Wealthy Affiliate University – PPC (Pay-Per-Click) or SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

Hi,

There are many advantages and disadvantages involved when comparing PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I will outline the advantages and disadvantages below:

Advantages:

Return on Investment
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CPC is a very effective marketing tool. The efficiency of the advertising is easy to track, therefore making the return on investment (ROI) figures easy to determine. ROI is determined by how many click-throughs resulted in a sale.

Unlike print advertising, where a company may spend thousands of dollars on one ad that very few people may see, CPC allows business owners to see exactly how many people clicked on the ad and what percentage of those decided to purchase something. If the revenue exceeds the costs involved with getting the customers to the site, then the business is making money.

Auto-Bidding
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Many CPC engines are now offering “auto-bidding” to make things even easier for their clients. If Company A puts in a maximum bid of 10 cents, they have determined their limit per click. However, at the moment they may only be paying five cents. If Company B decides that they want to move to the number one spot and ups their click-through rate to six cents, the auto-bidding feature will up Company A’s bid to seven cents so that they will remain in the first position. And they didn’t have to constantly monitor the situation.

Attracting Visitors
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CPC is the most direct way to attract visitors to a site. Choosing specific keywords means that you can specifically target different types of consumers based on which keyword they type in. By promoting more targeted keywords, you are much more likely to attract someone who is interested in purchasing, rather than promoting a broad search term in which individuals tend to type when they are looking for information only

Increasing Branding
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50% of sales occur when a customer visits a Web site for the first time. The other 50% generally occurs on subsequent visits. If a customer sees a company listed at the top of the sponsored links section, chances are that business will get the sale. But even if the sale isn’t made right away, there is still the advantage of branding — building awareness of the site for future needs.

Having Full Control
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Advertisers choose the terms that describe their company; what the cost of the term is worth; how much they are willing to pay each day; and how long the campaign will last. All of this is managed on their own time, not set by deadlines created by an outside source.

Disadvantages:

Budget Limitations
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Because businesses only have so much to spend on their campaigns, they need to set a budget for not only how much they will pay for each click, but also what their daily maximum will be. Because there is a set limit on the money that can be spent, this also limits the amount of exposure the ad will have. Once the daily maximum has been reached, the ad is no longer shown and potential customers could be lost.

For those on limited budgets, this can mean that some of the larger players will gain more exposure because of their financial ability to pay more per click. But having the budget doesn’t necessarily mean becoming number one. It takes patience, determination, creativity, keyword selection and daily analysis to be successful.

Just Looking…
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Just because someone clicks on a link, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will buy. Some people are just doing some research and may click through to see what else is being offered.

Click-Fraud
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It is said that anywhere between 10-15% of all clicks you receive is click-fraud. This means that you only have 85% of your clicks to try to convert a visitor into a customer. Click-fraud will always be around as your advertisers click on your ads, click-farms exists, and people continue to use the content networks. If you want to limit the amount of click-fraud, avoid the use of the content network as this traffic is where most of the click-fraud is derived.

All in all, both methods can be very effective, however you are at the mercy of Search Engine algorithms if you decide to use SEO techniques. One day you could have a top-listing and then the next day it could be removed from the search results entirely.

Have a great week!

Fred