In last weeks article I covered some of the benefits of bidding on the secondary Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engines. The main two benefits on this are lower cost-per-clicks and based on this, the ability to test keyword bids and their value relatively inexpensively before undergoing a PPC campaign on one of the larger PPC venues such as Overture and Google AdWords. If you didn't read last weeks article and are interested in promoting your website through the PPC engines it is recommended reading and can be found online at http://news.stepforth.com/2004-news/Jun02-04.html.

This week we will be getting a bit further into the nuts-and-bolts of the process of setting up a PPC account through Enhance Interactive, tactics for bidding on keywords and the tools provided to do so accurately. Basically we will be getting into some of the tactics we use at StepForth to maximize the Return On Investment (ROI) of our clients PPC dollars.

Let’s begin with the signup process. When you visit their signup page you will notice two things. One, they are offering a $10 credit on account when you signup. This further "enhances" your ability to see a good ROI at the very least from you initial bidding. Secondly, you will be given the option to either do your own keyword/bid management or you can opt to manage this yourself. Personally I opted to manage my own account, as I wanted to get the full experience. As I'm not in the habit of giving advice when I'm not sure of the facts I will hesitate to tell you which route you should go however I will note that you can upgrade your account at any time and thus, you may at least want to give it a shot on your own and if it ends up being more work that you want to undertake you can upgrade and have them manage your account for you. Alternatively you can have StepForth manage your PPC accounts in conjunction with your natural search engine placement campaign.

Once you’ve signed up you will have the opportunity to set up your bids. This is the part where tactics are extremely important and you have to remember that the goal here is to make the most money possible, not necessarily beat out your competition for the number one spot. I’ll give examples of when you will want to take this into account further in this article.

When you go to the "Add Keywords" menu it will provide you with a simple interface (thank you Enhance). The interface looks like:

You simply add the keyword phrase you would like to bid on, the URL you would like that phrase to point to, the domain, the title you would like displayed and the description. The Keyword Suggestion Tool allows you to type in a single keyword (let's choose "hosting" to stick with last weeks example) and will produce a list of all the various searches across their network and partners for those phrases in order of the number of searches. For example, the top set of results for the single keyword "hosting" produces the following:

This simple tool also allows you to easily add keyword phrases and also allows you to "dig" further into a phrase with the "More" button.

One you have chosen a keyword to add you will click the "Add" button below the main "Add Keywords" interface. It will then take you to a screen the will allow you to make final changes to the title, description and also which displays the top three bid and will allow you to change your bid from the default $0.03.

Now is the time to consider the tactical aspects of PPC bidding. There are two fundamental rules that have to be considered:

1 – The higher your rankings the more clicks you will get
2 – The goal is not to be #1, it is to make the most of your advertising dollars.

If I am bidding on a generic phrase where #1 is bidding $0.33, #2 is $0.08 and #3 is bidding $0.06 will I bid $0.34 to be number one. Not likely on a generic phrase. Generic phrases tend to lead to multiple clicks. What I mean by this is that someone entering a generic phrase likely doesn’t know exactly what they want and so they are going to look at a few places. Rather than bidding $0.34 I would be much more likely to bid $0.09 and be #2 at less than a third the cost per click.

If the phrase was very targeted (a specific product name for example) I would be far more likely to bid $0.34 for the phrase as the searcher obviously knows exactly what they want and are now just looking for a place to buy it and they may not get down to the #2 position if they find it in the #1.

On the same tangent, you also have to consider the specific ROI on a term. If it takes about 20 clicks to lead to one sale for your product and your profit for a sale after all is said and done is $5 then you have to be very careful how high you bid. Making the sale is NOT the end-all-be-all goal; it is maximizing your ROI. If the bids get to high don’t let your ego get in the way and make you bid even higher, drop the term and look for additional terms with lower cost-per-clicks.

In the past two articles I have focused very strongly on Enhance Interactive and their PPC engine. This is based on the fact that I have used them and been impressed with their interface, the ROI I’ve realized, and also the support from their staff in answering my questions (even when they didn’t know I was writing an article on them). There are many other secondary PPC engines out there that can produce some great results as well. Recently I’ve started also using:

• GoClick
• Kanoodle (they’ll give you a $5 on signup with no deposit just to test it out)
• FindWhat
• LookSmart

This is not a complete list of all the PPC engines out there. Currently there are hundreds of sites that will be happy to display your website in their results for a fee. This is just a list of some of the most popular and reputable.

If you know of or run other PPC engines that you think would be of interest to StepForth readers please let us know about it by emailing info@stepforth.com.