Hal Varian is the chief economist at Google, and certainly one of the main forces behind the economics of the Adwords Auction AND Quality Score. Google’s had this video available for over a year now, but NOT ONE PERSON I’ve spoken with about their Quality Score concerns had watched it. (Thanks to Rob Sieracki, Chief Operating Officer at RocketClicks.com for pointing this out to me)
In any case, it’s definitely THE starting point for understanding the components of Quality Score, especially the key role Click Through Rates play, and the VERY specific economic impact Quality Score has on bid price. It’s something which EVERY AdWords advertiser should watch. (Especially since it’s under 10 minutes!)
In my humble opinion, Quality Score is all about “Getting them there and keeping them there with relevant content”… which means (mathematically) a high Click Through Rate, a Long Time Spent on the Site, and a Low Bounce Rate. What that means in Plain English, however, is that you simply have to know what your best prospects want, on an adgroup by adgroup level, if not down to the keyword. What’s the best way to do that? Join the hyper-responsive marketing club of course!
One of the most compelling elements of your marketing is something you’ll never find in a textbook, in a marketing guru’s course, or taught at a seminar…
It’s your willingness to “Take a Stand Against the Madness”.
Here’s what I mean…
We live in a crazy world. So no matter what market you’re in, there’s madness: a kind of plague of overly simplistic, consensus driven thought which leaves people feeling desperate and alone, yet frightened to question authority.
Your ability to identify the madness, but more importantly your willingness to stand aside from it will distinguish you as a marketer like nothing else I know, because it’s this and only this which gives you the ability to connect with the consumer on the deepest level… to relieve the deepest desperation and despair they’re feeling as a result of living in an insane world.
Moreover, in every market there’s a general madness which obfuscates the most fundamental truths people really need to know, and then a specific madness which prevents people from learning the features and functions they should really be looking for.
For example, the general madness in OUR market (internet marketing) is the notion of the 4 hour work week, and that one can be making a full time living within just a few months. (The truth is it’s more like going to college to get another degree…you should definitely do better with the degree if you pick the right school, but it usually takes a few years and you don’t get a million dollar job right after you graduate, you get a career path you’re happy with instead)
The specific madness is the idea that (a) you can shout emotional benefits at people and they’ll buy (you’ve gotta link emotional benefits to concrete and specific points of difference–real features and functions which distinguish you from the competitors and make sense in the context of the emotion you’re promising to deliver); (b) you can find points of difference by looking at FAQs (when the truth is that frequently asked questions are also frequently answered).
In the “emotional eating” market (the one I demonstrate entering in the hyper-responsive club from month 3 onwards), the general madness is the notion you lose weight for good in 30 days, while the specific madness is the idea you have to learn “how to handle” your cravings (rather than methodically embracing the life force which is behind them without guilt or stress)
In both these situations, there’s a distinct relief which arises as people come to see you take a stand. They feel less alone. They think you’ve “got something special”.
And in fact, you must “have something special”, or your project is unlikely to work as more than a commodity play, squeezed on thin margins in the long run.
Now here’s the kicker…
To have something special, you’ve got to be willing to BE someone special…
Which means you really DO have to be willing to take a stand against the status quo…
To rock the boat…
To be hated by many.
It also means you have to be willing to be changed by your market… to love them so much you’ll give up notions which, going into the project, were critical to the security of your sense of self. (For example, in emotional eating, I thought I was going into the market to help people be more disciplined with their food, and instead I learned that the desire for discipline, in part, was a manifestation of an unhealthy fear of food… this challenged my day to day life in a fundamental way)
Are you willing to take a stand against the madness?
Today I’d like to talk about how a common (and very understandable) assumption is hurting people’s businesses… maybe even yours.
You see, it’s only natural to assume a higher opt rate should translate into more customers, more profits, and more dollars per web visitor. After all, you’re already paying for the visitors, why wouldn’t you [...]
Here’s a first.
I went for a walk with my wife this week. Before we left she stroked my head and said “honey, I think you’d better put some sun lotion on your bald spot” And just the day before, the eye doctor prescribed bifocals! False teeth can’t be too far behind.
All of which makes me [...]
This was my all-time best user response email message, reprinted here. Thought you’d like to see it
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IMPORTANT NOTE: There are NO promotional links in this email. You
can’t buy anything from it, no matter how hard you try.
I just really want you to understand this message.
Here’s the thing, you are NOT going to want [...]
I had a VERY strange weekend which proved to me there’s no such thing as certainty in an uncertain world, despite all our spreadsheets, predictive models, and planning Sometimes you can do all the research and preparation in the world, and then a tiny, unexpected wave comes along masquerading as a Tsunami and knocks [...]
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