Pay Per Click Automation

As you may know from my about me page, I majored in computer science at Stanford University. I truly feel like my computer science background prepared me perfectly for the corporate pay per click career path. Why? When you’re dealing with extremely large campaigns (especially across a portfolio of verticals), it’s nearly impossible to scale without automation of some sort. As someone who’s product managed several internal automation tools and who has worked with third party solutions, I’m thrilled to start discussing PPC automation today. I’ll start off with an overview of my automation thoughts and will follow up with a series of in-depth PPC automation articles over the coming months.

Why Automate Corporate Pay Per Click Campaigns?

Automation Gears

What’s the key difference between affiliate marketing and corporate pay per click marketing? There are a few, but the big one is scope. In the affiliate world, you can make quite the decent living by focusing on a very specific niche. However, in the corporate world, it’s all about going big. You’re dealing with millions of keywords, unreal budgets, extremely complex accounts, often across multiple categories.

As a computer science guy at heart, I like to equate manual campaign management to The Mythical Man Month. After a certain point (usually after 5-10 campaign managers), throwing more marketing professionals at your corporation’s campaigns will simply not help. Actually, more people at a certain point can actually slow you down! Here’s where automation comes in: Automation will take your program to the next level. Automation will assist your human team in executing certain aspects of PPC faster and more accurately than possible through manual campaign management. Automation will get you over that plateau your team is facing.

Another critical point: Corporate PPC is an extremely competitive field. You need to assume your competitors are investing in automation. If you’re not, your PPC campaigns will fall behind. You simply cannot keep up without automation. For this reason alone, it’s extremely important to automate aspects of your PPC campaigns to maintain your edge against the competition.

What Aspects of PPC Should You Automate?

I want to be clear from the beginning: I’m not one of those guys that recommends automating all aspects of PPC. In my opinion, that’s a recipe for disaster. I’ve seen it play out before: You automate everything, the campaigns start trending down, and then a manual manager needs to jump in and fix everything. What I am arguing however is that automation should play an absolutely critical role supporting your human campaign management team. Below are just a few aspects of PPC that are totally worth automating.

Automate PPC Bidding: Biding is perhaps the primary aspect of PPC that should be automated. Bidding is very tedious, it’s totally based on data, and it’s very time consuming. In my experience, it’s very easy for humans to make major mistakes with manual bidding.

Automate PPC Reporting: There’s no doubt about it, reporting is extremely important. Corporate PPC is all about data analysis and data-driven action. If you automate your reporting, your team can spend more time analyzing and driving action versus pulling numbers together.

Automate Keyword Generation: I have mixed feelings on this one because some of the best gains in PPC have been a direct result of creative keyword generation. At the same time, you simply cannot scale your keyword set effectively without automation. In a product shopping vertical? Leverage your catalog to generate keywords as new products are released. Looking to deploy more exact match queries for increased bidding efficiency, targeting, and position? Deploy exact match versions of all raw user queries that drove conversions. Looking to leverage the competitive intelligence of your industry? Pull keyword lists from tools such as Trellian, Wordtracker, and KeyCompete.

Build Versus Buy and a Few Great SEM Platforms

As discussed in the introduction, I’ve both built and bought PPC automation tools during my career. While building was the only option when I first got started (there were simply no tools available on the market for purchase), buying is a lot easier these days (thank goodness).

As a general rule, I’m much more in favor of buying versus building for smaller organizations. Small organizations need to focus on their core business, they simply don’t have the resources to effectively build and maintain automation tools. There’s actually quite a bit of overhead in simply maintaining SEM tools due to search engine API upgrades that happen regularly. Moreover, the tools available on the market these days are absolutely astounding. Two tools that I highly recommend are Marin and Kenshoo.

Now, if you’re at a larger organization, the decision can become a bit more difficult. Because most SEM platforms out there operate on a percentage fee model, buying at a large organization can become very expensive (unless you’re able to negotiate a great deal). There may come a point where building becomes more cost effective than buying. One thing is for sure: SEM automation is very high leverage and should be an important decision that every corporate SEM team considers regularly.

Image of Automation Gears © iStockPhoto – sbayram

PPC Ian Interviewed By Jonathan Volk

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 16 8

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to take a moment to point out a large milestone in my career: Super affiliate Jonathan Volk interviewed me yesterday! Please make sure to visit Jonathan Volk’s blog and read PPC Ian’s interview. I worked very hard on the interview and it really means a lot to me as someone who has been glued to Jonathan’s blog for a while. For those of you that are new to Jonathan Volk, he is one of the most celebrated affiliate marketers on the Internet and has an extremely well known and useful affiliate marketing blog. As a new blogger, it truly means a lot to me that I am featured on this blog. It is an honor and a milestone in my career.

Results

While we’re on the topic of milestones, I’d also like to celebrate the fact that I now have 50 recommendations on LinkedIn. This is a long-standing goal that I set for myself a while back, one that took countless late nights to achieve. As you may already know I’m a huge proponent of LinkedIn as a great way to build you career in PPC. I even wrote a huge post all about my PPC LinkedIn strategies. I truly encourage you to apply these strategies to your own LinkedIn, you will start getting pay per click search engine marketing job offers daily.

