PPC tools.... Options

[faart]

Hi All,

Can anyone recommend any good (free or low cost) PPC campaign management programs out there. Something that will make this PPC job far easier as we simply don't have time to watch the rankings and bids all day long!

[Black_Knight]

BidRank http://www.bidrank.com is pretty good, and cost effective for larger campaigns.

It really depends on the scope of the campaign and the range of PPC providers you're going to use.

[Web Diversity]

There's danger in using software to manage things, as they often will suggest a drop in your bid, when the smarter bid might be to raise it to get a better position.

Sadly, many bid management companies only look at the cost saving aspect of managing accounts, rather than the whole issue of ROI, CPA. By reducing the CPC if all other factors remain the same then ROI should be higher, but if you combine a reduction in CPC, with an increase in conversions, an increase in the number of bookmarks, an increase in the number of newsletter sign ups etc.. your whole metrics will take on a different shape.

If you are finding it hard to manage, then software won't make it that much easier, trust me.

[faart]

Thanks guys - I will have a look at BidRank then. To start we are only doing an Overture PPC campaign and a fairly small one at that. Should I rather just monitor the bids and my position periodically then. We are going to run a two month trial at the outset and then compare and analyse the stats and see if we will continue....

Any other advice that we should take into consideration....??

[Black_Knight]

Well, I don't recommend the use of Overture's Autobid feature for reasons I made well known in an article at HighRankings.

However, a tool such as BidRank offers you all the same benefits, but with the clever ability to turn the tables on anyone who seeks to use the classic autobid exploitation trick on you. BidRank has some nice features for creating complex bid rules that allow it to take price gaps into consideration, and to help you attain higher ROI.

They did indeed try to take Jim's well made points into account when building their tool, and to train it not just to lower bids to save costs, but also to work towards intelligent functions, such as automated exploitation of opportunities (such as price gaps). You'll soon be able to judge for yourself how well they attained this, and please do come back and share your thoughts and experiences of the tool for others.

[Web Diversity]

A lot of our clients ask how we can manage so many accounts with so many keywords.

The answers lie in technology, economies of scale and expertise.

We do use some technology to monitor the bids, but all of the changes are carried out by humans, it's a strategy thing, often software will tell you to do one thing, but market knowledge and common sense might dictate something else, for example, if you know that your major competitor only bids high on traffic between 9 and 5, then at 5.01 up your bids, until 8.59 and steal 2/3 of the traffic at the best level.

Economies of scale is such that if you manage thousands of keywords you develop techniques to manage them in the most appropriate way, if we hit a threshold, we can employ someone else, often clients can't add extra numbers to headcount, but can add extra money to marketing that works.

Expertise. I'll let you into a little secret. This applies mainly to Overture. On most client accounts we are one of only a handful of advertisers, so typically 60-80% of the keywords are being bid upon at the minimum level, with no competition, so in some respects the management of a 3000 keyword campaign, might only actively managing 500 keywords, with the rest ticking over nicely.

If you don't make money on PPC............ then you haven't implemented correctly, if you do your sums and homework correctly, you should ALWAYS make a profit.

[faart]

Ok thanks for the advice. But at the moment - this is a PPC campaign not for us but for a client that sells golfing holidays. To begin with we are simply going to go for a trail period with say 5 keywords. If we get some results then we will enlarge teh campaign. I think we will leave the BidRank software until that stage - 5 keywords should not be that difficult to manage will they....??

Again - thanks for your help guys!

[Black_Knight]

When you say "5 keywords" do you mean 5 primary keywords and a dozen specific search terms for each keyword, thus 60 search terms, or are you actually only trying 5 phrases?

If it is the latter, then how will you be sure you've targeted the 5 most representative ones? Where is the experimentation into what converts best?

I would not use any less than 5 phrases for a single very specific product. Lets say a specific make and model of digital camera, including the model number.

For highest ROI you need to focus on a different MO to normal SEO. You don't want traffic volume if sales ROI is your aim. Instead you want to attract *only* those users specifically looking to buy. Your phrases should therefore eliminate window shoppers and idle curiosity searches.

When selecting your terms, try to find terms that wouldn't be used by anyone except a genuine shopper. Key words like 'buy', 'store', 'shop', plus specific makes and models where appropriate all indicate that a prospect is further along in the shopping process than just looking around - therefore the conversions should be maximized.

In your specific case (a client selling golfing holidays) try to eliminate those who won't buy with your descriptions too. If there's any sort of deal-breaker, make it known before the click you pay for.

"Golfing holidays in <state>" helps you target people who not only want a golfing holiday, but also in the specific region, and not in some other country or state. So 'golfing holidays in Scotland' is good. 'Golfing Holidays at St Andrews' would be even better. If you make sure you can convert them based only on knowledge of what they searched for, you're already well on the way to maximising your PPC.

[Web Diversity]

As most people know we live and die by ROI. As such the tracking through to sales is an all consuming passion for us.

Generally speaking (different industries will get different results), there will be some buyers that buy based on generic keywords, these typically will deliver at a slightly higher CPA, due to the nature of the fact there will be more tyre kickers on generic keywords. But it is still entirely possible to make really good ROI.

Although I agree with Ammon that as you get lower down the chain to the more specific call to action keywords the higher the conversions are, if you only did those then you may well not hit your figures on critical mass, albeit you will certainly spend less.

With the right tracking over time you will be able to refine the generic keywords and eliminate the wasteful ones, and only bid on those generic keywords that you know convert, at a decent level, with a low CPC, so your critical mass and low CPA will give you a much higher ROI.

5 keywords.......... stop the trial now. Remember this is pay per CLICK, so if you had keywords that didn't get any loving then you'd pay no money.

[dm2003]

[Post deleted - Sorry no ads here. - Jill]

[Ryan_Lash]

There are some amazing "software" applications available that are designed to automatically manage bids through the tracking of conversions based upon your target ROAS or CPA/CPO. After all, how can you meet campaign objectives unless you are accurately quantifying results for each keyword on every search engine :wink:. I would recommend reading the following article: Broader Is Better in Google and Overture

[glyn]

Take a look at gotoast as well. They've got some great filtering options which blows things like bidrank right away. Still it's all a balancing game and understanding what you want.

Anyway hope this helps.
Glyn.

[Black_Knight]

GoToast is great if you have a small range of keywords and phrases, but rapidly loses ROI benefits due to high costs. I've never touched a campaign small enough for GoToast to be anywhere near as economical as BidRank. Compare prices for yourself even on just 500 phrases (which is just ten variations on 50 keywords, and easily reached).

[cindymcm]

I wrote an article for www.PayPerClickAnalyst.com, and discussed PPC management tools. I did some comparison of GO TOAST and the less expensive option, the Dynamic KeywordBid Maximizer (by ApexPacific) if you're interested. Your feedback is appreciated.

http://www.payperclickanalyst.com/article-...mcmahen-004.htm

[ReinhartTech]

As best I can determine, there are 3 remaining PC based PPC management packages: Bidrank, PPC Pro, and Dynamic Keyword Bid Optimizer.

Does anybody know if there are other viable PC based products out there?
Does anybody has some actual experience using and/or comparing these products?

We're planning on implementing a management solution and won't go with GOTOAST because of cost, so a PC based solution will happen. Just wondering what experience and wisdon is out there ... Thanks in advance.