Being a PPC marketer, I guess you could say I am a bit biased when it comes to thinking of reasons why everyone else should love PPC. It's hard to imagine when you are entrenched in the industry, but those same simple reasons why we PPC marketers love the industry are not always so apparent to everyone else. In fact, most times, they are not known at all. Inspired by my recent SES NY attendance, I quickly realized that the best part of actually sitting down to think about these reasons, is that I began to conceptualize that somehow not only have some of these reasons slipped by business owners (read: potential clients), but have often times they've slipped by them because us (PPC marketers) often forget how important these reasons are to share with our (potential) clients.
Trying to narrow the list to just 10 was a bit difficult, but I was able to manage (Again, I'm biased - I could probably create a never ending list).
1. YOU have the Control â There are very few mediums of marketing where you have COMPLETE control over your users. PPC gives you the ability to choose your target audience, choose regions, choose the ads they see, choose what you are willing to pay to show your audience those ads, choose your budget limit, choose when you'd like your ads to show and the list goes on and on....
2.You can take IMMEDIATE action â Say you turn on an ad and it fails horribly. You are not bond by any out-clauses, contracts, etc. to keep that ad running and wasting your money. Simply TURN IT OFF. Not to mention, you can respond to offline events more quickly with PPC than with any other medium. This blog written by my colleague is a perfect example of how you can capitalize on offline events.
3.You can test, EASILY and QUICKLY â There are unlimited possibilities when it comes to testing. Maybe you have new promotions you want to test, new ad copy, or new landing pages. Tools such as Google's Website Optimizer allow you to quickly and efficiently run landing page tests (for FREE). In addition to the above testing options, you can quickly test terms you may be considering to target with an SEO campaign. If those terms aren't driving conversions from PPC, you probably don't want to spend the time or resources to launch an SEO campaign for those terms.
4. Try NEW markets â If you are launching your products in new markets, be it new countries, new age groups, etc. you can quickly test the success rate in those markets with PPC at a fraction of the cost, before launching a full blown marketing campaign.
5. Run Promotions â Have a last minute promotion? You can develop an ad and tweak your landing page within minutes to run new promotions. Not to mention you can use geo-targeting to tailor your promotions to specific regions if necessary.
6. It's COST EFFICIENT â When you compare PPC to other advertising mediums, such as online banners, it is typical to see a much higher return on investment. Also for companies that may have a limited, you can run a very tightly targeted campaign. Whereas with online banners, geo-targeting actually drives your cost UP.
7. It's RESULTS DRIVEN (not to mention you see results in (almost) real time) â You can easily track down to the exact conversion with PPC. If a certain campaign is not performing well, you have various choices to cut the inefficient spend. For example; reallocate your budget, try new landing pages, try new ad copy, etc. Real time reporting also allows you to see if campaigns are performing quickly. Those that are performing under metric can be identified within a few hours and turned off immediately.
8. Content networks â Coming from a media background, I know that top-quality media buys (banner advertising) can run a high tab. The Content networks offer you a relatively similar advertising experience for a much lower cost.
9. You can easily EXPAND your business â Companies now have the world at their fingertips and are able to reach markets with PPC that before may never have been possible due to the high cost to penetrate those markets.
10. The market is CONTINUING TO GROW despite economic conditions â When looking at at stats of Search Engine growth over the past few years, I am blown away with the continual upward growth we have seen and are continuing to see. The most surprising data is the prediction of continued advertising growth despite the economic downturn we are currently experiencing (granted certain industries may be hit harder than others). I found some interesting research from The Wall Street Journal regarding this issue.
While this list can certainly be expanded, the above reasons can serve as a brief reminder for PPC marketers on why we should continue to stand behind, and promote our industry.