My last milestone for today: I reached my 30th post with my request that all online marketing professionals please help Haiti. If you’ve been around here a while, you know my posts are typically really long (at least 1,000 words) so it’s quite fulfilling to hit the 30 milestone. I’m looking forward to next focusing on the goal of hitting 100 posts!

What milestones have you set for yourself? I would truly love to hear them! I always like to keep raising the bar and enjoy setting milestones (another example being my 2010 goals). In my opinion, having concrete goals, both professionally in your PPC career and personally, is a surefire way to achieve success in life.

Thanks again for your support and please check out my interview with Jonathan Volk!
Sincerely,
PPC Ian

Image of Results © iStockPhoto – gocosmonaut

Online Marketing Professionals, Let’s Help Haiti

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 14 1

Dear PPC Ian Reader,
Thank you for reading my blog, I truly appreciate it. As online marketing professionals, we are extremely lucky. Taking myself as an example, I have a roof over my head, a stable and amazing PPC job, a beautiful wife, more than enough food, and so much more. Not everyone is so lucky. As you most likely know, Haiti is in serious trouble right now. As current and future leaders of this world, a world that’s becoming more globally interdependent than ever, it’s our duty to give back. I’m asking you to please text HAITI to 90999. This will allow you to donate $10 to the American Red Cross Haiti relief fund. The process only took me 2 minutes and is amazingly simple. I truly believe that every little bit helps out and it’s up to us as online business professionals to give back to those in need. Thanks to my buddy Morgan Linton over at Domainvestors.tv for sharing this with me. I have a banner below that links to the American Red Cross official blog detailing this Haiti relief program and the donations that have been made by state so far.
Sincerely,
Ian Lopuch (PPC Ian)

Controlling Your PPC Mind

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 13 0

So it’s 2010 and you’re looking to get promoted in your PPC career. At the same time, you value your work-life balance. You can’t imagine working 80 or more hours a week, trading your personal life for promotion. Well, I’m here to tell you that you absolutely don’t need to! In my opinion, it’s totally possible to ascend the corporate PPC ladder while enjoying your personal life, on a 40-60 hour workweek. How are you going to do this? It’s simple: You need to work smart by programming your PPC mind. Today, I’m going to uncover three of my favorite mind games to unleash leverage in your PPC career.

Force Yourself To Work With Extreme Efficiency In Pay Per Click

Blue Lightbulb

I honestly wrote 40-60 hours above to be conservative. As someone who’s ultra-efficient, I totally believe that the 40 hour workweek is possible in PPC. Just think about the time that gets wasted during the day when you’re:

Surfing the Internet (unrelated to work)
Logging into your Facebook account
Taking a really long lunch
Chatting with friends
Working at a slow pace
Getting distracted and jumping between projects
Just sitting there (or even dozing off) without actively doing work

Now, just think about what would happen if you were incredibly focused the entire workday. You came into the office with the "I’m here to work hard" mentality. You actively fought against your mind when it tried to tell you to lose focus. (Believe me, my mind’s natural tendency is to defocus.) The answer is simple: You would get promoted faster and reduce the duration of your workday, dramatically.

In my opinion, all it takes is a little conscious effort and the recognition that you need to force your mind to focus. When you accomplish this, the amount of work you can get accomplished in the normal workday is astounding! While all of this is applicable to any job, it’s especially applicable to PPC because we’re often juggling more priorities than we can count while facing the pressure of hitting numbers. We’re in a situation that promotes defocus. Force your mind to focus and you’ll be on your way!

Two other tips to stay focused in PPC: First, Make sure to vary your workplace. I like to switch between my company’s two offices and even spend some time working at Starbucks. The variety really keeps my mind from defocusing. Second, take time off when you need it! PPC is like a sport, especially when you’re ultra-focused. This amount of focus can be quite draining. If you’re able to really force your mind to focus, I suggest scaling back your hours and taking off days when you need it. Your mind needs time to recover.

Force Yourself To Be In a Charged, Positive Mood Every Single Day

I absolutely love this tip. Are you naturally happy every single morning? Of course not! Even if you’re like me, in the career of your dreams, sometimes you’re tired and grumpy. It’s ok and perfectly natural. Now, I’d like to highlight another awesome opportunity to control your mind. Take a step back and realize that you’re the one in control, not your mood. My strategy: I like to hype myself up. I’ll straight up lie to myself. "Ian, you’re not in a bad mood. You’re in a good mood. You’re the man! You’re PPC Ian!" I’m serious here. After a while, I’ll believe the lie. I’ll program my mind.

Now, let me let you in on a secret. In my opinion, positivity is one of the greatest factors in promotion. Nobody wants to promote the disinterested employee. They want to promote the employee who loves their job, the person who lives for the company. It’s as simple as forcing your mind into a hyped up state even when it’s not. It almost becomes a game. How hyped up can you be when facing difficult situations? As I mentioned in a previous post, PPC perception is reality. If you’re always in a positive mood, you’re carefully crafting the best possible perception.

Some other great points about positivity in your search engine marketing career:

Enthusiasm is very contagious. You’re not only hyping yourself up, you’re setting the mood for the entire team. You’re acting like a PPC leader.
Those that have a positive outlook tend to realize their goals. When you start thinking negatively, you’re stepping away from your goals. I’m a big believer in The Secret.
I’ll consistently hype myself up before any meeting or call that involves sales. Sometimes people think I’m crazy talking to myself in a conference room but it totally pays off.

