Why pay-per-click advertising makes cents
The most common question I’ve been hearing lately is, “What are some ways to get the most efficient results from our advertising budget?” With the condition of today’s economy, it isn’t surprising that more and more brands are looking to get added value out of their spends. In the fight between limited consumer consumption and an even more limited consumer attention span, businesses need to tread strategically to find the best return on their costs.
When answering that question, I find myself commonly coming to a recommendation of contextual pay-per-click advertising. This strategy allows you to focus your money on qualified traffic that surrounds relevant search queries and Web sites that your target audience is already out there using. Remember, your customers are out there looking for you, it’s just a matter of making sure you show up at the most opportune time with the most optimized strategy.
PPC advertising, for those unfamiliar with the term, utilizes platforms run by search providers such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter. These systems allow an advertiser to target keywords and Web placements based on contextual factors that ensure your ads are showing up in accordance with your goals in seeking out potential new customers. This of course differs from traditional media buying efforts that are focused more on maximum exposure to a demographic or outlet, regardless of whether the user is looking for the service or product. This isn’t to say that those types of traditional advertising methods aren’t viable, but for now let’s delve a bit deeper into the unique values of contextual advertising.
Pay as you go
With PPC advertising, you’re setting up a campaign that only costs you money when a user physically clicks one of your ads as opposed to paying for the chance to simply have your ad viewed. This allows you to track and analyze a direct cost with a directly measurable result when it comes to the traffic you are sending to your Web site. With the ability to bid specific amounts on individual keywords and placements, the opportunity to optimize based on your ROI will help you figure out exactly where to best spend your money. If you find a keyword that is getting a large amount of targeted click-throughs, you can easily scale your budget knowing that every dollar spent will return two dollars in profit. On the flip side, if you’re spending money on keywords that aren’t performing to expectations, you can simply pause your bids and readjust your strategy to optimize accordingly.
Flexibility
When you’re running a PPC campaign, you control exactly when, where and what ads are displayed. There are no contract terms or minimum budgets when it comes to getting your contextually targeted ads up in front of your audience. The market will tell you exactly the costs of your advertising and you can decide at any point to make adjustments based on the response. You also have the ability to interchange specific ads, and target placements and bids to ensure that you’re continually optimizing your campaigns for the best results. There is no worse feeling for an advertiser than to see a media buy not perform and knowing that there’s nothing you can do about it. The flexibility that comes with PPC advertising mitigates that risk.
Measurable analytics and real time data
One of the biggest advantages of PPC advertising is the statistics that come along with your campaign. You have the ability to see exactly how much each keyword click costs, how many of those clicks convert into sales/leads for your company and any number of additional relevant measurements. The level of data that you get (all in real time) lets you to focus and optimize your strategy based on concrete analytics. This allows you to take a smarter look to see exactly what does or doesn’t work. At Seventh Point, for example, we work with our clients to make sure we’re constantly testing and comparing every measurable statistic so we can know which ads, keywords and placements out perform each other. Once we get our campaigns to profitable levels, it’s just a matter of scaling the strategy to maximize the value of our client’s dollar.
With the transparent and flexible methods involved in PPC advertising, brands now have taken control away from gatekeeper media sources and are taking their budgets into their own hands to find the most efficient means of getting their message in front of consumers. When done correctly, contextual advertising can be a powerfully cost-effective method of telling the story of your product or service as a standalone or complementary advertising strategy.
