Establish Target Audience Groups:
Gather your development team and decide which of your audience groups will be targeted for each campaign you want to run.

Outline Conversion Goals:
Have your development team write down the specific conversion goals to be associated with each adgroup with your campaign. Each conversion goal needs to be specific, such as submit a form online, make a call, register for an event, or make an online purchase, in order to accurately track results. Outlining each step in the conversion process such as 'clicks to online form page,' 'fills in and submits online form,' et cetera, allows you to follow your respondents and understand where they dropped off in the conversion process if that is the case.

Uncover Search Language:
Conduct a comprehensive keyword research to uncover the language used by your target audience groups to search for what it is you offer.

Segment Lists by AdGroup:
Once your keyword research is completed, segment your lists according to the various groups you want to target. These will become your adgroups within the campaign.

Compose Search Engine Optimized, Informative & Persuasive Text or Graphical Ads:
You will want to have at least three to five targeted text ads, or develop three to five targeted image (banner) ads, for each of the targeted adgroups within your campaign. There are strict rules governing image and text ads with regard to size and number of characters. It is extremely challenging to develop creative that allows you to achieve top ranking in the 'sponsored' listings by standing out from the crowd and attracting clicks from your targeted respondents. There is much strategy that goes into achieving top ranking but suffice it to say that if you are a proven money-maker for the search engine marketing program then you are going to rank in the top listing positions. In addition to your strategies for budgets and keywords, it is your text or image ad creative that either wins or loses those coveted clicks from your targeted respondents.

Prepare Search Engine Optimized Landing Pages to Receive Respondents:
Whether you are leading respondents to a page of your website or a strategically developed landing page created just for the campaign, your web page has to satisfy the respondent's expectation in every way. Highly focused landing pages with concise information relevant to your ad and clear calls to action perform best.

Establish Budgets:
Begin by setting aside a fixed amount of money to be used over a period of not less than three months. Establishing three month campaigns gives you enough time and data with which to make intelligent business decisions that will affect your results. You will learn many things during the course of your campaign, and whether or not your budget is enough to sustain you for the duration within the active bidding environment is one of the first things you will learn. It is recommended that you put aside a fairly substantial budget at first so you can learn over the three months what you will need to rank within the top listing positions and achieve your conversion goals.

Set-Up Account:
Open your account with the search engine marketing program and set-up your campaigns and adgroups selecting all the criteria that supports your overall strategy, including locations; languages; networks and devices; bidding and budget options; ad extensions for locations, products, or phone numbers; scheduling; ad delivery rotation and frequency capping; and demographic bidding. Associate your keyword lists and image or text ads to each adgroup. Enter your payment information.

Implement Conversion Tracking Code on Web Pages:
For the most accurate tracking and reporting, you must implement tracking code on your web pages. You will then be able to establish online conversion goals and track results using such tools as 'Funnel Visualization' and 'Goal Abandoned Funnels' to clearly understand the effectiveness of your ad creative, keywords and overall campaign strategies. For long term tracking and reporting beyond your pay per click campaigns it is highly recommended you implement Google Analytics tracking code on all your web pages. It will allow you to establish and track online conversion goals for your website as well as report on site visitor behavior.

Start Your Campaign & Manage It Strategically:
There is really no way to tell you how to manage your campaign strategically. Skill takes time, patience, money, and intelligence to acquire. Critical analysis means looking at the performance data for your ad creative, your listing positions, your calls to action, your landing page, your keyword lists, your campaign criteria and settings, your bids, your budgets, and your respondents' behavior. Web analytics provides lots of really valuable statistics but knowing what to consider and how it factors into your results is a skill-set. Do you have it? Or are you at least willing to put in the time and effort to acquire it? If you plan to 'set it and let it go' you will soon learn the high costs of the 'laissez-faire' approach! Pay per click campaign management is a hand-on, "in-the-trenches" endeavor.

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