I'm Dreaming Of Separate Bids for Search Partners

Seems like everybody has a PPC wishlist at this time of year. Earlier this week, my good friend Matt Van Wagner published a great post on Search Engine Land called 7 Things On My Google AdWords Wishlist For Santa. I agree with everything on his list, and hope that all of us PPCers find those fine gifts under our tree next weekend.

Yesterday, there was another fun SEL post from Conrad Saam called A Letter from Santa To The Search Community, which was also fun. Give both of these posts a read, if you haven't already.

All these wishes are fine and good, but the one thing I'm wishing for this holiday is the ability to set separate bids for Google Search Partners. Why this hasn't rolled out already is a mystery to me. If I had to guess, I'd say that Google doesn't want to lose the revenue from search partners when people bid less for them. But partners don't always perform worse than Google - in fact, I've seen many instances with our clients where partners actually perform better than Google.

We already have the ability to opt out of partners entirely - why not give us a chance to opt back in with separate bids? C'mon, Google - you quit sending out great holiday gifts years ago; can't you at least grant us this one wish?

What's on your PPC wish list this year?