Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [234]
Additionally, Andrew Goodman’s Winning Results with Google Adwords, 2nd Ed. (McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2008) offers very specific instruction and clear business strategies for Google Adwords campaigns.
I frequently reference both of these resources, and both authors have provided me very unique insights into PPC marketing. I consider these books to be at the top of the hill for definitive guides on PPC Marketing.
Organic rankings tend to attract more clicks. Different studies provide different results, but the results tend to favor clicks on organic results somewhere between 70 percent to 80 percent compared to PPC results; so, the volume of clicks favors the organic side. Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, Google, in a 2008 speech stated 14 percent of clicks are PPC and 86 percent are organic on Google. A 2004 study by iProspect showed that among all engines, the click rates were around 40 percent PPC and 60 percent organic, but there were variances within each engine (www.iprospect.com/premiumPDFs/iProspectSurveyComplete.pdf). However, the volume of clicks, even though it is around 20 percent to 30 percent of search volume for paid advertising, is not something to dismiss. Enough of the available volume of clicking those ads provides a significant number of visitors to provide sales, leads, and exposure for many businesses. Additionally, as the search engines experiment with placing more types of results on the results page (videos, maps, reviews, images, and so on), the organic results are pushed down on the page, and the PPC results are able to stay “above the fold,” which allows you to maintain visibility in a competitive environment.
PPC campaigns help fill in the gaps in your organic strategy and, with experience, can become a major foundation of your business. Pay-per-click is an immediate method of gaining visibility in the search engine results pages. Based on that factor alone, it should not be overlooked as a marketing strategy. In addition, PPC offers very unique methods of getting specific, targeted messages in front of the right audience at the right time. As a result, PPC provides one of the most measurable and adjustable campaigns available to a marketer. Some specific advantages of PPC are explored in the following sections.
Immediacy
PPC allows for time-sensitive advertising messages to be displayed and directed as part of a campaign. As opposed to traditional organic SEO, PPC offers the element of immediacy, whereas traditional SEO requires planning months in advance of a search marketing campaign. The immediacy of PPC allows for a campaign to be created, running, and competitive within hours. If a new trend or information needs to be shared with your market, you can craft a specific message, emphasizing the timeliness of the information. When the trend has passed, the campaign can be ended, and the “old” news is no longer being displayed. Organic SEO cannot be turned on and off like this and requires much more planning to take advantage of seasonal trends.
Utilizing PPC also provides immediate feedback on campaign performance when testing new keywords. If the PPC campaign shows promising results for targeting a new group of keywords, then you will know that investing content and optimization in an organic campaign can be profitable as well.
Tight Message Control
PPC offers the ability to control the message on the search engine results page, where the sponsored results are located. Organic SEO is based on affecting the text in the search engine results page, whereas PPC allows you to control every aspect of the advertisement. Advertisers can write multiple ads and test to see which ad produces the most click-throughs and, ultimately, the most revenue.
PPC provides advertisers with the ability to create the ad copy and messaging and to control the message. Although webmasters can affect the text in their organic listings only, PPC advertisers can create multiple versions, test what works, and constantly refine the listing in order to maximize