Position Bidding on PPC is Futile

It’s staggering to see how many PPC campaigns are still being managed through automated software and are set on position-based, automated bid strategies.

We see this every day when analysing the competition and tracking competitors’ positions.

This approach can reduce the efficiency of a campaign and, as a result, it’s important for campaign managers to take greater control of their bid strategies if they want to increase the returns.

Using automated software can often jar with the ever-changing, day to day objectives of a business. Crucially however, understanding how to manage a campaign in its purest form, without the help of automated software, is the greater skill to possess. It’s akin to free diving vs scuba, it provides the edge if the apparatus ever fails.

PPC should be managed based on real-time information, your own historical knowledge of the keywords’ performance, your knowledge of how terms perform by day or hour, the competitive landscape in which you find yourself at that time, and, with the final piece of the jigsaw, the clients’ objectives at that time, even that particular day – and they can change from day to day!

Position data should be used as a barometer to the potential increase in volume for top performing phrases. It should support the analytical process of bid management and help the decision making process but shouldn’t be the primary consideration for bid management.