AdWords PPC

Google AdWords is also known as Pay Per Click or PPC marketing. On the Google search page you’ll notice ads on the right hand side and sometimes the top of the page. These advertisers pay every time one of their ads is clicked. The cost per click is dependent on how competitive the keyword is, so for example “cheap car insurance” could cost £4 a click, whereas “sunbed reconditioning Scotland” may only be a few pence.

You can allocate an exact budget to this advertising on a daily or monthly basis, once you’ve used it up the ads stop displaying. You can stop the ads at any moment, run them seasonally, or decide to show them only at certain times of day. You can also target certain areas of the country if applicable and obviously only display your ads when the relevant search keyword is typed in. Different campaigns can be set up, run and tested at any time.

So is there a place for Google AdWords in your online marketing plan alongside SEO? Absolutely! Remember, any SEO work can take weeks to take effect and only then will you know if its working or not.

A Google AdWords campaign can be set up in minutes giving you instant access to the number one advertising spot. Feedback comes within hours. Using this information an AdWords campaign can be built to test keyword combinations for later use in SEO work. It also provides perfect complementary advertising, allowing you to advertise on keywords at short notice which is perfect if your business is seasonal, you introduce lots of new products and offers or just need additional traffic. Remember, its highly trackable so you'll always know what your marketing return on investment is using this method of advertising!

I've been Google AdWords qualified for some years and enjoy AdWords greatly, whether it is a small or a major account.

Pay-Per-Click v Natural Search

It’s interesting how much focus natural search, organic search or whatever you want to refer to it as receives these days. Most clients want to focus all their energies on developing “free” traffic to their websites. The problem is though that the traffic isn’t really free, as the client either needs to pay an someone (like me) or has to devote time and energy themselves to developing the skills, then applying the skills on an ongoing basis to improving their performance in the natural listings within Google, Yahoo or Bing search engines. 

Of course the potential prize and return on investment within natural search is larger, 80% of searchers click on these results as opposed to the Paid results so traffic is potentially higher. We’d always recommend that clients focus on natural search strategies, however they should not dismiss Paid Search.

Paid search is instant. A targeted Paid Search campaign can be up and running in hours driving traffic to the clients site. SEO campaigns can and usually do take months to take effect. Any promotional campaigns can be difficult to effectively implement via SEO, whereas Paid Search can be timed precisely to coincide with seasonal promotions.

Paid Search data assists Natural Search. Running Paid Search campaigns provides accurate data from searches made across hundreds of keywords, this data can be used effectively as a basis for the ongoing SEO campaign.

Paid Search is highly trackable. The return on investment (ROI) can be closely tracked and reported providing the client budget holders with the information they require to justify marketing spend.

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