This thread is over two years old and we have made many positive changes to Trada in that time, so I’d like to take the opportunity to address them.

When Trada first launched publicly in March 2010 (eighteen months after it’s inception: the first year-and-a-half was spent building the product and testing), we saw a great deal more value in the application of large numbers of paid search experts and placed much emphasis on keyword generation. The offer ‘an average of 24 paid search experts’ was indeed a value proposition in March 2010, but as Shawn and Jason point out, 24 chefs won’t do much for a single cupcake.

As it turns out, however, the concept works very well with smaller groups of chefs (current Trada campaigns have 2-10 Optimizers, depending on budget and campaign goals) and with some support and platform changes in the Marketplace. Each advertiser now has a dedicated account manager who is available to ensure that goals are aligned and everything runs smoothly. Finally, it’s important to understand that the competing work performed by Optimizers in a given campaign doesn’t drive up bid prices – rather, it’s used as an A/B testing option within the Google/Bing serving algorithms.

I understand that the Marketplace has not worked for all advertisers in the past, and I am sorry. We do regret the advertisers we’ve lost as we’ve grown as a company. At the time of this posting, Trada is committed more than anything else to the retention of our advertisers, and this is accomplished through an improved Marketplace platform, dedicated account management, and rigorous reputation systems within the Optimizer community.

1. Your team is made up of the right Optimizers. When we launched Trada, we believed in the power of self-selection. Optimizers would inherently choose the campaigns they were qualified to work on. But our results revealed that a curated approach works better. Today, in addition to being initially qualified before joining the Marketplace, Optimizers must apply to work on a given campaign, and then must prove in the campaign buildout phase that they are qualified specifically to drive campaign results. In addition, Optimizers’ performance is tied to a reputation score which is visible to advertisers and other Optimizers throughout the Marketplace.

2. Landing pages can be curated by the Optimizer team. As many have pointed out, landing pages are a critical component of campaign success – from both a keyword/landing page relevance standpoint (imperative for Quality Score) and from a conversion-centric design and content standpoint. We have partnered with Unbounce to provide the option to have your Optimizer team build and maintain a suite of landing pages that are designed to boost conversions.

3. Messaging platform. Consistent communication between an advertiser and his/her Optimizer team is critical to campaign success. The messaging center makes this easy. The importance of communication about campaign goals, new products/strategies, research and optimization, landing page buildout, etc is part of our training for new advertisers and Optimizers. We continue to make Optimizer/Advertiser communication a priority when adding Marketplace features.

4. Dedicated account management. Advertisers now have a single dedicated account manager who helps with campaign setup, buildout, goal setting, and Optimizer team management throughout the lifetime of the campaign. You can reach this account manager by phone, email or directly through the Marketplace support system.

A key responsibility of the account manager is helping set goals for the campaign. Target cost-per-conversion and average click price are determined based on your AdWords/AdCenter account history and industry data provided by Google.

5. Advertiser goals are aligned with ours. Optimizers are paid when they are able to beat an advertiser’s target CPA. This means every worker on a campaign is directly incentivized to get quality clicks and low-cost conversions.

6. Automatic ad network budget allocation. Another mechanism designed to reduce CPA, the automatic ad network budget allocation tool calculates the optimal percent being spent on Google and Yahoo/Bing. This removes the guesswork that most non-Trada solutions rely upon when deciding how much to spend on each network. We will simply spend your budget where you are getting the most low-cost conversions.

Again, we do appreciate feedback on the Trada Marketplace platform, and we rely on honest appraisals to be able to improve our experience and results for advertisers and Optimizers. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at anna@trada.com.

1. Sign up for the Google Engage program. If you get approved, you’ll get 10 or so $100 vouchers for starting new AdWords accounts.
2. Once you get the vouchers, find some local businesses or nonprofits that are not running PPC campaigns. Offer to give them the free vouchers in exchange for letting you run the AdWords account for them. Don’t charge them anything (yet), and you’ll probably get a few yeses.
3. Run a very constricted, local-only AdWords account for each of the businesses and learn as you go. If you do a good job, some of them might even hire you for freelance opportunities.

After you run 10 or so accounts, you’ll probably have enough experience to start freelancing. Or, you could approach some local agencies and ask if they have any entry-level positions. I don’t know what the job market is like in your area, but I can say that agencies here in Austin are always hurting for new talent. And thanks to the Engage program and a little hustle, you should get enough experience under your belt to get their attention.

Good luck!

Your budget might be too low, your bids might be too low, or you may not have the right geo targets set up. There are a lot of reasons why an ad might not be showing as much as you’d like. Take another look at your campaign settings and you might find something amiss.