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PPC Management Pricing Options
I’m a little slow in posting this, but my latest column is out at Search Engine Land entitled PPC Management Options “ Are Your Fees Inline With The Advertisers Goals”?
Both advertisers and agencies can become confused with all of the pricing options available, so I tried to walk through some of the pros and benefits of each pricing type.
enjoy.
links for 2008-05-16
links for 2008-05-15
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Excellent article about closing the loop between bidding and actual sales margins.
Primer: How to host your own online applications for non-techies
Do you like the functionality of Google Docs, Flickr, Zoho, and Basecamp but don’t like paying subscription fees? Or, are you worried about the applications losing or deleting your accounts?
There’s a simple solution - host it yourself.
While hosting your own applications seems it’s only within the realm of techies, even non-techies can achieve application hosting prowess with some simple steps.
Find a VPS Host
The first step to hosting your own applications is to find a host provider that meets your needs.
What your are looking for is a host that:
- Has virtual server plans
- Uses Linux
- Has Fantistico installed
- Have an FTP program
The reasons for the above list are quite simple and let’s look at each in detail.
Has virtual server plans
A virtual server allows you the functionality of having your own dedicated server without some of the programming and maintenance requirements. Personally, I like cPanel WHM as the control panel for the virtual server. You don’t need to know the technical specs of cPanel WHM; you just need to see what VPS control panel your host is using. With a virtual server, you can set up and control multiple domains. This is important as once you learn how easy it is to host your own applications, you might have might have sites such as:
- Personal blog
- Personal applications (that’s not on your blog domain so it has a bit more security)
- A friends and family forum
- Company applications
- etc…
- It becomes simple to quickly expand how many sites you want to run, and the possibilities of each
Please note that you should use a different host than domain registrar.
Uses Linux
While many arguments can be made about windows vs linux hosting, for free hosting applications for non-techies there are two main reasons to use linux:
- Many freeware apps are easier for non-techies to install on linux
- .htaccess will be your best friend
Sites such as Source Forge are open communities of developers and create applications that are easy to install yourself.
.htaccess can be used to set up redirects, password protect files, use includes, and handle some CGI. This is the only ‘programming’ that you will have to learn. However, it’s really not programming, it’s simply writing some instructions for your server. Most of what you’ll want to learn is already on the net and you are just a couple copies and pastes away from having a complete .htaccess file.
Has Fantistico Installed
This is the key to installing your own apps for non-techies. Fantastico is a preinstalled program that sits on your VPS and allows one click installs of many of the top free applications on the web. In fact, applications are so easy to install, you may find yourself installing several types of similar applications just to see which one will become your favorite. Have you always wanted to try Drupal, Joomla, or Mambo but didn’t know where to start? Now it’s easy; a few clicks and your applications will be installed and ready for testing.
Have an FTP program
While you can use a stand alone FTP program, if you are truly a non-techie, you might want something even simpler. FireFTP is a plug-in for Firefox that let’s you run your FTP program within your browser.
Choose Your Applications for Instillation
Once you have your domains setup, it’s time to install some applications. For Fantastico installs, the setup is this easy:
- Choose where the application will live (subdomain, folder, etc)
- If it’s a subdomain, then create the subdomain in your control panel (which is generally a couple clicks, one open form, and a submit button)
- Navigate to Fantastico
- Choose the application you want to install
- List the install location (dotproject.example.com)
- Hit the install button
- Follow any additional instructions (username, passwords, email notification, etc)
I would suggest starting with dotProject. This is a fantastic project management software with additional plug-ins and an active community. Once its installed, then you can start to create projects around all of the other software you want to install and test.
Here are my favorite Fantastico installs:
- Wordpress for blogging
- SMF for bulletin boards
- TikiWiki for groupware (Wiki, Blogs, Images, etc, in a single application)
- Coppermine for photo sharing
- phpAdsNew for ad serving
- Moodle for learning environments
Here’s the full list of Fantastico application installs.
That’s It - Your New Apps are Installed!
Did that sound way too simple? If you already have a hosting account, a website, and Fantastico on your servers - it really is that simple.
If you don’t, then you do need to buy a domain name, choose a host provider, become familiar with your host’s control panel, and if you go the VPS route, learn a bit about that control panel as well. However, learning these interfaces is no more difficult than learning any other desktop application. There’s no programming required, just a familiarity with the settings and what they control.
Additional Considerations
When deciding on which applications you wish to run on your servers, there are some additional considerations that should factor into your final decisions.
How active is the open source community?
Some products are complete and do not need new development. Other products have large communities releasing new features, plug-ins, and security patches. In addition, if your company is relying on some of these applications, you might wish to pay a developer to add some custom functionality to these applications.
