Changes to AdWords Could Haunt Holiday Advertisers

While many within the industry have applauded the recent changes to the AdWords ranking system, some are pointing out the potential havoc that the new system could wreak on holiday advertisers.

Bill Wise and Dave Pasternack have some insight on the issue over at DMNews in an article titled: Why Quality Score Is Bad News This Holiday Season

The new system basically looks at an advertisers bid, and either the past, or predicted click-through rate for an ad. While that could turn into a valuable asset for successful past advertisers with AdWords, it could also spell trouble for advertisers that either had poor campaigns in the past, or that are new to the AdWords venue.

Why? Because their past problems getting click-throughs will mean that they will need to increase their bids during a time period where click prices are already skyrocketing.

So how can a small business owner deal with these new challenges while still managing to turn a profit over the holiday? Well, there are some options, including giving up some of those high dollar keywords and focusing in on the phrases that tend to deliver less traffic, but convert at a much higher rate. That will mean doing more keyword research and likely managing more terms, but it also gives the small business owner the best chance at competing in a tight market.

To that end, here are some links to a few article to help you refresh your pay-per-click way of thinking... Help Set Your Budget with PPC Calculator
The Simple PPC Change That Could Earn You More
The Number One Rule of PPC
Bid Hero Brings PPC Management to the Masses