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Hi,

There was a two part series written by Jon Miller in Search Engine Land which helped me develop a more structured approach to managing PPC campaigns. He talks about specific tasks you can do if you have 4 hours a week to manage a campaign. I found it useful as a starting point to outline tasks and resources.

The challenge is going to be finding the right level of communication so they know what the PPC efforts will mean to them – that’s always hard. Sounds interesting though – good luck with it.

Thanks for the link!

So they dont have ppc right now to use as a guide?  then...

1.  create a list of keywrods you will want to start off with.  Do one category at a time.

2.  Start with broad terms as these will be the most costly.

3.  In google adwords, click on Tools, then Traffic Estimator

4  paste each set of keywords, one at a time, and change the criteria (us only, etc..) if needed

5.  Go back and forth playing with the daily budget option (it will default to highest cpc which will inflate estimated costs)

Add up all the numbers and this will be for Google.  Cut it in half for Yahoo and in half again for MSN.

This should give you a rough estimate of costs for your accounts.

Thanks for your input as always Al, basically I am having to document the entire process, and the steps I will take. Not so much as actually trying to figure out the budget, just explaining in layman's terms what I am doing along the way.

"So they dont have ppc right now to use as a guide? "  Correct.

Ok, how is this then.

EASY PPC Set-Up

Follow the navigation of your site:  Lets say you are selling sneakers

Start keyword analyisis of broad terms- sneakers, sneaker store, discount sneakers, etc...

Then complete analysis for each category of the site - nike, addidas, puma, etc....

Then sub categories: mens nike, womens nike, etc..

Lastly product names of each.

If you follow the structure and nav of your site, it also helps when you add/remove products because the Paid search campaigns and adgroups will be named and categorized accordingly. 

So this would basically be part of the keyword research process. Great.

Now what kind of factors should I use to measure success, lets see, Cost Per Click, Clickthrough Rate, Conversion Rate, Cost Per Conversion  - am I missing any?

Hard to say unless i can see the site.   If it is ecommerce, bottomline is ROI,  cost vs revenue and your margins.  is it lead gen? If people go to your site from a paid search ad, can they call to order? You have to factor that revenue in as well.  That order will not show up in any PPC report. 

yeah...

what is the goal and what is the ideal CPC per product.

goats milk might bring you in $35 profit for each pint sold...while cow milk brings in $10. You need to plan accordingly.

Look at branding....totally different...

the keyt is to know the goals and how the campaign will be judged