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Archive for the ‘Basic PPC Strategies’ Category

Welcome to the world of basic PPC strategies! These articles range from educational info on the various PPC search engines, to the utilization of match types and negative keywords to the essential pay-per-click management tips. Whether you’re a pay-per-click neophyte or a seasoned advertiser, basic PPC strategies hold a wealth of tips and tricks for you.

Outsource Search or Keep it In-House?

January 19th, 2010 | Brian | Basic PPC Strategies

In this case, I’m not referring to traditional manufacturers and distributors that contract an agency to sell their goods and services through search.  Instead, I’m referring to online companies that possess the knowledge, ability and experience to maintain their own search campaigns and have done so successfully in the past, but are considering outsourcing search efforts to cut costs.
I tend to lean toward keeping search efforts in-house, but there are many valid reasons to consider outsourcing search.  Among those reasons are …

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Did Your Holiday Optimization Work?

January 6th, 2010 | Brian | Basic PPC Strategies

Now that the holiday festivities and hangovers are over with, it’s time to determine whether or not you pre-holiday optimization efforts were effective.

So, what questions do you need to ask and what numbers do you need to evaluate?

Impressions
Did your keywords get more impressions than normal during the holidays?  Were those impressions for your standard keywords, or for holiday-specific terms like “christmas sale” or “holiday special?”

Click Through Rate
Since getting more impressions is worthless without being able to drive more traffic to …

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PPC Outside A Vacuum

January 4th, 2010 | guestblogger | Basic PPC Strategies

This is a special guest blog post from Matt Umbro at theppcblog.com.
Any PPC campaign interface provides valuable metrics such as number of clicks on a particular ad or the click-thru-rate (CTR) of a certain keyword, but to solely look as these figures when determining the success of a campaign is a mistake.  To truly realize the value of your …

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PPC vs. SEO: Which is the Right Answer?

December 22nd, 2009 | Brian | Basic PPC Strategies

There’s a continuous debate in the search marketing industry about which is the more effective and efficient use of resources: pay per click or natural search engine optimization.  Obviously, I’ll be supporting the PPC side of this argument.  Our trusty sidekicks over at www.SEOBoy.com can be counted on to back the natural optimization horse in this race, and the good people at Search Engine Watch have provided a good breakdown of both sides of the discussion that took …

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Long Tail Terms for the Holiday Shopping Season

December 11th, 2009 | Brian | Basic PPC Strategies, Keyword Research

In the second week of December, we’re quickly approaching the end of the biggest gift-giving, and therefore the biggest shopping, period of the year.  So, here’s one of the most important questions a good search marketer can ask himself/herself to take advantage of the huge spike in search traffic:  “What am I searching for?”

This is not a philosophical, soul-searching question aimed at self-discovery, but instead an attempt to determine which terms and phrases we, as experienced (or not so experienced, …

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Good SEM is SMART

December 1st, 2009 | Brian | Basic PPC Strategies

After reading the second half of Ron Jones’s article, Measuring Success, on Search Engine Watch, I was struck with an overwhelming urge to blatantly steal his ideas.  However, my more noble tendencies forced me to merely reference them, while giving him credit for the inspiration.

Mr. Jones’s article discusses the methods for planning and measuring success in SEO efforts using SMART goals:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

These principles can also be applied to PPC campaign optimization.
 

Specific – The tendency for PPC campaigns always seems …

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5 “Hidden” Things that May Be Hurting Your PPC Account

September 2nd, 2009 | Joe | Basic PPC Strategies

There is so much going on within any PPC campaign that it can be difficult to keep track of all the moving pieces. You can be a proactive PPC manager but there could be elements of your account that may be quietly hindering your performance. Actually, when an account is performing well, this is when you need to be most vigilant in searching for these “quiet killers” because they may be harder to notice blatantly.

Incorrect campaign settings

When you create a …

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5 PPC Tasks to Start Your Month off Right!

August 4th, 2009 | Joe | Basic PPC Strategies

As I’m sure you are aware, it’s a new month! Now is the time to kick off your PPC campaigns with a bang. There are a few tasks that you can accomplish quickly in the next day or two that will help improve your performance for the rest for the month.

When optimizing your PPC campaigns, you should always make positive changes all month long. However, you should front-load as many of your tasks toward the beginning of the month as …

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10 Questions You Should Ask a Potential New PPC Management Firm

July 29th, 2009 | Amber | Basic PPC Strategies

You’ve either been trying to manage your company’s PPC account on your own, or you have hired a general marketing person to manage the PPC account internally. Regardless, you know that more could be done to get more bank for your buck. How do you know when it’s time to hire a PPC management firm?

  • You know more could be done.
  • You have 50 keywords in your entire account.
  • You have one or two campaigns total.
  • You’re blowing through your budget by noon.
  • You perform …
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Quick Look: Pay-Per-Click Metrics All Campaign Managers Should Understand

June 29th, 2009 | Andrew | Basic PPC Strategies

One of the best aspects of managing a pay-per-click campaign is the completeness of data. It is the only advertising medium that can give you a fairly accurate representation of how many eyeballs see your ad, and it’s the only advertising medium that can regularly associate a user behavior with an advertising placement.

But with all of the data that’s available to an account manager, how can you determine what to look at, and which metrics truly matter? Here’s a simple …

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