So now you are all set up. You seem to have your campaign set up for the next 6 months with all the keyword research done and the best keywords in place. However do not relax yet, now it is time to maintain your campaign. This is a critical part of PPC advertising that many people forget about.

Ideally it would be great if you could just set up your campaign and leave it alone. However this will not work. In reality you will need to track and test every ad for performance. There are many ways that you can do this.

You can get good tools at Google Adwords itself to enable you to know exactly how much traffic a keyword is producing and how many sales. Bear in mind that robot traffic will not bring in profits.

So why go through this extra hassle? This is because, if your ad is not performing well, it is costing you money, and will not bring in profits. In other words you are paying for useless traffic. Even if no sales are made you will still be paying for each click.

Fortunately, there are things you can do about an ad that’s not bringing in productive results. If you’ve put things together correctly, your ads will come up within the first five to ten pages of a search. The next thing to look at is whether or not the problem is the keyword you’ve chosen.

Initially most people think of popular keywords before they consider anything else. They feel that they will drive lots of traffic to their website. This is true but unfortunately this will not result in sales, because it is untargeted. Searchers use these popular keywords when they first start searching but these keywords do not usually take them to where they want to go.

The people who use these broad based keywords are not quite sure what they need. They are browsers rather than serious buyers. The most effective keywords are those that will draw traffic but will also bring in searchers who need and want your product.

You should think about searching with your own keywords. The results may surprise you, as you view other sites that are using the same keyword. Be sure to check out the top 10 competitors in the search results. Look at their sites carefully and see if these are the right sites for your market. If they do not match your site you may have to adjust your keywords. Bear in mind if your keyword is wrong you can be losing money.

Careful monitoring of your results will tell you which keywords to keep and which ones to replace. Choose the right words, and you’ll end up with productive ads that bring in real, useful traffic. Paying close attention to your pay per click campaign is an important part of being successful and making a profit.