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Top 10 SEM campaign optimization checklist

December 16, 2009 | Internet Marketing

ClickZ has a checklist of best practices that all search marketers should go through to make sure they aren't wasting money or missing an opportunity on their next campaign.

1. Failure to track; track the right things; or track at the right level: You would think that I wouldn’t even have to mention tracking, but sometimes marketers don’t measure and track what matters, or measure and track at all. And remember: the closer you can get to tracking immediate and long-term profit, the better. (ROAS—return on advertising spending—is a good proxy if your margin is consistent and none of your customers have different lifetime value profiles, but the real world isn’t always quite so predictable.)

2. Leaving the content network on, without testing: Just because the default is to leave content on, that doesn’t mean it’s the right decision for you. Contextual advertising can be valuable, but it can also mean running your ads in front of searchers who are less interested in what you have to sell. (Often, it works best in segregated campaigns.)

3. Poor foundational keyword research and expansion: Keyword research never stops. While there’s a point of diminishing marginal returns to adding additional exact match keywords to a campaign, most businesses change over time, requiring a review of keyword opportunities. Seasonal businesses require even more vigilance. Don’t lose business opportunities by missing keyword opportunities.

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