By Mike Nierengarten, Online Marketing Consultant, Anvil Media Inc
The MCC
MCC’s or My Client Centers were originally created for third party agencies with multiple clients to monitor client accounts from a central location. Google has since recognized the value an MCC can hold and has since described an MCC as “ideal for large advertisers” in the What is My Client Center section of AdWords help (but apparently not enough to change the name to something that makes sense for advertisers).
Despite Google’s endorsement, the MCC remains an underutilized tool in most search marketers’ arsenal.
The power of the MCC is that it provides an extra level (or levels) of segmentation and makes large accounts much more manageable.
The Power of the MCC
In any pay per click (PPC) account, account structure is exceptionally important. Segmenting keywords into well-defined ad groups and ad groups into well-defined Campaigns allows marketers to better associate ad text with keywords, thereby creating more relevant ads. A hierarchal account structure also allows marketers to better analyze subsets of the overall account by dissecting specific sections of the account.
Three levels of structure – Campaigns, ad groups, and keywords – works well for the average PPC account, but what do you do if you are selling 10,000 unique products in 500 unrelated categories geographically targeted by region? The answer is to create a hierarchal structure more than three levels deep.
This is precisely the power of the MCC – the ability to add more levels to the PPC account structure.
Multi-Tiered MCC’s
For large-scale advertisers who target hundreds of thousands of keywords, a regular old MCC may not be enough. Multi-tiered MCC’s may be the best solution. Multi-tiered MCC’s are essentially master accounts of MCC’s and provide another level of depth.
Using multi-tiered MCC’s, marketers can control the level of segmentation, adding new levels as necessary (hence, segmenting to the nth degree). A multi-tiered MCC for a toy store, for example, could segment specific toys by current promotion, category, age group, and country where the toy ships and, using Google AdWords reports, can easily pull statistics for each level.
Avoiding Infection
Beyond simplifying account management and analysis, MCC’s also avoid cross-infection of Quality Score (QS). A keyword’s or an ad’s Quality Score directly impacts other keywords within an account. Because the competitive nature of paid search varies from region to region and category to category, marketers may experience a wide range of Quality Score implications.
For example, cost-per-click (CPC) in New Delhi is much cheaper than CPC in New York. If a marketer were to create a Campaign that targets both India and the United States, Quality Score may suffer as marketers overbid for positioning in New Delhi but underbid for positioning in New York.
Again, MCC’s and multi-tiered MCC’s can resolve this issue.
Summary
MCC’s and multi-tiered MCC’s provide marketers the opportunity for advanced segmentation. Advanced segmentation allows for better analysis of subsets of ads and keywords, the ability to separate accounts based on geographic region, product category, promotion, etc., and avoid cross-contamination of poor-performing keywords.
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Mike Nierengarten is an Account Executive with Anvil Media Inc. in Portland. Mike began work with Anvil in 2008 and has managed paid search accounts for a wide range of budgets and clients including an email marketing service provider, online school, and online psychic network. Previously, Mike worked for Direct Entertainment Marketing, a lifestyle promotions company based in Las Vegas, where he managed social media and promotions for clients such as MGM Nightlife and Harrah’s.
