An Initiative is any grouping of SEM efforts that share a common goal. These may be specific campaigns, your entire account on one goal search, or individual campaigns on each search engine (e.g. Google, Yahoo or MSN). When you create an Initiative, WebVisible Enterprise (formerly Adapt SEM) produces recommendations based on the goals you've specified. Campaigns and accounts sharing the same goal should be added to the same Initiative.

Go to Settings>Manage Initiatives and select "Create New Initiative." Enter a name for your new Initiative and choose a goal that reflects how you would like a portion of your campaigns and accounts to perform based on cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Enter in your target CPA or CPC goal in US dollars and then select "Continue". Now you can add all of the campaigns and accounts that share this goal to your new Initiatives.

Since goals are individual and specific to every company, determining a goal can be challenging. Here are some ways to determine your own goals.

• Existing data from PPC campaigns will tell you, on average, what you've been paying per-click or per-acquisition. This data can provide realistic CPC or CPA goals for your company.
• Often, companies assign cost-per-acquisition targets for various marketing efforts. Your company may determine that trade show customers should be acquired at no more than $500 each, email campaign customers at no more than $25 each, and pay-per-click customers at no more than $29 each. Check with your company to see if these metrics exist.
• You may not know what your CPA is, but if you have a budget and know how many customer leads or sales you'd like to acquire, this simple formula will give you a starting point:
  Your marketing budget /Target number of customers = Target cost-per-acquisition

Check out the section on CPA to learn more.

Although Ad Groups cannot be assigned to Initiatives, you can assign an unlimited number of campaigns to any Initiative.

Yes! If you prefer not to review your daily recommendations and want WebVisible Enterprise (formerly Adapt SEM) to go ahead and make the suggested changes for you, you can set your account on auto-pilot. Select the Initiative you want to change and two tabs will appear: Contents and Settings. Choose the Settings tab and select "Yes, enable bid auto-pilot". Be sure to save your change. For your convenience, the "Save Changes" link is located at both the top and bottom of the Initiatives column on the right side of the page.

If you enable the auto-pilot feature, you will no longer receive bid change recommendations on the Recommendations page. You can disable auto-pilot at any time by returning this area and de-selecting auto-pilot.

Please note: The auto-pilot feature must be implemented on a per-initiative basis.

Absolutely! If you prefer not to accept our bid recommendations, you can enter in your own.

Select the Initiative you want to change and two tabs will appear: Contents and Settings. Chose the Settings tab and select "Yes, enable editable bids". Be sure to save your change. For your convenience, the "Save Changes" link is located at both the top and bottom of the Initiatives column on the right side of the page.

Once you've enabled editable bids, return to the Recommendations page and select the bid amount you want to modify. Enter in the new amount and select "Do it!" to implement your change.

Follow these steps each time you want to make an editable bid. Please note: Enabling editable bids overrides the auto-pilot feature, however, you can switch back to auto-pilot at any time!