

27. Testing the entire SEM funnel.
Keyword bids ($$$)
-Test which keywords you bid on.
-Test negative keywords.
-Test bid amount.
Ad impressions
-Test which ad serves for which keyword.
-Test ads themselves.
Clicks
This just happens. (You paid for it!)
Landing page
visits
So many testable things!
On page
conversions
Leads, customers, revenue

28. Let’s talk about this.
Landing page
visits
On page
conversions
Leads, customers, revenue ($$$$$)

29. A/B test thy landing page.

30. 1. Send paid traffic to the right landing page.

31. So you should have a few.

32. 2. Test the flow.

33. Especially of paid search landing pages.
A
B

34. A: Original
A

35. B: Variation removing search
B

36. A or B?
A
B

37. And the winner is… B
A
B
+23.7% more purchases

38. Is your first step the right first step?
Product catalog?
Email form?
Free trial?

39. “Show people an incline, not a steep slope.”

40. 3. A/B test the page itself.

41. An example from Tirendo.
A
B

42. A: Original

43. B: Streamlined and targeted

44. A or B?
A
B

45. And the winner is…
A
B
+20% more checkouts

46. So many things to test!
•
Call to Action: What are you telling someone to do?
How do you tell them? How prominent is it?
•
Navigation: Do you include it? Where does it lead to?
Are there CTAs on those pages?
•
Messaging: Is it congruent with the ad? Do you include
testimonials?
•
Imagery, endorsements, trust symbols, layout, colors
•
More? Just search for landing page optimization.

47. San Francisco, April 17
Use promo code “webinar50”
for $50 off your ticket!
Brooks Bell
Learn more at
opticon.optimizely.com
Rand Fishkin, Moz
Hiten Shah, KISSmetrics

48. 4 things to remember from today.
1
Embrace the forest and the trees.
2
Just because you’ve always done it one
way doesn’t mean it’s the only way.
3
Explore before you refine.
4
Share results often (but not always early).

49. Who am I?
Cara Harshman
Campaign Manager
@caraharshman
!
Optimizely
optimizely.com
@optimizely

50. Thank you!
!