As a closing piece of advice, make sure to give yourself extra rest. It can be very tiring if you’re in a charged mood all day. You need time to recover so you can consistently deliver results.

Force Yourself To Avoid Conflict and Anger

There’s no way around it. Even if you’re a nice guy like me, you’re likely to get into a situation once in a while that has conflict potential. It’s probably not even your fault. Someone does something (either unintentionally or even intentionally) to step all over you and you’re upset. My advice: Do absolutely whatever it takes to be the bigger person. I repeat, never show emotions of conflict and anger at work.

This is very important in your PPC career. We’re naturally under a bit of stress in pay per click. We’re managing to stretch goals and have a plethora of projects in mix. Now, throw on top of that the fact that someone might not be playing by the rules and you have the potential for career disaster.

However, if you’re smart and have perspective you will always handle the situation gracefully. My two pieces of advice: First, never react right away. If you feel like you’re going to get upset, take some time to really think about it. Sleep on it. Never start sending that nasty email before it’s really well thought through. In fact, once you think it through, you will never send that email, trust me. Second, make sure to exercise regularly. If you get upset at something, it’s very easy to take out your aggression at the gym and then come back to work the next day in your charged, positive attitude.

While this is probably the most difficult mind-controlling trick, it’s the one that shows the most maturity. If you’re able to consistently work efficiently, stay positive, and avoid conflict at all costs, you are playing the PPC game to win and will be promoted to the top. These are all attributes of the most effective pay per click leaders out there. These are all mind games that are directly under your control.

Image of Blue Lightbulb © iStockPhoto – BlackJack3D

Search Marketing Interview Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 9 12

I recently wrote an article highlighting my favorite paid search interview questions. The article focused on the PPC interview from the interviewer’s perspective. Today, I want to flip the tables a bit and discuss my favorite tips from the interviewee’s perspective. While these tips are applicable to any PPC job interview, they’re especially relevant to those of you interviewing for a PPC role at a larger company. 2010 is here. Is finding a new online marketing job one for your 2010 goals? If so, I hope the following tips help you find all the success in the world.

PPC Interview Tip 1: Focus Exclusively on PPC

PPC Dream Job

If you’ve been reading my blog a while, you most likely know that my interests within online marketing are quite varied. While my heart is in large corporate PPC, I’m also an SEO and domaining entrepreneur in my spare time. Given that context and the general perception that a varied skill set is better, the following tip may seem a bit counter intuitive: Focus exclusively on PPC in your interview and avoid expressing an interest in dedicating significant time to SEO, email, and display advertising.

At large companies, there are separate departments for PPC, SEO, email, and display, typically reporting into the CMO or VP of marketing. The pay per click budgets are large enough that 100% PPC focused employees are mission critical. Without exclusive attention, the campaigns will fail. I’ve been in a plethora of interviews where the interviewee talks at length about their plans to learn the other marketing channels, almost to the extent that shows they’re bored with PPC and looking to move on. My advice to you: Avoid giving this impression at all costs!

I’m certainly not advising you to lie (ethics is everything in this world). If you truly have interests in diversifying your skill set and moving on from PPC, I highly suggest interviewing for a general marketing position at a startup. However, if you’re interested in becoming a Director of Search Marketing at a large company, it’s all about focus.

Of course, it’s important to show that you’re an expert on multiple fronts. As you get to the Director or VP level, a varied skill set is critical. However, it’s important to portray yourself as someone who knows all of the different channels (learn them during your spare time), but is interested in a heavy PPC focus (95% or more of your time). As a real life case study, my personal exclusive focus on PPC over the last 5.5 years has propelled my career from Marketing Associate at a startup to Director of Search Marketing at a large publicly traded company.

Pay Per Click Interview Tip 2: Dress Professionally

A while back, I wrote a post all about the benefits of dressing up for your search marketing job. I truly believe in the power of PPC perception driving reality. No matter how good of a job you’re doing, you can’t ignore perception and the game in general. Since perception and first impressions are everything, please dress up for your interview. Even if you’re interviewing at lunch and have another job try to change before you arrive and then change back before going to your old job. The power of professionalism is often overlooked in my opinion.

Search Engine Marketing Interview Tip 3: Passion Is Everything

The first post on PPC Ian was all about my passion for PPC. This was my first post for a reason: Passion is everything in this world. Whether you’re interested in becoming a pay per click corporate leader, a successful entrepreneur, or a world class athlete, you won’t get too far without passion. For this reason alone, passion is one of the first things I measure when conducting a pay per click interview. Sometimes we’re all low on energy. I can totally relate as someone who’s routinely up late at night. However, take control of your mind and get hyped up for your interview. Get rest the night before, eat a good meal, drink an energy drink, do whatever it takes! Passion will get you very far in the corporate world.

SEM Interview Tip 4: Polish Up On Your Mental Math Skills

As an interviewer, I place a very big emphasis on math. From experiences at other leading companies in the space, I know I’m not alone. I like to ask mental math questions starting on the phone interview, building all the way up to large half hour case questions during the in-person interviews. If you’re a bit out of practice, make sure to polish up on your math skills. The investment will not only help your interview, but will pay dividends in your PPC career in general. The ability to perform quick mental math can make the difference between looking unconfident and like an absolute PPC superstar.

