Well it doesn’t surprise me in the poll most important factor in a PPC campaign that keywords was voted the most important.
Research came in second, which should tell you guys who are just starting out how important the research step is. What did surprise me was to not see bid/keyword management with more votes. I would rank that up there with the others.
Weakest Link?
Anyways, now that you see all the components of a campaign. Asking a different type of question is what is your weakest link?
Look at each component of the campaign as a part of a whole process:
In manufacturing, the production runs as smooth, fast, and efficient, as the slowest part of the whole process or the weakest link in the chain. Something I learned in B School 
I think it is similar with a pay per click campaign. Your campaign is as strong as its weakest link.
Did you do the research and compile a solid list of keywords but drop the ball on the landing page? Your campaign will show that. Or maybe you spend all the time on your landing page and ad copy but fail to do any research?
Something to think about …
Keyword bidding is also important. Maybe not so much important on Yahoo or MSN where quality score hardly matters. However on Google its a different story.
I had a campaign on Google which started out ‘great’ for few days. Since my conversions were bad, i lowered the bids by 50% to offset my losses. My ad position, impressions and CTR went down drastically resulting is ok/poor quality a day later.
Now, to get back to ‘great’, I raised my bids again, so I can get back on top positions and get my CTR rolling again. Is this right way to go now?