I have worked with many different search engines for a long period of time.  Although each search engine remains unique in the tools they offer, one thing remains the same; the required minimum bid.  However, only a short while ago, Google was the first to break this mold by eliminating required minimum bids.  This monumental decision has had a ‘ripple effect’ through the entire Google Adwords interface. 

In the past, keywords were deemed ‘inactive for search’ if a client was not reaching the required minimum bid.  Now, Google has revised this procedure to be more of a quality based approach.  Since there are no minimum bids, Google now informs advertisers when keyword bids are below the first page bid estimate.  The suggested bid amounts vary per keyword and reflect the approximate bid that is necessary for first page search results.

Here are some suggestions to help manage your campaign, based on these recent changes.  Since there are no minimum bids, you want to be sure your ad is not becoming lost in the back pages of Google; this becomes increasingly important for competitive industry keywords and phrases.  Also, be sure that you are still closely monitoring your quality score; the level of the quality score will still impact the position where your ad is being displayed, despite your maximum cost per click bid.  Lastly, stay abreast of current Google tools and features by accessing the official Google Adwords blog and the MoreVisibility blog.  Staying current with industry news will help to keep your account in good standing and remain ahead of the curve when new changes are implemented.

As more people continue to use search engines, the competition between the engines continues to grow.  Google, has been the dominate force for several years. Its mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. Its relevant results and simple interface has earned its place as the most popular search tool in the US.  Outside of relevant results, what else attracts people to use a particular engine?   

A few months ago, MSN introduced Live Search’s cashback program, which allows searchers to earn cash back once they have purchased something on Live.com, from a participating advertiser. The searcher can recognize a cashback offer by seeing the logo below, next to a sponsored result.

In addition to the Cashback program, Microsoft recently launched its latest attempt to try and gain more of the search engine market share. SearchPerks gives users reward points/tickets, when they search on Live.com.  In order to participate, users must sign up before December 31st and agree to download a small program called the Perk Counter, which tracks their search activity.  Once the user is signed up, they immediately earn 500 tickets. Then, depending on how often a user searches on Live.com, they can earn up to 25 tickets per day. Once the promotion ends on April 15, 2009, the participating user will be able to redeem their tickets for prizes.

Is it time for search engines to try something new? Are users looking for something beyond what Google offers?   In my opinion, the best gift an engine can give is a relevant result.  Offering free prizes, in order to get me to search, does not appeal to me. However, maybe this promotion will appeal to others.  It is still too early to tell if this will help increase Microsoft’s market share, but it should be interesting to keep an eye on.

When managing a Pay-per-Click campaign it is important to remember that continual optimization of the campaign is critical to success.  Keywords you thought would be perfect to drive qualified traffic to your site when you first launched a campaign may turn out to be poor performers.  Certain geographic locations that logically would make sense to target your ads may be out performed by locations you didn’t think there would be a big demand for your product or service.  An excellent way to discover what is working with your campaign and learn about new opportunities is by analyzing the data from an analytics program.

Here at MoreVisibility, we leverage the data from Google Analytics to help optimize PPC campaigns and expand our knowledge of how customers interact with our client’s websites.  With this knowledge you can optimize campaigns for greater success.  Here are a few examples of how you can leverage the data from Google Analytics to optimize your PPC campaign:

1. First thing is to set up goals in Google Analytics so you can track specific metrics and compare the data from your paid campaign in relation to the traffic coming to the site organically.
2. Conversions are very important, whether for e-commerce sites or lead generation sites.  Review the keywords that result in conversions both from the organic traffic and from your paid ads.  Remove keywords from your campaigns that are not producing, so you can allocate more of your budget to keywords that have a track record of success.  Create a test campaign where you can experiment with new keywords.  Over time, keep the keywords you see generating conversions and remove the poor performers.
3. Analyze where the traffic is coming from.  Is there a specific geographical location that drives more conversions than other locations you are targeting?  For example, you may have a national campaign, but Google Analytics shows that traffic from Florida converts at a higher rate than the campaign as a whole.  If so, think about creating a separate Geo-Targeted Florida campaign and allocating a specific budget to target the customers in that area.  This can give you additional flexibility when determining the most efficient way to spend your advertising dollars.
4. Lastly, look at the relationship between the keywords you are running in the PPC campaign versus the keywords that drive organic traffic to your site.  You may find there are keywords people search on to find your site that you are not running in your paid campaign.  This is an excellent way to expand your PPC keyword list and discover new keywords you originally didn’t think to include in your campaign.  In this way, you are constantly optimizing the campaign and growing the keyword list based on successful keyword research.

Remember, managing a PPC campaign is an every day task.  Optimizing the campaign is critical to your success and using an analytics tool, like Google Analytics, can bring new insight through real world (real time) data, and help you develop a high performing search engine marketing campaign.