How to Build a PlatformScale it up!

Gustavo Moreira

Before we Begin...Prerequisites, considerations, costs

Be sure to have...

● A manageable number of clients

● A strong engineering team

● A step-by-step/agile development process*

What is your target growth?

● If you plan to grow explosively, not ideal to build

● Not enough time if # of customers is too high

● Manageable growth is ideal

● Better if you have time to learn along the way

Strong Engineering Team

● Handle complicated coding scenarios

● Deploy and maintain servers

● Design for heavy load usage

● Keep up with API changes

● Clients will depend on their work

Step-by-step Approach

● Incremental, easy to steer

● The eng team will learn to work together

● AdWords knowledge takes time to spread

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

Three Technology Phases

0. Manual operations

1. Reporting

2. Account management

3. Automated optimisation

4. Landing page automatic creation

Phase ZeroManual Operation

Phase 0 - Manual operations

● Experienced AdWords Account Manager(s)

● Learn the product and get the process right

● Use this knowledge to scope out the automation

P. 0 - Expected Growth (Acc/AM)

● Scale horizontally only● Requires more people to

handle more accounts

0# of accounts per AM

No automation

Eng Cost: 0

Phase 1Reporting

Phase 1 - Reporting

● Customer reporting

● Account analysis

● Billing integration

● Enough automation for up to ~300 accounts per AM

P. 1 - Expected Growth (Acc/AM)

● Basic automation● Around 1-2 months to

complete● Very little maintenance

Customer ReportingGoogle reporting

Account Optimizations

0# of accounts per AM

Eng Cost: 1

Phase 1

1. Customer Reporting

● Pulls reports from AdWords to local DB

● Use a PDF or HTML template

● Create your own reports

● Automatically send to customers

● AwReporting does that for you!

2. Customer Analyses

Phase 2Account Management

P. 2 - Account Creation Doctor

Car Dealer

Electrician

Baker

Nurse

Florist

Plumber

Cook

● Integration with your site

● Taxonomy (catalogue) building

● Sales tools

● Automated account management / creation

● Up to ~500 accounts per AM

P. 2 - Expected Growth (Acc/AM)

● Dedicated team● Business knowledge● More experienced engineers● Around 3-6 months to complete● Some maintenance 0

Phase 2

Eng Cost: 2-3

Integration, existing systemTaxonomy buildingSales tool

Account creation

1. Create Taxonomy

● Business segmented catalogue● Instantaneously create campaigns for new

clients!● Can be specialised by market segments● Dentists in West London

1. Taxonomy - Geo Targeting

● On a granular market, just modify the bid● Sometimes can go as deep as the zip code

level● Great for franchisees● Awesome on mobile!

1. Taxonomy - Geo Modification

Car dealershipCountry (Australia)

Province (NSW)

City (Sydney)

- Car dealership Australia- Australia Dealership

- Car dealership NSW- NSW Dealership

- Car dealership Sydney- Sydney Dealership

- Car dealership Neighbourhood- Neighbourhood Dealership

2. Build a Sales Tool

Phase 3Auto-Optimization

Phase 3 - (Auto) Optimisation

● Conversion tracking

● Manual taxonomy / keyword optimisations

● Automated bid optimisations

● Further than many platforms

● ~1000+ accounts per AM

P. 3 - Expected Growth (Acc/AM)

● Dedicated team● Experienced team● 6-18 months to complete● Dedicated maintenance● Auto Landing Page

creation?

Phase 3

Eng Cost: 3-5

Automated taxonomy optimization

0

∞

Conversion trackingManual taxonomyoptimization

Three Main Areas

1. Conversion tracking

2. Manual optimisation

3. Automated optimisation

CT

AO

MOFull

Optimisation

Summary

● You made it! Your own platform!● But a lot more can be done…● Automatic landing page creation?● Landing page optimisation?● Predictive churn prevention?● We didn’t talk too much about negative

keywords...

Quick Note...

Just for Clarification...

● The tools mentioned, are internal only to the company

● External tools must implement the respectives RMFs

● Basic way of seeing things:○ Internal tools don’t expose AdWords data to the

customer○ External tools do!