Are paid search results worthwhile? Well it depends on your goals and objectives.
The blind run towards Google Adwords, Overture and MSN AdCenter (the pay-per-click channels) has started to slow down, and rightfully so. For the last few years, we’ve seen companies start with ad budgets of $500 / month only to increase those budgets to well over $8,000 per month in just under a year. These companies know that PPC is increasing their traffic, lead generation and sales, yet they don’t know exactly which PPC is working and which campaigns are just burning funds.
Case in point.
We have a client which sells computer hardware, at their previous agency they spent between $500 - $1000 / month on PPC via Google AdWords. Our client had zero visibility as to which PPC was working and which wasn’t. Once we began working together, we used Google’s Conversion tools to measure which specific terms were converting over to actual sales. In just under 4 weeks we measured ZERO conversions from AdWords, yet there were several orders from other channels.
Does that mean the AdWords is worthless? No, not at all. In fact, Google AdWords did refer traffic to the site and perhaps overtime these visitors will convert to sales, but we have no way to accurately track that data. Google AdWords can be of value as a branding tool. Our client may have not measured direct sales conversions, yet they are appearing in the search results for key terms relating to the business services.
Overtime, the net effect of AdWords, newsletters, press releases and advertising campaigns will ultimately create a heightened brand awareness. When considering PPC be sure to measure your efforts so you can strategically determine if PPC will be a sales, lead generation tool or a branding tool.
