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The funny thing about pay per click management is that as a service centered on internet-based performance, you might think that using a powerful online search engine would be an effective way to generate a list of worthwhile PPC management firms. They operate on the web, after all; shouldn’t the web be how you find them? But because many excellent PPC management firms generate a lot of their business the old-fashioned way, through networking, personal connections, and references, they don’t always have the best search rankings. This makes firing up your browser and finding the right PPC company for your online marketing needs more difficult.

But there are important lessons to be drawn from that fact. Most importantly, it highlights the importance of using common sense to get the best PPC advertising. First, PPC advertising firms don’t all rely on search engine traffic to drive their business, so neither should you think that it will be your best route to find those firms, nor your best route to generate traffic. Instead, seek out references from people or companies you trust to learn which pay per click management firms they have tried and felt were a good value. It may be slower but there are few better ways to use your time effectively than to only consider potential partners based on solid endorsements from trusted contacts.

The other significant point is that you will have to figure out for yourself which PPC company makes the most sense for you. Trying to use web searches to distill the important information will be relatively fruitless – it’s too crowded a space to distinguish the signal from the noise. That means once you have a list of pay per click management firms suggested as cost-effective for your industry, you need to weigh your available online advertising budget, their track record of effectively applying the desired bid strategy to maximize conversion, and the way they interact with you as a potential customer.

This is an important process to manage at a personal level, because no matter how comfortable you are with getting PPC management services, you will always be able to get more value for your investment when you take the time to choose the best firm you can afford. Of course all of this sounds a lot like common sense in some ways but the value of these ideas comes from the perspective from which they were generated; regardless of the fact that that pay per click management companies’ services are web-based, you need to use more traditional methods to be sure you get the right service.

Ray Kessler is a los Angeles Search Engine Marketing consultant who specializes in PPC ad campaigns and Search Engine Optimization