whatever else it is that you’re hoping to entice them to do. Having your ad or search result
a little further down than number one — say number three or four — will result in great
savings and will probably be just as effective, if not more so, than if you were paying for
the number one slot. Select keywords for the stages in the buying process that you’re targeting.Manual
bid management is often about choosing the right keywords. If you can define various
steps in the purchase process then you can target each step in a different way, investing
less in the research stage and more in the final purchasing stage. If you’re not selling
products, there may still be stages in which you can invest, and determining which of
those stages is most valuable to you will help you decide how to best spend your PPC
budget.
Delete duplicate words from your keyword lists.Many organizations have several dif-
ferent keyword lists for different departments or different stages. And often a keyword will
apply on several of those lists. But you shouldn’t include a keyword on more than one list
for your organization. If you do, you’ll be bidding against yourself for placement.
Set aside time each day to monitor your keywords and PPC campaigns. Even if
you’re using a bid management application or software, hands-on management will still
be required. You’ll need to monitor and make decisions for the application or software.
Usually an hour or two a day is enough.Manual bid management isn’t nearly as effective or as realistic as having an automated bid man-
agement solution, unless you only have a few keywords to monitor. If you’re like most companies,
though, you have dozens and even hundreds of keywords to stay on top of, and handling all of
those keywords and PPC campaigns manually could be so time-consuming that it’s all you would
ever do.Automated bid management
Automated bid management can take one of three forms: as part of a solution provided by your ana-
lytics or PPC program provider, as desktop software, or as a hosted service. Many analytics providers
(like Google Analytics) and PPC program providers include some form of keyword management
reports and capabilities with their products. These reports are great for basic keyword and PPC cam-
paign management, but they often lack the functionality that desktop software and hosted services
provide. However, if you’re only managing a handful of keywords, the capabilities provided by your
analytics provider should be all that you need.If you’re managing more than a handful of keywords, you’ll need something much more powerful to
help you stay on top of your keywords and PPC campaigns. Desktop software is one option. This is
software that you install on your computer. You maintain the software, and it helps you to manage
your PPC campaigns and keyword bids. Most desktop software is sufficient for your needs, but
because it requires that you maintain the resources to operate the software, manage the software
updates and upgrades, and in general manage and monitor it, you may decide that a hosted bid
management application is the better choice.137
Managing Keyword and PPC Campaigns 9
75002c09_6.qxd 11/7/07 9:39 AM Page 137