Newbie questions

[jj5484]

Hi folks.

I realize that most of you are experts so I will apologize up front for my "basic" questions.

Much like the earlier newbie, I just picked up the Internet as a portion of my job. I will focus on Google, Yahoo, and MSN for PPC. In fact, I have figured out how to use adwords to identify what my competitions keywords are and how much it will cost me to get a top ranking. What I don't see is how many hits they are getting per keyword (I see trending but not hits, hence I can't figure out what my budget should be).

What can I do to get this information?

Thanks.
JJ5484

[Mel66]

You're not going to find that information unless you get a competitive tracking tool like Hitwise. They don't come cheap. Furthermore, I'm not sure that info is necessary. Every business is different, even within the same vertical, and keywords that work for your competition might not work for you, and vice versa.

Spend your time researching and testing keywords, ad copy, and landing pages that'll work for your business, and don't worry so much about the competition.

My $0.02.

Melissa