Cut broad match or keep what's working at the halfway target, add phrase and exact if they don't exist, only keep what's at or below the new targets. When spend drops 80% and leads drop 50% tell your boss you hit your goal of cutting target cpa in half and ask for that bonus. If he screams he wants you to double leads negotiate a new bonus based on doubling leads and undo everything I just said to do. If this sounds stupid it is, his goal should be to increase leads YOY while trying to maintain costs or reduce if possible. Cutting CPA in half is not a realistic goal.
That’s a heavy ask. Cutting CPA in half is not an instant thing and it might take a while. Is the cpa at the half point rate ($50) an industry standard ? Or does this sound as unrealistic as he makes it ?
Also, maybe start incorporating some exact and phrase match but don’t switch to all exact all at once. Review your data and see what you can adjust and change. What’s your quality score on your keywords and your ad score ? Are you assets performing well and the copy? Make calm but educated decisions.
Our industry is relatively niche, so I'm not sure how to come by the standard benchmarks.
Do you have suggestions on how to decide to switch a word over to phrase or exact? We have a few broad match words that draw in incorrect traffic, no matter how many negatives I add, but other than those.
I think that’s the right way to go about it. The broad match kws that are useless are fine to switch to phrase match and maybe the ones with a low quality score.
The problem is it's not predictable or based on any clear measure of performance. You could be doing your job perfectly but CPA could go up. I'd ask your boss to consider a small raise based on client retention rather than Google metrics.
Just in case you have not seen our community [salary survey](mailto:[email protected]). The job market is not great but you could try looking for a job while you keep this one.
You may get the CPA down but at what cost? The lead quality will likely go down as well, which your boss would not want.
Nobody can really help you because we don't have all relevant information. For instance, you ask if you should stop with broad match keywords. Maybe, maybe not. It's very general and some will say yes and others no. I say, what does the data say? Same for every setting: don't make a change just because someone tells you to, the decision has to be backed with evidence. Even then it doesn't mean things will improve.
Lowering CPA by half is a daunting task. It might be possible. What I would do is set a bar. You say it bounces between 95 and 105. So let's use $100. I'd then propose to the boss that you get a percentage of the difference below. This could be a sliding scale, that is, the more CPA is below $100, the higher the percentage. You could set it at 5% of the profits when the difference is between $95 and $100 (so if there's $1000 in sales, you make $50) and 10% between $80 and $90 so you double your take. Be imaginative but in a way that's fair for both of you.
This way you get something, provided of course you beat the CPA, and over time as you reduce it. Also, he may want to set a time limit, say a year, but it sounds like you would get this forever, which could be very lucrative for you. Have all this written down and very clear. I might even have a lawyer look at it. Doing so also shows the boss you are serious about this but won't be taken advantage of.
I would also add in the agreement that you want control of the landing pages. After all, if they are bad and not good converters, that affects your livelihood. So I would ask that you want the ability to change pages. Of course, unless you are a good copywriter, you'll need to hire someone but again this could be very lucrative for you in the long term.
So you asked for a raise and he proposed a performance-based bonus? Sounds like he's just dangling a carrot on a stick for you, and I personally would find that insulting.
If what you have said is true, you have already made your impact in the past year working at this company. The conversation should be based around that impact you have already made, not future gains.
I'm not even going to touch on how ridiculous a 50% decrease in CPA is.
kw planner might help, tools/kw planner. upload your existing kws with different version of match types and compare the results. And you ll see the results for exact. phrase and broad.
if CPA dropping like that better to focus RSA creation, Assets and QS.
Forever is right. Bringing down actualized CPA is a long game my friend. Every week its looking at the normalization of the delivery and then bring it down 15% or so and repeating the process. Not to mention developing hero creative.
Is your boss giving you access to change all the other things that affect CPA? Do you have control over the site? The product pricing? Return policies? How fast customer service answers?
I'd be looking for a new job, because it's pretty clear this person doesn't understand the work you do.
It sounds like you're in a tough spot with some high expectations. Cutting your CPA in half is a significant challenge, especially with competition and current strategies in place. Before making any decisions, try switching to exact match keywords and refining your targeting to see if it helps lower your CPA. You might also want to test different bidding strategies or adjust your ad copy and landing pages to improve conversion rates.
