PPC Strategy Tips

Pay per click bidding can be a tough game, and playing it smart can help put your business on top.  Try these tips to help outsmart your PPC competition.

Splurge for a day
One technique is to overspend your budget for a day or two in an attempt to get your closest competitor to overspend on a prime keyword and drop out. 

This is one exception to the stick to your budget rule.  It may seem sneaky and a little underhanded but your competitor is likely to do the same to you if you are in a fierce competition for the same prime keyword.

Bid on very specific keywords  
It is okay to let that prime keyword go to a competitor as long as you utilize very specific product keywords in bulk. 

If your website offers many products, choose just one of those products and bid on every keyword you can think of relating to it. If your product is lawn fertilizer, the keyword of gardening supplies is probably going to be difficult to obtain. 

Try to land such keywords as: green grass, greener grass, healthy lawn, weed free, weed and feed, lawn food, weed killer, lawn booster, etc.  You can get creative because the more obscure the keyword, the less expensive it will be. 

These targeted keywords will attract customers who are actually interested in a purchase, not just visitors to your website that yield no profit.

Bid on common misspellings
One easy way to snag customers without paying for top rated keywords is to bid on common misspellings of the most popular keywords for your product or service. 

If your website offers Geico Insurance quotes, bid on Gieco, Geicco, Giecco, and Gecko Insurance quotes.  The actual keyword, Geico Insurance Quotes, may be expensive for the top three spots, but the misspellings will go for a much cheaper price. 

Wordtracker or Google's Keyword Tool can be used to help you find common misspellings and off-shoots of popular keywords that are relevant for your product.

Canvas the lesser known PPC search engines
Google and Yahoo have well known PPC search engines, but there are also many others available like Enhance Interactive (formerly Ah-ha). 

Run a search for a specialty PPC search engine by typing in your product's description, say, red shoe laces, plus PPC search engine.  This will give you any specialty PPC search engines that caters to shoes or shoe laces or lovers of everything red.

While bidding on PPC keywords can become a bloody battle for prime keywords, you can avoid the competitively charged fight by bidding smarter. Keep the big picture in mind while bidding. 

You want to gain the attention of actual customers who will pay for your product or service, not overspend your budget so you can get first ranking on every prime keyword and rub your competitor's noses in your superior bidding skills.