There was a time when you could get top position on high-volume, nonspecific keywords like "China" or "business" or "running" or "headache" for as little as $0.05 a click. If you did a Google search on one of these terms, only one or two results would show up, telling you that clicks were available for ultra cheap.

But advertisers had a very hard time getting a generic term like "running" to stick, especially in the early days before phrase- and exact-match options were available. A person who typed in a keyword like "business" could have any of a thousand completely different ideas in mind for what he was looking for, so he was not only unlikely to click on your ad, but even if he did click on it, he was that much less likely to buy anything from you.

Now the rules have changed in the world of PPC management. There's no longer a minimum CTR, so maintaining a certain number of clicks isn't an issue. And advertisers are much smarter now than they were even two years ago and are turning these generic terms into profitable information marketing opportunities.

So currently it is worth the effort to put bids on the highly searched, general keywords. The question is how do I make them work?

Here is how to do it:

Run trials, test copy ideas, and try again, writing ads until one works. This can take a long time, and you may fail a number of times before you find a winning formula. But you'll win by attrition, if you can keep testing and testing until something works.

Utilize the full benefits of negative keywords.

In your ads have phrases that are disqualifying to those you don't want to click. By offering 'Free Golf Instructions' with your ads you will most likely attract undesirable traffic, but if you advertise '$49 Golf Video" most of your clicks will be folks serious about making a purchase.

Fully utilize the clicks you pay for. Offer not only merchandise, but also information. Have a landing page where you can gather opt-ins, and offerings of free guides, tutorials, or e-courses of some type. This will make you into an information source, and make your customers stick with you and make your visitor value rise. Then those broad clicks will be worth paying for.

Managing PPCs - The New Rules

Literally every keyword in your list is a market of its own.

The outlooks of the people searching are represented by the keywords in your list.

Behind everything explicit that your customers type in when they're searching, there's some want, need, question, or assumption, they have (but may be completely unaware of).

The markets for your keywords will vary in size large, small and in between.

Some keyword markets are more competitive than others.

Keywords will not deliver the same earnings to each person using it.

There are always keywords that are overloaded with competition, where bid prices are jacked up far beyond their real market value.

In contrast some keywords are left out even though using them would bring you to a stronger market with better responses, and they can be found using a reliable keyword tool.

If you want buyers, instead of lookers, display for your customer his thoughts and feelings. That is when he will buy.