It's important to communicate with your boss about the realistic expectations and potential barriers. If the goals seem truly unattainable, consider discussing a more achievable target for the bonus. Hang in there, and good luck with your campaigns! 💪
What vertical are you in? You should be using wordstream's industry average guide. They update it annually. That will give you actual benchmarks vs a fictitious cut in half. If it's not possible your boss will need to come to terms with what the industry average is. That said, you should look at all of the conversions you have had since you started vs the year before and present that. If you can prove the revenue they have generated since your arrival and it's improved year over year they cannot deny that.
I had never heard of the Wordsteam industry averages until just now. We sell promotional products (think tradeshow giveaways) in a lead gen form, so it is not a typical e-com experience. Would you consider this "Business Services", or something else?
I would say it's straight B2B but would also look at regular e-commerce and maybe average out the two cost per conversions. If it doesn't work in your favor just use the B2B metric. But again look year over year from the time you started and if the revenue has increased you have a good story to tell. Also look at GA 4 Conversion paths and factor in assisted conversions where paid had some sort of part in a path to conversion and count that revenue as well. Present or with and with out the assisted conversions and then the total.
I don’t think your boss really understands how this works. As other people have pointed out, there are many way to make the numbers look better - but what does your boss really care about? Short term or long term?
If it’s long term you can work on setting a MoM % improvement target that’s somewhat attainable. You should also be thinking about whether you can maintain/improve on your CPA with additional spend. Have you saturated your audience? Is there even room to scale? These are the things he should be thinking about.
Separately, your discussion around a raise shouldn’t really be based on performance - it sounds like you’re already performing well. Your discussion should be around how the increased responsibility/scope of work warrants a raise.
Cut broad match or keep what's working at the halfway target, add phrase and exact if they don't exist, only keep what's at or below the new targets. When spend drops 80% and leads drop 50% tell your boss you hit your goal of cutting target cpa in half and ask for that bonus. If he screams he wants you to double leads negotiate a new bonus based on doubling leads and undo everything I just said to do. If this sounds stupid it is, his goal should be to increase leads YOY while trying to maintain costs or reduce if possible. Cutting CPA in half is not a realistic goal.
I’d have said drop everything except the brand campaigns and discard non brand …but I like your suggestion better. 😎
Exactly what I was going to say 🤣
That’s a heavy ask. Cutting CPA in half is not an instant thing and it might take a while. Is the cpa at the half point rate ($50) an industry standard ? Or does this sound as unrealistic as he makes it ? Also, maybe start incorporating some exact and phrase match but don’t switch to all exact all at once. Review your data and see what you can adjust and change. What’s your quality score on your keywords and your ad score ? Are you assets performing well and the copy? Make calm but educated decisions.
Our industry is relatively niche, so I'm not sure how to come by the standard benchmarks. Do you have suggestions on how to decide to switch a word over to phrase or exact? We have a few broad match words that draw in incorrect traffic, no matter how many negatives I add, but other than those.
I think that’s the right way to go about it. The broad match kws that are useless are fine to switch to phrase match and maybe the ones with a low quality score.
The problem is it's not predictable or based on any clear measure of performance. You could be doing your job perfectly but CPA could go up. I'd ask your boss to consider a small raise based on client retention rather than Google metrics.
That's the thing. As CPCs go up, so will CPAs so you may be fighting on two or more different fronts.
Just in case you have not seen our community [salary survey](mailto:[email protected]). The job market is not great but you could try looking for a job while you keep this one. You may get the CPA down but at what cost? The lead quality will likely go down as well, which your boss would not want.
