The Pros And Cons Of "Bid Gaps"

Written by Stan Hauser


Continued from page 1

In addition torepparttar tools offered byrepparttar 138148 PPC Search Engines to eliminate "Bid Gaps", there are several third party Bid Management applications that will dorepparttar 138149 trick. Atlas OnePoint offers a sophisticated Bid Management tool to effectively manage your bidding strategy across 40 different Pay Per Click Search Engines and shopping comparison sites. BidRank is another tool we recommend for optimizing keyword bids, and avoiding "Bid Gaps".

How You Can Profit From "Bid Gaps":

While creating "Bid Gaps" for your own keywords can be a costly mistake, you can often improverepparttar 138150 metrics of your Pay Per Click Advertising program by taking advantage of gaps that appear inrepparttar 138151 bidding strategy of your competition.

Example:

Position # 1 $1.00 Position # 2 $ .79 Position # 3 $. 78 A "Bid Gap" has appeared betweenrepparttar 138152 #1 andrepparttar 138153 # 2 positions. You can either pay $1.01 to lock inrepparttar 138154 #1 position, or bid $.80 forrepparttar 138155 # 2 slot. Given these alternatives it may make more sense to opt forrepparttar 138156 # 2 position. The slight decline in traffic from slipping torepparttar 138157 #2 spot may be more than compensated byrepparttar 138158 improved ROI due torepparttar 138159 lower cost per click.

If you want to play hardball with your competitors by driving their cost per clicks higher, while locking in good positioning for your ads at a lower cost, you can manipulaterepparttar 138160 'Auto Bidding" tools to your advantage.

Example:

Position # 1 $1.00 Position # 2 $. 79 Position # 3 $. 78 In this example, if you used any ofrepparttar 138161 "AutoBid" features offered by many ofrepparttar 138162 Search Engines and set your maximum bid to $.99 ($.01 less than your competitor inrepparttar 138163 #1 position),repparttar 138164 system would put you inrepparttar 138165 # 2 position at $.80 ($.01 more thanrepparttar 138166 next highest bid), while your competitor would still have to pay $1.00 forrepparttar 138167 # 1 slot (sincerepparttar 138168 system would consider your $.99 maximum bid to berepparttar 138169 next highest bid, and adjust your competitor's bid to be $.01 more). Software company Pay Per Click Management offers a "CompetitionBuster" feature specifically designed to take advantage of your competition's "Bid Gaps".

We don't necessarily endorse this approach, butrepparttar 138170 Pay Per Click Advertising game isn't forrepparttar 138171 faint of heart. You need to have a well thought out bidding strategy so you don't overpay for your clicks, while still gettingrepparttar 138172 traffic volume you need to reach your goals.



Stan Hauser is a leading expert on effective Pay Per Click Advertising strategies, and creator of http://www.pay-per-click-advertising-guide.com


The Cost Of Click Fraud

Written by Stan Hauser


Continued from page 1

The Search Engines are in a unique position when it comes to Click Fraud. Onrepparttar one hand they benefit from it. The amount of revenue attributed to Click Fraud varies depending on who you ask, but everyone agrees that if illegitimate clicks were completely eliminated, allrepparttar 138147 major Search Engines would suffer a significant hit to their revenues and stock prices. However,repparttar 138148 Search Engines also realize thatrepparttar 138149 long term health ofrepparttar 138150 industry depends on establishing trust with their advertiser base. Going forward we can expect to see Search Engines deploy increasingly sophisticated methods to eliminate fraud, and corresponding responses fromrepparttar 138151 dark side ofrepparttar 138152 Search Advertising industry.

Decreasing The Amount OF Click Fraud For Your Campaigns.

While it’s impossible to completely eliminate fraudulent traffic, there are some things you can do to increaserepparttar 138153 percentage of good traffic from your investment in Pay per Click Advertising.

As a rule of thumb,repparttar 138154 more a Pay Per Click Ad network depends on affiliates for its traffic,repparttar 138155 more susceptible it will be to fraud. The reason whyrepparttar 138156 overall traffic quality is better on Google, Yahoo and Lycos is that each of these sites has their own branded destination where consumers go to search. If you advertise on these sites you know where your ads will appear (although even these bigger sites use affiliates to varying degrees). Once you venture intorepparttar 138157 second tier Pay Per Click networks however you’ll find that almost all of their traffic is generated through partner sites. Companies like Kanoodle, Enhance etc…don’t own sites where people go to searchrepparttar 138158 web. Nearly all their traffic is generated through their affiliates which makes it more difficult to control fraud.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, click fraud is a necessary evil of Pay Per Click Advertising, at least for now. However, as with most aspects of PPC Advertising everything eventually boils down to conversions and profits. If your campaigns are generating enough quality traffic to meet your conversion metrics you should continue to invest inrepparttar 138159 campaign, even if some ofrepparttar 138160 clicks are fake. If your traffic is riddled with too many automated clicks it will eventually become obvious in your conversion numbers, and you should stoprepparttar 138161 campaign and put your money into pay Per Click networks that control more of their own traffic.

Stan Hauser is a leading expert in effective Pay Per Click Advertising strategies, and the creator of http://www.pay-per-click-advertising-guide.com


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