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What do you think about PPC advertising recently?
Since the economy has changed in the last 6-8 months I have noticed an increase in both Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising clicks and cost per click. I have also noted substantial decrease in turning the clicks to sales as in the past. Organic SEO clicks and other forms of advertisement still are having the same turn rate. Even though we have been doing PPC advertising for years now, this has never been one of our strongest sources for leads or sales but I cannot figure out the turn rate difference. I have also noticed a decrease in the number of other PPC advertisers for our keywords.
Is anyone else noticing the same thing?
Does anyone have any idea why a PPC visitor would be any different than a SEO click visitor?
Is anyone else noticing the same thing?
Does anyone have any idea why a PPC visitor would be any different than a SEO click visitor?
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Comments
Also, I am a firm believe that people will click on literally anything. It doesn`t mean that they are truly interested in what you have to offer, or that they`ll even stay on your website long enough to get your message. Even I sometimes click on ads just to see what they`re about, but hardly ever with the intention to buy unless I was really, truly looking for what they offered.
If you`re looking for something with a similar structure to PPC, but which has more potential for success, I suggest something like Pay-Per-Call advertising which charges based on potential customers who call you rather than simply clicking on an ad. You get the same kind of sponsored link exposure as traditional PPC, but in my opinion more targeted leads from your campaigns and a better chance at closing sales. Even advertising which charges you per impression rather than per click, because there`s a better opportunity to manage your budget than with fluctuating click costs and bids.
In all, I`d advise staying away from PPC campaigns that are run straight through the search engine itself. There are plenty of programs and sites which now offer placement in sponsored links for a flat monthly price (Merchant Circle and Ziggs are 2 such sites). There are also sites which will create & manage campaigns for you at prices starting around $99 a month (take a look at WPromote for more info). Hope that helps!
That is all good information but I have found something PPC is good for in our case - all those keywords that normal SEO does not handle. I would totally agree with you about click fraud as a problem. In the past, when we first started fine tuning our PPC marketing we ran into some major click fraud issues. In fact there are several companies that we will not work with because of it. Since then we have found it seems to be less of a problem with some of the major search engines.
I have to say that the way we have fine tuned our use of PPC now yields in a profit every month. It is just lately that we have notice our profits from it have been falling off from what has been working for a couple of years now.
I definitely like your idea about Pay-Per-Call and I plan to check it out. Do you have any suggested sources of this type of advertising?
Thanks for all the good input!
Bert
bert2008-10-22 15:45:51
Most people who lost money on PPC did it for one or these two reasons (or both):
1- They tried to manage their account themselves instead of having professionals taking care of that.
2- They failed to convert the clicks into sales. This could be done because the website wasn`t relevant to the keywords, the website design was poor, or the copy was not good enough.
Conclusion: get professional web designers and a professional PPC campaign management team. We can help if you want. Email me if you need help.
As for PPC, I will say PPC has worked very well for us over the last few years after we discovered how to use it. We closely monitor turn rates and other associated items with complex analytics. In the past, I have seen PPC and organic search clicks have very consistent results when it comes to turn rate. Organic clicks have always been better but I have noticed a trend where organic turn rate has remained fairly consistent as PPC turn rate has been falling off. I find this very strange, since we so closely monitor many aspects including tracking click fraud.
How do you explain that?
bert2008-10-23 11:17:14
as more people are becoming aware and educated about the internet, google, advertising methods and the science behind ranking, their decisions on what to click (organic vs ppc) is constantly in their subconscious.
to answer your initialy question i dont think an organic visitor would be any different than a PPC visitor. both search for certain words/phrases and if your link comes up in either case then chances are either visitor is looking for your link (unless your link has popped up for a completely irrelevant search).
i read in a recent study that the percentage of PPC visitors has been on a steady decline. although there are no hard facts to support any reasons, i believe it is because of more education and awareness. searches are leaning toward websites who have proven their worth to mother google and the likes.
but that said, ppc works wonders for instant traffic. say you have a subscription/membership site - or even ecommerce - ebook selling site etc. PPC can give instant exposure and sales (providing the site converts well). using a mix of PPC and organic SEO/SEM is definitely the best way to claim your stake online.