Search:

Home | Internet Business | Pay Per Click


Expanding Your Reach With The Big 3 In Pay Per Click

By: Josh Prizer

It's time to ratchet up your pay per click advertising and you are looking for the most effective way to use your ad budget. Maybe you've just begun PPC advertising and need help. Let's take a look at the most effective ways to optimize your search marketing ad campaigns using Google, Yahoo, MSN and others.

The Big Three in PPC

Don't stray far from the proven winners -- stick with Google, Yahoo and MSN for the best results. The Big Three are now offering very similar PPC services. These services all include being able to geo-target ads, set ads to turn on and off during peak times, and split test ad copy. Also, you have quality scores to optimize with each. The large majority of search traffic still belongs to Google, but each offers opportunities.

Let's Start With Google AdWords

Quality traffic is important and Google AdWords remains on top in delivering high-volume clicks that count. However, don't sleep on Google's success -- you still need to monitor your results with frequency. With enough the time, knowledge and the right tools, you can do this yourself, or you can outsource all that to a professional PPC management company.

One of the main problems with Google is that it is not only becoming more and more competitive, it is also getting more and more difficult to master. With "Quality Scores" playing a more important role these days and more bids coming up "Inactive for Search," it introduces more variables into the equations. If you are willing to put in the time to continually test and monitor your keywords, you can maintain a healthy Google account. If you don't, you get penalized. You'll see bid minimums raised or forced to pay higher prices, or even be purposely priced out. The good news is that with consistent effort, you can actually fine tune and tweak your ad campaigns to the point where you are actually paying lower prices, but getting higher ranks than your competitors.

With Google as with any PPC engine, you should always track your content network advertising and your search network advertising separately. You may be losing money on bad keywords as you read this, especially if you are not making adjustments in tracking and monitoring your content network advertising.

Again, Google produces results, but you must be constantly vigilant, especially if you are an advertiser with a high-end budget. Spending more time, dedicating more staffing and hours or outsourcing your PPC campaign to a professional management company will pay off.

Yahoo Search Marketing

Yahoo Search Marketing (Formerly Overture, which was formerly Goto.com) underwent a major change early in 2007 with their Panama update. This overhaul was in direct response to what Google had done in the PPC marketplace. While they no longer dominate the pay per click arena as they had years back, they are still a very worthwhile place to invest.

Like Google, Yahoo has its own quality algorithm called "Quality Index." Once again, it's important to monitor and tweak - scores must be dialed up with continual testing. Frequent split testing will help refine your ad quality. While you won't like get slapped as hard as Google does, Yahoo has been increasing their efforts here.

We recommend focusing on the three C's when it comes to testing that ad copy: Customer, Competition and your Company. Why are you better than your competition? Why are you more relevant to your client or consumer? Try varying your approaches with your ads. Once you've discovered one that really works, use it as a control and tweak your ad with little changes. For best results, continue the testing to drive up that Yahoo Quality Index.

AdCenter by MSN

MSN came late to the party, but they shouldn't be ignored. We have seen some superb quality traffic and they even have some unique targeting capabilities. You can create the same geo-targeting type of local PPC campaigns as the others, but you can also take it a step further and target demographics of users. For instance, if you notice you have high conversions on your site for a certain type of visitor, MSN will allow you to crank up your bids when it identifies those potential customers using their search services.

MSN also recently launched a new method to import your campaigns from Google AdWords. This will make your expansion easier than before. Word of caution when you do this: Make sure your Google account is as fine tuned and optimized as possible, or you will be simply repeating the same mistakes. If you have large Ad Groups with large lists of keywords, you need to break those down into smaller, more manageable ones. This will allow you to target the searches with more relevant ads. Again, test, test and re-test that ad copy.

The Rest of the Pack

With others like Ask and Looksmart, we've seen varied results. You can launch a campaign, see it succeed short term, then absolutely bottom out and put you in the hole. You can't afford to mess around with these results for too long...your budget may not survive. Miva can also have up and down results. Be very cautious with high bids and don't ignore your account for days at a time. Should you still venture into these other search engine markets? Not if you are struggling with managing your other PPC accounts. The good traffic is attainable, but you have to double your efforts on tracking and keep a tight eye on results since things can turn sour fast. Beyond these PPC engines, don't waste time on all the others.

Most PPC advertisers find the Big Three to be more than enough work to keep them busy -- or, at least they should. If you are not running daily split tests with your ads, if you aren't tracking results down to the keyword level, if you aren't searching for the profitable keywords that your competitors are on, then you are missing out on some tremendous bang for your buck with the big three.

Continual Effort Pays Off

Ignoring the daily management needs of your PPC accounts will most likely result in bad keywords depleting your funds. On top of that, good keywords are getting more and more expensive because your quality scores are slipping compared to your competitors. Under-performing campaigns cost advertisers a huge chunk of potential business. It's up to you to protect your investment with effective, intelligent supervision of your in-house PPC marketing or by outsourcing this essential work to a professional pay per click management company.

Article Source: http://www.articlebankonline.com

Josh Prizer is a Senior Account Executive and PPC Expert for Zero Company Performance Marketing, a pay per click management company. Visit his site today to discover more about how to improve your PPC advertising campaigns and performance.

Please Rate this Article

 

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Pay Per Click Articles Via RSS!
Golf Gift Certificates from PurePoint Golf




Additional Articles From - Home | Internet Business | Pay Per Click
Sign Up for a free account or learn more.
Submit Articles
Member Login
Top Authors
Most Popular Articles
Submission Guidelines
Ezine Notifications
Article RSS Feeds
New Stuff
Sitemap
About Us
Site Blog
Forum
Link to Us
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Chose Your Exact Flight & Time!

Supplement Advisor


Pro Teeth Whitening


Lose Weight


Anti-Aging Skin Care


Fix Golf Slice


 Get Camilo Villegas' Golf Secret

Simple Golf Swing


Cheap Airline Tickets


Blogging To The Bank


Plan Your own Wedding


500 Love making Tips


Approaching Women Tips


Catch A Cheating Spouse

==============

Bird-Watching-101

Blogging 101

Copywriting 101

Kitesurfing -101

Life-Coach 101

Living-Wills 101

Maui-Vacations-101

Stress Managemeny

Subliminals 101

Reiki 101

Friends


U Publish - Free Article Publishing - Article submission and content you can use for free at uPublish.info

Powered by Article Dashboard