If we take a quick look at the components of a PPC campaign, you really don't need much. But the things you do need are very important: Keyword research tool Ad copy Landing page Product to sell Payment processing system Keywords, of course But which of these components is most important? Better still, focusing only on the organic tools of the campaign itself, rather than the technology or the supply chain, between ad content and landing page, which is more important?

Many small business owners think that PPC advertising is for big companies with big budgets. Not necessarily. Over at PPC Discussions, Jeremy Mayes talks about a company that spends $2-$4 daily. That's less than $150 per month. And it's producing an ROI. This is really nothing spectacular. A lot of small businesses are using AdWords and other PPC advertising models to turn a profit. You don't need a big budget to make money on your PPC campaigns.

It's not that easy really. Mark Twain once quipped that he'd have written a shorter letter, but he didn't have the time." Twain has always made people laugh, but his insight is apt. Every good writer knows that it takes time to write short, terse, concise content. It takes more time than writing long and verbose content because good editing requires cutting stuff out that isn't necessary. With PPC ad copywriting, you've got to make sure that every word counts.

Grok asks , Would you pay to achieve high PPC rankings if you already rank well organically? Good question. This is something we've touched on before. It pays to hit the consumer every way you can. If you ignore PPC advertising then you'll effectively shut out 20% of the searchers who click on those ads.

How do you organize your keywords? Here's the word from the Yahoo! Search Marketing team . We've given this advice before, but it still stands. Whether you use Google, Yahoo!, or MSN adCenter, grouping your keywords into a tight keyword group and matching them will relevant ads is still the best way to go about PPC advertising. This is good advice for novice advertisers as well as veteran advertisers. There is no limit to the number of keywords you can have in a group.

Microsoft AdCenter has added a new keyword research tool that Microsoft executives hope will make the up-and-coming PPC advertising vehicle more competitive with Google. But don't hold your breath. Though the keyword research tool has some unique features, it is MSN, and Google still has the lion's share of the search market. One cool feature of the new keyword research tool at MSN adCenter is Audience Insights.

I'll say it right up front: Yes. By all means, don't just settle on one PPC provider. Would you settle for just one search engine? A lot of people focus on Google, but you can build a solid business just on Yahoo! and MSN Live and never rank in Google. I'm not suggesting you should; I'm just saying you can. And you can drive great, targeted traffic to your website if you only use Google AdWords, but you're leaving out all of those people who use MSN Live or Yahoo!

Google AdWords has changed its quality score again . This time they've started calculating quality score when searchers make a search query, which is fine, but they are no longer haulting keywords and telling you that those keywords are inactive for search. Nor are they telling you the minimum bid necessary to be approved. Instead, they are telling you the minimum bid to be on page 1. This obviously has to do with increasing bid prices. Google wants you to spend more money.

Facebook has been offering PPC advertising for some time now. But is it worth it? According to The Challenge Dividend , it's an utter failure. Well, I'm not going to say it is or isn't. Instead, I'm going to offer an idea what PPC advertising should do to succeed.

For many business owners who have spent the better part of their business careers marketing offline through brochures and print ads the internet can look much like a foreign country. Most realize that the internet is very powerful and has to someday be approached but finding the time and knowledge on how to do it correctly is a task in itself. Pay Per Click advertising is one quick way to become visible very quickly but without the right guidance can be overwhelming.

Website Optimizer has added new features to its site. Announced on the Inside AdWords blog , these new features include: Experiment Pruning A/B Offline Validation More Intuitive Reporting Experiment pruning allows you to disenable elements or combinations on your web pages and stop receiving data on them. Pruning is a double-edged sword because once you disenable an element on your web page you can't re-enable it. That means you'd better be sure. So why would you do it?

If you've been keeping track of the Google AdWords seminars then you know that they hold seminars in cities across the country from time to time in order to teach people how to make the most of pay per click advertising. Recently, they've announced on the Inside AdWords blog that they've added a new level of training. Here's the rundown: AdWords 101: For beginners. If you've never done any pay per click advertising, and if you are new to Google AdWords,

With more and more companies looking to stray away from traditional pay per click campaigns to avoid high click costs but are still eager to keep the traffic flow are looking for alternatives to keep their business growing smoothly. ExactSeek is one of those companies that can offer a highly competitive product and help you reduce those dreaded advertising costs by offering a unique flat fee product.

Do you have a business that would appeal to travelers or business people on the move? You should consider advertising through Google's mobile phone advertising model. You can actually run your PPC ads in front of mobile users and there are two ways to do it. You can have your click-throughs land on your mobile website or you can make your ads pay per call. To make the first option work you actually need a website that is geared toward mobile users.

It may seem intuitive to seasoned pros, but I've seen newbies make this mistake. With your negative keywords you don't want to include an exact match keyword in your keywords list then cancel it out with the same exact match as a negative keyword. For example, if your exact match keyword is "yellow rotating widget" then using that same keyword match as a negative keyword will effectively tell the search engine not to use that keyword. Why would you do that?

Pay attention to your ad quality. Each search engine that uses a quality score will let you know your ad quality is substandard. And it's very important because the higher your ad quality, the lower your keyword bids will be. You'll save money and increase ROI with a higher ad quality, and your ad could rise higher in the line up, ensuring that you get more click throughs. Is that awesome or what?

Grok dot com has some good suggestions for improving your lead generation landing pages. In a nutshell: Split your forms into two parts Use more than one lead generation form Don't ask for the lead too early Use PPC effectively Be aggressive in your optimization This is all great advice and I'm particularly intrigued by the last three. While all five of these are great suggestions, Nos. 3 and 5 should be intuitive for anyone using landing pages as lead generation tools.

Do you need a long landing page? It really depends. There are times when a long landing page is beneficial, but generally speaking I'd say a landing page doesn't need to be any longer than it needs to be. In some sectors, a long landing page can be beneficial. Financial analysts, for instance, like lots of figures.

Have you always wanted to learn how to effectively launch a pay per click campaign for either yourself or your company? Pay Per Click can easily propel your company to the next level but it can also eat through your entire budget if done incorrectly. If you have been spending money on pay per click for your company and have seen nothing but negative results than PPC Summit is a must attend event.

OK, PPC Hero beat us to it , but we wanted to talk a little bit about how Google Insights, the latest Google tool, can be used for your PPC campaigns. There are several ways, actually. But just to highlight some of the useful features of Google Insights,