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There's No Off-Season When It Comes To Paid Search And Politics

During the Presidential primaries, paid search became a key tool in the candidates' marketing arsenals. So it's likely that Congressional candidates and other politicos will follow their lead in come November. But Greg Meyers says that waiting until the last minute to unleash PPC campaigns would be a big mistake as there's no "off season" when it comes to search. There's just time to build account history with the engines, test ad copy and content network exclusions, and develop the best-performing keyword list.

"When a new campaign launches PPC, no matter how relevant you make the ad groups, Google will inflate the CPCs to $1, $5 and $10 until the account will accrue the history it needs," Meyers says. "So, getting a head start on the full strategy and getting that history started is the preferred way to ensure your CPCs will not be inflated when the candidate needs it most."

As for testing ad copy, use the summer months to figure out which headline and body copy combinations drive the most conversions. Is it better to use "contribute to the campaign" or "donate to the campaign," for example?

You can also run content network campaigns at the start and figure out which sites are performing well, and "which ones are bleeding you dry," Meyers says. "It also complements your efforts to build the history needed for Quality score."

Read the whole story at SEM Geek »

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