Why Your PPC Campaign is Bleeding Money

When you have the perfect business, you need to make sure everyone else gets a chance to see it. With effective marketing, you get traffic to your website and you show off your products or services to the world. It’s a win-win situation. However, if you are focusing your marketing on pay-per-click (PPC), you could be hemorrhaging money. There are a variety of reasons that PPC marketing is not effective.

You Probably Aren’t Marketing in the Correct Markets

Image via Flickr by zoetnet

Most people, especially those who are new to Internet marketing, don’t really realize that there is a lot to do to ensure that a pay-per-click marketing strategy is effective. You need to make sure that you are advertising to the right demographic. In the majority of cases, you cannot target your audience correctly and end up spending too much money on people who really don’t have any interest in your product.

Who Really Clicks?

When you start pay-per-click marketing campaigns, the first thing you think is that it won’t cost you too much money. Really, you are only paying when someone clicks on your link. However, there are a variety of reasons this sucks for your company. First, the majority of people who would be interested in your product are likely to ignore the PPC ads on a website. Those who do click, don’t have to purchase from you. And remember, you have to pay every time someone clicks. It adds up, and if you aren’t getting the expected revenue, your business is going to bleed money.

Fewer Clicks for Higher Prices

Since 2005, the cost per click has almost tripled. The click-through rate has fallen by two-thirds. This means that you are going to get fewer clicks than people did just a few years ago. On top of that, the number of invalid clicks has shot through the roof. However, you are going to pay a whole lot more. Depending on your keywords, you may be paying multiple dollars or even tens of dollars for each click. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it adds up quickly.

Do You Have a Brand to Market? You Can’t With PPC

Image via Flickr by epSos.de

One of the biggest downfalls of pay-per-click marketing is that there is no branding. You can’t show your logo, you are extremely limited on what you can say, and it’s hard to get your image across. Because of this, companies that have a strong brand presence don’t benefit at all from PPC marketing.

It’s an Expensive Pain in the Butt to Correctly Set Up

Ok, so you can get a PPC marketing campaign set up for a very small cost quickly and easily. But does that mean that it is set up correctly? Absolutely not. In fact, the majority of new businesses make extremely expensive mistakes when setting up a new PPC campaign. Choosing the wrong keywords can cost you hundreds of dollars before it is fixed.

Pay-per-click marketing is ineffective if you don’t know what you’re doing. It will cost your company a significant amount of money, without much benefit. Before throwing money into a PPC campaign without fully understanding it, consult professionals.

By Jon Correll