I’ve been one of the few to bad-talk software. People rely way too much on some third-party software to manage their campaigns.

I loves me some excel…maybe access for those bigger jobs.

Any SEM agency software can create a 1MM+ keyword campaign, but the lists I’ve seen generated by software are pure crap. It takes a human being to develop those lists, and there are simply fewer human beings working on that right now.

Ironically, if a company can develop a long tail campaign effectively, the traffic is cheaper by an order of magnitude sometimes, usually with better conversion rates due to very specific matching that puts the customer further into the sales funnel.

I would love to say i’m a genius, but I attribute it all to declining competition

The dirty secret of advertising is that people have been spending too much on it for years and years: it’s got this seductive little thing: people feel ~so~ damn good when they hear their business being talked about on the radio that they don’t think rationally about ROI — at least they didn’t until they started running PPC campaigns where you really can measure the ROI.

I gotta little site about cars that uses AdSense and I’ll tell ya: I’d like to make all the Chevy ads go away. It’s hard to block them because there’s a whole “car-tel” associated with general motors: dealers, brokers, and other numbskulls who are trying to convince Washington that they’re interested in selling cars.

The CTR on Chevy ads is indisinguishable from zero. Why? Give your local Chevy dealer a caller and you’ll learn why… prices for new GM vehicles have gone up, not down, in the last two years. All this talk about incentives is a shell game: you can get better value at the Honda dealer across the street, discounting the fact that (whatever the president says) the supply chain to make parts for warranty repairs on your new Chevy might not exist in three years.

When the Chevy ads are gone, people who ~really~ make money on PPC ads come in, and I get a respectable CTR and eCPM.

Bad ads displace good ads. Getting rid of bad ads might lower profits for ad networks in the short term, but it makes it possible for good ads to move in. Once businesses form that are able to make honest money from PPC ads, advertising prices get bid up, and both advertising networks and sites with inventory get more money.

I see this happening with Facebook ads: Facebook has banished the “flat tummy” and “teeth whitening” ads that dominate the other social networking sites. More advertisers are being attracted by low rates: as some manage to connect with users and make real money, facebook ads will mature into a great platform.

So I presume that this led to a drop in prices as agencies are more measured on ROI.

1. All PPC search engines are expensive for advertisers. Consumers are getting better deals where it costs less for advertisers.
2. Advertisers are getting smarter.

Mike,
you don’t actually have to buy anything! It’s totally free! It’s like, you go on that Comscore Internet, and then, you like read what they say on their Internet. And then you know what they say. You don’t need to give them money for that. It’s like, free and stuff. It’s the same as when I go to the TechCrunch Internet and read what you say. And then, I just know what you say – without paying anything!! It’s totally crazy, but it’s true! I totally sware to God!

I used to spend 800€ / month for advertising my wellness and now I came down to 300€ / month

there are 2 reasons for that:

1. I figure out that prices per clicks somehow droped and immediatelly I lowered my bids

2. There are so many other opprtunities which are free, like FB and Twittter which I want to explore more.

Generally speaking, bad economy is making everybody to squeez their budgets. My theory is also that Twitter is taking big lump of searches now.

I personally use Twitter now for 30%-50% of my searches.