Jonathan's Web Marketing Blog

I talk to a lot of clients that have heard of, or are currently engaged in, pay-per-click advertising, usually on Google, and they want to know what to do with it. What role should pay-per-click (PPC) advertising play in web marketing?

Most people don't click on pay-per-click ads. Either they know that they're advertisements and therefore don't trust them, or they are just accustomed to clicking in the main body of the page. There's more perceived credibility in the sites that Google selects on its own. Having said that, PPC traffic can be responsible for as much as 40% of all web traffic. That's how Google got to be a billion dollar search giant. But that still leaves at least 60% of Google's traffic that you absolutely need. That's where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.

SEO vs PPC
In web marketing, like in any type of marketing, it's important to watch your average cost per lead. With search engine optimization that targets "natural" or "organic" listings (the listings in the main body of the search engine results), your cost per lead will tend to stay lower relative to PPC because it doesn't matter how many times people click on your listing in the natural results. You could get 3,000 clicks in one hour and it wouldn't cost you any extra money. With PPC, you're charged every time someone clicks into your website from your ads. There is speculation that people who are willing to click into PPC ads are a lower quality visitor because they are more likely in the early shopping stages. They aren't seriously looking for a provider. Because of this, fewer clicks (relative to clicks from the natural results) may translate into phone calls or emails.

For this reason, if you're already using Google Adwords, and it is your main search engine marketing strategy, you may feel like you're just throwing money at the campaign and not seeing a great return on investment. This is most often the case when I meet a new client who is managing his/her own campaign. Google pay-per-click advertising is a great way to augment your results on the search engines, but without proper management, it can be a drain on your web marketing budget.

Hitting Pay Dirt
40% of Google's traffic represents an enormous amount of opportunity, but how do you tap into it? Remember the fable of the crow who was thirsty and found a pitcher of water, but the water level was too low for him to drink? He just had to figure out a way to get to the water, so he started throwing pebbles into the water, and eventually the water level was high enough that he could get a drink.

Pay-per-click advertising is similar. It requires strategic thinking, expertise, and careful attention to detail. Without professional management (HUMAN, not an automated program), you'll continue straining to get a drink. When managed properly, PPC can bring a great secondary stream of phone calls and emails.

At Page 1, we recommend PPC to "double dip" in the search traffic. When you're already on the 1st page of the search engines for your most important phrase, you're getting a good return on investment and can therefore afford to spend a little extra to get some additional leads from pay-per-click. The other instance where PPC is warranted is in small markets where search engine optimization just doesn't make financial sense.

Give me a call or shoot me an email, and we can talk about your current situation and how you might incorporate pay-per-click advertising into your web marketing campaign.