Blue Shield of California, an independent member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, is a not-for-profit health plan with 3.3 million members, 4,800 employees, and one of the largest provider networks in California. Founded in 1939 and headquartered in San Francisco, Blue Shield of California offers a wide range of commercial and government products throughout the state. The company has contributed more than $125 million over the past four years to the Blue Shield of California Foundation — which was named one of BusinessWeek’s 20 most generous corporate foundations.
Health providers are up against a competitive and distinct environment when it comes to search marketing. Marin Software’s flexible advanced bidding optimization capabilities played an integral role in helping AMP Agency achieve Blue Shield of California’s aggressive lead generation and efficiency goals within such a unique search atmosphere.
Troadio Satizabal
Online Marketing Manager at Blue Shield of California
The agency AMP picked to drive volume for Blue Shield
Blue Shield selected AMP Agency to help scale their campaigns to drive maximum lead volume at target cost-per-lead (CPL) efficiency goals. The challenges facing this goal were two fold; 1) Identifying this volume/efficiency equilibrium; 2) Doing so in an extremely competitive bid landscape marked by rising cost-per-click (CPC) rates. The campaign hit its efficiency goals, but this was at the expense of conversion and click volume. Click volume alone dropped by 10% in one week.
Time of day bidding used to optimize effort
In light of this volume challenge, a solution needed to be applied in order to drive toward not only efficiency but maximum volume at efficiency. AMP utilized the bid optimization capabilities in Marin Software and applied their expertise by supplementing them with additional business rules. To hit volume goals, the initial bid rules were reset with two additional components, time of day (TOD) and bid to position. Under this new approach, CPL rules were set to run every evening while new bid-toposition rules were implemented to run every morning.
Saving time with campaign management has allowed Blue Shield to expand their effort
This new blended approach allowed the campaign to keep top positions and spend to pace while giving the CPL focused bid rules much larger date set in which to apply its optimizations. The results of this new approach were significant:
Increased lead volume by almost 78%
Cut lead costs by 16%
Combined with the insight and expertise at AMP Agency, Marin Software was able to overcome the challenge at Blue Shield of California and deliver results in the face of a rapidly changing environment.
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PPC for B2B: a Performance Marketing Survey Report for 2023
To help you stay on the leading edge of performance marketing, we surveyed over 300 B2B marketers to uncover actionable insights that will help you improve the performance of your PPC investment. Through a Marin and LinkedIn partnership, we sought out to understand what B2B marketers face right now and how they are dealing with a complicated market. Read the full report to get a better understanding of how B2B marketers are changing their approach this year.
What You'll Learn from the Report:
How budgets have changed through the years 2020 to 2023 and how budgeting complexities affect the work of advertisers this year.
What challenges are most prevalent this year and how other marketers like you are adapting.
The critical role audience targeting plays in your success, especially during a recession, and some interesting trends relating to targeting techniques.
The types of content and campaign management techniques are currently helping advertisers move buyers through the sales funnel.
What paid social or PPC channels are providing the best ROAS or conversions for B2B right now.
How to Use Automated Keyword Research to Increase Site Traffic
As Google continually introduces new algorithm updates, one thing has remained consistent for inbound marketers aiming to enhance their website's search presence: keyword research.
When people go online to search for something, they use specific keywords. So if your content is created with their needs in mind, you’ll be more successful at getting in front of your target audience. You’ll gain more traffic and increase your chances of generating revenue so you can supercharge your growth.
In this blog post, we’ll explain how automated keyword research can improve your profitability, and guide you on how to get started.
5 ways automated keyword research helps businesses save money and improve revenue
When you automate keyword research, you can revolutionize your approach to SEO and content optimization. Check out these five benefits:
Leads to higher conversion rates
When your content aligns with what users are actively searching for, you're more likely to capture their interest and engage them effectively. This means higher quality traffic and a greater likelihood of conversions. By focusing on keywords with transactional intent, you're also reaching an audience that is already inclined towards making a purchase or taking a desired action.
With this targeted approach, conversion rates increase and you can ensure that your marketing budget is allocated efficiently. As a result, your business will experience a larger return on investment (ROI), making every advertising dollar spent more valuable and effective.
More efficient use of resources
By harnessing the power of advanced algorithms and data-driven insights, automated keyword research eliminates the need for laborious manual analysis, enabling you to reallocate valuable time and resources to more strategic tasks. Rather than poring over endless lists of keywords, marketing teams can focus on crafting compelling content and optimizing campaigns for maximum impact.
By doing so, you can accelerate the pace of decision-making and remain agile. Essentially, automated keyword research empowers your businesses to work smarter, not harder, ultimately leading to more effective and successful marketing endeavors.
Real-time market trends
By capitalizing on the current market trends and consumer behavior insights that automated tools offer, businesses can tailor their strategies to meet evolving customer needs. And when customer needs are met, customer satisfaction is enhanced, leading to an uptick in sales and increased revenue. If you position yourself to be a customer-centric enterprise, you’ll foster stronger customer relationships and guarantee repeat business along with brand loyalty, ensuring long-term success and sustained revenue growth.
Improved SEO performance
According to HubSpot’s 2023 State of Marketing Report, 88% of marketers who are already actively doing SEO work plan to continue doing so. And there’s a good reason why. When you integrate high-performing keywords into your content, you open the door to significant improvements in your search engine rankings.
