A Beginner’s Guide to SEM and PPC Management

Managing a SEM and PPC campaign is both an art and a science. It’s easy to take a scientific approach when you’re working with all kinds of analytics and testing tools. However, many breakthroughs happen through creativity. That’s why experience is the best teacher when it comes to managing search campaigns. Fortunately, beginners can still learn how to properly manage their campaigns by learning the fundamentals. If you’re a beginner, this quick guide will help you get up to speed in SEM and PPC management.

1. Monitoring

The reality is that search campaigns are volatile. Your PPC ad may suddenly get rejected by Google’s editorial staff. Your search rankings could be on the first page one day and suddenly fall to the tenth page in a matter of hours. That’s why you need to start by monitoring all your campaigns and checking them on a regular basis.

2. Measuring

According to Orangesoda pay per click specialists, the key of ensuring that your campaigns are successful is measuring your results. You must keep track of the traffic, ad costs, clickthroughs, conversions and profits. Staying on top of all your metrics will allow you to see which campaigns are working and which aren’t. You’ll also be able to identify which campaigns have a lot of potential.

3. Testing

In direct response, your goal is to always beat the control (the current winning ad). That’s why pay per click strategy involves testing different types of PPC ads to increase CTR, clicks and conversions without spending any more money. You can go about the same process in SEM by changing around your title tag and meta description to see which changes bring the highest clickthrough rates and conversions.

4. Optimizing

Once you feel that you have a strong enough of a winner, you can expand on your testing with small tweaks. In a PPC campaign, simply changing one word can have a big impact on the conversions and profit. In a SEM campaign, you can try increasing the keyword prominence in your title tag and other on-page elements on your site to see which tweaks result in increased rankings.

5. Scaling

Many Internet marketers have a hard time scaling their campaigns. To scale a campaign properly, you must understand how to manage your cash flow. In a PPC campaign, you’ll probably have to reinvest a portion of your gross earnings back into purchasing clicks for the following cycle. You will have to factor in operating costs and other expenses before investing all your earnings into scaling your campaign.

SEO campaigns can be less forgiving. Once you get to the point where you secure a ranking, you can lower your budget and still maintain it without much difficulty. The extra cash flow can then be invested into building content and links for getting a new page ranked.

6. Automation

Managing SEM and PPC campaigns can be incredibly time intensive. That’s why you’ll need to use automation tools to make your job easier. There are PPC management tools that automate your bids so that you can maintain a set position. There are also SEO management tools that alert you when your rankings change or when you reach specific milestones. Once your campaigns start to gain momentum, you’ll find that these tools are essential.

7. Research

It all ends where you started in the first place – research. After studying your data, you can go back to research certain type of keywords that you feel will be profitable for your campaign. Research is far easier after you’ve gotten your campaign going since you have your data as a reliable reference.