Google Adwords
The most popular pay-per-click (PPC) service is Google Adwords. Google makes so much money from this service they offer all their products for free. Since Google is the most popular search engine, the cost-per-click (CPC) of keywords can be very expensive. Would you be shocked to learn in some industries business owners pay well in excess of $50 per click? Many marketing companies target businesses with Adwords accounts because they recognize them as easy targets to solicit other internet services.
The leads generated from PPC campaigns are even more important because the cost of customer acquisition is much higher. Websites converting 2% of traffic to leads is considered good, 5% is great and 8-10% are unicorn websites. Not only does your business need to respond to leads as they come in, but phone reps or sales people need to do whatever it takes to make a deal happen too. Once you factor in all these conditions, the customer acquisition cost might exceed your net profit, which makes PPC campaigns a very bad idea.
A serious discussion using a calculator is required, don't be afraid of facing reality. The only way it makes sense to use Google Adwords is to not pay monthly management fees, especially if you are a start-up or small business. Viterbi SEO does not recommend PPC to our Clients because there is no investment made of those resources long-term. Unless there is a strong certainty to earn a decent return, we will setup a conservative Google Adwords campaign with any pre-designated budget.
