The Finch Blog

Published on Wednesday, 25 January 2012 16:04

Written by Jason Lowry

Causality is a tricky thing. Causality tries to explain the relationship between the cause and effect of things.

After a recent snowstorm in Utah, a video of cars sliding down a steep hill went viral to be seen by over 1.4 million people in the first 4 days. In the video you’ll see the resulting slides, bangs, and crashes. First watch the video:

This video caused me to reflect on pay per click bid management and Google AdWords daily maximum budget.

This crazy event will result in an uptick of auto-related search queries over the next few days, weeks, and months. Look at the types of businesses that will be affected:

• Tow trucks
• Auto body shops
• Auto parts
• Mechanics
• Rental car agencies
• Tree trimming
• Fence repair
• Physical therapy
• Auto insurance
• Last, but certainly not least: Lawyers!

Every industry listed is a candidate for AdWords. And every industry already has competitors who are smart and are advertising on AdWords to help grow their business.

Back to causality: When an event like this occurs, is manually adjusting your daily maximum budget the first thing you think about? Of course not! My point is that you can’t see what’s causing the spikes; but you certainly don’t want to lose out on the additional business these spikes bring.

Rather than focusing on setting a daily maximum budget that can limit your potential, focus on understanding the cost targets that it takes for you to be profitable – then ditch the budget and allow Finch to get as many conversions as possible at those cost targets.