With increased visibility among potential customers, you’ll drive more organic traffic to your website, resulting in substantial cost savings on paid advertising. In turn, you’ll be able to stretch your marketing budget further while simultaneously establishing a more sustainable and cost-effective way to reach and engage with your target audience
Better lead generation
19% of marketers say that generating leads is their biggest marketing challenge. Precision in keyword selection allows you to tailor your content and campaigns to meet the specific needs and interests of potential customers. Simply put, if you produce content to meet their needs and give them a call to action, you’ll be more likely to move them from the awareness stage of the buyer journey into the point-of-purchase stage. You’ll also be able to attract a more qualified and engaged audience, significantly increasing the likelihood of converting leads into paying customers.
5 ways to automate keyword research
Now that you understand how automated keyword research helps generate more revenue, here are five ways to get started:
Use an AI-powered keyword generator
AI-powered keyword generators scrutinize your website, niche, and competitors by utilizing artificial intelligence to produce strategic keywords that enhance your search engine rankings. These advanced tools offer targeted keyword suggestions for your content, streamlining the process and saving you valuable time and effort.
With the ability to analyze trends and patterns across vast datasets, AI generators can provide deep insights to boost your content optimization efforts. But what does that process look like? Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use AI generators:
Pick a reliable AI keyword generator
Start your search by clearly defining your main topic or subject. Once you choose a direction, simply use an AI keyword generator to effortlessly identify high-potential keywords related to the industry, topic, or content focus.
Verify the search data
Next, use Google Keyword Planner to verify search data associated with the AI generated keywords. Since different AI keyword generators may use different data sources and methods for estimating search volume and competition data, this allows you to cross-reference the data. Doing so will ensure accuracy and prevent potential biases or inaccuracies from a single source and will also give you insights into the number of searches conducted for each keyword.
Create an SEO brief
The next step is to generate an SEO brief to guarantee that your keyword research and content creation are optimized for both search engines and readers. Make sure it includes key topics and keywords from the research phase.
Optimize content
The final step involves making sure your content is set up for SEO success. To prevent over-optimizing, which can deter customers, strategically and organically weave your keywords into your content. Following keyword optimization best practices can enhance your content's visibility on search engines, improve its relevance to target audiences, and contribute to higher rankings in search results.
Use keyword research tools with automated features
With the right keyword research tools, you can automate tasks like competitor analysis, keyword suggestion, and search volume insights. Marketers can input their domain or competitors' domains into platforms like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz to uncover high-performing keywords, assess keyword difficulty, and identify gaps in their content strategy. In addition, marketers can automate reports and alerts to streamline the monitoring process, enabling quick adjustments to keyword strategies based on real-time data.
Leverage content optimization platforms
Content optimization platforms like SurferSEO or Clearscope analyze top-ranking pages and generate keyword recommendations to improve content performance. These platforms also commonly provide insights into keyword competitiveness, search volume, and trends, enabling marketers to make informed decisions about which keywords to prioritize.
To integrate chosen keywords effectively within content, use a platform that offers on-page optimization recommendations. This automation not only accelerates the keyword research phase, but also ensures that content aligns with SEO best practices, ultimately improving the visibility and discoverability of marketing materials across search engines. Regularly monitor performance metrics provided by these platforms to adapt your keyword strategy based on evolving trends and user behavior.
Use web scraping and crawling tools
When you incorporate web scraping and crawling tools into your strategies, you can gain valuable insights, optimize content effectively, and stay competitive. To get started, select a reliable web scraping tool that aligns with the specific requirements of your research. Define the websites, search engine results, or industry-specific platforms you want to analyze for keyword data.
Configure the web scraping tool to extract relevant information, such as keyword frequency, trends, and competitor strategies. Then schedule regular automated crawls to ensure that the data remains current and reflective of evolving trends. Ensure compliance with ethical and legal guidelines, respecting the terms of service for each website being scraped.
Integrate API integrations and custom scripts
By integrating API integrations and custom scripts, marketers can create a tailored and efficient system for automated keyword research, ensuring a dynamic and data-driven approach to their SEO strategies.
First, identify the APIs that align with your specific keyword research needs, such as Google Search Console API for website data or social media APIs for monitoring trends. Establish secure connections with these APIs through authentication protocols. Once connected, set up scripts to automate the extraction and processing of relevant data from the APIs.
Custom scripts can also be designed to scrape data from diverse sources, providing a comprehensive view of the competitive landscape. For up-to-date and real-time insights, regularly schedule these scripts to run at predetermined intervals.
Wrapping up
Automated keyword research is not just a tool — it's a strategic imperative for businesses looking to save money while supercharging their revenue streams. Don't miss out on the opportunity to revolutionize your approach to keyword research. Instead, implement automation today and unlock a new era of profitability.
Boosting revenue with Marin’s advanced keyword insights
Looking to automate keyword research for paid search campaigns? With MarinOne, you can leverage cutting-edge algorithms and comprehensive data analysis to uncover hidden keyword opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked. Our platform will not only help your business meet industry standards, but will also give you a competitive edge in the market.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your paid search keyword strategy? Schedule a demo today.
Yotel Increases Revenue by 323% Using MarinOne’s Google to Microsoft Sync
Background
Established in 2007, Yotel is a hotel group that offers guests an experience that challenges the status quo; with a promise to deliver a different kind of stay through awesome people, smart design, and the creative use of technology.