Pay Per Click Interview Strategy 5: Proactively Demonstrate Your PPC Skills

At the end of the day, pay per click is a highly technical trade. There are many moving parts and skills are critical. While I always do my best to get a comprehensive understanding of the candidate’s Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter skills, sometimes time will run out and I’m not fully convinced of the candidate’s ability. I’ve been able to get around this by sending follow-up questions via email. However, what always impresses me are candidates that take the time to clearly spell out their skills proactively. I’m always excited to interview candidates who talk at length about their experiences with the various platforms and the PPC levers: Keyword generation, keyword deployment, negative words, ad copy testing, landing page testing, reporting, analysis, technology and automation, and niche tricks. One of your greatest assets is your trade specific knowledge, make sure to spend the time showcasing it!

Online Marketing Interview Strategy 6: Highlight Your Investment Hobby

This is a simple, yet powerful tip. The vast majority of great corporate PPC employees I have known over the years enjoy investing during their spare time. When they’re not investment hobbyists, they at least know the companies in the space extremely well. As a general way to retire young and accumulate wealth while also looking like a strong businessperson in your PPC interview, I recommend building up an expertise in investing and showcasing it a bit during your interview. From the interviewer’s perspective, we’re hiring SEM managers to basically run an operationally intensive business. Investment experience is a great way of showing judgment and maturity.

Search Marketing Interview Strategy 7: Research The Company and Interviewers

The competitive benchmarking aspect of PPC is very high leverage. If you’re really good at research, you’ll uncover nuances that others miss and make the company a ton of money. For this reason alone, I really like candidates who do a thorough job researching the company and the actual interviewers. Some candidates recently have even mentioned that they read PPC Ian and like it a lot. While some would say that has nothing to do with the job, I’d argue that it does. Candidates who have researched me on the Internet are making sure their future manager is right for their career (see next section) and also are demonstrating their ability to benchmark. Take the extra time and do your research!

Online Marketing Interview Strategy 8: It’s All About You

At the end of the day, the main person looking out for you is you. Make sure to ask the questions that are important to your happiness and career. One of my personal favorites is finding out as much as possible about my future boss. As I blogged about a while back, your manager can make or break your PPC career. My advice: I’d rather have a great boss at a not so great company versus a poor manager at a great company.

It’s still a hot job market for PPC right now since PPC is a recession proof career. Take advantage of this situation to find the absolute perfect match for you. I know from my perspective as an interviewer, I always want the match to be perfect from both sides. I want to hire employees that will be at the company at least a few years. For that reason alone, I always want to ensure the fit is ideal for both parties.

As a closing tip, I’d also recommend keeping your interviews extremely confidential. Again, it’s all about you and your job security. Don’t let your current employer think you’re interviewing. Don’t start slacking off and doing poor work at your current gig. Many times, interviews take longer than expected or don’t work out at all. Your first responsibility is to you and your current employer. Your second responsibility is to your exploratory discussions with other potential employers. Of course, should you decide to leave, please leave gracefully. This will be the topic of a whole other PPC Ian post in the future.

Image of Dream Job © iStockPhoto – exdez

BlueHost, Add-On Domains, and .htaccess

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 6 50

As mentioned in my 2010 goals, I’m extremely excited about the domaining industry. My 2010 goals have me attending at least one major domaining conference in addition to developing at least six websites. (Honestly, I’m sandbagging a bit and hope to develop quite a few more websites than six.) Domaining and web publishing in my opinion are excellent ways to master SEO while building up some passive income. (You may wish to read my article about moonlighting your way to success in your PPC career.)

In today’s article, I’d like to feature a low level discussion on hosting multiple domains within a single web hosting account, a cost effective method for anyone to develop multiple websites this year. Specifically, I will be sharing my BlueHost story. I hope to save you the many hours it took me to figure out configuration of the .htaccess file to optimize SEO for add-on domains with BlueHost. Sound confusing? Don’t worry! I will explain in full detail below!

BlueHost Web Hosting

Why Sign Up For BlueHost?

Programming Matrix

BlueHost is a very trusted web host, one that I’ve heard great things about over the years. They are extremely reliable and moreover offer the ability to host multiple domains within a single account (with unlimited bandwidth) for only $6.95 per month (or possibly less if you have a coupon). This is a dream come true for all you domainers out there! So, I signed up and thought it would be super easy to instantly host multiple sites within one simple account.

As a side note, I’m a big proponent of online marketing diversification. As you publish more and more websites, it’s extremely important to go with multiple hosts and registrars. Looking to diversify, it made perfect sense for me to give BlueHost a try. In your quest to diversify, I recommend GoDaddy, BlueHost, and Host Gator on the hosting side. On the registrar side, I recommend GoDaddy and Moniker. As your side business expands, diversification mitigates risk of downtime.

BlueHost and Add-On Domain Confusion

Signing up for BlueHost with your initial domain is super easy. You point your nameservers to BlueHost, open an account, link in the domain, upload your website, and you’re done. When you want to start hosting an additional add-on domain, however, things can get a little tricky (but I will fully explain all the steps to make the process a breeze for you).

