Welcome to PPC Hero, the authority on pay-per-click strategy, industry news and great ppc-insider tips. Here you'll find our most popular posts, PPC management handbooks, and our collection of blog series. Don't forget you can receive email updates to keep you informed of the latest PPC Hero articles.

Archive for the ‘Advanced PPC Strategies’ Category

Are you ready to take your pay-per-click campaign’s performance to the next level? These advanced PPC strategies will give your paid search accounts a kick in the pants! Whether you need a lesson in complex bidding strategies, an explanation of the finer points of improving your Quality Score or a quick study in pay-per-click lead generation – these advanced PPC strategies are your ticket to better PPC performance.

What To Do With Your Device Platform Settings within Your Google Adwords Campaigns

January 21st, 2009 | Amber | Advanced PPC Strategies

A short while ago Google added some additional options in the campaign settings of your Adwords account. Since some of these settings and options can be confusing for experienced advertisers as well as newbies, I’ll go over these settings and give some recommendations on which ones you should opt in or out for.

(click picture to enlarge)

Device Platform Settings:

Desk and laptop computers: This was the default settings prior to the change. However, Google now allows you to control where your ads are being shown at a more granular level. By selecting …

Read Full Article

2 Comments

Your AdWords Advertisements May Not Be Displaying When You Think They Are

January 13th, 2009 | Joe | Advanced PPC Strategies, Google AdWords

As your Google AdWords campaign matures, you will be able to determine which days of the week, and what time of day, generates the best results, and you can manage your campaign settings accordingly.

By utilizing Ad Scheduling within AdWords you can control when your ad appears by hour and by day. This a very helpful tool to further optimize your campaigns. But if you don’t pay close attention, you may not be using this feature optimally.

You can find this option within your AdWords campaign settings. Just click “Edit Campaign …

Read Full Article

12 Comments

How Do You Anticipate PPC Traffic Changes if You Have No Account History?

January 5th, 2009 | John | Advanced PPC Strategies

Today, I am jealous. Why is that you ask? Brad Geddes wrote a great article at Search Engine Land today – one that I should’ve written. (Just kidding!) Seriously though, Brad’s article touches on one of the best PPC tools around – PLANNING. He thoroughly explains how to review historical data to determine when your PPC account experiences performance spikes (be they seasonal or other). Then most importantly, he explains what you should do with that data: plan to increase bids, write new ads, whatever it takes to get a leg up on …

Read Full Article

2 Comments

6 Ways Diagnose a Problem Within Your PPC Account

December 31st, 2008 | Amber | Advanced PPC Strategies, Landing Pages / Increasing Conversion Rates

It happens to the best of us, you make some changes within an account and realize two days later your clicks or leads have dropped significantly and you’re not sure exactly why. In this post I’ll show you a few ways you can drill down and figure out mysterious problems within your PPC account.

Keep a log: My first recommendation before you even begin managing PPC accounts is to keep a log of all your activities and changes you make to your account. In Google you can view your change …

Read Full Article

2 Comments

What Are Your Major Challenges When Inheriting a PPC Account?

December 30th, 2008 | Joe | Advanced PPC Strategies

We are currently working on a new project and we’d love to get some insight from you! The PPC Hero team is composing a new piece of cornerstone content for the blog. This new publication will discuss inheriting PPC accounts from companies who have been managing their PPC campaign in-house, or using another SEM firm.

We are looking for your answers to these questions:

What are the some of the most common mistakes you see when inheriting a pre-existing PPC account? What was the previous PPC manager doing “wrong”?
What are some of the best tactics you’ve used to optimize and expand a …

Read Full Article

6 Comments

Utilize the Google Search Partner Network to Increase Your PPC Performance

December 4th, 2008 | Joe | Advanced PPC Strategies, Google AdWords

We often discuss the search network and content network distribution within Google AdWords. However, we have not explored AdWords’ third distribution channel: Google Search Partners. Today, we will discuss the these Google Search Partners are, how they effect your PPC campaign, and how can you monitor/manage them effectively.

First, let’s figure out what these Search Partners are. The Search Partners consist of sites that are within the Google Search Network. Your ads may appear alongside or above search results, as part of a results page as a user navigates through a site’s directory, or on other relevant …

Read Full Article

7 Comments

Vertical PPC Search Engines and User Intent

December 1st, 2008 | John | 2nd & 3rd Tier Search Engines, Advanced PPC Strategies

Here at PPC Hero, we generally talk about the Googles, Yahoos and MSNs of the world. With good reason too, that’s where the bulk of traffic is and where you should spend most of your time. However, sometimes it makes sense to break out and try 2nd/3rd tier search engines – or better yet – vertical search engines. It all comes down to search intent.

Over the past few years I’ve been working with a client who is a niche job board. At first, my approach was to drive traffic (and conversions) with Google, Yahoo! …

Read Full Article

7 Comments

Can Parked Domains Drag Down Your PPC Click-Through Rate?

November 19th, 2008 | Amber | Advanced PPC Strategies

We recently came across someone on Twitter who asked if parked domains that show up in Google Adwords search results can bring down your PPC click-through rate.

First things first, let’s define what a parked domain is and how it’s relevant to PPC. A parked domain is defined as a site that is undeveloped and belongs to a domain name registrar or a domain name holder. Google’s Adsense program places targeted AdWords ads on parked domains that are part of the Google Network. So, whether you’re running the content network or just search, you’re ads could appear on a parked …

Read Full Article

4 Comments

How to Target Holiday Shoppers Through Gift Finder Keywords And Landing Pages

November 12th, 2008 | Amber | Advanced PPC Strategies, Landing Pages / Increasing Conversion Rates

While consumers will still be buying Christmas presents this year as normal, they will be a little more picky about what they’re buying, how much they’re paying, and where they’re buying.

So far this week we’ve learned about earning extra revenue by advertising via shopping search engines, and how to maximize your ROI by shopping cycle bidding strategies. As day three in our holiday series, I’m going to go over how to generate even more seasonal sales by using a gift finder landing page and keywords.

When it comes to buying …

Read Full Article

No Comments

How to Find Customers That Aren’t Still Researching but Ready to Buy RIGHT NOW

November 11th, 2008 | John | Advanced PPC Strategies, Buying Cycle

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Chrismahanakwanza! Whichever holiday you celebrate, one thing is for certain – the end of November marks the beginning of the official holiday shopping season. As part of our week-long holiday shopping expose, today I’d like to share with you tips on laser-targeting potential customers with your bidding strategy! Whether you are assessing keywords and the buying cycle, or diving head-first into demographic targeting, there are plenty of ways to find customers who are past researching and are ready to buy right …

Read Full Article

1 Comment