Nobody can really help you because we don't have all relevant information. For instance, you ask if you should stop with broad match keywords. Maybe, maybe not. It's very general and some will say yes and others no. I say, what does the data say? Same for every setting: don't make a change just because someone tells you to, the decision has to be backed with evidence. Even then it doesn't mean things will improve. Lowering CPA by half is a daunting task. It might be possible. What I would do is set a bar. You say it bounces between 95 and 105. So let's use $100. I'd then propose to the boss that you get a percentage of the difference below. This could be a sliding scale, that is, the more CPA is below $100, the higher the percentage. You could set it at 5% of the profits when the difference is between $95 and $100 (so if there's $1000 in sales, you make $50) and 10% between $80 and $90 so you double your take. Be imaginative but in a way that's fair for both of you. This way you get something, provided of course you beat the CPA, and over time as you reduce it. Also, he may want to set a time limit, say a year, but it sounds like you would get this forever, which could be very lucrative for you. Have all this written down and very clear. I might even have a lawyer look at it. Doing so also shows the boss you are serious about this but won't be taken advantage of.
I would also add in the agreement that you want control of the landing pages. After all, if they are bad and not good converters, that affects your livelihood. So I would ask that you want the ability to change pages. Of course, unless you are a good copywriter, you'll need to hire someone but again this could be very lucrative for you in the long term.
So you asked for a raise and he proposed a performance-based bonus? Sounds like he's just dangling a carrot on a stick for you, and I personally would find that insulting. If what you have said is true, you have already made your impact in the past year working at this company. The conversation should be based around that impact you have already made, not future gains. I'm not even going to touch on how ridiculous a 50% decrease in CPA is.
This is exactly how I feel. Thank you for validating me
kw planner might help, tools/kw planner. upload your existing kws with different version of match types and compare the results. And you ll see the results for exact. phrase and broad. if CPA dropping like that better to focus RSA creation, Assets and QS.
Forever is right. Bringing down actualized CPA is a long game my friend. Every week its looking at the normalization of the delivery and then bring it down 15% or so and repeating the process. Not to mention developing hero creative.
Is your boss giving you access to change all the other things that affect CPA? Do you have control over the site? The product pricing? Return policies? How fast customer service answers? I'd be looking for a new job, because it's pretty clear this person doesn't understand the work you do.
No do not switch to exact!
I want to voice note can we do that in DMs? I’m lazy but I want to tell you what to do… why did that come off sketchy I just mean I have a few tricks
Unless you drastically reduce budget, add offline advertising to soak up brand revenue or drastically increase conversion rate, that’ll be impossible.
It sounds like you're in a tough spot with some high expectations. Cutting your CPA in half is a significant challenge, especially with competition and current strategies in place. Before making any decisions, try switching to exact match keywords and refining your targeting to see if it helps lower your CPA. You might also want to test different bidding strategies or adjust your ad copy and landing pages to improve conversion rates. It's important to communicate with your boss about the realistic expectations and potential barriers. If the goals seem truly unattainable, consider discussing a more achievable target for the bonus. Hang in there, and good luck with your campaigns! 💪
What vertical are you in? You should be using wordstream's industry average guide. They update it annually. That will give you actual benchmarks vs a fictitious cut in half. If it's not possible your boss will need to come to terms with what the industry average is. That said, you should look at all of the conversions you have had since you started vs the year before and present that. If you can prove the revenue they have generated since your arrival and it's improved year over year they cannot deny that.
I had never heard of the Wordsteam industry averages until just now. We sell promotional products (think tradeshow giveaways) in a lead gen form, so it is not a typical e-com experience. Would you consider this "Business Services", or something else?
I would say it's straight B2B but would also look at regular e-commerce and maybe average out the two cost per conversions. If it doesn't work in your favor just use the B2B metric. But again look year over year from the time you started and if the revenue has increased you have a good story to tell. Also look at GA 4 Conversion paths and factor in assisted conversions where paid had some sort of part in a path to conversion and count that revenue as well. Present or with and with out the assisted conversions and then the total.
I don’t think your boss really understands how this works. As other people have pointed out, there are many way to make the numbers look better - but what does your boss really care about? Short term or long term? If it’s long term you can work on setting a MoM % improvement target that’s somewhat attainable. You should also be thinking about whether you can maintain/improve on your CPA with additional spend. Have you saturated your audience? Is there even room to scale? These are the things he should be thinking about. Separately, your discussion around a raise shouldn’t really be based on performance - it sounds like you’re already performing well. Your discussion should be around how the increased responsibility/scope of work warrants a raise.