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Pay-per-click marketing is a great way to get visitors when
you need traffic and you need it now. But it's risky:
You can spend a fortune, generate many visits, and end up
with nothing to show for it.
What is Pay-Per-Click Advertising?
On its face, pay-per-click marketing, or PPC, is pretty simple:
Search engines and services, such as Google or Overture, provide
listings on a per-bid basis. This is in addition to their
'natural' search results, which are still powered by a combination
of keywords found on your site, link popularity and other
formulae (for more info on that
click here)
- Adwords ads appear on the right side ofGoogle's natural
search results
- Yahoo PPC ads appear above natural search results
If you place the highest bid for a specific keyword
or set of keywords, then you rank number one in these
paid listings. On Google, PPC listings show up in the Adwords
column on the right-hand side of the screen. Other engines,
such as MSNSearch or Yahoo, display PPC listings as 'sponsored
listings' in the same column as the natural search results.
If someone clicks on your PPC listing, they arrive at your
web site. And you are charged the amount you bid. So, if you
bid $.15 per click on 'widgets', and that's the highest bid,
you'll show up first in line. If 100 people click on your
PPC listing, then the search engine or PPC service will charge
you $15.00.
Why PPC Advertising is Bad
PPC advertising can cost a fortune. It's
easy to get caught up in a bidding war over a particular keyphrase
and end up spending far more than your potential return.
Some PPC engines, such as Overture, offer convenience features
such as 'autobid' that will automatically increase your bid
amount to maintain a particular rank. That sounds great on
its face, but it can get expensive in a big hurry.
Also, ROI can be very hard to measure. Some
PPC engines (Adwords and Overture, specifically) provide conversion
measurement tools, so that you can track whether your pay-per-click
campaigns are generating the desired result. But these tracking
tools aren't 100% accurate, and at the time of this writing
the smaller PPC providers don't deliver any conversion tracking.
And watch out for junk traffic. Most pay-per-click
services distribute a segment of their results to several
search engines. While you certainly want your listing displayed
on Yahoo, AOLSearch and MSN, you may not want your listings
showing up and generating clicks from some of the deeper,
darker corners of the Internet. The resulting traffic
may look good in statistics reports but is very unlikely to
generate a return.
Finally, pay-per-click advertising does not scale.
If you get more traffic, you pay more money in direct proportion
to that traffic - your cost per click stays constant, and
your overall cost increases. Compare that to natural
search engine optimization, where you invest a fixed amount
of time and/or money to achieve a better rank, and your cost
per click goes down as you draw more traffic.
Why PPC is Good
Pay-per-click advertising can generate traffic right away.
It's simple: If you spend enough, you can get top
placement, and potential customers will see you first.
If folks are searching for the keyphrases on which you bid
and you've placed a well-written ad, you will get clicks the
moment the ad is activated.
So PPC advertising is fast: With some systems,
such as Google Adwords, you can generate targeted traffic
within a few minutes of opening an account.
PPC advertising is also nimble: Where natural search engine
marketing or other forms of advertising can lag weeks or months
behind changing audience behavior, you can adjust
most pay-per-click campaigns in hours or days. That
provides unmatched ability to adjust to market conditions.
So, balancing the good and the bad, where does PPC fit in?
As a focused advertising tool.
The Role of PPC Advertising
Most businesses can't afford to solely rely on PPC advertising.
It's too expensive, and bid amounts inevitably climb.
But pay-per-click can fill a few important roles:
Campaign- and issue-based traffic: If you
have a short-term campaign for a new product, service or special
issue, pay-per-click can be a great way to generate buzz.
You can start a pay-per-click campaign within, at most, 24-48
hours, and you can generally change the text of your ad in
mid-campaign, so adjusting your message is easy. If you need
to focus attention for a finite amount of time, PPC is perfect.
Direct-response business: If you sell a product or offer a
service that folks can purchase the moment they arrive at
your web site, pay-per-click is a great tool. Online stores
are a great example: You know that each click generated is
a real potential customer, so spending money to increase the
number of clicks makes sense.
The overall rule of thumb? Focus, focus, focus. Natural
search engine optimization is a PR-based, long-term attempt
to grow your brand and image (More
on that subject here). Pay-per-click advertising, however,
should be handled like any other form of paid advertising:
Gingerly, and with a clear, quantifiable short- or medium-term
goal in mind. In other words, concentrate on conversions,
not clicks.
We work with all major PPC providers including: Overture,
Espotting, Google, Looksmart, Webfinder and Mirago.
Contact us to see how PPC or
natural search optimiszation can work for you.
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