Kevin,
I prefer to do it on my own, but, I may not beable to if the right tool isn't avail.
I've just waded into PPC, this is month#4. I threw together a fast Keyword list, put them in different tracking buckets, sync'd my goog analytics to it, stood back and watched.
I very pleased with what I see, The traffic stats are excellent (time on site, pages viewed). Conversions need work, but thats a site wide issue that I am studying.
I am ready to grow the budget (aka rob some $$ from radio to pay for PPC
)
Here's my logic on how I want to manage this and why I need help.
1st, I felt that there are 2 kinds of PPC campaigns. #1, Into my home market (where shoppers know us) and then #2, into "out of market" areas, where opportunities exist, but, special attention is needed. I created these major buckets:
Inside these buckets are 2 major categories, Short Tail (just begun search) and Long Tail (deep in search process)
- Short tail
- Used Car
- Used Car Dealer
- Buy Used Car
- etc...
- Long Tail
- SUV
- used Jeep Wrangler
- used Ford Explorer
- new Cadillac Escalade ESV
- Used 2008 Suzuki SX4 Sport
- etc...
- Cars
- Pre-owned make model
- etc...
- Trucks
- Pre-owned make model
- etc...
These settings allow me to control the message, the budgets and drill down into the performance of my "home market" and "out of market" marketing. So I end up with:
- Home Market
- Short tail
- Used Car
- Used Car Dealer
- Buy Used Car
- etc...
- Long Tail
- SUV
- used Jeep Wrangler
- used Ford Explorer
- new Cadillac Escalade ESV
- Used 2008 Suzuki SX4 Sport
- etc...
- Cars
- Pre-owned make model
- etc...
- Trucks
- Pre-owned make model
- etc...
And again 4 more times for Out-of-Market north, east, south and west PPC. It makes for great data and ROI, almost a 5% CTR (I think thats good?), but, now I want to grow this effort with a zillion keywords but doing it manually is NOT smart business for me.
- I need keywords (for out industry)
- I need a budget/bidding management tool
- I need a landing page assignment system
Hopeless in Syracuse
Joe