Security
As a general rule, if you are non-techie installing and running these applications do not store sensitive information within these applications.
You may wish to pay a security expert to check on your server security and make sure that your applications are as protected as possible. For less sensitive information, many control panels also have some method of password protecting files.
Upgrading
Some applications are free for you to install yourself; however, there are commercial versions that you can upgrade to if your business requires even more from the application. It’s worth investigating if the program is supported by a community or an actual business behind the scenes. An example is Open Office. The application might be similar to a free version of Microsoft Office; however, Sun does have a business model around giving away a free product. (Related article: Wired’s Freemium by Chris Anderson)
Total Needed Space
It’s hard to beat Picass’a 400GB of image hosting for a measly $500 per year. However, most people aren’t hosting hundreds of gigs of files on the web. If you’d like to get a quick snapshot of how many files and file sizes each of your folders contain on your PC to form a webhost comparison, download Windows Directory Statistics.
Advantages of Using Hosted Online Apps
It should also be said that there are definite advantages to using 3rd party hosted apps, such as:
- You automatically have access to new features when they are developed
- Tech Support
- Cross product integration (ZoHo is getting good at this, Google has a ways to go)
- Usually receive more total space
- Predication: soon open source software will have options to utilize Amazon’s S3 storage
- Generally low cost or free options
- Generally good security
- Generally good backup of your data
Advantages of Hosting Your Own Apps
Conversely, there are advantages to hosting it yourself, such as:
- Your account shouldn’t be deleted
- You don’t have to pay for multiple licenses, installs, etc
- You can backup your data whenever you want
- You can try out many types of software to see what you really like
- If you need more space, just buy a larger hosting plan
- Experimentation. When hosting your own apps, it’s easier to just play with some apps to see which one really fits your needs
- Easy to brand as your own business
Personally, I use a mix of 3rd party hosted and self-hosted. dotProject fulfills my project management needs; and since I always have 25+ projects running, I don’t want to pay a 3rd party by the project list. However, I also like GMail; but want to maintain some branding control, so I use Google Apps for some of my email.
Final Notes on Open Source Applications
I’m a fan of open source software, especially for non-programmers who do rely on others for improvement. For small businesses and personal information usage; nothing can beat free. However, always know when the software or information is so critical that you should be either paying for the software support or paying an individual to monitor your servers and open source software. That’s just good business.
Free is nice. Having all your business records hacked is not.
However, if you want to create a forum for your friends, run a blog, keep the big ‘to-do’ list semi-updated, put the house projects in a project management environment, or even put up a shared calendar for your employees to use, nothing beats some free open source software.
Links for 2008-05-09
- WebGuild: Beginner’s Guide To Using Twitter
Nice overview and guide to Twitter.
Some Ideas for Split Testing AdWords
- Test Ad
- Text ad Headline
- Description line 1
- Description line 2
- Display URL
- Destination URL
- Local business ad
- Headline (try business name in the headline, this is one of the few times that’s very effective)
- Description line 1
- Description line 2
- Display URL
- Destination URL
- Favicon
- Business logo
- Image ad
- Static
- Flash ad
- Video ad
- Mobile
- Phone only
- Carriers
- Mobile site only
- Mobile + phone
- Keyword Match type
- exact
- phrase
- broad
- Ad Groups (or campaigns)
- negative
- negative embedded
- Ad Position
- Top
- Right
- Max CPC
- Times
- Time of day
- Day of the week
- Month of the year
- Bidding
- Manual bidding
- Auto bidding
- Preferred bidding
- Landing Page
- Homepage
- Dedicated page
- Microsite
- Category page
- Product specific page
- Websites
- Content network
- CPC
- CPM
- Demographic
- Search network
- Google.com
links for 2008-05-07
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I’m always amazed at products MS produces that no one knows about. Want to program a robot? Use MS robotics studio.
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Nice checklist for not only finding ads, but some good articles about adCenter and ad copy.
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KPIs are often misunderstood. This is a good read toward moving in the proper analytics direction.
” For a metric to be useful, it must be actionable. If you can’t influence it, for good or ill, it’s makes no difference.”
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How to run an invalid clicks report on YSM.
You Host Provider can Paralyze your Website. Your Registrar can put you Out of Business.
Hosts and registrar’s have different responsibilities. They both have supreme control your visibility online, and one should not use the same company for both - ever.
A host’s duties are to make sure your website is up, running, responsive, and give you support when something goes wrong.
A registrar’s duties are to keep your domain name safe, alert you when there are problems, and keep you in the loop on anything strange going on with your domain names. We’ve all heard stories about hosts who suddenly turn off a site and put the domain name on hold. If you host with the same company as is your registrar, you can lose both in a single moment.
