Last week, I got notified of changes to the second tier 7Search PPC engine, but haven’t been able to post about it until now.

According to the press release, it looks like the main features they have added are Geo-Targeting (targeting users in specific locations) and conversion tracking, both very useful features.

I do very little work on the smaller engines, having focused most of my time in the past on the “big three” (Google, Yahoo, and MSN), as they have a lot more volume/traffic, but I will definitely be testing out 7Search in the next few weeks, to see how they stack up to those three.

P.S. I am currently able to accept a limited number of additional clients for my PPC management services. Interested in increasing the profits of your website or advertising campaign? Contact me!

I am pleased to say that I am currently able to accept a limited number of additional clients at this time.

I am also offering steeply discounted rates off my normal hourly rate for a “trial period” with new clients, to see if we would work out well together long-term (no contract is involved).

If you are interested in possibly hiring me to manage your PPC campaigns for you or your company, please contact me and I will get back with you as soon as possible.

I am able to manage PPC campaigns on Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, and other platforms such as Facebook, as the situation requires.

Thank you!

P.S. I am currently able to accept a limited number of additional clients for my PPC management services. Interested in increasing the profits of your website or advertising campaign? Contact me!

Okay, you have a highly optimized PPC campaign, you are getting thousands of targeted visitors a day to your site. Now what?

What you do after the visitors load up your landing page can often make or break the long-term profitability of a campaign (or, in many cases, be the difference between a decent ROI or a great ROI - return on investment).

For some types of PPC campaigns (i.e., sending visitors directly to an affiliate site), you have limited options, but for many campaigns where the visitors are coming to a site you own and control, you have a lot more flexibility.

If you have a landing page that sells a product at a price (and conversion rate) where you can make a profit off the initial visit to your site, then you, well, are making a profit! However, the real cash usually comes through building a large opt-in list.

When you do that, you have access again and again to your visitor at, literally, the push of a button. Studies have shown that it typically takes seven contacts before a prospect will buy from you, but with a list, you can both follow-up with pitches for your initial product (for those visitors who didn’t purchase your product initially), or you can cross-promote other offers, affiliate offers, or even “upgrades” to your product.

One popular method for building an opt-in list is to offer a free report, eBook, or other valuable information to every subscriber. The irony of that is that not only do you get their email, but you can often put affiliate links or other sources of income in your report or other product to get more revenue. Just make sure that whatever you offer as a “bribe” provides massive value to your customers.

I know, I’m being a little hypocritical, as I don’t even have an opt-in form on my site, but trust me, I have them on many other sites, and in the meantime, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed.

P.S. I am currently able to accept a limited number of additional clients for my PPC management services. Interested in increasing the profits of your website or advertising campaign? Contact me!

Yesterday, I finally got around to taking the adExcellence exam, which Microsoft released recently for their adCenter program. I have been eying this exam for a few months, and have just not had enough time to take it until last night.

As I expected, it wasn’t all that difficult, and I had no problem easily passing. They gave me an hour to answer 100 questions, and I only had to have a final score of 80% in order to pass, so it should be fairly easy for anyone remotely familiar with PPC management who takes a little time to go through their training materials to pass.

Everyone who passes the program gets to use the “Microsoft adExcellence Member” logo (I currently have it in the right column of this blog). In addition, they get a listing in the Members Directory (with the option to opt out of it, if desired).

Overall, I’m pleased with my use of that hour. I have another certification under my belt, got a listing in the members directory, and hopefully picked up a little knowledge along the way.

For those interested in taking the adCenter training, or in getting certified, you can find out more info on their program at adExcellence.com.

P.S. I am currently able to accept a limited number of additional clients for my PPC management services. Interested in increasing the profits of your website or advertising campaign? Contact me!

Split testing is a crucial element to the success of almost any advertising program, both off-line, and online. Those that do not actively use split testing usually can afford to do that because of past split testing that has helped spell out guidelines for how users respond to advertising.

How does this fit into managing an AdWords (or any other PPC platform, actually) campaign?

Well, as anyone who has had any experience with copywriting (writing copy for advertisements) can attest, sometimes the smallest change in a headline or a tweak in the body of an ad can produce a big difference in the response to the ad.

In PPC, the element that needs to be tested the most is usually the ad copy itself. When I talk about the ad copy, I am referring to the clickable headline of the ad, as well as the (usually) two lines of text beneath it, and, to a smaller degree, the URL that is generally displayed beneath the headline and two lines of descriptive text.

Often, a small tweak in the way a headline is put together, or switching out a word, can result in a 100%, or even more, increase in CTR (click through rate) of the ad.

To split test headlines or ad copy against each other, most PPC platforms allow you to add multiple ads to your campaign, and then see which one results in a higher click through rate.

One thing to be careful of, however, is PPC platforms such as Google’s AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing that attempt to “optimize” your ads, and automatically display the best performing ads. Although ultimately, you will probably want to disable all of your lower-performing ads, you will want the ads to display evenly until you have enough data to tell which ads to cut, and which to keep.

Although it is generally good to get a high click through rate, the number that you usually need to pay the closest attention to is the ROI (return on investment).

For example, if you had an ad saying “New BMW for $5!”, you would probably get a rather high click-through rate. However, if the price on the BMW was actually $50,000, you would probably have a very low conversion rate, which would make for a low ROI.

A lot of PPC platforms allow you to track both the click through rate, and the conversion rate, which is the ideal way to track the results of the split testing.

P.S. I am currently able to accept a limited number of additional clients for my PPC management services. Interested in increasing the profits of your website or advertising campaign? Contact me!