Pay-Per-Click Campaign Management
Internet Marketing Consulting - Mark J. Welch
Pleasanton & Hayward, California . . . MarkWelch@MarkWelch.com . . . (925) 462-8483Click here for more information about Mark Welch's consulting services
Paid Search (PPC): Since 1998, I have advised clients on paid search strategies, which today means primarily "pay-per-click" search strategies, primarily using Google AdWords, Yahoo Internet Marketing (formerly called Overture/GoTo), and MSN AdCenter. I have directly run profitable campaigns with more 500,000 search phrases.
Recently, fewer clients have sought to hire me as a consultant on a "project" basis, opting instead to retain me to manage their PPC campaigns on a "pay for performance" basis. This requires that the client have a robust system to track and report the source of every sales transaction. I can operate client campaigns in either of two ways:
- My Risk: With this option, I pay the cost of the PPC campaigns, and I am paid a flat percentage of sales that were driven by my PPC campaigns. This eliminates the risk for the merchant (since they pay nothing if no sales result). This arrangement is "something more" than an affiliate relationship.
- Merchant's Risk: This approach requires the merchant to pay the cost of the PPC campaigns, and to fund a reasonable budget for them. I then manage and optimize the campaigns, but my compensation is not a percentage of product sales, but instead a percentage of gross profit from the PPC campaigns. This means that the merchant pays me nothing if the gross profit from sales does not cover the direct campaign costs.
With either approach, I need data from the client, including historical web metrics. I usually begin with testing of a relatively short list of keywords and phrases (500 to 2,000 search phrases). Over a period of three to seven days, I experiment with ad texts, bid amounts, and search phrases, optimizing campaigns quickly. Once I understand the performance and flow of the campaigns, I can launch thousands of additional search phrases as rapidly as possible. (Note that a key component of "paid search" is crafting the wording of the text ad; on Google's AdWords system, this is only a 25-character headline plus two additional lines with 35 characters each.)
Please note: I only assist new clients on a "pay for performance" basis if the client already has a robust tracking solution and effective sales content. Clients who need broader consulting advice would need to hire me (or another consultant) on a "project" or hourly basis before reaching a stage where I would agree to run PPC campaigns on a "pay for performance" basis.
If you might be interested in my consulting services, please contact me:
Mark J. Welch
email: MarkWelch@MarkWelch.com
voice (925) 462-8483Send All Mail to:
Mark J. Welch
P.O. Box 11355
Pleasanton, CA 94588-1355