Pay Per Click is the Advertiser's Dream
The way of Internet advertising is changing rapidly. We are
moving from websites once cluttered with blinking banners that
populated Internet real estate into a cyber-generation of
positioning. Marketers are realizing very quickly that the
Internet customer is much different than a buyer in the physical
world. The typical Internet shopper has developed the following
manifesto which motivates him or her to resort to cyberspace:
1. Privacy - The ability to shop from home without anyone else
knowing what you are doing. 2. Convenience - The list of
products available on the Internet is more extensive than the
famed Mall of America in Minnesota 3. Speed - When's the last
time you waited on a pimple-faced teenager working a cash
register when checking out on the Internet?
Traditional Internet marketing has not coincided with the
Internet surfer's manifesto. However, no means of marketing have
come as close as pay per click search engine marketing.
In this article we will discuss the drawbacks to traditional
banner advertising, new rich media advertising, and e-mail
advertising. We will follow this up with benefits of pay per
click search engine advertising.
1. Traditional Banner Advertising We've all seen them, and then
we've all ignored them. The annoying "Punch the Monkey and Win!"
flashing 468x60 banner at the top of the website you are
visiting. Although in its day this was a highly effective ad,
for its novelty and at the same time the fascination at the
novelty of the Internet on the part of those who visited the
Internet, today we are looking at the stark reality that banner
ads just are not effective.
Traditional banner advertising violates all the motivations of
the Internet shopper. It intrudes on the shoppers privacy, it
creates an inconvenience, and it slows the shoppers ability to
find exactly what they are looking for (if they are even paying
attention to the ad).
As a shopper on the Internet surfs from site to site, or page to
page within a site to find what they are looking for, the goal
is to find their product or service, learn more about this
product or service, and learn about other options which will
hopefully lead to an informed purchase. Introducing banner
advertisements often becomes a distraction, or an annoyance, the
exact opposite of what any good marketer would like to create.
By distracting the shopper from their intended goal the
advertiser succeeds in slowing down their ability to make
informed decisions while at the same time inconveniencing the
shopper with information that they cannot use.
In rare instances, a banner advertisement succeeds in aiding a
buyer. In fact, industry experts estimate that only 8 people out
of 1000 people who are exposed to a banner ad will pursue what
that ad has to offer. This does not mean that they will
buy...the number of people who buy compared to the number of
people who visits is an entirely different percentage that does
not work in our favor.
All in all, unless banner advertising is done with extreme
precision, it will only succeed to further encourage potential
buyers to ignore those common place ads.
2. Rich Media Advertising
Youu get to the website you want, you just start to surf the
site, and then its there. Before you can do what you came to
this site to do, you are presented with a floating image, maybe
with some music, maybe with something moving all the way across
your screen, or a movie. You are given the option to cut this
out prematurely with a small 'x' in the upper-right hand corner,
but be careful not to miss it, otherwise you will lose the site
you initially inteded to visit.
Rich media is very much like most new graphical ads and new
technologies on the Internet. It is enjoying the highs of a
novelty. People are clicking on these ads...but for all the
wrong reasons. Most people do not click on rich media ads
because they genuinely are interested in the product or service
that they are offering, but rather they click on them because
they are "cool". There are no arguments from our camp that these
ads are amazing, but they are also one of the greatest
intrusions to the Internet surfer's life on the Internet.
The typical Internet user is selfish: he/she wants what they
want when they want it. To block the screen and prevent them
from reading the site, or clicking a link, or viewing a picture
will cause more people to become greatly annoyed than to
cultivate genuine feelings of interest in the advertised website.
Again, we have succeeded in teaching Internet users to ignore
ads, not to pay attention to them.
Rich media, even moreso than traditional banner advertising,
violates the Internet surfer. And although this medium is
currently enjoying the highs of a technological novelty, look
for it to quickly drop off in its effectiveness.
3. E-Mail Advertising
Once a very strong way to advertise, e-mail advertising has
quickly risen to the #1 annoyance of those who spend a fair
amount of their time with the Internet. This is not to say that
there is not a place for e-mail advertising any more, but
navigating these grounds is extremely difficult -- and
dangerous. The backlash from a poorly executed campaign could
cause irreperable harm to the company doing the marketing.
The first and most important problem with e-mail advertising is
SPAM. You have certainly heard of it and probably know what it
is. E-mail that is sent to a group of people that did not
"opt-in" to receive that message. True opt-in e-mail can be
quite effective (although not as effective as pay per click
advertising). The trick is finding the true opt-in email lists.
Many vendors claim to offer opt-in lists, but many of these
advertisers also have varying standards as to what "opt-in"
really means. In addition, rarely do you have the guarantee of
good targeting.
Even if you do get a true opt-in list, many times the users
forget they are on this list and complain of spam mail. Get
enough complaints to your hosting provider and you could quickly
be looking for a new Cyberspace home.
Newsletters have become a favorite of many marketers. This is
truly a less intrusive means of e-mail marketing, although it
still offers the problems of being an inconvenience to the
reader. Most readers are interested in the articles provided by
a newsletter, not the advertisements.
And again, we are training Internet users to ignore these ads
(or delete them as I do).
4. Pay Per Click Advertising
There is a strong, viable answer to Internet marketers who are
struggling with finding a friendly, effective means of bringing
qualified traffic to their piece of Internet real estate. The
answer: pay per click search engines (PPCSE). Unlike the other
forms of advertising that we discussed, well managed PPCSE's do
not bring the intrusive, distracting elements that the other
forms of advertising brings.
The key difference between pay per click search engine marketing
and other forms of marketing is simple: who initiates the
advertisement. In traditional advertising methods, the
advertiser is forcing their message upon the Internet surfer.
With a pay per click search engine, the user initiates the
information flow.
They are open to receiving information from marketers.
By actively searching on a subject, the surfer is presented with
a list of options that should meet or come close to meeting his
or her need. The results are obvious: a more highly targeted
visitor to your site, a visitor with a higher inclination to
partake in the service your site is offering (as they were
actively seeking it in the first place), and the ability to pay
for only the interested visitor.
Pay Per Click advertising brings obvious benefits to the
marketer. Because the advertiser only needs to pay for the
traffic received, and because that traffic is qualified much
more than an intrusive banner ad or e-mail, the resulting ROI is
much higher. In addition, the marketer does not suffer from as
many instances of a passive visitor. This is not to say that
there will be no passive visitor, but the instances will be
greatly reduced.
One stat that we like to point out in regards to pay per click
search engine marketing is this: a clickthrough rate of 100%.
Think about it: you know immediately how many visitors you are
going to receive as a result of your listing. No worrying about
eeking out that extra 0.02% in visitors. If you are familiar
with running banner ad campaigns, you will quickly know how
frustrating it is to see thousands of impressions go by without
anyone paying attention.
But most of all, pay per click marketing compliments the
Internet surfer's manifesto of privacy, speed, and convenience.
Again, by being a user initiated advertisement, the user is
welcoming the information. Because marketers bid on specific
keywords and phrases, a well managed pay per click search engine
will greatly increase the relevancy of a search initiated by a
user. Also, a well-managed pay per click search engine will
eliminate the needless distractions of a company trying to call
attention to an unrelated product or service.
If you have not yet tried pay per click advertising, you need to
begin doing so. It is certainly the future direction of
marketing. As other marketing forms struggle to find ways to
compliment the Internet surfer's manifesto, pay per click
advertising will be a solution to draw in new clients and
customers at a fraction of the cost.