PPC Bid Management Guide: The Best Bidding Tips from 18 PPC Experts. PPC bid management is one of the more complicated areas of PPC marketing, so many advertisers choose to automate using either the automated bidding option in Google AdWords or a third-party bid management solution. Both approaches have their upsides and downsides – Google’s automated bidding feature is free, but requires you to give up complete control, and it’s less than transparent. Third-party bid management software is generally more robust, but (obviously) it comes with a price tag, so it may not be feasible for smaller, budget-strapped advertisers.
I was curious how most AdWords advertisers handle the PPC bid management process, so I asked 18 practicing PPC experts three questions: Do you use automated AdWords bidding in Google AdWords? Why or why not? If not, when do you raise and lower keyword bids? Here’s the all-star lineup: Read on to learn their answers and get some awesome PPC bid management tips from the pros! Aaron Levy Do you use automated bidding in Google AdWords? No-ish. News from SMX West: Free PPC Tools for AdWords & AdCenter. Winters get long here in New England and so we often find ourselves travelling here and there to break up the long, dark winter and get some time outdoors before the first crocuses pop out of the ground. Some folks prefer to get outside onto the ski slopes while others head south to grab some rays on Caribbean cruise.
Me? I prefer search marketing conferences. Thankfully, SMX West was out in San Jose last week, so I got the best of both worlds. Though SJ is not exactly tropical this time of year, going out doesn’t involve five minutes of layering with hat, gloves and boots. During the week, I picked up some just-off-the-presses PPC updates as well as a slew of new tools to help optimize and manage PPC accounts, recommended by from PPC colleagues at SMX.
Microsoft Pushes Ahead With New adCenter Features Microsoft, who started slowly a few years ago with their adCenter platform development, continued their forward momentum with a slew of new AdCenter features announced last week, including: Top PPC Tools & Resources from a PPC Guru. Home > Best of Larry Chase's Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips Mona Elesseily of Page Zero Media has one of the highest profiles of any PPC practitioner I know. She is a featured speaker at Internet Marketing conferences around the world (Search Engine Strategies, SMX East and West, Ad:Tech, WebmasterWorld PubCon Vegas), a columnist for Search Engine Land and author of a forthcoming book on Search Marketing. -LC But, more importantly than talking the talk at high-profile trade shows, Mona walks the walk.
She eats, sleeps and breathes PPC every day for clients across a wide range of industries. The tools and resources below are the same ones Mona herself uses. She points out exactly which features she finds useful and, specifically, which resources on each site help her stay on top of her industry. Sponsored Listing 2014 Mobile Predictions Download now Now, without further ado, here's Mona Elesseily with her 9 picks for PPC tools and resources. 1. Here are some of my favorites: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Three Helpful (and Completely FREE) Tools for PPC Pros. Full disclosure here: I’m a complete newb to the PPC game. I came to this company with a very vague understanding of the PPC world in fact, I thought PPC and SEO were the same thing, and that I was interviewing for an SEO job. Whoops!
I was hired nonetheless, and along the way my great colleagues who were tasked with training me have shared a number of tools that have made my development into a PPC Professional much easier. So whether you’re an old pro or a newb like me, I’d like to pay it forward and share these great tools with you Ad Split Test Tool One of the first major analyses I learned when I started here two months ago was the Ad Analysis. You’ll then be able to determine which ad has the stats to support that it will continue to outperform the other. Percent Increase Calculator I find myself creating client reports on a daily basis. URL Opener The last tool is one I’m proud to say I found myself. Do you have any secret tools you’d like to share with the group? Managing PPC Accounts: Improving Bounce Rates. Paid advertising has morphed into so much more than buying some traffic until your SEO can sustain your site.
There are now software programs that can create a unique landing page for (thousands of) keywords on the fly, specifically designed to address the keyword phrase the user typed into the query box and the ad they selected and clicked. Although worth the money, the investment in these programs sometimes escapes the marketing budgets of smaller companies.
The argument for better conversion rates is sometimes enough to convince you, or your client, to make the leap. I find that the higher the cost of the products, sometimes the conversion rates are quite low, and this step is scary. Sometimes we have to tweak and maintain PPC accounts the old fashioned way, by hand. We also don’t always have unique landing pages available, so we build what we can and use existing pages as landing pages. This makes analysis of what you’re doing even more critical. Google AdWords Add “? PPC Tools. Excel Bubble Chart Tutorial: How to Make an Excel Bubble Chart for PPC. The Excel bubble chart is often overlooked by PPC advertisers, because it can be tricky to set up. However, when used properly, a bubble chart lets you clearly present and compare categorical data (e.g. campaign, ad groups, device, etc.) – represented by the number of bubbles – as well as quantitative data (e.g. cost, conversions, CTR, etc.) – represented by the size of the bubble and its location on the XY axis.
In this article, I will show you step-by-step how to create the powerful Excel bubble chart for use with PPC data and even give you access to a free download of the unlocked Excel spreadsheet (Click to download excel bubble chart template). Why Bubble Charts Are Useful for PPC As PPC managers, we understand our campaigns, but it can be difficult to quickly and effectively describe our campaigns to our clients or supervisors in order to set the proper context for further exploration. Here’s what the completed bubble chart looks like: Checkout Campaign #3. Step 1: Get The Data 1. 2. Project Management Software Recommendations for Managing PPC Accounts. I’m a self-admitted: and the list goes on… A while ago I wrote an article on How to Run Your PPC Accounts like a Project. Projects have milestones, todo dates, team insight, and most importantly – accountability. After I wrote the article, I received a lot of feedback and questions about what project management solution I recommend.
Today, I’m going to give my current opinions on the systems available. Of course, I will not cover every system a some are not suited to PPC management, some are meant for enterprise projects and large teams, and others have a large development focus. First, I’ll look at some of the features of PM systems that help in evaluating a system, and then look at a few of the software options available.
Recurring Tasks Some PM systems allow a task to be recurring. Change bids on TuesdayChange bids on ThursdayTest ads every other week on FridayTest landing pages every other week on FridayAdd negative keywords on Mondays Many accounts do not support recurring tasks. Tips For Managing Accounts Simultaneously in AdWords and AdCenter.