Successfully Scaling to a
Global PPC Program in 9
Months without The Wheels
Falling Off
Marc Bitanga

Marc Bitanga
Manager, Customer Acquisition
@marcbitanga
• SEM
• SEO & Inbound Marketing
• Digital Media
About Me

Top Brands Trust HootSuite

175+COUNTRIES
15 LANGUAGES
90+ SOCIAL NETWORKS
& INTEGRATIONS747 OF FORTUNE
1000 COMPANIES
9+ MILLION USERS
1200+ ENTERPRISE
CUSTOMERS

We’re Also Known for our
“HootBus” at SXSW

The Backstory…
It Started 9 Months Ago with $165
Million

Our Objective: GROW!

5 Continents
28 Countries
13 Languages
6 Dialects
A Team of 2 Who Only
Speaks English.Go!
Our Challenge

To Go Global. Our PPC Program
Needed To Be This.

But At The Time. We Were More
Like This.

Banda Regular, Size 40 on top of a
dark photoMonth 1 Assessment: Solid Foundation
With Some Work To Do

Month 1 - Our Team Looked Like This
One Digital Media Specialist
US Agency
Landing Page Designer
Analysts
Customer Acquisition Team
Conversion Optimization Team
Analytics Team

2000+
AdWords ad
groups (US)
Only 75
landing pages
in UnBounce
Just a Few Landing Pages
Too Many Ad Groups. Not Enough
Landing Pages.
Very
Targeted Ad
Groups
Broadly
Targeted
Landing
Pages

Used Display Ads For Click-
through Conversions

100% Last Click Attribution
Missed Out On Growth
Opportunities.
This Guy
Got All the
Credit

We Needed to Evolve

Revamped Our SEM Campaign
Structure Branded
Non-Branded Tier 1
Non-Branded Tier 2
Non-Branded Tier 3
Competitor

Categorized Non-Branded into
Campaign Tiers
• HootSuiteBranded
• Social Management
Dashboard
Non-Brand Tier 1
(vanity KWs)
• Automate Tweet
Non-Brand Tier 2
(targeted KWs)
• B2B Twitter
Non-Brand Tier 3
(moderately
targeted KWs)

Revamped Our Campaigns
Before After

Added Critical People to Our Team
• A Number of Digital Media Specialists!
• EMEA/LATAM Agency
• AsiaPac Agency
• Conversion Project Manager
• Landing Page Designer
• Copywriter
• Developer
• A Room Full of Analysts!
Customer Acquisition Team
Conversion Optimization Team
Analytics Team

Implemented Daily Dashboards
Across Regions

Went From Ad-hoc To Scheduled
Campaign Optimization

Added New Tools
Before

Added New Tools
After

Partnered With Agencies In EMEA,
LatAm, & AsiaPac

• Agencies hard to source from North
America
• Your $$$ spread over many languages
isn’t profitable for agencies
• Us vs. Them mentality
Some Challenges Going Global

Remember Those Revamped Campaigns?
We Replicated The Structure Globally.

Banda Regular, Size 40 on top of a
dark photoMonth 9 Assessment: Significantly
Better

The Result After 9 Months?
How did we do?

Significant Growth In New Users. Our
CAC Also Declined By 1%!
- New Users
- CAC

Top 5 Tips to Help You Grow
Your PPC Program

#1 – Empower Your PPC Team!
Your PPC Team
Red Tape

• Full-Stack Production & Analytics Team
• Fail Fast Mentality: Test, Test, Test
• Leadership Advocacy
What Works for Us

#2 – Use Modified Broad KWs +
Hundreds Of Negatives KWs
Long Tail Traffic

• Regular Negative Keyword Culls Keep
Bad Traffic At Bay
• Ensures We Don’t Miss A Major Segment
Of Keywords
• Turn Winners into Exact Match
Long Tail Keywords for The WIN!

#3 - Improve Processes. Ensure
Each Campaign Gets Some Attention

• Frequency of Keyword Culls
• Frequency of Ad Testing
• Frequency of Landing Page Tests
Create an Optimization Calendar

#4 - In The Short Term: Scale &
Automate As Much As You Can

• Duplicate what works in one region to
another
• Dynamic Keyword Insertion in Ads &
Landing Pages
• Have a Portfolio of Landing Page
Templates
Scale & Automate!

#5 - Don’t Underestimate Organization,
Communication & Project Management

• Standardize Evaluation; Common Metrics
& Campaign Structure Globally;
• Basecamp Project Portal
• Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly Reviews &
Status Updates
Organization & Communication

That’s Our Story, Thank You!
Any Questions?
Twitter: @marcbitanga