The dirty secret about PPC qualifications

Let me tell you a story…

A prospect contacted me recently. He was using a PPC agency, but his ads weren’t profitable.

At one point during our conversation, he said to me, “The agency has all the relevant qualifications…”

I let him into a secret. And, today, I’m going to let you into the same secret: PPC “qualifications” are worthless.

I’ll explain … (more…)

What I’ve learned from 10 years in PPC

When I was first introduced to AdWords in the summer of 2006, I was hooked instantly.

That’s because I knew about direct marketing and realised that AdWords was nothing more than a delivery mechanism for a direct marketing message.

Not only that, but unlike most forms of direct marketing, PPC was quicker,  simpler, more flexible, cheaper, and easier to measure.

What used to take months could now take days. You could write a new ad today, test it against your existing ad, and within a few days, have a clear idea of whether the new ad was better, or worse.

And that meant you could improve your ROI rapidly – and for almost zero cost.

Here we are 10 years later, and I decided to mark this anniversary by sharing 10 of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about AdWords.

Let’s start with that first lesson: (more…)

Why the secret to PPC success isn’t PPC

Let me let you into a secret: You could have the hottest hotshot pay per click manager in the world… and still not be able to compete in your market at PPC.

By “compete”, I mean be one of the top 2-3 advertisers that hoover up the vast majority of clicks.

Why not?

The reason… as the headline suggests… is that the true secret to PPC success has little to do with PPC. (more…)

Why SMBs Should Use AdWords

Last week, Matt Umbro wrote a post called, “Why SMBs Should Not Run AdWords Accounts”. Before I give my response (Spoiler! I don’t agree), we have to define what an SMB is. Matt’s definition is a business that spends less than $500 a month on clicks. So let’s use that. Read more…

11 reasons why PPC is better than SEO

When I first started managing PPC accounts – back in 2006 – PPC was seen as SEO’s poor cousin.

At that time, that probably made sense – after all, the ads were just text ads on the right hand side of the search results page.

Nowadays, paid listings take up around 85% of the first fold of Google results. And that – combined with Google’s crackdown on SEO link building – has, in my opinion, turned the tables and made PPC the superior choice.

And here are 11 reasons why…

#1: The Ads Get More Clicks Than Organic

A 2012 study by Wordstream showed that, for highly commercial search terms – the sorts of terms you’d SEO for – sponsored listings take up 85% (more…)

Lawyers, guns and money (no guns)

It’s always interesting to see which keywords have the highest average cost per click in Adwords. There are lots of lists for the USA, but Hallam Internet compiled data for the UK: And the 4 biggest categories on their list? Gambling Legal Services Insurance Debt With “online live roulette” being the Read more…