Comments on: Why Spend Money on PPC? QUIT WASTING MONEY!

By: Matt Zentz

Matt Zentz — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:42:01 +0000

Kyle, I agree with Duncan to an extent. You should try a variety of methods but you should only use those that show results based on careful measurement and research. Test first, then implement.

What if I want to buy a projector? Blogs and other social media are great places to research different brands and models. Yet, when I’m ready to buy, I want to see direct links to make a purchase. Often, though, search results only return reviews and other chatter which is when I click on the PPC link.

By: Duncan

Duncan — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:47:40 +0000

Of course a guy that works for a company that is based on content that helps with SEO is going to be against paid search. When you’re looking for results – you have to use a variety of strategies. They’ve both got their reasons. I just attended SES Chicago and there’s lot of compelling reasons and great tracking for both paid and organic search.

By: Monty's Mega Marketing

Monty's Mega Marketing — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:58:58 +0000

PPC is great for the ‘quick fix’. Why wait days for the search engines to give you good rank when you can pay for traffic?

That being said, I am a huge SEO fan myself.

By: Kyle Lacy

Kyle Lacy — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:28:50 +0000

What makes you say organic search is NOT targeted? You can use tools like WordPress and Compendium to get targeted traffic.

The beauty with organic is that you are actually creating content while improving your search ranking. two for one.

By: Jim Brown

Jim Brown — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:36:45 +0000

Ummm… what is the title of your blog entry? “Why Spend Money on PPC? QUIT WASTING MONEY!” <– Seems to me you said “Don’t spend money!”

You will NOT get the same targeted traffic with organic as you will with PPC. With organic your get more clicks/traffic… but I could care less about that. I’m NOT out to improve my Alexa ranking, I want ACTION. ACTION = CONVERSIONS = $$$

By: Kyle Lacy

Kyle Lacy — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:47:24 +0000

@Jim I never said don’t spend money but I feel like you get the same targeted search with organic as you do PPC.

Could you state that fact? Do you have anything to back up that claim in the middle?

You know I love you.

By: Jim Brown

Jim Brown — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:30:23 +0000

Why spend money on PPC? That is a pretty ridiculous question. Why spend money on ANY marketing? The answer is to ACQUIRE business. In a PPC campaign, if targeted, and tracked properly, you can determine a CPA – Cost Per Acquisition. If you are comfortable with that number – why would you QUIT?

Regardless of WHAT marketing effort you choose – you WILL have COST. I know for a fact that if you calculate the total CPA for SEO (to include blogging, social media, etc) your COST will be higher than PPC.

The majority of our clients (95%) are B2B and are realizing substantial gains in PPC.

By: Deeter

Deeter — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:50:01 +0000

PPC works well as the “front end” of a good SEO or SEM campaign. Often times a client will have no idea which key phrases a genuine lead/prospect/customer uses to find them. Or, which social media venues these folks are more likely to reside in.

In 2-3 weeks, a well structured PPC campaign can determine these key phrases, and, if you go an extra step and split test a few pages, the copy that converts.

With that info, the initial SEO and SEM work can be targeted much more tightly.

By: chris

chris — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:09:30 +0000

@Lorraine we actually see very good PPC traffic for our (mostly) B2B application. If you run a narrow campaign, track and measure you can direct some very qualified traffic using PPC campaigns and see good results.

By: Lorraine Ball

Lorraine Ball — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:44:37 +0000

While I don’t often recommend PPC, particularly for B2B applications, it can be effective for broad based consumer promotions.