Step Wise SEO

Management
Managing a campaign for awareness requires simple characteristics but must be done with financial due care and attention.

Managing a campaign of this kind relates to the paid search engines, such as Overture or Google AdWordsTM. There are two distinct variables that must be taken into consideration:

• Presence - a company’s website has the maximum presence within the search listing for important keywords.

• Pricing - managing the aforementioned presence in relation to a budget requires fiscal responsibility and as such a firm understanding of the objectives and budgetary allocation is necessary before, during and after any campaign has been run.

With both of these variables of equal importance the answer to managing an awareness strategy is twofold, the first being with human input and the second (and preferred option) via the use of a technology.

Technology ‘bid management’
The key to managing a campaign that maintains the strongest presence while keeping in mind price is the use of a bid management technology.

Depending upon the type of system selected the technology must use informed variables such as maximum CPC, daily budget limits and selected position ranges. The following process must be used to determine these criteria:

• Step 1: Research - a selection of keywords must be researched for relevance (user defined), velocity (searches provided by engines) and price per position (provided by the engines).

Once this information is gathered an understanding of what costs are involved and average CPC will be acceptable for top positions.

• Step 2: Selecting keywords - the research performed above will give both the estimated coverage (in terms of searches) and the representative costs per click.

The next phase is to select the keywords based upon budget. Some words are going to be very expensive.

If the budget won’t cover the entire list, the keywords must be selected in turn and tested against the goals of the strategy.

• Step 3: Implement - the plan using a bid management technology. Set the variables determined in Steps 1 and 2 and use these as the parameters for daily/hourly bid management.

Some bid management tools are more advanced than others and, for the simplest management of all letting a tool determine the best time of day or position to get the maximum presence from a predetermined budget is the way to go.

The screen shot shown in demonstrates where an ‘optimization rule’ can be set and then allow the system to do the rest.

The advantages of utilizing an advanced bid management system such as this are that a great deal of resource can be saved.

Resource in this instance is defined as people time. A simpler way to look at this is to analyze the variables involved. In an awareness strategy the desired outcome is presence at the right price.

If the search engines allow for hourly updates of keywords, terms that you set at number 1 to number 5 at l pm could be in position 10 by 2pm or the cost per click price of the market could have evaluated over an hour long period beyond a desired CPC range.

For this reason it is important to do some mathematics to determine whether bid management is necessary.

500 Keywords
(in an awareness strategy these are likely to be high traffic volatile terms)
MULTIPLIED BY
3 PEP Engines
(e.g. Overture, Google AdWordTM and FindWhat/MIVA)
MULTIPLIED BY
24 Changes Per Day
(Changing bids on an hourly basis)
MULTIPLIED BY
5 Seconds Per Update
(Allowing for the time to find, change and refresh the engine bid page)
EQUALS
180000 Seconds Per Day (or 50 Hours!)

From this mathematical example it would require, taking an 8-hour day, over six full-time employees working around the clock to manage a simple portfolio of 500 keywords.

This example may take this point to the extreme; however, in an awareness strategy where keyword position is important and bidding is furious it is key to have a type of technology or, at least, mechanism, working towards an overall goal.

Manual management
Manual management is defined as the control of a campaign using limited additional technology.

The focus is to find work around mechanisms on the words and phrases being used to ensure that a campaign’s performance is maintained at all times.

Without a bid management technology this is a very difficult and challenging task, however, it is not impossible.

The way to master this is to focus on the tools and mechanisms provided within the industry that are freely available for all to use. In this instance these are the bidding vehicles provided by the PFP engines themselves.

The effectiveness of these mechanisms is in actuality determined by the amount of resource allocated.

The question becomes one of frequency and of updating techniques. Many companies choose to use different ways to overcome resource issues.

One of the worst ways to ensure a top spot is to purchase the number 1 phrase, using auto bidding, and place a very high maximum bid. Other more successful methods are as follows:

• Manage keywords sorted by importance: if the keywords are sorted by importance and relevance to a company’s products, services or branding exercises, more emphasis could be placed upon these words only and the remaining terms updated less often.

• Manage keywords sorted by cost: for the more fiscally challenged campaigns the management of keywords by price is critical.

 In relation to sorting the keywords on the basis of those that have a high likelihood of running away with a campaign, these should be managed more carefully and more often than those that don’t carry as high a probability.

 Note: this rationale is particularly important for the management of Google AdWordsTM and in reference to organizing campaigns to get the most from each keyword based upon a budget.

Keywords: branding, awareness, CTR, keywords, bid management tools,