David Szetela

PPC Advertising expert David Szetela founded Clix Marketing in 2003, following a 25-year career in technology sales and marketing. He is active in the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) and was the author of two lessons in SEMPO's Advanced Search Advertising course. He is a regular speaker at PPC Summit, MarketingSherpa and SES events, and his weekly radio show, PPC Rockstars, is broadcast every Monday at 4 PM EDT on Webmasterradio.fm.

Recent articles by David Szetela

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Click-Through and Conversion Rates
What's a good click-through rate? What's a good conversion rate? That's not an easy question to generalize on, but there are some guidelines that can help you see if yours is acceptable. Nov 13, 2008

The Account Quality Score: Money Pit for the Uninformed
In Google AdWords, an ad's Quality Score calculation is based on how well the account's campaigns have performed over time, especially in terms of CTR. So what happens with new accounts? Since there's no CTR data on which to base QS, how does Google determine minimum bids? Nov 6, 2008

Those Mysterious Quality Scores: Fundamentally Simple
The quality scoring system used for search engine ads is based on a complex group and series of calculations that take into consideration hundreds of factors that the search engines won't reveal. But you don't need to know what those factors are, as long as you create your campaigns correctly and make sure you're giving visitors what they're looking for. Oct 27, 2008

Measuring a Text Ad's Effectiveness
Testing and improving ad copy is essential to optimizing overall PPC campaign performance. Improving ad text leads to better CTR and quality score, which means it can help drive your CPC down, and/or let you buy more clicks per dollar. So it has a direct impact on your campaign's ability to increase the number of profitable sales. Oct 20, 2008

Reading the Tea Leaves: Interpreting Keyword Reports
Once enough data has accumulated, it's important to run reports and take action based on the data. But what do all those numbers mean, and how should we make adjustments to improve PPC campaign performance? Oct 13, 2008

Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions, Part 2
Should you delete or pause under-performing keywords - or simply adjust their bid prices? The answer will vary by advertiser, but one thing is constant: decisions about keyword and ad performance should mainly depend on conversion performance. Oct 6, 2008

Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions
Knowing how and when to make decisions about your PPC campaign's keyword and ad performance can make or break your campaign. Just remember that almost every action you take to improve your PPC ad campaign should be based on conversion data. Sep 29, 2008

PPC Bidding Strategies: Prudence vs. Aggressiveness
When it comes to PPC bids, should you start low and build up? Or start high and come down? As with many things, the right strategy for your company depends on your situation and objectives. Sep 22, 2008

Show Me the Money: Bidding for Profitability
How much should you bid? How do you know if your PPC campaign is working? Setting ad group bid prices at the beginning of a campaign is one of the more challenging tasks for many PPC advertisers. The answers are a snap once you know the fundamentals. Sep 15, 2008

Killer PPC Ads: The Final Word
These simple guidelines will pave the way to pay-per-click nirvana: double-digit click-through-rates. Sep 8, 2008

More articles by David Szetela