- Don’t obsess over the number one slot. It’s contradictory to what you would expect, but
you don’t really need to be number one. Nor can you afford to be number one in most
cases. The number one slots are usually snatched up by large companies that are using
PPC to boost their sales. And they often have seemingly unlimited budgets to spend on
their PPC efforts. That means if you’re fighting for the number one slot, you’re likely to
spend so much on that spot that your PPC campaign will be pointless.
Another reason to avoid the number one slot is that most people don’t trust the first ad or
search result on which they click. Many people will click through several ads before they
make a purchase, provide information that generates a lead, sign up for a newsletter, or
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 different
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 management
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.
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