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The ROI of PPC Beats Most Advertising Opportunities
SEM News Source: http://www.searchenginejournal.com
Published: May 20, 2009 - 03:08 am
Story Found By: TheeSocrFreak 1492 Days ago
Category: SEM
Brian Carter shows comparative ROI results on some of the advertising opportunities he’s tested, plus "Six Budget Allocation Recommendations for Online Advertisers"
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from buzzybeemarketing 1490 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Its tough to believe this article. I’ve tested some PPC campaigns. The click fraud is through the roof. This article also says email marketing has a high ROI. I don’t believe that either. Email open rates have been declining for a while. I have to call my e-commerce customers on the phone because they don’t check their email half the time. The only guess I can offer if this article is true, is that the PPC only works for branded names. The PPC then serves as another strategy that helps close the sale.

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from ericwerner 1488 Days ago #
Votes: 0

buzzybeemarketing, Your thoughts about the article are interesting, but I wonder if you might be well served to drill down a little bit further to determine some of the potential reasons for the challenges you’ve had with these channels.Do you think that the possibility exists that the industry for which you tested PPC was not well suited to that type of advertising? For example, if the product offering has a low margin it can sometimes be difficult to provide a high return on ad spend. Another factor might be the conversion architecture of the website - a well designed site that converts can be a huge winner with PPC versus a site that engages in the exact same buy but doesn’t convert as well. With regard to click fraud, did you track the IP addresses of the offending parties and block them?I only say these things to support thinking critically about these marketing channels, which you very well may have done. Although to dismiss these channels might leave a hole in your system which could be remedied by taking the time to give it a second look.Best Regards,Eric

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from ericprudolf 1488 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I think this article would be better named "The ROI of PPC Beats Most Advertising Opportunities . . . In the Hotel Industry."  We can agree to disagree, but in the vast majority of situations PPC is WAY too expensive when it comes to lead and pipeline generation.  If PPC still works in the hotel industry, good for them--but that makes it one of the few remaining where PPC is still a good value.

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from buzzybeemarketing 1488 Days ago #
Votes: 0

I have a 50% margin on a product I sell that ranges anywhere from $125 - $1200. And I’m the only one in my market who offers the customization I do. And people keep hyping local search. Well my sales are up because local shops are going out of business, and more people are coming to me for their needs. So if small businesses are going under, who is going to spend money on local search ppc? I am selling plenty using organic search. I spent $1200 on Adwords and received 2 questions. I do appreciate your critical thinking. I always try and look at the data and not make hasty conclusions. However, I can’t find anyway to justify Adwords. I’ve allocated my resources to much more creative and long term marketing strategies. If you ask me, Adwords is doomed to fail. And if they fail, my only concern is will Google be able to keep their organic search engine running. If they can’t keep the game going, then by all means, keep promoting Adwords and maybe they will keep enough suckers coming into the scheme so we can keep our organic listings. In the meantime, I am working day and night on new marketing stratgies because I think Google has reached its peak.

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from Pulsar 1488 Days ago #
Votes: 0

@Buzzybee: Perhaps your PPC campaign failed because you just simply weren’t experienced enough. Could it be that your campaign wasn’t setup the best way it could be? Sure Adwords is setup so that anyone can create an account and get going but if you want to make it profitable then you need take the time to know how it works backwards and forwards. There are a lot of people out there making good ROI through PPC.

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from buzzybeemarketing 1486 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Well let’s see. I tested time slots, looking for people at work during working hours because of higher commercial intent. I anaylzed all the winning keywords that led to cart ads from organic traffic, then used the same set in the PPC campaign. I tested various ads. I analyzed the return visitor average on the PPC traffic. I used exact phrase keywords. I tested contextual ads against search. I even looked at the partner networks, looking for higher commercial intent. I analyzed the traffic map to see how visitors navigated the site, and to determine commercial intent. Conclusion: Adwords is on its way out. I believe a lot of people who are promoting Adwords are really just consultants trying to sell Adwords Campaign Management Services to customers. I’ve never come across a partner who uses it, other marketing strategies; yes, not Adwords.

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