MBA Module: Digital Marketing

Week 4

Search Engine Marketing & Google Ads

Buying intent. Capturing demand at the exact moment of decision.

Today's Agenda

SEO vs SEM
Auction & Quality Score
Campaign Architecture
Bidding & ROAS
Ad Copy
Lab: Mock Campaign
Concept checks: short MCQ / true-false after each major Part (cold-call a student)
Deliverable: Mock campaign plan · Mid-module next week

Part 1: SEM vs. SEO

Renting attention vs. owning it — and when each is right.

Why Pay for Search?

SEO

Takes 3–12 months to see results
Free clicks (once ranking)
Best for long-term brand building
Cannot scale clicks instantly

SEM (Google Ads)

Immediate top-of-page visibility
Costs money per click
Best for product launches, promotions
Scale up or down on demand

Strategic Play: Use SEM to generate revenue while SEO is building. Eventually, SEO reduces dependence on paid traffic.

Check: SEO vs SEM

Instructor: ask a student or pair to answer — then reveal on-screen.

Prompt: When to pay.

Part 2: The Google Ads Auction

Why the highest bidder doesn't always win.

How the Auction Works

Ad Rank ≈ Max CPC Bid × Quality Score × Expected Impact of Ad Assets

The auction runs in real-time, billions of times a day. The winner isn't the highest bidder — it's the advertiser who best combines bid with relevance and useful ad assets (extensions).

This means a well-structured, highly relevant campaign can outrank a competitor who bids 3× more.

Quality Score Explained

Scored 1–10 by Google for each keyword. Three components:

Expected CTR

How likely users are to click your ad vs. others for this keyword

Ad Relevance

How closely your ad copy matches the search query intent

Landing Page Experience

Is your landing page fast, mobile-friendly, and relevant to the ad?

A QS of 10 can reduce your CPC by up to 50%. A QS of 1–3 makes it nearly impossible to compete.

Check: Ad Rank & Quality Score

Instructor: cold-call one student / group, then click to confirm.

Prompt: Who wins with NPR bids?

Part 3: Campaign Architecture

Structure is strategy. A disorganised account wastes budget.

The SKAG Principle vs. Thematic Groups

SKAG (Historical)

Single Keyword Ad Groups — one keyword per ad group. Provides maximum control and relevance.

Con: Enormous account complexity.

Thematic Groups (Modern)

Group 5–15 tightly related keywords per ad group. Google's Smart Bidding can now handle the micro-targeting.

Best practice in 2026

Match Types: Controlling Who Sees Your Ad

Match Type	Example Keyword	Ad Shows For
Broad	digital marketing	Any loosely related query (risky)
Phrase	"digital marketing"	Queries containing this phrase in order
Exact	[digital marketing Nepal]	Only this or very close variants
Negative	-free, -jobs, -course	Blocks irrelevant traffic — saves budget

Check: Match Types

Instructor: nominate a student to classify each item on the board.

Prompt: Student classifies each notation.

Check: Focus vs Scattered Budget

Instructor: ask a student to move the slider and narrate what happens to waste and leads.

Scattered Focused

Budget

NPR 3,000

Waste

58%

CTR

2.1%

Leads

Ask: why does focus raise leads without raising budget?

Part 4: Bidding Strategies

Telling Google what outcome you're optimising for.

Bidding Strategies by Goal

Your Goal	Bidding Strategy	How It Works
Brand Awareness	Target Impression Share	Bid to appear in a % of auctions
Website Traffic	Maximise Clicks	Google finds the most clicks for your budget
Lead Generation	Target CPA	Google optimises to hit your target cost-per-acquisition
Revenue	Target ROAS	Google optimises to hit your return on ad spend target

Automated Bidding: The Manager's Rule

The Promise

Google's AI (Smart Bidding) optimizes bids in real-time based on thousands of signals (device, time, location).

Highly effective at scale.

The Reality

Algorithms require data to learn. If you set a Target CPA of NPR 2,000 on day one with zero historical conversions, the campaign will stall.

Rule: Start with Maximize Clicks or Manual CPC to gather data (15-30 conversions), then switch to Target CPA/ROAS.

Check: Bidding & ROAS

Instructor: cold-call one student / group, then click to confirm.

Prompt: NPR math cold-call.

Part 5: Writing Ad Copy That Converts

You have a headline and 3 seconds. Make it count.

Anatomy of a Responsive Search Ad (RSA)

Components

Headlines: Up to 15 (30 chars each). Google auto-mixes the best combinations
Descriptions: Up to 4 (90 chars each)
URL Path: yoursite.com/keyword

Headline Formula

Keyword inclusion (relevance)
Core benefit statement
Urgency or differentiator
Trust signal ("Top Rated", "Since 2010")

The Ad Extensions (Assets) Advantage

Ad extensions don't cost extra. They increase ad real estate and CTR for free.

Sitelinks

Extra links to key pages below the main ad

Callouts

Short benefit phrases: "Free Consultation", "24/7 Support"

Call Extension

Phone number directly in the ad — critical for service businesses

Budget, ROAS & Scaling Logic

    Example: You spend NPR 50,000/month on Google Ads. You generate NPR 200,000 in revenue. ROAS = 4x. For every 1 rupee spent, you earn 4 back.
  

If ROAS > break-even threshold → Scale up budget aggressively.

If ROAS < break-even threshold → Fix the campaign before scaling.

Lab: Plan a Mock Campaign

Google Ads Campaign Blueprint

Define campaign goal and target CPA
Create 1 campaign with 2 ad groups (thematic)
Write 5 headlines and 2 descriptions for your RSA
Add 3 negative keywords
Propose a monthly budget and explain the rationale

Check: Ad Copy