Published January 17th, 2019
by topppcs
With limited resources, you have to make choices, and sometimes those choices are difficult— like whether to use pay-per-click (PPC) or inbound marketing in order to generate leads. While both strategies might be yielding results, you see that the lack of focus is getting in the way.
Focusing on one strategy and taking it to the maximum is a great way to optimize that channel of promotion in order to get the best results. So, which one do you pick?
Should you choose PPC or inbound marketing? Continue reading as we build a case for each strategy to see what we find below.
PPC and Whether It's Right for You
PPC is pretty simple to understand. You pay a platform like Google, Facebook, Instagram, or one of the other ad-selling sites when people click on your ads.
Depending on the platform, there are different ways to determine your ad spend. In general, you pick how much you want to spend per day and can either give it an ending point or choose to stop it manually.
How much traffic you receive depends on how much money you are willing to spend. Certain keywords and niches cost more per click, and the quality of your website can play into how much you’re charged as well.
With PPC on Google, you can target keywords that your target audience is searching for right now. Instead of waiting to rank in the search engines using search engine optimization (SEO), you’ll have access to the people searching for your products and services now. Unlike SEO, it isn’t free, but it is pretty instant. If you find yourself struggling to get traffic to your website, this might be a good way to get you started.
Though PPC can send an onslaught of traffic to your website quickly, there are still problems with the strategy. If you think PPC is a set-it-and-forget-it marketing plan, that isn’t the case at all. You have to manage your PPC campaigns and make sure they’re optimized at all times. Failing to actively manage your PPC campaigns can result in the massive loss of cash that could be used elsewhere more effectively.
For instance, if you manage your Google AdWords campaign by yourself without much experience, there’s a lot that can go wrong. Failing to set up a good keyword strategy, setting match types, working on bid management, negative keyword removal, ad scheduling, geotargeting, and site links are just the tip of the iceberg with this
marketing ROI strategy. When any of the above things are off in this strategy, most of the traffic you’ll get through these efforts is of little to no value to your company.
Take Aways
Getting people to your website is only one part of the process and frankly is the easiest part. If your website doesn’t speak to your pain points that you ideal customers are having, then they will bounce pretty quickly and that is a waste of your PPC budget. Having high-quality content and valuable resources to attract ideal customers and keep them on your website is a
necessity. The biggest downfall of working with PPC is that once you stop paying for it, your traffic is gone. If you want to build a steady stream of traffic that you don’t have to pay for, PPC isn’t your best option.
Another parting thought is that if you focus on SEO, then once your company gets ranked in the top three spots of Google search, then you will not longer have to pay for PPC ads for those particular search phrases where you find your website i the top three spots.
