Is pay-per-click (PPC) beneficial for small businesses?
I'm wondering if PPC is the best online advertising model to use for a small business trying to drive traffic towards their website. My fear is that the cost per click will become too costly for our business if the web traffic increases at a more rapid pace. Has this model worked for other small business owners just starting out?
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May 15, 2015
“PPC or SEO “This is a common question that every small business owner asked when it comes to drive traffic on the website. If you need instant results, PPC is preferred. PPC is a great way to get visitors on the website. But if Pay per click campaign is not managed properly, it can be risky, cost you high and doesn’t provide any financial return.
There are many factors that will consider to know if PPC is right for small business or not. Small business have limited budget and time, so if you have new products or service to offer then it will be perfect time to invest. PPC can’t help you if you don’t have appealing landing page on your website.
But what I have realized is that if you are looking for solid return in the long run, SEO is the best option.
May 7, 2015
Yes. If is done correctly. If you are not sure how then hire someone to mange it for you. We mange Pay Per Click campaigns for our clients. SEO is another option that will get traffic to your site. We can help in the regard as well.
May 7, 2015
Adwords PPC really works, but a small business needs to be smart about it. In my experience most start-ups think only in terms of traffic volume rather than traffic quality. More visitors doesn't guarantee more sales.
What is your website's conversion rate? Of your visitors, how many transact? And to what value? You have to think in terms of your cost per acquisition and your transaction value to work out a budget, or what to expect from your budget.
e.g.
Assume a sale is worth $100 and you're ready to invest $10 in your cost per acquisition. If your conversion rate on your website is 5% then you know you need 20 clickthroughs to get 1 sale. Your Adwords bid for each click is: $10 / 20 people = $0.50.
If you Google your business type in your area you'll quickly see how much Adwords competition you have on the results page. Now you just need to establish if you can get a decent placement on the results page with your $0.50 bid using various keyword combinations. You can use the keyword tool that Adwords provides to establish potential keyword combinations, search volumes and estimated bid placement.
If you can't place with your bid, then Adwords/PPC is obviously not viable. On the other hand, if you place too well with your bid and your clickthroughs are going to be too high for you to cope with logistically, then you can always cap your Adwords daily budget to stop your ad from appearing more than you need it to.
May 5, 2015
The PPC is the wonderful model for the small businesses if you sell per item or service over $20 or if you save at least $5 per sell.
The PPC is the model where you do not require much setup expenses; do not require longer time to wait (unlike organic SEO). you can setup it today and start getting leads in next few hours.
The budget can be as low as $10 per day. You can chat me on whatsapp at +91 99999 81613 or skype / google hangout where my id is SQAGURU.
You can refer our website www.Digitalsalesmen.com or write me at digitalsalesmen at gmail.com
May 5, 2015
Hi,
It would be arguable, so I will state that it can work very well(particularly for transactional websites), but the key here is sales, and I would advise you to see it that way rather than simply a method for increased traffic with a "hope for the better" thinking in terms of general popularity(there are cheaper methods for that), if you are looking for projection of you brand/business I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a vast branding targeted budget. But better that listening to me would be trying it with some free credit coupon(quite a few advertisement platforms do this). PM me if you need any help, I am happy to help.
May 4, 2015
Hello Zoe, I'm not going to repeat the answers given by many of the people below. I can however share my own experience with AdWords (PPC-campaign) that is running now. My business is 'Translation and language services', more a service than a tangible product such as art. Does the campaign direct more web traffic? Yes, but the question is whether I'm reaching my target audience and if I get conversions (leads and orders)...So far I have had a few orders (month 2 just finished of my campaign) and by far not covered the investment in AdWords. But as both the Google advisers and many of the SEO-Advertising experts on this network will confirm, it takes time (approx. 3 months), tenacity and money to see some results.
The real question is whether you should really invest in on line advertising when a well developed website (SEO-optimized) and word-of-mouth can do so much more for you.
Personally I think that Scott H. Zucker (see answer above) provided the best tips on how to move forward.
My 5 cents: Nurture relationships in the community, leave some business cards in places where potential visitors/buyers for your art gallery might frequent, go to local events and network, ..., and e-marketing wise: strong FB-page, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. pages to establish a relationship with the virtual community.
PS: There are plenty of resources on line to help you with the SEO/SEA part of your web presence, if you need help on the writing part (it's an art in itself) contact a good copywriter that understands both your niche and the SEO narrative.
Good luck with the gallery,
Olivier
Dutch Translator Belgium
May 4, 2015
According to my experience, it is .05% affect your business, but at the same time social media marketing is too good for small business,...
May 4, 2015
Advertising on the web is going to the dogs. Since upgrading to fibre optic broadband, I've been watching more youTube adverts - which play before the movie. If your customers have fibre or 4G, you could put out a youTube advert or a video with a banner advert pointing to it.
May 4, 2015
PPC can be a great solution IF you are able to measure your success against other efforts you have going on. If not, then it's going to give you an idea of what you think is successful but you'll never know it. PPC, Organic, social, referral, deals/discounts, etc all need to be measured and compared so you can pick the channels that are working well for you and make adjustments or punt the others. We had to build a tool to do this because comprehensive tools like this are rare and cost a lot of $$$. Also, it's important to make sure you put in a genuine effort to get enough of a sample size to make a good determination. $25/month on PPC is not going to do anything for any business.
May 5, 2015
I recommend getting on the major directories and directories industry-specific to the type of business you have. That is one of the most affordable ways of doing it. If you have any questions about that, please e-mail me. I'm offering that. If you are willing to spend some money on serious marketing and know how you are doing, I recommend HubSpot. One of my partners offers that. Also e-mail me on that one.
May 7, 2015
I'm not sure I follow you Larry. Our clients have a specific monthly spend and requirements and we stick to those (or remain under) every single month. If a client wants to spend $50/month (I wouldn't recommend that btw) it is $50/month - every month.
I think getting on RELEVANT directories for your business, sure, in addition to advertising and organic and referrals and social and promotions and guest blogging and and and. It's a comprehensive strategy. We've not had much luck in advertising with directory services like City Grid and the like. Hands down, Google is always in our top three ROI achievers every month across the board for any client that uses them.
May 4, 2015
Hi Zoe,
The marketing tactic you will choose depends upon the products or services you sell. PPC is expensive but if done right it can yield high profits on long run. Especially if you are in B2B field. However, its not only set it and forget it. You have to monitor how campaigns are running and fine tuning them.
From my experience PPC is always better than PPV (when you are advertising CPM).
In addition there are numerous other tactics you can choose instead of PPC advertising:
- E-mail marketing (solo emails) - Useful for B2B products and services
- Social Media Marketing (stumbleupon can bring you cheap traffic if you have good content, also reddit)
-Press releases (consider paid press releases- you will be featured in top web sites + you will have backlinks toward yours)
- CPA networks (you pay for subscription to your e-mail list, or revenue share after sale)
-and many many others channels.
I'm not a fan of Google AdWords. They tell you in their videos and training videos just how neat it can be to to promote yourself for whatever budget you have per month. What they don't tell you, and I had to learn this the hard way - and why I don't offer AdWords anymore- is that the cost accrues each month. For example, if you are looking to spend $50 per month, you would pay $50 that first month, but then surprise, surprise, the accrument fee doubles to $100 and so forth until you reach a certain threshold. It is like paying interest on a student loan. See where I'm going with this? You have to pay the accrument in addition to bidding on keywords.