Cpa Management Options

[Wiseguy]

Hi guys,

With increasing PPC costs and growing competition, customers are becoming more and more aware of the importance of CPA as a key parameter in measuring their campaign efficiency.

I recently received a question from a big prospect looking to outsource their PPC campaigns. The question relates to CPA (cost per action) management and I would be very interested to get your perspective and thoughts.

Here is the question:
"What sort of safeguards are used to limit rapid increases in cost? Specifically, if your company causes CPA to pass the maximum level that we are willing to accept."

mmm...

This post has been edited by Wiseguy: May 9 2007, 07:15 AM

[projectphp]

In other words: how vigilante are you

That is really hard, and extremely difficult if the measurement period is too short. Hourly CPA anyone?

I would probably talk about Weekly CPA, and looking for spikes on a daily basis, and looking to manage CPA to a very granular level, right down to words + locations.

I would also talk about building up, n ot cutting down. Start with a small number of terms, and once they work, building.

That, to me, is about all you can do

[EGOL]

This is a risk of business - not only in CPA but also in product development, facilities, staffing, inventory, etc.

If you run on razor-thin margins you get cut badly once in a while... but it also has its rewards.

[Wiseguy]

What about bid management tools (e.g. BidRank)?
These tools allow you to dynamically manage your budget by targeting other metrics than CPC, such as CPA and ROI.

So in a way, these tools can act as safeguards and prevent cases where the CPA limit is exceeded.
Any thoughts?

Do you find these tools efficient?