Specifically, BlueHost stores files for your add-on domain as a sub-folder of your main domain. For example, let’s say I have two sites, example1 (main site) and example2 (add-on site). All files for example2 will be in a subfolder under example1 (you can name the subfolder whatever you want but I recommend just keeping it simple and sticking to the site’s name).
http://www.example1.com/example2/

To make things even more confusing, BlueHost also makes example2 a subdomain of example1 (you can name the subdomain whatever you want but I recommend just keeping it simple and sticking to the site’s name).
http://example2.example1.com/

Of course, example2 will also function as a URL on its own.
http://www.example2.com/

SEO and Duplicate Content Do Not Mix Well

As you may already know, Google and other search engines hate duplicate content. The fact that your example2 website now shows up three times at three different URLs opens you up to all sorts of duplicate content issues. If Google indexes all three URLs, you will immediately have SEO problems.

However, this can all be prevented with the use of 301 redirects in your .htaccess file. 301 Redirects are the SEO friendly way to tell Google and other search engines that the files for your website have permanently moved to another location. Because you never intended to have a site at http://www.example1.com/example2/ or http://example2.example1.com/ you will clearly want to 301 redirect these two domains to http://www.example2.com/. As someone who has previous experience with .htaccess, I thought the 301 redirects would be a breeze in this case but they actually gave me a run for my money.

How To Configure Your BlueHost .htaccess Files For Add-On Domains

I’d like to close this article out with the actual code you’ll want to use in your .htaccess files, both the one in your root www folder for your main domain and the one(s) in your add-on domain folder(s). I first tired to leverage cPanel’s redirect GUI to make this happen, but it didn’t fully work. The code below is a combination of my use of cPanel’s GUI and my own trial and error.

Your Main Site’s .htaccess File

(In the following code, example1 is your main site and example2 is your add-on site.)

Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine On


Redirect 301 /example2/ http://www.example2.com/

Redirect 301 /example2 http://www.example2.com/

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example1\.com$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example1.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Your Add-On Site’s .htaccess File

(In the following code, example1 is your main site and example2 is your add-on site.)

Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine On


RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example2.example1.com$ [OR]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.example2.example1.com$

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ "http\:\/\/www\.example2\.com\/$1" [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example2\.com$ [NC] RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example2.com/$1 [R=301,L]

An Extra 301 Redirect To Help You Out

If you’re an .htaccess wizard, you may have noticed that I not only help you out here with the above discussed 301 redirects, but I also help redirect non-www versions of your site to the www version (via 301 redirects as well), another common SEO duplicate content issue for many sites. I sincerely hope this helps you out. It’s truly amazing that for only $6.95 per month you can now host multiple sites in an SEO-friendly manner with just a little up front work understanding and configuring your .htaccess file.

Disclaimer: Please use this code at your own risk. Your .htaccess file is a very powerful tool. Before making any changes, please back up your entire site. PPCIan.com is not liable for any problems that may arise from following these examples.

Image of Programming Matrix © iStockPhoto – Raycat

Condo Domain Names

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 1 2

Anyone who has known me for a while knows that I’m a huge fan of investing. I’m a proponent of stocks, bonds, 401ks, real estate, and of course domain names. Over the long term, investing is the primary way you can get ahead and achieve financial freedom. Today, I’m excited to present a unique domaining strategy that is not only an investment in itself, but is also a way to add equity to the investment you made in your condo. Let’s talk all about buying and developing domain names relevant to your condo complex.

My Wife and I Purchased a Condo Just Over A Year Ago

To provide some context, I’d like to first highlight my personal story. Just over a year ago, my beautiful wife and I purchased our first home, a condo on the San Francisco peninsula. We absolutely love being homeowners from two perspectives. First, we enjoy the high quality of life, amenities, pride of ownership, and of course the ability to make improvements to our home. Second, we are huge believers in the investment value of real estate. One day, we hope to fully pay off our mortgage, putting us one step closer to financial freedom. Moreover, we’re contemplating the idea of renting our condo out one day when we move into our next home.

Real Estate Prices Are Down In This Bad Economy

While we got a great deal on our place, especially since we purchased after the market fell, there’s no doubt that today’s real estate market is a bit crazy. Not only are prices down, but homes are sitting on the market longer before selling. In this type of market, it’s important to do whatever it takes to make your condo and your condo complex more desirable than the next.

Historically, sellers have achieved that extra appeal by upgrading their kitchens and bathrooms, adding wood floors, and investing in a fresh coat of paint. For all you domainers out there, I’d also like to propose that you create equity value for your condo and condo complex by developing a condo domain name.

Domain Names Add Equity Value To Your Condo Complex

Condo Domains

The following idea is really simple, yet extremely powerful in my opinion. Many condo complexes that were built more than five years ago have absolutely zero web presence. Our condo complex was built about 10 years ago. Even though it’s relatively large and has over 100 units, the only information online exists on those big real estate aggregator websites. As a domainer, I went ahead and registered our condo complex’s domain name today with the intent of building out a site with the following features:

General information about condo complex
Pictures highlighting our complex’s beauty
Perhaps a few videos
A contact form where I can respond to inquiries about our complex, or at least direct them to the appropriate party
Perhaps some information highlighting recent sales and also real estate agents in our area (Later I could charge agents a small advertisement fee)

In my opinion, this site will add immediate equity value to all homeowners in our complex. It will create a name for our condo complex and make it memorable for buyers searching on the web. Buyers will now have an added reference point that showcases our condo complex as the premier luxury development in the area (as opposed to all the other complexes that have no web presence).

