Don't Forget to Manage Your PPC Billboard!

This past week Google held its annual analyst day and they also recently reported their Q3 2007 earnings. Nick Fox, director of product management in the advertising division made the statement during Analyst day, “the quality of ads is still quite low”. He was referring to the sponsored ads displayed on Google’s search and content networks, and Nick was clearly telling analysts that Google Adwords can still bring in a whole lot of money for the search engine gorilla.

Now just as a majority of us tend to get sick of hearing about the “big dog” winning all the time, at first I cringed with jealousy at the thought of Google making even more money than they do today. But the reality is…he’s right. The quality of the majority of ads displayed is poor. Why is this? Have people lost creativity in their ad writing? Maybe, but I don’t think so for the greater part. I think it is because people misunderstand the power of continually improving their pay per click campaigns. Most people seem to have a “put up a billboard and field the calls it generates” mentality when it comes to pay per click. That strategy only works for a lucky few, and even for those lucky few it can always be done better. The key to a good pay per click campaign is the pay per click management of that campaign. It is how someone effectively oversees the ads and distribution of the bids continually. Managing a pay per click campaign requires attention at the keyword, adgroup, and ad level, and one of the most important aspects of the management is constantly improving the quality of the ads themselves with testing. Constant testing will improve your ad campaigns in their ability to (a) attract clicks and (b) attract clicks that are likely to convert. You need to be testing unless you are converting at 100%, which is highly unlikely. It makes simple business sense.So if pay per click management is one of the most important things to do for your advertising budget, then why are people simply neglecting it? We believe it comes down to time and resources. Companies need to put in the resources to manage their pay per click campaigns to get effective results. Some campaigns need to be managed on a daily basis, and this can significantly draw time from a smaller business’s pool of people. If your business is having trouble finding the time and people to manage campaigns, then there are options that can give you an alternative to neglecting your pay per click advertising. WebShare offers different levels of pay per click management that can meet your needs, from training to active day to day management. We can provide your business the resources and consulting to effectively manage your accounts with Google Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing Solutions, or Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions.