Friday, August 1, 2008

Four Easy Way To Manage Your AdWords Campaign

By Maxine Stirling


It seems like every day the bid pricing on Google AdWords is getting more and more competitive. While this is true to a degree, the potential effectiveness of an AdWords campaign has also never been greater. If you haven't had much experience with Google AdWords campaign management, then you may want to remember these four simple AdWords management strategies for your next foray into the world of PPC advertising.

Before you can even start to run an effective campaign, you need to carefully choose relevant keywords. These, after all, will form the backbone of your campaign. Don't just arbitrarily add keywords to create a broader potential consumer base. And, don't use a relevant keyword generator unless it really is generating effective keywords. Remember that you only want clicks that will turn into sales. Empty clicks just means money down the drain.

Second, it is a good idea bid for the first page, but not for the first spot. What does this mean? It means that unless you are truly aiming to dominate the Internet landscape and be at the top of your industry, you shouldn't worry about getting in the top slot on a SERP (search engine results page). If you are in the top ten spots, then you will appear on the first page of Yahoo results, though it varies for each service. Try to let your ad do the selling, not your position. Placing yourself at the top of the search results is a two edged sword - you will get more clicks, but they will not be as targeted.

One of the AdWords management strategies that goes without saying (but still can't be said enough) is to test all of your keywords, and then test some more. You need to remember that PPC marketing is like the stock market - it can fluctuate greatly on a daily basis. Ignoring your keyword results or click through rates or conversion rates for too long can spell doom for your PPC advertising campaign. It is vital that you continually monitor your campaign, and make the necessary changes.

Last but not least, you should consider placing CPM ads instead of just CPC ads. What does this mean? CMP is a term that means cost per thousand, and it refers to impression based pricing instead of cost per click pricing. So, you can place ads on a cost per impression basis on websites that cater to a demographic that may be interested in your product. If you sell lawn mowers, you may want to advertise on a site that discusses lawn maintenance. Where your ads appear is up to you, but it can be a great way to pick up cheap impressions and, ultimately, clicks.

Try using these four simple strategies the next time you manage a PPC campaign. Doing so can increase efficiency and profitability.

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