Pay-Per-Click Advantages
Pay-per-click advertising is a powerful tool for increasing the number of qualified visitors to a website. However, the pros and cons of pay-per-click advertising must be compared with other equally powerful Internet Marketing techniques before deciding which technique is appropriate for a particular business. It must be emphasised that the pay-per-click advantages delineated below are potential advantages, which accrue only with a skilfully implemented and managed pay-per-click campaign. Many pay-per-click campaigns are so badly thought through that there is never any prospect of them producing a positive return – in such circumstances the potential advantage of a pay-per-click campaign producing, for example, immediate results translates into the campaign losing money sooner rather than later.
PPC for Rapid Results
The one compelling advantage of pay-per-click advertising over search engine optimisation is its ability to deliver immediate results. Search engine optimisation may produce more website visitors of a higher quality and at a lower unit cost, but it will take weeks, months, sometimes even years for the full benefits to become apparent. In contrast, pay-per-click advertising will generate website visitors as soon as the PPC campaign goes live. If a business requires online revenues immediately and its business model lends itself to cost-effective pay-per-click advertising, then a pay-per-click campaign should almost certainly be included in the Internet Marketing mix.
Paying for Performance
A pay-per-click advertiser’s expenditure depends on the number of times that an advert is clicked through, not the number of times it is shown. Pay-per-click or pay per performance advertising allows the advertisements to be delivered only to a particular geographical area and ensures that the adverts are shown on web pages with related content. This combination of geo-targeting and contextual advertising produces high quality traffic, which means high conversions from browsers to buyers. Pay per performance advertising is an effective means of selling goods and services, whereas pay-per-impression banner advertising is more useful for building brand awareness or launching new products.
PPC Controls Costs
Pay-per-click providers allow pay-per-click advertisers to set upper limits for the amount which will be paid for a single clickthrough and the total daily spend. The ability to set and adhere to campaign budgets is an attractive feature of pay-per-click advertising, particularly since the results of pay-per-click are immediately apparent. This means that the pay-per-click campaign can be adjusted in real time, with poorly performing elements revised or removed and the campaign budget adjusted in the light of results achieved. In contrast, the significant time lag between implementing a search engine optimisation campaign and seeing improvements in search engine rankings means that the majority of the campaign budget is spent before there is any indication whether the optimisation techniques used have been successful.
