Bid Management Without Conversion Optimizer For Small Companies

Writing by Pay Per Click Journal on Friday, January 23, 2009 Comments Off

In a stunning article titled “Google Conversion Optimizer: The Best-Kept Secret in PPC?“, David Szetela shares his experience with the Google Conversion Optimizer and it all seems really positive. But I have a few observations to make.

Conversion Optimizer only works on campaigns that have accumulated at least 50 conversions in the previous month.

There are two things to say about this: First, it appears that Conversion Optimizer was created for large advertisers and if your too small to qualify it puts you at a distinct disadvantage. Secondly, if you are on the cusp of 50 conversions per month, oscillating back and forth such that one month you go over and the next month you don’t then you might not see the stellar results that Szetela is claiming at SEW.

Does that mean if you are a small pay per click advertiser then you should resign yourself to losing to your competition? No, I don’t think so. I still think that humans can perform great bid management.

Small advertisers actually have an advantage over large pay per click advertisers because you turn sharper and more quickly if the market changes. When there is a turn in any market, large budgeted advertisers tend to continue doing the same thing that has worked for them in the past and analyzing the data. Committee management leads to a large ship turning in wide berths. You don’t have that problem.

Another advantage small advertisers have over large advertisers is that you target long tail keywords that large advertisers may not have an interest in due to the smaller numbers involved. A large advertiser might go for the broader terms with a larger budget because they hope to get the large numbers of conversions at the higher price. It makes sense for them. But take a smaller budget and put it into multiple long tail keywords with a higher conversion rate and your small business can be just as profitable as your larger competitor. Bid management through human eyes is still effective and can make you just as much money on a percentage ROI basis as the big guys. Don’t be discouraged. Conversion Optimizer may be a Cadillac, but you aren’t resigned to riding a bicycle just because you can’t afford the Cad.

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