PPC Bid Management

Engaging in a Pay Per Click ad campaign with the major search engines can be confusing and expensive. Is it worth it to bid for the top spot? Realistically, how much can a client afford to spend? All PPC bid management begins with identifying the maximum CPC (Cost Per Click) one is willing to pay for a given keyword phrase. If you do not know this value, it is not wise to get into PPC advertising. The max CPC changes over time and varies from search engine to search engine. This could be based on an industry rule of thumb or on internal factors like profit margins.

Take, for instance, bidding on the keyword phrase ‘Omega watches’ but do not know your max CPC. One way to assess a max CPC involves taking the top 5 bids and computing the average. We then use that as the max CPC to start with.

A better approach is to base the CPC on profit margins. For example, if your average sale price on an Omega watch is $1,000 and your profit margin is 10%. That leaves $100 of profit for each watch. Also, presume that your conversion rate will be 1% - this is a moderate estimate. For every 100 visitors from a PPC ad, you expect just one sale. If you have $100 of ad to spread over 100 visitors, you have 100,00 cents to spend per click.

Another way is to approach this problem with an ad-spend that is based on revenue. For instance, if your goal is to spend 15% of revenue on advertising then your ad-spend would work out to $150 per watch. As your campaign progresses and you determine your actual conversion rate, you adjust the CPC accordingly.

Bid management isn't like nuclear technology, but it can be time-consuming and exasperating. First we develop the creative. Then we fine-tune it. Then we set the bid price. Then we fine-tune it we. Then we track the creative. Then you fine-tune it a little more.

That is what we do for each keyword. Now, imagine doing that for 100 or 10,000 keywords. Are you seeing stars? Let The Online Inc. come to your rescue! We have the functionality standard in today's bid management solutions; things like automated bid adjustments and daily spending caps. However it doesn't stop there. Why The Online Inc.? Here's a short list of our unique functionality:

A single interface makes it easy: Bid management doesn't have to be complicated. We manage 10, or 10,000 ads across multiple engines through a simple interface. We add or edit keywords with ease. The Online Inc. keeps everything clean, maintaining ads in a neat hierarchical system.

Control runaway bids: We keep costs under control. The Online Inc. watchdog sees to it that you to set realistic, daily caps and rate limits to avoid runaway bid acceleration

Creation of automatic tags and parameters: If you really ready to place tracking URL tags on every ad in your PPC campaigns, The Online Inc. automates this process for you. You can save hours of tedious work as we automatically generate and manages ad-tracking parameters (or ad tags), seeing to it that you get the required data for meaningful analysis.

Edit PPC Ad Creative from within The Online Inc.: Only we let you to edit and update your PPC ad copy from one place, at the same time pushing changes to all PPC engines. We use ad group templates to insert keywords with dynamism in individual ad text for maximum performance and click-through rates.

Import and manage existing campaigns: You don’t have to start from scratch. With just one click of the mouse, you can import existing campaigns from PPC engines, including campaigns that have been managed by other bid management systems. Set your own ad URL tracking parameters, or let The Online Inc. manage all ad URL tracking parameters for you.

Integrated bid management and web analytics: We help you get ahead of your competitors. The Online Inc. integration means Clever Bid Management. We help you make campaign decisions based on real marketing metrics. We update your ad positions, based on metrics like average time on site and landing page stickiness, plus traditional ROI such as conversions, sales, revenue, costs, and more!

Spend less to survive: We maintain your position. Why should pay more than you need just to sustain a consistent position? The Online Inc. ensures that you don’t pay more than necessary to maintain your preferred place.