A Bit Inflated—the Big Problems of PPC and What to Do About Them Bigger and Bigger—but Not Always Better and Better Business has always been competitive: Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas, GM vs. Toyota…even schools, like Yale vs. Stanford. Humans demand options and market choice. It’s only natural that business people provide those choices in an attempt to not let the competition overtake them; usually, one product from one business stands out, beating others at the sales game. The instinct to be a sportsman is primal, so people act on the challenge, even on the job. This has never been as true as it is in digital business. With the world economy the way it is, and with it becoming increasingly necessary for entrepreneurs to understand the newest digital business formats, there is a simultaneous rush to be ultra competitive in order to have one’s business come out on top. It’s a tough global economic situation, so companies are jumping the gun on how good they can be. But this rush isn’t always healthy, and it doesn’t always follow that bigger-meansbetter philosophy. Sure, you think you are doing great things once you master certain digital business practices, but it doesn’t always mean you are scoring big for your business. Never was this as true as it is for PPC (pay-per-click). A lot of independent business pros get sucked into the whole PPC world, thinking their investment in it will automatically bring them the big bucks online. It doesn’t always, and if you’re going to be in digital business, you have to be ready to stop your PPC from getting too inflated and wrecking aspects of your enterprise. A Blow to the Ego If you’re using PPC, you might have come to it as a result of it being the better option of the whole SEO vs. PPC debate. Search engine optimization (SEO) is great to a point; but if you really want to optimize your business online so that people will see it at the top of a search engine’s sidebar, you should invest in PPC. That’s the story, and many are sticking to it. But that’s when you have to exercise a bit of philosophy, if haven’t already. PPC optimization can make you visible online, but you have to remember that there is only one person that pays for those clicks on your company ads that appear in PPC space: you. You have to bid on the keywords and phrases to use in those ads and the bill for those bids has your address on them. As well, many keyword phrases are subject to inflation, often by the search engines that utilize them and come up with
new quality restrictions over time. This will definitely affect your pocket book at a potentially severe level. A new, jargon-based term that is being used a lot by digital business pros today is “ego-based bidding.” The high cost of top rankings combined with overzealous marketers or supposed PPC experts cause many online business pros to get ranked on search engines, but they end up generating next-to-no profit. When you’re working with PPC, your and your associates’ egos have to be in check. Getting to the top might be hard work, but it’s only good if it generates success for your business as a whole. Under New Management You need to continually keep tabs on your PPC work if you are going to use it for your business. Schooling yourself in the best PPC tips from PPC publications and aligning yourself with the best PPC services around is equally necessary. You might have to really see if all that PPC traffic (not junk traffic) to your site is bringing in real clients to your business or if it’s just sucking the life out of it. You might even want to rev up your SEO chops again to curb costs. Whatever the case, management and PPC should be the perfect professional combination for operation. If your PPC is getting a bit inflated, you need to air it out. PPC management with strict supervision and the continued studying of the system will let all the hot air out, bringing in the financial rewards. To get more help on all your SEO, web site design, and web traffic needs, e-mail Numero Uno Web Solutions Inc. at info@numerounoweb.com.