But does that mean a reasonable goal is a black box that takes business models in one side and spits out keyword-ad-bid-landing-page combos out the other (directly to the engines via api, of course) ?

Not only are we a very long way from that, but it probably isn’t the right goal. Matt Leveque, a Paid Search Marketing Manager here at Commerce360, raises that point on his blog today – and shares some relevant and interesting lessons from the history of the Toyota Production System (TPS) and how this experience might impact PPC automation.

In the end he suggests that the system maintain a “human element that adds common sense and context around bid changes, ad creative testing and keyword strategy.”

This makes perfect sense, and we’re working on finding just the right balance with ClickEquations. For both SEM professionals like Matt and in-house marketing and search managers it will be interesting to see where the lines end-up based on both measurable results and personal comfort and trust.