The concept of pay per click (PPC) is almost as old as the Internet itself. In fact, once private interests decided that they wanted to monetize the network, their first strategy was to create search engines! The first internet search engines were “clunky” affairs – not least of all because there was a dearth of sites. Eventually, more refined engines such as AltaVista, Omniseek and Lycos arrived. Then in a second iteration, Yahoo and AOL dominated the market until Google, and to some extent Microsoft's Bing, took over.
Search engines obviously make money for the providers. The real question is “Of how much benefit are they to the purchasers?” The argument is fairly settled for most companies as a resounding “Yes!” but there are still naysayers. Here are just a few reasons that PPC is valuable for small companies: • It is flexible – From home grown sites to social media giants, it is relatively easy to develop and deploy a PPC campaign. Of course, Google dominates this space but that does not mean that the “Big G” does not offer real value to its clients. In short, Google just wants its piece of the action. • It is measurable – There are dozens of metrics that can be tracked about PPC marketing as opposed to more traditional advertising efforts. This fact means that multiple strategies can be implemented and then the most successful(think “A/B”) according to the numbers can be more broadly employed. • It is customizable – The inherent measurability of PPC marketing allows it to adapt to the marketplace far more rapidly than traditional advertising. If a campaign falls flat on its face it can be readily changed within a few short weeks. Compare that time frame – and cost - to changing a direct mail campaign! • It is affordable – Without a doubt, the ROI on PPC is outstanding. Clients can decide to fractions of a cent what they want to pay for broad-based initiatives or for focused client acquisition efforts. Quite possibly, you'll never have an argument with your CFO again. Developing a solid PPC campaign can be difficult without the proper tools and knowledge, and should usually be part of a larger scope, omni-channel effort. |
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