The End of PPC?

In order to reach a conclusion, let me take you through the pros and cons that I have witnessed first hand when implementing PPC strategies.

What is PPC: Pay-per-click advertising, for every person that clicks on your advert you pay a fee. The most well-known example of these are the adverts you see at the top and bottom of your Google searches.

Pros:

 

Website Traffic Increase:

When implemented successfully there is no denying that PPC campaigns will increase your website traffic. Paying platforms to feature your advert and website will encourage more people to visit your website.

 

Budgeting & Real Time Tracking:

PPC campaigns require a strategy that includes frequent review, this is one of the main benefits of PPC campaigns. Utilising someone who can interpret the analytics and make decisions that improve your campaigns is key. Budgets can be applied to campaigns, to ensure that you don’t run away with wasting expenditure. Allocating the budget on keywords and adverts that are most successful will in-turn generate more website traffic.

 

Increases Sales & Remarketing:

A tentative pro, that requires careful planning and implementation. It also extends into the SEO and UX optimisation level of your website, however, in theory successfully implemented PPC ads will generate more sales, especially if you directly advertise these products in the ad. This can be elevated further by using retargeting, setting up your PPC strategy to re advertise your products or services to those that have visited specific pages of your website. Whilst the impact of this upon conversions is up for debate, it can encourage a further revisit to your website.

Cons:

 

Expensive:

Whilst the pay per click model may seem like you are going to be spending less than other forms of advertising, it soon begins to add up. Working with a digital marketing expert to create your campaigns can help to reduce expenditure, but often the most successful campaigns will be backed by a hefty amount of budget. It is always my recommendation that PPC campaigns be used occasionally and for a specific result, many clients that have switched to working with us have been spending thousands of pounds on PPC campaigns. Efforts should instead be put into growing the SEO optimisation of your website, whilst PPC can occasionally run alongside this, working again with a digital marketer will ensure that your website is appearing at the top of Google search results, without having to spend a fortune on adverts.

 

Lack of Brand Control:

Ai-based methods are allowing platforms such as Google to alter your ad text in order to better encourage click-thrus, this, however, will mean that you have limited control over how exactly you are representing your brand. A risk that may pay off, or may confuse your branding efforts.

 

Google’s Domination:

Bothering to implement your PPC campaigns on anything other than Google is often just wasted expenditure, no other platform has such reach and their ROI is lack-lustre. It can become monotonous, and often you may find you have become stagnant with ideas in how to reach potential customers through Google’s limited word counts.

 

Sponsored Ads Are Ignored:

Digital audiences have been here for just as long as we have, they often know exactly how things work and after years of sponsored ads taking them to irrelevant locations, they have learnt to trust in the organic top listings instead. With only 30% of searches actually clicking on the ads (this number is decreasing too), it would seem that unless you really have a strong call to action and relevant landing page, you aren’t going to get the levels of response that you expect.

 

Conclusion:

Now that we have explored all of the pros and cons that I have experienced when implementing PPC strategies, is the conclusion that it is in fact on its way out?… I think so yes, slowly but surely, PPC platforms are going to have to reassess their offering to marketers and businesses as the actual number of conversions you can generate through PPC just doesn’t justify the amount spent per click. Whilst I see the value of PPC alongside other more successful tactics, I will continue to advise my clients that they need to focus on their SEO; occasional PPC campaigns to promote specific products or services is the only way I am comfortable spending on PPC campaigns. This can be a tricky and time-consuming process, we have a team of specialist and passionate people at Dirty Martini. You are more than welcome to drop me an email to discuss any of the above points made further.