Smart Broad: A Next Generation Google Search Campaign

Artificial intelligence is trending.

Over the last decade, it’s become widely accepted that AI is more than just a buzzword. Across industries and verticals, AI-powered technology has begun to shape the way that organizations do business. From newly-founded startups to established global enterprises, companies of all sizes are seeing the value in adopting this technology to improve operations and solve business challenges.

In the world of paid search, it’s no surprise that Google has been on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence technology from the very beginning. Since the introduction of automated bidding, the search engine giant has continued to foster innovation and provide advertisers with AI-powered pay-per-click (PPC) solutions.

For many search marketers, however, the idea of artificial intelligence and machine learning often comes with hesitation rather than excitement. As project workflows become increasingly more automated, marketers are forced to hand over the reins and release some control over their campaigns to artificially-powered algorithms. Moving past manual bidding can feel daunting even for the most experienced PPC practitioner.

At Directive, we recognized that the tried-and-true manual approach to paid search was no longer bringing in sufficient marketing results. As a result, we came up with a new strategy that combines broad match keywords with Google’s machine learning technology to optimize the bidding process for higher conversions with less ad spend. We call it Smart Broad.

In this guide, we will discuss the Smart Broad methodology, walk you through how to structure a Smart Broad campaign, and share key findings from our results that you can apply to your own paid search tactics.

At the beginning of 2020, the Directive team noticed an interesting trend across our portfolio of accounts. When observing PPC campaign results over the last three years, the overall cost-per-click (CPC) rate was rising. After digging deeper into the data, we found that CPC rates increased by 152% during this time.

Whether it was increased competition or other external market factors that caused this, we’re still not sure. All we knew is that something about our strategy had to change to account for these fluctuations. After all, the numbers don’t lie.

These findings lead us to rethink our entire traditional PPC campaign strategy. Shortly after, Smart Broad was born.

Fast forward to a couple months later, this campaign structure drove CPA rates down by 45%.

Here’s how we did it.

The Traditional PPC Strategy

At Directive, we traditionally take a manual approach to PPC campaigns. This allows us to have full control over the entire campaign creation process from beginning to end as well as optimize the bids and keywords as we see fit. Our traditional approach uses single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) with either broad modified, exact, or phrase match keywords.

The main challenge of a manual strategy is the level of time and effort that’s required to manage it. Especially for large accounts with many ongoing campaigns, it can be incredibly time-consuming to maintain optimal results.

Simply put, Smart Broad is a multi-layered paid search strategy that combines broad match keywords with Google’s automated smart bidding offering to drive lower cost-per-action and higher conversions. This approach merges the heightened level of control observed in a manual campaign with the time-saving benefits of automated bidding.

Broad Keyword Overview

Keyword match types are used to set parameters for the types of queries your ads can appear for. Google currently offers four keyword match types: broad, broad modified, phrase, and exact.

When you select the broad keyword match type, Google will show your ads for different variations of your chosen keyword(s). This includes synonyms and singular/plural forms of the term. For example, let’s say your business sells human resources software and you want your ads to show up when users search for the phrase “HR software.”

Using broad match, your ads will also show up for different variations of this target phrase such as:

As you can see, some of these results are spot on, others are not. Broad match enables your ads to get maximum exposure, but it also means that the ads can show up in search queries that are not relevant to your business. For this reason, broad match is rarely used by PPC professionals for manual campaigns. However, when paired with an automated bidding strategy, broad match can actually be very effective. More on this later.

Google introduced smart bidding in 2016 as a subset of its existing automated bidding strategies. Smart bidding is unique in that it’s specifically designed to maximize conversions. Through machine learning algorithms, each strategy is set up to target the right bid to every auction — a featured referred to as “auction-time bidding.” Google uses a variety of contextual signals such as time of day, device, location, and others to make highly specific bidding decisions in real-time.

Having the right amount of data is critical to seeing results through smart bidding. This has less to do with how big your business or budget is, and more to do with how well your existing ad campaigns have been performing.

Google advises that an account has a minimum of 30 conversions in the last 30 days in order to be successful.

In addition to the level of data, it was important to look for accounts that would be compatible with the AI component of smart bidding. For example, businesses that operate in a very niche market would not be a good fit for a Smart Broad campaign. These types of campaigns already require a very high level of complexity when it comes to targeting keywords since there’s usually very low search volume to work with. Google’s machine learning algorithm is not yet advanced enough to effectively target these queries.

With this in mind, we carefully selected a list of 17 accounts (2 business-to-consumer, 15 business- to-business) that would be a good fit to enroll in our Smart Broad experiment.

Hypothesis

To test the efficacy of our idea, we came up with one simple objective: drive cost-per-action (CPA) down while maintaining a favorable level of intent in the search queries.

