One of the best features of pay-per-click advertising is the ability to test. There are numerous tools and options in AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and adCenter that allow PPC advertisers to test nearly every piece of their account. But, admittedly, this barrage of bells and whistles could make the average-Joe-PPC-beginner go crazy - or worse yet, abandon PPC altogether! I would recommend to any advertiser interested in testing their PPC variables to begin with ad texts. As such, today’s PPC …

Last week, Google unveiled updates to the Location Targeting (geo-targeting) function within AdWords. In the wake of this event, I felt that there was no better time than the present to write a 1-2 punch article on geo-targeting. The geo-targeting options in AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM) both have the same end goal: serving location-targeted ads. But to use these tools effectively, every PPC advertiser should have a solid understanding of the subtle differences between …

Recently, my colleague, John, discussed some quick fixes for your PPC account. His article focused on low conversions, low quality conversions, and low quality score. Today, I will focus on three additional issues that can arise when managing a PPC account: low click-through rate, low traffic and low ad position.

Low Click-through Rate

Before you can worry about your conversion rate, or the quality of your conversions, you first need to get users to click on …

When you’re first starting out in pay-per-click advertising, there is a tremendous learning curve. You have to discover the inner workings of 3 (sometimes more) different PPC advertising platforms. There is the trial and error of figuring out which tools and methods work for your particular account. And then there is learning how to react to the myriad of issues that can arise when managing a PPC account. This week I’d like to point out some …

It’s natural to be afraid of something you don’t understand. Fear can create distrust, and this can lead to griping and blaming the “problem” and not focusing on the solution. I see this when I read Graywolf’s article “Google Adwords More Pricing BS.” He is blaming AdWords and claims they’re ripping us off for requesting a higher minimum bid due to poor quality score, rather than finding a solution to his quality score problem and educating people on …

When you load new keywords into your campaign, what is your initial bidding strategy? There has been some recent discussion on the best practices for setting bids on brand new keywords and I thought I’d throw in my two cents. If you want to quickly determine the keywords that will best enhance your PPC efforts, I suggest hitting the ground running, rather than limping.

There are a number of reasons to hit the ground running, and …