In theory, pay per click sounds like a great way for a business to advertise, especially a small company with a limited budget. It makes sense since people use search engines like Google all the time. It seems reasonable to think that they will see your ad and visit your website. Furthermore, you can launch ads easily and set your budget which is really convenient. The reality is that these ads may not be very helpful for your business. Below are some of the reasons why they may be a waste of your money.
Related Blog: How We Decreased PPC Budget by 50% and Increased Conversion Rate by 700% (Duncan Case Study)
1. Pay Per Click Advertising is Expensive
The result is that you will simply not be able to compete with a larger company, especially if you are a startup. Years ago, it was possible for a small business to launch an AdWords campaign and stay within a reasonable budget. Times have changed and clicks are not as affordable as they once were. Consider the fact that a large company can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their AdWords campaign in a month. Then there is the problem of human error. Making mistakes with pay per click is one of the main ways that you can waste money. We all make mistakes but with this type of advertising, mistakes can cost you dearly. Something like forgetting to turn ads off can literally cost you thousands of dollars. An incorrectly spelled keyword could also result in Google penalizing you.
2. When it Comes to Advertising, People Are Skeptics
This is especially so with regards to advertising on the Internet. People simply do not like to have ads forced on them while they surf or check their social media. This means that if PPC is a major component of your marketing strategy, you are facing an uphill battle.
3. ROI?
Even when PPC is a good idea, you could be wasting money on it. If you don’t create a process and don’t optimize your website for conversions, then you will be sending people to a website that does nothing for you. Measuring success of your marketing and advertising efforts allows you to know if PPC works, and what works for you. If you are doing inbound and you are tracking everything, then you can run a PPC campaign connected to that inbound campaign and prove ROI by measuring success on it. PPC should not be about delivering traffic to your website, it should be about delivering more ideal customers to the right landing pages that have a high conversion rate so you can get more high quality leads that ultimately turn into customers.
