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Pay Per Click Search Engine Management With Just One Click! 
(Part 3 of a 3 Part Series)
by Merle
 
Although a great website marketing tool, PPC search engine 
strategy comes with its own headaches. Monitoring all of 
your bids and watching for what is known as "bid gaps" can
be time consuming, especially if you're using many different
PPC engines.

So what is a "bid gap" and why should you care? Let's say you
have a bid of $.25 for the phrase "natural dog food," and this
bid has gotten you the #3 position on a certain PPC search engine. 
A bid of $.30 has the #2 position and a bid of $.34 holds the top
spot. So one day the guys in the #1 and #2 spots drop out for
some reason or another (this happens all the time), and you now 
move to the #1 position with your bid of $.25... but the #2 spot
now has a bid of only $.15. And that means you could hold the #1 
spot for only $.16 per click. You're now overpaying for your
position, and unless you check your positions daily you'll end 
up paying more than you have to for each and every click. Not
a good thing.

To solve this problem, a whole new breed of software and services
have sprung up online called "PPC Bid Management Tools." This
help comes in three formats:

1) Software you purchase and download
2) Web based services you must log into and use
3) Third party companies you can hire to take care of it for you

The tool that is right for you depends on a number of factors, 
one of them being your monthly budget. Hiring a service to do
the "dirty work" for you can be nice, but the monthly fees can 
add up quickly. If you decide to purchase software and do it 
yourself, you pay once then forget about it. The web based 
services where you sign up and use their interface to do your 
own monitoring can cost a lot less. If you go this route, make 
sure that the automated service you choose is one that has been 
approved by Overture. They have recently changed their policy
in order to keep out "unauthorized automated scripts" which were
bogging down their systems, and have approved only a handful of
bid management companies. In English, this means you must make 
sure the service or software you choose to use will work with
this PPC Search engine leader.

Let's take a look at some of the more popular options to choose
from:


1)GoToast.com: A web based management service which claims to 
support more PPC search engines then any of the others. 
At the time of this writing, they supported 19 engines, including 
Overture, 7Search, Ah-Ha, Google Ad Words Select and Findwhat. 

Their keyword manager interface gives you total control of all
your bids at any time. No need to constantly recheck your
positions and raise and lower your bids; GoToast will do it 
automatically. You can monitor your bids once per day or every
30 minutes. After signing up, you select the rank and max per
click you want to pay per keyword. GoToast monitors your 
ranking for those keywords on each PPC search engine you use
and optimizes the PPC based on what you want to spend and your
desired position.

Email notifications are sent to you every time a change is
made to one of your keywords. Cost varies depending on the
service level you choose, ranging from $49.95 and up.
Payment method is credit card. They do offer a free 7-day
trial.

GoToast recently acquired rival ClickPatrol.com, so these two 
services are now one.


2) BidRank.com: PPC management software that automatically
adjusts your bids as frequently as every 60 seconds. You
set up your max bids and ranking, set the time intervals
for checking your PPC rankings and that's it. Works with
multiple accounts, finds bid gaps, and changes bids all
automatically.

A working demo of the software is available. The only 
difference between this and the actual program is that
the demo only lets you add 5 keyword listings and expires
in 15 days. There are 7 different software versions 
available depending on how many keywords you need to 
manage. Prices range from the lowest of $49.00 and run 
up to $1,999.00.

BidRank is an Overture-approved service provider.  

3) PPCManagement.com: This software-based solution is offered
up by "Pay Per Click Management." You enter your ranking 
positions and set the program to run automatically or manually. 
You also can set the time intervals for when you want your
bids checked. Supports Overture, Findwhat, Kanoodle, Ah-Ha,
and more. This program can also be set up to send you email
notifications when you've been outbid. 

A free trial download will allow you to track 10 keywords for
10 days. Pricing varies depending on two factors: the number
of keywords you need to monitor ,and whether you purchase a 
lifetime subscription or choose to pay monthly. Prices vary 
from $12.00 a month up to $999.00 per month. Purchasing the 
software gives you free lifetime upgrades and updates to 
the program. 

4) PPCBidTracker.com: Web based tool to monitor your bids,
offering two separate tool packages. "The Overtool" is for
managing Overture bids only while "The PPC Tool" works 
with all of the other PPC's like Find What and Kanoodle.

Both services perform the same functions, like closing bid
gaps and maintaining your bid positions. Pricing for both
tools for up to 50 keywords is $39.95 per keyword account,
and the pricing goes up from there. All billing is done
through PayPal.

Some other management tools you may wish to take a look at:

http://www.ApexPacific.com/overturebidmaximizer.html
Software Solution

http://www.Did-It.com
Web Based Service

http://www.ManageBid.com
Web Based Service

As you can see, you have many options for managing your PPC's.
Only you can decide which one will work best for you. If you
already use a search engine optimization company you may wish
to inquire if they can manage your PPC bids as well.

Remember, PPC search engines are a great way to generate low 
cost targeted traffic to your website, but managing those
bids can be time consuming. By utilizing a PPC management 
tool, you'll save time and money by not paying more for
each click then you have to.

================================================================
Merle http://www.EzineAdAuction.com "Where some of the BEST Deals 
in Ezine Advertising are Made". Buy & Sell Ezine Ads in a live 
auction setting! Publishers sell off your excess inventory and 
Buyers pick up some Fantastic bargains. Free E-book on how to
write "glowing" ezine ads.....Download Now at:
http://www.ezineadauction.com/ebooks/greatezineads.pdf 
================================================================

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