Those that consider PPC a short term strategy often miss these 6 benefits.

 

Many use Pay Per Click (PPC) as a short term tool to generate immediate traffic to their website. While this is an immediate benefit it doesn’t mean that it is a short-term strategy. For those that consider PPC a short term strategy it is because the often miss the 6 benefits that are outlined in this post.

Pay Per Click also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has the immediate benefit of instantaneously generating traffic to your website. Search engine marketing is also favoured because of the ability to control your spending. Just as quickly as pay per click search engine marketing can be turned on it can also be turned off enabling a marketer to effectively manage media marketing budgets.

Many customers are thrilled to see the increase in site traffic and love to see their ads at the top of a search page. There is no disputing that these are quick wins but PPC advertising is and should be a long-term marketing strategy.

 The 6 added Benefits of Pay per click – Search Engine Marketing:

1. Keyword Performance Testing – Identify the best performing keywords, secondary keywords etc. – to adjust volume and scale acquisition

2. Ad messaging – identify the most effective value propositions

3. Creative Testing – marketing imagery and messages – I always test online before making decisions on other marketing media channel

4. Landing page testing and optimization – PPC traffic provides the predictability and consistency to create a controlled environment for testing. Benchmarking PPC traffic results enables marketers to test landing page creative, imagery, layouts, etc. based on historical costs per conversion metrics and costs per acquisition.

5. End to End Testing – The search term that triggers your ad and the CTA with great response rates in your ad messaging does not always convert a visitor on your page to a new customer or purchase.

6. Control – PPC traffic provides the predictability and consistency to create a controlled environment for testing and setting benchmarks.

The 6 added benefits above are often overlooked in the unending pursuit to grow organic traffic. Yes everyone agrees that free traffic is the most desirable traffic. Many soon abandon paid PPC traffic feeling it is no longer needed. I am here to say that converting traffic is what everyone is in search of and if you don’t know what converts you are wasting resources. It is more a shotgun approach instead of a rifle approach to marketing.

So the question that comes to mind is; Once I determine what converts should I be finished with PPC traffic? My answer is no. Product marketing is not a static. Setting you campaign on autopilot and forget about it strategy doesn’t work long term. PPC is something we need to test and track everyday. Marketing is a process of continuous improvement. The 6 added benefits becomes the mechanism to test new search terms, product positioning and ad messaging to determine if what worked yesterday still works today and better still figure out how to improve what we did yesterday for better results today.

Just as the market changes, trends change, terminology changes, competition changes and the target group you are selling your product to also change. Today’s customer may be a GenX while tomorrows will be a Millennial. Your current ad messaging may become less attractive or irrelevant as the market changes. Recognizing and leveraging the 6 added benefits of PPC search engine marketing you continue the process of testing, learning and applying best practices as the market and your customer evolves.