If you keep your host and registrar separate, then if the website goes away, you can easily setup your site somewhere else (assuming you make regular backups) and change the DNS at your registrar. If you have many websites, use multiple hosts and keeping your website backed up at another host (behind a login so it can’t be spidered). If the site goes down at one host, change your DNS at your registrar and your site should be back up in a matter of hours (these days it takes a max of 24 hours for a DNS to re-propagate, and sometimes you can see it in a matter of a couple hours).
If your registrar freezes your domain, you’re in big trouble. Always keep another TLD or two of your site (and it’s good practice to own the .net, .com, etc of your websites) so that you can use another version why you work out the problems.
Use more than one registrar for those alternate TLDs. If you keep the .com name with your favorite registrar, the .net with a second registrar, and the .org with yet a third - you can usually recover while the resolution process is ongoing.
Own the alternate versions of your domain (at a different registrar) name pointing to your website. Make sure that those domain names 301 to your site and do not get indexed (you don’t want example.com and example.net both indexed with the same content as that will cause many SEO issues).
If your main domain is going to be down for a while (such as weeks or months during a lawsuit or a shady registrar); remove the 301 and let your site be re-indexed at the new domain. Unfortunately, you will lose most of your traffic as this will be considered a new domain and you can’t setup a 301 from a domain you don’t control (i.e. you can’t 301 your old domain to your new one as you no longer control that domain). When (or if) you regain control of your domain name, put the 301s back in place and return to your original DNS configuration.
If you have PPC or other media campaigns, change them to the new domain immediately. Don’t pay for traffic going to nowhere.
For information about 301 vs 302 see Matt’s post, you should be familiar with the difference depending on the circumstances of your site or domain being unavailable.
I’d also recommend trying to own the .com of your domain (which isn’t always possible).
My favorite registrar is Moniker.com. Register.com has one of the best APIs for bulk managing domain names and DNS entries. Both Google and Yahoo use MarkMonitor.com these days, which is good for large domains where you want to monitor a variety of domain uses (if this is your goal, also check out CSC Corporate Domains, INC which manages live.com). Google has a close relationship with enom.com, which has been a fairly reliable system. (Note: I have relationships with some of the above companies, but as with all my posts, this info is solely my opinions and I don’t receive funds from the above companies).
Worthwhile read (warning PDF file), http://www.cscprotectsbrands.com/pdf/029-031-TW-March_08-Searche.pdf, about domain tasting and searching for domain names.
Hosts can be cheap, and some cheap hosts are just fine depending on your goals and traffic. As with most things, you get a level of support based upon how much you’re paying. Pay for a cheap registrar, and you usually get zero support. When comparing hosts vs registrars, some people can get away with a cheap host. If you site goes down, it’s not that bid of a deal to move websites. Losing or having a domain name suspended can be devastating. Pay for a good registrar. Know your registrar’s policies. It’s easy to recover from a bad host, a bad registrar can ruin a business.
links for 2008-05-06
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Nice presentation on global social trends.
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If you use google analytics, give this script a try.
Traffic Diversity isn’t just for Protecting Yourself; Each Type of Traffic has a Different Characteristics that Together form Long Term Synergies
The war between SEO and PPC traffic continues to wage every day. Why would you pay for traffic when you can get it for free? Why would you invest in SEO when there are no guarantees? My blog got Dugg but I didn’t get any conversions, social traffic is a waste of time. Bloggers aren’t journalists, I don’t want links from a blogger, give me the New York Times instead. Local traffic is too time consuming.
I’ve created a very basic chart of how I think of traffic. It’s a basic outline, not a detailed look at every advertising medium.
However, before I list out the chart, I must once again share two thoughts.
SEO is not free traffic. I got my start in SEO (almost 10 years ago) and I’m still a fan of SEO. However, if you are a DIYer (do it yourselfer) the monthly cost of SEO is:
- ((what your time is worth (or how much you would make if you were doing something else)) x (number of hours)+
- (cost of paid links) +
- (programmer time in redoing your CMS) +
- (copywriters) +
- (other misc items which can range from server configs to paying for diggers)
All this for non-guaranteed results that can go away in a single update. Anyone who lived through the Florida update understands how fast traffic can go away. This doesn’t mean SEO isn’t worth it (I’m a fan of SEO); it just means that it’s a source of traffic that should be integrated with other marketing ideas.
