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.
The next bid management technique you should take into consideration is never bidding for the top spot. All too often, people want to feel the thrill of seeing their ad up there on the top spot of SERPs. But this is not financially realistic for most campaigns, and is a quick way to chisel away a good chunk of your margins. You need to let your ad sell your product or service, not the placement of your ad. Plus, consider that many people click on the top spot much more readily than the eighth spot. This means that you will be getting clicks from people who have no intent to purchase your product or service. Now you are playing a high price for low-quality leads, a double whammy. If you pay money for a click, you want that prospective customer to genuinely be interested in what you have to offer.
There is another technique called bid jamming that you may consider utilizing. This calls for you to “jam” the bid of your competitor by bidding one cent less than their bid. Because a PPC service operates in the same way as an online auction site, you only pay one cent more than your closest competitor – not your actual bid. So if your competitor bids .49 per click and you bid .32 per click, your competitor pays .33 per click to hold the top spot. By bidding .48 per click, you can force them to pay full price for their bids.
These are some basic bid management techniques that can help you maximize ROI with your PPC advertising campaign. Remember that patience can go a long way to maximizing the efficiency of your PPC campaign. Don’t be afraid to wait for your moment, and then seize it when it comes.
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