We hypothesized that using broad match keywords would keep the CPC rate down, while the smart bidding component would allow for maximum conversions within reasonable budget constraints.

When put into action, the Smart Broad approach outperformed our traditional strategy across the board. In our sample size of 17 client accounts, this campaign succeeded in driving CPA rates down by 45%.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the additional performance metrics:

• CPC: 39% lower
• CVR: 10% higher
• CTR: 20% higher

Note: These figures are averages that represent all the accounts in the sample size.

When evaluating lead quality from the Smart Broad campaign, our data showed that the lead to MQL rates remained consistent with the rates we typically see with our traditional campaigns.

Following the initial test run, it became clear to us that this strategy has massive potential to change the way we approach PPC campaigns in the future.

We’ve identified three overarching benefits:

1. Future-Proof Your PPC Strategy
   Whether we like it or not, search marketing is moving in the direction of AI-powered bidding. The distinct benefit of Smart Broad is that it allows marketers to find a balance between level of control and automation. When you combine the ability to control queries with the time-saving benefits of smart bidding, you’re able to operate at a much higher level of efficiency. Businesses that are able to harness the power of this technology now are in a much better position to be ahead of the curve.
2. Ease of Implementation
   Overall, implementing and scaling the Smart Broad strategy is fairly straightforward. While it still requires some level of ongoing maintenance, you are doing much less of it. Your team can spend more time focusing on innovations and strategy, and less time adjusting bids.
3. Measurable Results

   Smart Broad works, plain and simple. Across the board, the Smart Broad campaign delivered significant results that exceeded our expectations. We successfully were able to drive down CPA rates for our clients, while maintaining high-quality search queries.

   Additionally, we noticed that these results were easily replicated across different sized accounts and industries. This means that companies with budgets of any size can implement this strategy and customize it to fit their needs. Businesses with smaller budgets will likely require a longer initial learning period. This refers to the time required for the smart bidding algorithm to process enough data for optimal bidding. That being said, we’ve determined that a longer learning period will not hinder long-term success.

If you’re interested in learning how to build your own Smart Broad campaign, we’re going to cover that next.

Like any well-oiled machine, there are necessary levers that need to exist in order to get the gears turning and working properly.

Smart Broad is structured in a way where each layer of the campaign acts as a filter. This allows you to customize the campaign and pull certain levers to make adjustments as needed. Additionally, these layers help to filter out unqualified traffic and unprofitable clicks.

This is the last filter in the pre-click phase of the campaign. As mentioned previously, Google Ads currently offers six smart bidding strategies and each is aimed at reaching a different objective. When developing the Smart Broad approach, our team identified target CPA as the most effective strategy to pair with broad match keywords as it helps to weed out any queries that are not likely to convert.

By design, the target CPA strategy is set up to optimize for conversions at or below the designated cost-per-action. Using Google’s auction-time bidding feature, the algorithm relies on previous campaign data and contextual signals to find the optimal bid for your ad.

When it comes to setting the actual target CPA, we suggest using the number that Google automatically recommends. This figure is determined using performance data from your past campaigns. If the recommended CPA is far over your planned budget, it’s a good idea to review your financial targets and determine the maximum amount you can afford to bid.

To track and measure Smart Broad campaign performance, we look at these primary metrics:

• Cost-per-action (CPA)
• Cost-per-click (CPC)
• Conversion rate (CVR)
• Click-through rate (CTR)

Although our primary objective revolves around CPA rate, it’s still important to look at these other key metrics in order to paint a full and accurate picture of how the campaign is actually doing.

The day-to-day management of a Smart Broad campaign is fairly hands off and overall not much different from a traditional campaign. The most noteworthy difference is a heightened focus on the quality of search queries which your ads are showing up for. You should be consistently mining through search terms for additional negative keywords to add to your list.

At the same time, it’s important to note that seeing too many irrelevant search queries is a sign that it’s time to pivot and experiment with the different filters. Smart Broad was intentionally built with testable components that allow you to make adjustments as necessary.

Scaling Tactics

Once we established a basic campaign structure and began to notice positive results, we aimed to identify additional tactics that could take the Smart Broad approach to the next level.

There are a variety of elements you can test and alter to influence even better results. We recommend experimenting with the following:

Pre-qualifying ad copy is essential to fueling high-intent traffic.

Experimenting with testable components can lead to better results.

Overall, our findings indicate that when combined with the right foundational elements, an automated smart bidding strategy paired with broad match keywords has massive potential to bring in legitimate results. While some components of our campaign structure proved to be more critical than others, it’s the combination of all the filters and the automated bidding technology that make Smart Broad so effective.