Two Exit Strategies For Your Condo Domain

I wanted to highlight two great exit strategies for your new condo domain. If you’re like my wife and I, you hope to rent out your condo one day when you move on to your next condo or single family house. If you already have a great domain ranking for your condo complex, you’ll have a great head start in getting leads for possible renters.

As another exit strategy, you could always sell your domain to a local real estate agent. Agents these days need clients more than ever and I’m sure they’d be super happy to leverage your condo domain as a way to generate more leads.

Consider Domain Names For Other Condo Complexes As Well

Here’s the crazy part: I had to register the dot net TLD (top level domain) because the dot com was already taken. Moreover, as I started to look for other condo complexes in our area, many of the dot coms were taken but not all. A For the entrepreneurial domainer, one great strategy might be buying up the names of condo complexes and then approaching the respective HOAs with a two tiered business plan: (1) Sell them the domain name, and (2) develop a website for them that adds equity value to their complex (of course, show examples of your work).

To close out, I wanted to wish you a happy new year and all the success in the world in 2010! I brainstorm new domaining business ideas regularly and am looking forward to sharing more of my strategies with you in 2010.

Important Disclaimer: Please make sure to check the USPTO to see if your condo name is a trademark before registering any domains. I highly discourage registering trademarked names.

Image of Condo Complex © iStockPhoto – ranplett

Search Engine Marketing Perception

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 29 5

Anyone who’s ever worked on my team knows that I live by the following statement: "Perception is reality." When you take a step back and really think about it, my affinity for this line makes total sense in the context of PPC. Pay per click search engine marketing is a very new industry. At many companies, the executive team will not understand exactly what you’re working on each and every day. I can’t blame them! PPC is complex and moreover it’s a moving target. This can become a bit problematic, however, when you’re trying to gain visibility, prestige, and ultimately promotion within your organization.

Let me cut right to the punch line: As part of your daily routine, it’s your absolute duty to educate and set everyone’s perception (and therefore reality). It’s precisely when you’re delivering results and setting perception flawlessly that you’re on the fast track to career promotion. Today, I’m excited to share some of my favorite ways to make sure perception is set perfectly and you receive full credit for all of your hard work!

Tip 1: Leverage Your Company’s Task Manager Consistently

Spotlight on PPC

During the course of any random workday, it’s absolutely amazing how much stuff I get done! At the end of the week, I’ll often have difficultly remembering all of the projects I completed. However, to set perception amongst my organization, I want to take credit for every single project I completed. So, what’s the easiest way to do this?

It’s very simple: Record every single project that takes more than one hour in your company’s task manager (such as SharePoint). Even if you’ve completed the project already, create a new task and then close it out immediately. I’m very serious here and if you only take away one thing from this post, please follow this tip. From my experience, the leverage here is plentiful:

When performance reviews come around, you now have an instantaneous way to pull a list of all completed projects for your self-review. No completed project will ever slip through the cracks!
This centralized repository of your tasks creates a very simple way for your manager (and the executive team) to immediately tap into your projects. The more impressive your project list, the more impressed management will be.
During your weekly team meetings, you now have a very easy way to recall all of your projects from the past week and take full credit for all of them as you summarize your initiatives.

Tip 2: Take Your Sweet Time Presenting Your Pay Per Click Initiatives

The next time you’re in a team meeting, focus closely on presentation. As everyone goes around the table to discuss projects, successes, and failures, pay close attention to the good presenters and the not so good ones. What are the main differences?

From my experience, there are two. First and foremost, the good presenters take their sweet time. They have a lot to say and aren’t going to stop until they’ve exhausted their speaking points. Second, the good presenters are confident and project very clearly. My advice to you: This is your time to shine, take it seriously! Print out your completed tasks from Tip 1 and don’t hesitate to go through all of them. This is your time to not only take credit for all of your hard work, but also to stand up as a leader amongst your organization and inspire greatness. Aside from Tip 1, this is just about the easiest way to set everyone’s perception around your strong work ethic and limitless determination.

Tip 3: Invest Time Managing Pay Per Click Success Upward

This one makes perfect sense. If you think you’re busy, just think about how busy your boss must be! It’s easy for your successes to slip through the cracks if you don’t proactively manage upward. My advice is quite simple: Each time you have a major success, spend some extra time emailing it to your manager. Moreover, make a point of actively mentioning your successes when you meet with your manager.

It is possible for this strategy to backfire, however, if you don’t take your time and fully think through all of the possible questions your manager may ask. My advice: Anything you send to your manager needs to be bulletproof. Think through all of the possible questions and anticipate them. Include relevant metrics and fully explain yourself. Keep things simple, your manager doesn’t have all day to sift through thousands of words. Consider allocating around 5% of your time proactively pushing your paid search successes upwards, you won’t regret it.

Tip 4: Print Your SEM Analysis Out

Here’s a fun one that ties into all of the other PPC perception tips just highlighted. Consider printing out all of your team’s major SEM analysis and compile them into an organized binder. While I don’t invest as much time doing this anymore, it really worked wonders for me during my first gig. Aside from being a really powerful symbol of my dedication, this strategy allowed me to immediately quote any analysis at a moment’s notice, gaining full recognition for both myself and my SEM team. (SEM people managers, please remember to never take credit for your team’s work. You need to celebrate and honor their success. You get to take full credit for training and empowering your team to reach such heights.)

