Joe - any reason why you are ruling out an outside vendor to manage your ppc campaign? Is it cost? Trust? Or just that you want to be directly involved?
Kevin,
I built my own web site rather than use an outside vendors site.
I manage photos and data collection in-house rather than a vendor.
I am a glutton for punishment
It slows me down, but, if there is "leverage" I am all for it!
I haven't ruled out a 3rd party, I just haven't got there yet. Here's how I run my sick world.
1st, I rank the project.
My plan was to start with a manual campain and see what I've got (done). The data that's come back is eye opening. Because PPC going to be a big part of my budget now, I like to know the space inside and out.
Take for instance that Goog PPC video. All I got to say is WOW. With that video, I now know what makes the PPC engine run (ad quality ties to PPC $ paid & ties to ranking position) and ad quality is driven by click thru rate, content relavance and landing page quality. Wow... What an eye opener.
So... PPC has been roaring along for years and I like to look outside our industry to see what "best of class" solutions are out there. Here again, I learn more crap
. Then, after I got a wish list together, I look into our industry to see who's got what.
Kevin, If you have ANY ideas, I am all ears!