Autobidding - The PPC Holy Grail
For the years spent in PPC it seems that there is one untainable Holy Grail that everyone is looking for within the PPC industry. A goal that, while many are looking for a way to RONCO their PPC campaigns, has eluded the masses. A goal so lofty that it just doesn't make business sense. Autobidding.
It seems to be a hobbie in the PPC industry to build a gigantic list of low cost keywords to drive an obscene amount of traffic to their site without paying a lot of money. Theoretically that makes sense I suppose, but how practical is it really? Seems the first thing someone tries to find is someone who can manage their keyword list for them as they don't have the time to manage the list themselves.
The issue with that is that there is a huge number of agencies out there that would LOVE to spend your money and convert for you, and make you feel warm and fuzzy about it...the issue is that a lot of those angencies can't help a small business and they don't spend enough.
So small businesses look for a RONCO PPC product. (You know RONCO, SET IT AND FORGET IT!) Let's take a moment and think about that shall we?
I can surely understand a machine that has been designed to cook my turkey to a perfect temperature and keep all the tender juices inside, mmmmm yummmy. But to expect the same from a machine on a PPC campaign that you really can't wield yourself? Are you kidding?
PPC is a fulltime job for a lot of experienced people. And if you ask a lot of the experienced people there are a couple of issues with Autobidding wihtin the PPC industry.
1. Cost of third party management
Most of the autobidding systems today use what is called and API to talk to the big four search engines. APIs are great, but inherently they have cost. The engines make so many changes to their APIs that it takes a full time person, sometimes more, to keep up with the changes. Google's API now has a cost with it, a cost which the angencies obviously don't want to keep and pass on to you the consumer. The overally pricing for a third party system is that the small business owner who wants to get the word out that they are on the Internet can't afford to tell the world automagically that they are here.
2. My submissions are real time right?
Wrong. Submissions through the APIs are just that, submissions, requests. The changes to the system have a good track record of submitting quickly, but ultimately, a large majority are delayed in changing in the system. There is a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo out there about that, but when it comes down to it, you are leaving the livelihood of your PPC campaign to a company that doesn't care about your campaign and what it's doing and to the engine who has a ton of requests from companies just like your autobidding company. I don't know if I would trust that...would you?
Talk to any agency and they will get you to increase your spend and word list so they can increase their revenue. That may be ok for the large company if they like throwing away money, but let's assess this for the small business. Don't do it.
PPC is a great way to subsidize some simple traffic to your site. A great way to blitz market situations and offers. A great way to build brand. But to think that it is the end all in online presence building is a mindset to get out of.
Use PPC to get some traffic, but that doesn't replace a well coded site. It doesn't replace a site that has a decent call to action, a place to sign up, to do what you want them to do. It doesn't replace email marketing, it doesn't replace social networking optimization. It is not the end all of online marketing.
The bottom line is that the Holy Grail of PPC; Autobidding is for the agencies. They need to be able to handle gigantic amounts of keywords without any reason to worry about whether a random keyword or two get submitted properly or not...you the small buisness owner do not. Start small, start with a small list and build it, but don't go with a list of 150 keywords and then try to find someone to do it for you, it's too costly, both in dollars and in the potential of blowing your budget down the tubes for unnecessary traffic.
It seems to be a hobbie in the PPC industry to build a gigantic list of low cost keywords to drive an obscene amount of traffic to their site without paying a lot of money. Theoretically that makes sense I suppose, but how practical is it really? Seems the first thing someone tries to find is someone who can manage their keyword list for them as they don't have the time to manage the list themselves.
The issue with that is that there is a huge number of agencies out there that would LOVE to spend your money and convert for you, and make you feel warm and fuzzy about it...the issue is that a lot of those angencies can't help a small business and they don't spend enough.
So small businesses look for a RONCO PPC product. (You know RONCO, SET IT AND FORGET IT!) Let's take a moment and think about that shall we?
I can surely understand a machine that has been designed to cook my turkey to a perfect temperature and keep all the tender juices inside, mmmmm yummmy. But to expect the same from a machine on a PPC campaign that you really can't wield yourself? Are you kidding?
PPC is a fulltime job for a lot of experienced people. And if you ask a lot of the experienced people there are a couple of issues with Autobidding wihtin the PPC industry.
1. Cost of third party management
Most of the autobidding systems today use what is called and API to talk to the big four search engines. APIs are great, but inherently they have cost. The engines make so many changes to their APIs that it takes a full time person, sometimes more, to keep up with the changes. Google's API now has a cost with it, a cost which the angencies obviously don't want to keep and pass on to you the consumer. The overally pricing for a third party system is that the small business owner who wants to get the word out that they are on the Internet can't afford to tell the world automagically that they are here.
2. My submissions are real time right?
Wrong. Submissions through the APIs are just that, submissions, requests. The changes to the system have a good track record of submitting quickly, but ultimately, a large majority are delayed in changing in the system. There is a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo out there about that, but when it comes down to it, you are leaving the livelihood of your PPC campaign to a company that doesn't care about your campaign and what it's doing and to the engine who has a ton of requests from companies just like your autobidding company. I don't know if I would trust that...would you?
Talk to any agency and they will get you to increase your spend and word list so they can increase their revenue. That may be ok for the large company if they like throwing away money, but let's assess this for the small business. Don't do it.
PPC is a great way to subsidize some simple traffic to your site. A great way to blitz market situations and offers. A great way to build brand. But to think that it is the end all in online presence building is a mindset to get out of.
Use PPC to get some traffic, but that doesn't replace a well coded site. It doesn't replace a site that has a decent call to action, a place to sign up, to do what you want them to do. It doesn't replace email marketing, it doesn't replace social networking optimization. It is not the end all of online marketing.
The bottom line is that the Holy Grail of PPC; Autobidding is for the agencies. They need to be able to handle gigantic amounts of keywords without any reason to worry about whether a random keyword or two get submitted properly or not...you the small buisness owner do not. Start small, start with a small list and build it, but don't go with a list of 150 keywords and then try to find someone to do it for you, it's too costly, both in dollars and in the potential of blowing your budget down the tubes for unnecessary traffic.
Published: Sat, Dec 1 2007 - 00:00 AM
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Category: Pay-Per-Click
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