Pay Per Click Advertising Success
With The Right Tools by Bonnie Jo Davis
Pay Per Click (PPC) is an on-line auction style advertising
system offered by search engines including Google and Yahoo.
Millions of people have used PPC advertising to sell their
products and services but only a few people are really making
any money with this type of advertising. For a small business
with a limited budget an unsuccessful campaign may make the
difference between paying the bills this month or not.
Each search engine has their own rules for keyword bidding, ad
placements and landing pages so the average business owner can
easily get confused and discouraged about the time they spend
managing their campaigns. In recent years advertisers have been
offered a helping hand in the form of PPC campaign management
tools. These tools are downloadable software or on-line websites
that manage much of the day-to-day tedious tasks that are
essential to running a profitable campaign.
Before choosing a pay per click management tool make sure it
includes the following ingredients:
1. Allows you to manage your campaigns from anywhere in the
world at any time. If you choose downloaded software then you
will need to lug your laptop with you whenever you travel.
2. A simple and intuitive interface that does not require a
degree in engineering. If you have to spend an outrageous amount
of time learning to run the software then you might as well
manage your campaigns by hand.
3. The ability to manage the most popular PPC advertising
vehicles: Google Adwords and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Additional
PPC programs are a plus.
4. A wizard or step-by-step instructions on setting up an
account and campaigns, determining a budget, selecting keywords
and writing ads.
5. The option of monitoring multiple campaigns with multiple
goals at the same time. If you manage client campaigns you will
need a version of the PPC management tool that allows for
multiple accounts.
6. The ability to set goals and use several different bidding
strategies automatically without human intervention. To be able
to use more than one strategy at a time is a bonus.
7. The flexibility for you to fine-tune your campaign keywords,
ads, goals and budget at any time. You may want to implement a
strategy or budget based on keywords that are related to a hot
news story.
8. The option to set-up e-mail alerts for performance changes
that you define based on your own criteria. Only you know what
your expectations are for each of your PPC campaigns so you
should be in charge of when you are notified of any changes.
9. A history or summary screen that gives you an overall picture
of your campaigns without having to run reports. Simplifying the
process and saving you time should be the goal of the PPC
management tool you choose.
10. A robust reporting function that allows you to generate
reports using many different variables that you choose on your
own. Offering some general pre-programmed reports is a bonus.
Do not buy or register for a pay per click management tool
without the offer of a free trial or a generous refund policy in
case the tool does not work for you. Do some research on the
Internet and read reviews written by people who have used the
tool themselves.
If you have stopped using or never used PPC advertising because
you lack knowledge, are afraid of losing money or worried that
you will spend all of your time managing campaigns when you
should be managing your business then you need a PPC management
tool.
(c) 2008, Davis Virtual Assistance. Permission to reprint
granted so long as the article and byline are reprinted intact
and all links made live.
About the Author
Bonnie Jo Davis is an Internet marketing expert who manages Pay
Per Click advertising campaigns for herself and clients. She has
used and recommends PPC SaaS(tm) by Dynamic Software(tm) because
it offers as simple wizard process for set-up and includes all
of the important features for campaign management listed in this
article. You can register for a free trial of PPC SaaS(tm) at