Tip 5: Celebrate Search Engine Marketing Success

I’ve talked about this subject over and over and it’s a strategy very core to my personal management style. It’s powerful and simple yet often overlooked. Please check out my post all about celebrating SEM success.

Conclusion: It’s All About The Numbers, Not Projects

It’s a battlefield out there. Each and every day things are hectic and it’s very simple for your analysis and successes to get lost in the shuffle. For that reason alone, I truly believe in the power of investing in perception. Perception is reality after all, and you want to make sure reality credits your hard work.

However, as a closing point I really want to highlight that numbers are everything. All the stuff in this post is great and all, but it means a lot less if your numbers are not at their maximum potential. First and foremost, never forget about your commitment to the numbers. Now, if you’re maximizing your numbers and creating the proper perception of your work, there is no limit to your upside in the pay per click industry.

Managing Remote India SEM Teams

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 26 3

My career in search engine marketing has progressed like a rocket ship. I owe my success to many factors. One of the greatest ingredients in my early on success was a tremendous manager, someone who saw a lot of potential in PPC Ian and pushed me into the people management track from day one. (Side note: To this day, I’m inspired to be the best people manager ever as a way of celebrating the legacy this manager started.) So how did I get started in the fascinating and rewarding world of people management? During my first year in SEM I had the unique privilege of managing a remote India SEM team!

I learned many lessons through my management of this India SEM team. Whether you’re managing an SEM team in India, China, or another country, there are unique challenges and benefits that arise out of remote SEM people management. Today, I’m looking forward to highlighting a few of my personal remote people management strategies. Moreover, I’m excited to celebrate the global nature of the search marketing industry. I truly embrace this industry because it has no boundaries and I’ve had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with talented individuals all around the globe.

Strategy 1: Schedule Regular Phone and Videoconference Meetings

What’s the most important characteristic of a great SEM people manager? There are many but the willingness to drop anything and everything at a moment’s notice to help out a team member in need ranks towards the top of my list. I’m serious here. When someone on my team has a question, I’m ready to assist immediately. It all goes back to leverage. My goal: Zero roadblocks in my team’s path towards success. Moreover, it goes back to your duty as a people manager. You’re there to ensure your team’s success, period.

Now, let’s consider the time zone differences between the US and India. Unless your India team is working the night shift, their workday is most likely during your downtime (if you are in the US). To make up for the fact that you won’t be able to answer questions that come up during the course of the workday, always make sure to schedule regular phone and videoconference meetings with your India team. You’re going to have to stay at the office late and also work late into the evening hours at home. Make sure you do it, hold yourself to high standards! After all, it’s your duty and responsibility as a good people manager.

Strategy 2: Appoint India Search Marketing Team Leads

My second suggestion ties directly into the first one. As your hire and build out your India search marketing team, try to get a few individuals started early before you build out the entire team. These early employees have the benefit of really stepping up and learning before the rest of the team joins. Because of their head start, they will naturally fall into the team lead role. If someone has a question and you’re not available, direct your team to ask the team lead. I like this strategy because it’s practical (questions get answered quickly, removing roadblocks that may come up) and also because it empowers leadership and growth.

As a people manager at heart, there’s nothing I enjoy more than seeing my team progress, grow, and achieve their dreams. One team lead that I appointed in my early days managing my remote India team got promoted from the SEM role to a technical QA role, how awesome!

Strategy 3: Leverage The Time Difference For 24/7 SEM Management

When people ask me what I do for a living, I often draw analogies to Wall Street. One key difference between PPC and Wall Street, however, is the 24/7 trading happening on Google, Yahoo, and Bing (versus Wall Street having fixed trading hours). Sure, volume slows down at night, but swift competitors can still make very interesting moves during these low volume times. Moreover, campaigns and sites can still break during the middle of the night, creating a real headache for you in the morning if they’re not fixed right away.

This all ties back to the India SEM team strategy. Leverage your India SEM team as your eyes and ears while you’re sleeping. Treat your PPC campaigns with the seriousness they deserve, true 24/7 monitoring. While it’s never pleasant getting woken up, I am extremely thankful for the times when my India team called me in the middle of the night to troubleshoot major campaign and site issues that would come up from time to time.

Tip 4: Become a Master of PPC Documentation (and Video)

Anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely love PPC documentation. At my last gig, I became famous as the PPC guy writing 20 page documents about campaign process. This all ties back to the first tip. The main challenge managing an India SEM team is the simple fact that they can’t come to you instantaneously with questions. However, what you can do is proactively answer any question they could possibly come up with by writing extensive documentation. If you work at a larger organization that plans to hire many campaign managers, invest in building out documentation (an even training videos). The long term leverage you’ll receive is tremendous.

Tip 5: Focus On SEM Career Progression

I’m a huge fan of career progression, who isn’t? I thoroughly enjoy pushing my employees to their limits, holding regular career planning sessions, and making sure that dreams are realized. As an overall management philosophy, I live by the following statement: "There should never be any surprises during a performance review." Career planning should be such a regular discussion that your SEM team should know exactly what to expect.

