Bid management technology is seen by many search marketers as a must-have, given the sheer size of many keyword campaigns. However, as we speak with potential clients and our peers in the search marketing industry, we have heard anecdotal tales of some paid search engine campaigns suffering at the hands of automated bid managers. Now, we’re not saying they’re all bad. But we have heard enough stories to be a little bit leery of them.

A warning to heed is that while automated bid managers can do a lot of good, by saving time and creating efficiencies, there is also the small potential that they could screw things up. The algorithms and logic built into them are highly advanced and intelligent, but not totally foolproof.

The lesson? If you’re using an automated bid manager, check in on your campaign from time to time (weekly is a good guideline.) Check out the keyword bids it’s setting. Does it make sense to manually manage some of your keywords - are you getting exposure on your key phrases, for example if you want to always show up for your “branded” terms regardless of cost? Are you paying too much for nonsense keywords? Are you getting “bid down” on your keywords so much that certain ones have been inactivated on Google?

We’re not saying automated or black-box bid managers are all bad, but they need some level of human guidance and check-in on occasion – as with ANY technology. Keyword bid managers most certainly help out with the human factor of time spent on a PPC campaign also. You can spend more time on researching keywords (using, we hope, our very own free Keyword Finder tool!), optimizing creatives, and testing landing pages.

So remember with bid managers, first and foremost - it’s not just set-it-and-forget-it! Just like adolescents left at home alone for the night for the first time - sure, you trust them, but you gotta check in on them once in a while.

Posted in: Bid Management | Default