Pay Per Click Marketing and the Cynic

Don’t Let Past Experience Turn You Against PPC; You Are Probably Wrong

It’s funny how peoples’ sense of powerlessness tend to directly relate to the seemingly endless power of big corporations. I know that many people were happy when Microsoft was taken to court by the US Government for what seemed to be unfair windows platform software monopolization. The same feelings tend to be vocalized about Google, now that it seems to own the search engine universe.

To not think that Pay Per Click works is burying your head in the sand and not realizing that Google must be doing something right if it is worth as much as it is. In speaking with would-be clients on a daily basis I am astonished by the regular belief that pay per click doesn’t work. 

If you are one of those people that think Pay Per Click services like Google Adwords do not work, I urge you to consider whether any of the below applies to you.  I say these points because I live them daily and can attribute negative experiences to any or all of the below:

• you likely have had a bad experience because you either ran the campaigns yourself or had a company that didn’t know how to do it for you.
• you probably didn’t install any conversion tracking or phone call tracking service to verify the exact return of your investment and what it brought you.
• you likely lacked the ability to analyze or view reports on the results
• you likely didn’t use basic Adwords features like, geographic targetting, ad scheduling, or daily spend limit.
• your campaigns built were broad instead of granular in the pages you were targetting traffic too.
• you didn’t have focussed landing pages built that were specific to the keywords typed in by your visitors.
• you did not have the knowledge to hook up Google Analytics to your site which helps validate and improve upon your PPC campaigns.
• you were sold PPC by a company professing to have a ’special arrangement’ with Google whereby they get you unlimited clicks for one price.  An arrangement that does not exist with Google but is rather a sales technique whereby they take your money and do not report to you the monthly adspend.

Think about it - do you use the Yellow Pages anymore to find things?  If you do you are in the minority.  The new Yellow Pages is search engine marketing.  If you used to pay to have your ad listed in the Yellow Book then why wouldnt you pay for Pay Per Click management services?  It provides you way more detailed information than the Yellow Pages ever did or can today! 

What about the page you are sending traffic to?

Of course, having a website developed that persuades in the right manner and in the right sequence helps convert a lot more prospects then those that repel the visitor. Even before they get to the site… and if they do get past that annoying flash intro and do get to your home page, are repelled again by a site that looks like someone’s 14 year old nephew created it, complete with a neon green background and big flashing red header that screams “Go Away”!… I mean “Joe’s Cell Phone Accessories”.

Can you tell that I have some interesting experiences under my belt?  Not all internet marketing prospects I speak with are in quite this bad shape but you would be surprised how many are!

PPC is not a waste of time or effort. You just need to do your homework.  It helps if you call a reputable internet marketing company for tips, and those who have had success. They are as easy to find as looking at the top ranked advertisers on Google.

My final comment about PPC marketing.  Even if you are weary.  Try it.  Try it and believe in it for 3 months.  The results are instant.  They don’t lie.  And if you are one of the few that dont benefit from it then turn it off.  It isn’t a huge investment when compared to the opportunity you just presented your company.

Planning + Traffic Building + Measurement Tracking = a successfull internet marketing campaign.

And so ends Isaac, your Toronto based internet marketing consultants rant of the day. :)   Happy reading!

Related posts:

• Landing Page Strategies for your Pay Per Click Campaign