Now, let’s put things into perspective. PPC is an operational position, one that’s often quite hectic. I always make time for career progression discussions, regardless of what’s going on. However, many managers don’t. When it comes to remote teams, even fewer managers make time for these discussions. My advice to you: Embrace this aspect of people management and make sure to carve out a career path for your remote PPC team. There may be some unique hurdles such as different job titles and organizational structure in your company’s India branch. Make sure to investigate the nuances with your HR department and develop a plan. Your team will thank you dearly and moreover you’ll boost overall productivity, results, morale, and employee retention.

Tip 6: Celebrate Your Remote Team’s Success Amongst US Executives

I’m closing out with a fun one. As you may already know, I’m very vocal about celebrating my team’s success. Now, I’d like to encourage you to be even more vocal about celebrating your remote PPC team’s success amongst US management. One of my favorite sayings in PPC: "Perception is reality." Make your team visible within the organization. Celebrate their success. Draw executive attention to what’s happening in India. The benefits are plentiful and you will form management’s perception of your India team. One thing is for sure: I’m just about the largest proponent there is of remote India search engine marketing teams and am thankful everyday for the global nature of the PPC game.

Paid Search Interview Questions

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 24 13

Over the years I’ve conducted more pay per click interviews than I can count. Interviewing is extremely important in the world of search marketing, even more so than other roles. Just think about the extensive training you’re going to invest in your new employee. From my experience, it will take a good three to six months to get a strong positive yield out of your new hire, with the months increasing the more junior the candidate. Precisely because of the large "ramp up period" in paid search (even for candidates that already have experience), I place the highest possible importance on the interview process. Today, I’m excited to share with you some of my favorite interview techniques and questions in an effort to help you get the most out of your PPC interviews.

PPC Interview Strategy 1: Screen For Math Over The Phone

Here’s a fun tip that will save you an immense amount of time: Ask the candidate math questions during your first phone call. In fact, I don’t even wait for my first phone call – I ask my recruiter to ask math questions during the first phone screen. PPC is both technical and creative. Unfortunately, many candidates are very creative but cannot perform mental math. Right from the beginning, ask some questions such as:

What’s 3% of 2,000,000?
What’s 9 * 350?
What is the sum of 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5?

Some candidates will immediately ask if they can use a calculator. You’ll want to explain that the purpose of these exercises is to understand their mental math ability and that calculators are not allowed. Reassure the candidate and let them know there’s no rush and to think the questions through. (I’m not testing how well they can work under pressure here but am simply trying to the get to the bottom of their basic math abilities.)

At the end of the day, this strategy is invaluable because it will save you a huge amount of time. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gotten a candidate to the late stages of the interview pipeline only to then find out they cannot perform mental math.

Paid Search Interview Strategy 2: Don’t Delay The Long Case Question

During the SEM candidate’s first in person interview, I always like to start off with a long case study question, one that involves analytical ability, judgment, and of course math. Here’s what I’ve observed from some other interviewers: They either delay the case so much that there’s little time for it or they forget to ask the case altogether. In pay per click search engine marketing, you’re hiring someone to operate on the front lines of your business. The case question is everything, in my opinion!

For this reason alone, I always start with the case during the first in person interview and I allocate it a good half hour of more. Like the first tip, this one can save you a ton of time. Most candidates will pass all of the fuzzy, subjective questions. However, case studies are either right or wrong. Make your pay per click candidate pass all of the difficult hurdles first and save yourself and your organization time in the PPC interview process.

SEM Interview Tip 3: Everyone Needs To Interview The Candidate

PPC is like sales in that we’re directly driving revenue for our company each and every day. Like sales, we make the big bucks. Also like sales, the pressure is on! For this very reason, it’s absolutely essential everyone meets the PPC candidate before an offer is made.

I’ve seen it too many times: Everyone meets the candidate except the one person that is on vacation. Don’t make this mistake! Retaining your current employees is everything and this is not always easy in a high pressure environment. Before someone joins your PPC family, make sure everyone is on board. The last thing you want is to bring someone new on board who may not mesh well with the existing team. Moreover, you want to give your existing team the authority to have a say in the decision as an overall tool for empowering and growing your team.

Search Marketing Interview Tip 4: Assign Take Home Pay Per Click Exercises

Let’s face it: It’s impossible to ask every single question during your interview. Interviews fly by and there never seems to enough time. Moreover, some candidates are very skilled at interviewing and may be more "talk" than "skill". My solution: Assign in depth take home exercises after they pass the first round of in person interviews. I like to ask a variety of questions that test:

Understanding of the industry
Creative ad copy ability
Judgment and overall analytical ability
Attention to detail
Mathematical ability
Excel skills
Persistence and dedication to the process

On a rare occasion, I’ll assign a second round of take home questions if the first round is borderline and the read on the candidate is mixed. However, if you make the first round of questions extensive enough, it will be come readily apparent if the candidate is qualified or not. As with the mental math question and the in person case, I like to give these questions as soon as possible in the process to save everyone time if the pay per click candidate cannot pass the test.

PPC Interview Tip 5: Thoroughly Check References Yourself

I’d like to close out with an important one that’s often overlooked. It actually all goes back to what I touched on earlier: Some candidates are very skilled interviewers. They absolutely ace the interviews and are great and hiding their flaws. For this reason, I take pride in personally checking the candidate’s references (as opposed to outsourcing this duty to my recruiter). Take the time to really chat with the references and learn everything you can. Another positive benefit of the reference check: You get to build out your network and potentially find candidates for other positions that you’re hiring for in the future!