PPC Firms: What They Do and How They Do It


PPC Firms are highly sophisticated internet advertising companies

You can think of PPC firms like the web’s version of billboard companies. With the rise in the everyday use of the internet for everything in our lives, it was inevitable that someone would come up with a way to help us navigate it. Just as inevitable was that someone would figure out how to advertise there – just like billboards on the highway. So let’s take a look at their history and function as one of the newer features of the information superhighway.

The Beginning

Early on, Google became the king of search engines with a new, clean, minimalist look and solid search results. However, as a free service, they needed a way to monetize the site and get some return on their investment. Other sites sold static or rotating ads based on their content, but on Google the content was what the user searched for, and thus would always be changing. The company came up with the idea of selling ads that would be linked to the content of a user’s search, showing them along side of the organic results, and so was born Google adwords.

Management of these early accounts was not hard, and mostly done by individuals. You could easily pick the keywords you wanted, throw up an ad and put in some inexpensive, compared to today, bids. There were some companies that took care of those people who wanted to outsource adwords management, such as PPCmanagement.com where we offered one of the first automated bid systems that served quite well in the early days of pay per click.

How PPC Firms Have Changed

However, simple did not last. Google realized that people were “gaming” their system, and the ads were no longer relevant to users’ searches. Red flags went up, and the changes began – and actually, they have never stopped. No longer can you simply automate bids and let it run. To work with a modern PPC account, PPC firms have gone one of two ways. Some companies have focused on automation, building more and more complex programs to handle the workload.

Other firms have chosen a more hands-on approach, with dedicated managers working on limited numbers of accounts. By doing this, they are able to more quickly react to changes in Adwords and in their clients’ needs. Often, this involves custom crafting keyword lists, campaigns and individual ads to get the most out of their clients’ spend.