Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

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Bid and Position Management Options

Some bid and position management features

vary among PPC services. Learn the answers to the following questions about yours:

•

Adjusting bid prices

: How do you change bid prices for individual key-

words? What about for groups of keywords? Can you set parameters so that

your bid automatically increases or decreases based on what your competi-

tion is bidding?

•

Budget caps:

Can you set daily or monthly budget caps? Can you set limits

so that certain bidding or cost parameters are not exceeded?

•

Controlling position:

What kind of control do you have over your listing

position? As you’ll recall from Chapter 4, bid prices may not be the only

factors at play in determining the position of your PPC listings.

Tracking and Reporting Options

You will probably be pleased with the detail and

flexibility of reports you can generate with whichever PPC engine you choose. Your

role in PPC reporting will be less about compiling data and more about finessing the

report parameters to get at the information you really want. Here are some things to

look for: How recent is the data that is included in reports? Is conversion tracking an

option? Is there at-a-glance information in your campaign management interface so

you won’t have to run a report to see how your PPC day is going?

You’ll be creating monthly reports with the following information at a minimum: top

performing terms, total campaign cost, average cost per click, click-through rate, and

total click-throughs. Be sure you know how to find this information from your PPC

service’s reporting screen.

Account Services

Some PPC services will help you get up and running. YSM and

Google both offer setup assistance services for a fee. We generally don’t recommend

paying for such services, and anyway, you won’t need them if you follow the proce-

dures in this week’s tasks. However, if you are destined to be a big spender with a PPC

service (on the order of $10,000 or more per month), you may be able to get the free

services of an account rep who can smooth over some of the bumps in the process.

Your PPC service may ask you to input your keywords and bids before you can

complete the sign-up process. You can just enter in your company name as a keyword

for now.

Tuesday: Prep Your PPC Keywords

Today you’ll compile a list of keywords for your PPC starter campaign. Your top 10 or

so target keywords are a starting point, but any terms on your long list from Chapter 6

are fair game.

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