The Relentless Pursuit of the Right Answer: Why Achieving Relevance at Scale is Worth Your Time

The Relentless Pursuit of the Right Answer: Why Achieving Relevance at Scale is Worth Your Time
Scott Ensign, DAC Group
Erin Heffernan, Optimedia US

What does relevance mean in Search?

Inherent in every search is a question. Context is extremely important.

• Give the right answer every time
• Leverage more than just the keyword
• Get highly targeted in your ad copy
• Keep to the leading edge of user expectations
  • Mobile can be the primary driver for some campaigns
• Search engines know a lot about the user. How do you leverage that data?
  • Not settling for “best available” destination

Building Scaled Search Programs

• Think of the user (the user doesn’t care about your org chart)
• Think of the client
• Leverage business/third-party data
• Campaigns are the new ad groups
• Leverage technology

Tools to Manage at Scale

• Proprietary tools
• SEM tools
• Must have the appropriate resources at your disposal

Soapbox

As a channel and a discipline, search marketers need to resource search correctly.

• It’s not just another media buy.
• Percent of spend is an outdated model.
  • Not a modern, relevant way to price a search campaign.
  • Should work budget towards a goal.
  • What are you trying to accomplish in the channel?
• Small investments in fees/resources = big results.
• Give the channel what it needs.

Demonstrated Cases

Sylvan learning centers was being managed at a national level.

Improved results by creating thousands of local targeted campaigns.

Points to Remember

• Extra effort in search pays off
• Create highly granular account structures
• Work to make the case for landing pages
• Give the channel what it needs
• Keep up with the user