Three Helpful PPC Bid Management Techniques
With pay per click (PPC) advertising, you will likely need every trick in your bag to stay ahead of the competition. As the PPC landscape has become increasingly competitive, it is becoming harder than ever to run cost-efficient campaigns within saturated markets. But utilizing some of the following bid management strategies will help you gain the edge back on your competition.
The first thing you should do is stay within your budget. Don’t get caught up in bidding wars if you don’t have to. These are often initiated by rookies to the PPC game, and can cost you dearly if you get involved. If you spend too much on your clicks, you will erase the profit you earn from backend conversions. If you aren’t getting the number of clicks you desire, then try to make other small changes such as modifying your keywords or tweaking the text of your ads. Upping your budget is the last thing you want to do. After all, you set your budget for a reason - to make sure you turn a profit.
Next, you should not bid to get in the top spot, now matter how big your budget. Unless you are the undisputed leader in your industry, or are attempting to become the undisputed leader in your industry, bidding for the top spot is a quick way to erase your margins. You should let your ad sell your service, not the spot you are in. Plus, many people click on the top spot without thinking too much about the contents of the ad. This is the last thing you want, because you are lowering the quality of your leads. If you’re going to pay for a click, you want to make sure it’s for someone legitimately interested in what you sell. This should be the guiding light of your PPC bid management techniques.
Also, there is a technique called bid jamming that you might want to try. Basically, some PPC services have a visible bid system, meaning you can see the bids of all your competitors. Something you may not know is that your competitors don’t pay the price they bid for each click, but instead pay one cent higher than their next closest competitors bid. If you bid one cent lower than your next competitor, it will force him/her to pay full price for the bid, something that is hard to keep up for long.
These are a few simple pay per click bid management techniques that you can use in order to gain a competitive advantage in your PPC advertising campaign. Use a little patience, and you will place smarter and more effective bids.
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