Do You Have a PPC Backup Plan?

I am a huge BYU football fan and on Saturday I was in Dallas, Texas for the BYU vs. Oklahoma game. The game was a hard-fought battle and I was overjoyed when my Cougars pulled out the win. However, if you pay attention to college football even a little, you know that reigning Heisman trophy winner Sam Bradford was knocked out of the game just before halftime with a separated shoulder. This got me thinking – What is my PPC backup plan? Do I have one even?

Why Do I Need a Backup Plan?

You need a backup plan because you never know when something may take out your primary PPC account (99% of the time, that’s AdWords). Your account could be hacked requiring your account to be shut down for days before the issue is resolved and your account is reactivated. You could violate the ToS and have your account suspended (with Google this means indefinitely). Put succinctly, you never know.

What Options Do I Have?

When your AdWords account goes down you do have options:

1. Yahoo and MSN (Bing) – In the next 12 months they’ll become the same deal and 25-30% of the search market ain’t bad
2. 2nd tier PPC engines – Though they have a lot less traffic, don’t forget about smaller PPC engines like Miva, Ask.com or Business.com. Each of these has different demographics and specialize in different areas, so look for a good fit.
3. Affiliate networks – I know this is kind of a stretch, but don’t mock affiliate marketing. If you set up a good campaign and offer competitive payouts, affiliates can keep the traffic flowing and the cash register ringing

Take a moment to map out a strategy for your website/business. Like Oklahoma you need a Landry Jones on the bench that is ready to go on a moment’s notice. Of course, I hope you don’t have to use this plan, but you definitely should have one.

Any other ideas that you’ve found?