In the below chart, conversions is how good the conversion rate is. Traffic is a measure of how much is possible (on average, some niches and methods will be much more successful than others and there are always exceptions), and Awareness is essentially Branding.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of advertising types. There are also exceptions to every single rule; so this is only a guideline and anyone can easily argue that any one of these can be better than another depending on the circumstances.
| Conversions | Traffic | Awareness | Pros | Cons | |
| PPC | Great | OK | OK | Amazing amount of control | Pay for every click. Very complex. |
| SEO | OK | Great | Good | A successful ranking for a sustained period of time is one of the cheapest forms of traffic. | No guarantees. Can gain or lose traffic quickly. |
| Social for Traffic (Digg) | Poor | Fantastic | Poor | Amount of traffic can be staggering. Good for link building. | Can be blacklisted from sites, very difficult to control. |
| Social for awareness (LinkedIN) | OK (but more unusual opportunities) | Poor | Good | Helps with reputation management, leads to interesting opportunities | Most companies don’t get much traffic from Facebook or LinkedIn. The exception is widgets that take off. |
| Radio | Poor (for web) | OK | Good | Same as TV; but much cheaper. If your audience commutes, test out radio. | Hard to measure (use vanity call tracking numbers) for the web. |
| TV | Poor (for web) | Fantastic | Great | TV is not going away. Easier to launch a new mass market product via TV than web (best bet is integrated campaign) | Difficult, expensive through traditional channels. Some new companies making this both cheaper and more accessible. Same as Radio. |
| Blogs | OK (but more unusual opportunities) | Good | OK | The social aspect of blogs leads to opportunities that wouldn’t normally occur outside of meeting people in person. | Time! I’m a bad blogger and it’s due to the time to properly run and manage a blog. |
| Speaking Engagements | OK | OK | Great | Same as blogs; but the travel is more fun. | Time and time and even me time. |
| Local (Maps & Search) | Great | OK | OK | Growing arena of traffic. This combined with YP is a must for local businesses. Inexpensive. | Takes a lot of time and research (just like SEO) to find and optimize listings across all the disparate local properties. |
| IYP | Great | OK | OK | The digital form of the YellowPages (which are the original local search) is one of the highest converting forms of advertising. | Ongoing monthly cost. |
| CPM - RoN | OK | OK | OK | When you get this right, you can see a lot of traffic and great conversions. | Run of network ads are dependent on the creative and dedicated landing page to work properly. Can be difficult to find the right combination. |
| CPM - Behavioral | Great | OK | OK | I love these; but we’ll see how the privacy arguments shape out. | The more you segment your audience, the better the conversions, the lower the traffic - a real balancing act. |
| Mobile PPC | Great | OK | Poor | Amazing conversions, very little traffic. | Creating a mobile site isn’t hard, but do it. Use both a call tracking number, but also a locator page. |
| Mobile CPM | Poor | Poor | OK | Great if your product enhances a smartphone or is related to a phone in some manner. | Haven’t seen many case studies where this worked for a large variety of companies. However, expect the sophistication to grow and become a more viable traffic source in the future. |
This is a quick list I wrote on a Sunday morning. It’s not perfect, one can debate every statement. It’s a starting point to illustrate some differences.
It’s also worth nothing there’s a difference between advertising and marketing.
…advertising is the paid promotion of goods and services. Advertising is an outlet for your creative message. Advertising is about reaching consumers. While reaching consumers is important, the message that’s delivered to those consumers is what makes them wish to do business with you instead of your competition.
Advertising is reaching consumers. Marketing is communicating with consumers. We shouldn’t be having conversations about just how to reach searchers and serve ads to them. Instead, we should be having conversations about how to connect with searchers once they have seen the advertisements.
Source: Turn Your PPC Advertising Campaign Into An Effective Search Marketing Machine
If you’d like to see some stats of social vs SEO vs PPC vs Press releases, I think this is a good article: http://www.bgtheory.com/blog/traffic-does-not-convert-the-same-seo-vs-ppc-vs-press-releases-vs-social-bookmarking/.
As you can see, when you balance the Pros, Cons, Conversions, Traffic, and Awareness for each of these advertising mediums - there is no one perfect type. It’s through an integration of different advertising mediums that one can sustain and grow a business model regardless of marketing rule changes.
In the next debate when someone asks you to compare PPC vs SEO vs Social; the conversation shouldn’t be should you do this and not do that. The conversation is how to use them together to create greater results.
Though synergistic advertising methodologies the benefits of each adverting type are enhanced to create marketing campaigns that are far better than any one medium could every produce.
Google AdWords
Seminars for Success
Learn about Google AdWords from experts hand selected by Google.
These seminars will educate advertisers on the creation and management of successful AdWords campaigns.
Upcoming Seminars:
Phoenix AdWords Seminars January 22nd & 23rd
Austin AdWords Seminars January 28th & 29th
Learn More about the Seminars:
Seminar Information
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