PPC Myths

A few years ago, I wrote an article on SearchEngineLand.com entitled “If Paid Search Isn’t Working Then You’re Doing Something Wrong”. I recently went back to read the article again, to see how current it was. It still holds up.

The fact is pay-per-click marketing should be working for you. If it is not working, then it’s time to figure out why.

Paid search marketing is often intimidating and downright scary for many people. Those fears can be based on legitimate reasons, but they often stem from common misconceptions of pay-per-click. Below are some of the myths I am often faced with when “selling” PPC.

1. People Ignore Those Ads
   There are several reasons why this is NOT true. First off, let’s look at the obvious: Google.
   Google makes money from PPC ads. At last check, they seem to be doing very well. Clearly, someone is clicking on these ads. Secondly, there are tons of other companies that put a large chunk of their marketing into paid search. This is because they have seen the data and they know the return is there.

   If other companies know to participate in paid search, then why not you? Google prides itself on making paid search fair and available to the “little guy”. Whether you are a small company or a large corporation, there is a demand out there that is not being captured. Find it.

2. Natural Traffic Gets More Clicks Than Paid Traffic
   Okay, so technically this is not a myth. It is true that very often natural traffic to your website will out-number paid traffic to your site. However, the myth is in the action that follows. Advertisers often get caught up in clicks and not conversions. Although, there may be more traffic from SEO efforts, it’s the paid search traffic that is going to bring in more revenue.
3. The Ads Are Unrelated To My Search
   This statement is a mixture of myth and truth. Unfortunately, there are some very bad PPC marketers out there. They break all the rules of a well-optimized PPC campaign. By wasting money on unrelated terms, they are often showing their ads to searchers who are not interested in their ads. They are losing money and ultimately will give up on PPC because it’s not working for them. No, of course it’s not working.
   
   However, there is a silver lining. Because of the lack of knowledge of many of these advertisers, it presents an opportunity. Advertisers have a chance to out shine others in the paid search listings, by showing related and targeted ads.
4. Pay-Per-Click Is Expensive
   In my experience, PPC is the best value across all marketing channels. All channels. What other marketing channel allows you to get a well-targeted consumer to your site at a low price?

   I understand that some industries can have up to $100 CPC keywords, for example the legal field. If your industry has these high dollar keywords don’t give up. If keywords are too expensive to convert at a reasonable ROI, then find new keywords. There is a niche. You just have to put the effort in to finding it for your industry.

Note: It’s important to know that many of these assumptions are based on having a well-planned and optimized paid search campaign. I have often heard companies complain about pay-per-click. Then, I look at their campaign and see it’s not a PPC problem, it’s a knowledge problem.
Making conclusions from bad execution results in faulty conclusions.