A blog post over at Search Engine Roundtable struck a chord with me today, as this topic has come up when talking to various clients over the past few months.

The question was recently posed if the days of “set it and forget it” are gone. The “set it and forget it” method of pay per click management is when you would set up a campaign, monitor it for a few weeks, then let the campaign run itself.

The search landscape is always changing, and there are a number of reasons that companies should not “set it and forget it.” Here’s why companies should manage their PPC campaigns on a continual basis.

• Competitors enter your space. As pay-per-click search engine marketing becomes an even more popular advertising channel, competitors enter. While some may not know how to run an effective campaign, some will, and as more savvy competitors enter your company’s advertising space, your company will be shuffled down the list if your company’s campaign is not properly managed.
• Increased competition drives up bids. As more advertisers enter your market, bid prices are likely to increase. If companies don’t manage their bid prices over time, they may lose their position. Being the first paid listing isn’t always the best approach, but if your company’s ad isn’t on the page at all, you won’t get results.
• Search trends change/seasonality in retail. As time passes, so does the way people search for things. In the entertainment industry, electronics and others, what’s hot now isn’t what’s hot a few months from now. What people search for changes, and companies need to adjust phrases they bid on to capture the most traffic possible. Additionally, being visible during peak selling times during the year is especially important for retailers, and while upping ad spends at peak seasons may make sense, it may not make sense to be as aggressive during slower seasons.
• The way search engines (especially Google) determine where your ads show up changes over time. As the search engines change their PPC algorithms, companies need to adjust their campaigns accordingly. For example, Google Adwords recently added quality score and now allows advertisers to see their quality scores for individual keywords, allowing advertisers to adjust their campaigns and get better results.
• Testing ad copy keeps companies ahead of competitors. If advertisers don’t test their ad copy, their click rates will never significantly improve. It’s standard fare to run multiple ads at once, measuring the results and removing ads that don’t perform. It’s not uncommon for me to test 25-50 different versions of ad copy per client per year.

For my money — and my clients’ — continual PPC management is the way to go. Continual monitoring and improvement of campaigns will keep your company ahead of your competition while generating the most traffic possible to your company’s web site.

If you’re just in the beginning phases of starting an online business, you should click over to the Ecommerce Times, which today has a good article on marketing your startup on a shoestring budget.

Even somewhat experienced internet marketers can pull some ideas from the list they provide in the story.

Some of my favorite tips from the article include:

• Start a blog. Weblogs give you the opportunity to provide your visitors with new — perhaps more personal or pointed — content. Let your visitors know what’s going on with your store.
• Get visitors to subscribe to a mailing list, then send them promotions, coupons, updates and offers.
• Get your site listed with targeted industry Web sites or directories.

There’s more in the article, which you can read here.

As a follow-up to my last post, “When Google rankings affect your small business’ bottom line,” I wanted to provide some real data for my claim that a web site can get a significant increase in traffic by paying for search engine advertising even though they have a #1 search engine ranking for their niche search term.

My client is currently #1 in Google for their niche phrase, which is a moderately-competitive two-word search phrase. The client’s web site has always been in the top 5 results for this phrase, and just recently re-gained the #1 ranking.

The client also pays for a Google Adwords ad for the exact two-word phrase that they are currently ranked #1 for.

In the last week, the client has gotten 59 visits from the #1 Google ranking, and the client has gotten 54 visits from the paid Google ad. You can see that the client nearly doubled their web site traffic from this niche search term by paying for advertising. What’s more is that the paid ad had a 6.78% conversion rate, proving that people not only clicked — they bought.

There’s an interesting thread on SEO Roundtable today regarding the way Google’s rankings can affect small businesses. The fact of the matter is that when Google shuffles its rankings or when competitors start to get aggressive, small business can suffer when they are shuffled down in the search engine rankings.

It’s a timely post as I have a new client that was shuffled off of the first page in the Google rankings for their particular niche search terms, and their revenue has dropped significantly. I wish there was a rosier picture to paint, but this business has a slow road to recovery ahead of it.

Luckily for other businesses that still have good rankings, I see two ways to prevent business decline, and I employ these with many of my clients that hire me to perform search engine consulting services.

1. When times are good (and rankings are high), try harder to keep your ranking.

Work with your search engine consultant to continue SEO efforts when your site is ranked well. If your site is ranked on the first page or even in the #1 spot, you should be continuing to build links to your site, optimize your site and build your business. If your site is #1 for your niche search term, the target is on your back, and other companies are determined to take that spot from you. Using proven, ethical techniques to improve your rankings, even when your site is at the top of the list, is necessary.

2. Buy search engine pay-per-click ads or improve your existing campaign.

If you’re relying solely on search engine optimization to attract customers, you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket. A paid search campaign can increase traffic to your site dramatically, even if your site is ranked #1 for your niche search term (I have data to prove it).

A #1 or first page ranking can also cause business owners to lose focus on their pay-per-click marketing efforts. I advocate the Rimm-Kaufman Group’s recommendation to evaluate your search engine marketing campaign at least once per year. If you have a smaller campaign with a monthly spend under $10,000, you should even evaluate your program every quarter.

With both paid and natural search engine programs running at an optimal level, you’ll lower your risk of a big drop-off in business.