Why do PPC When You Can do SEO?
Have you saved something to eat it later and before the time passes you cannot resist the urge to take it? Well, an interesting study I found explains why. Apparently, there are two areas of our brain that compete with every decision: the emotional and logical parts.
“Researchers at four universities found two areas of the brain that appear to compete for control over behavior when a person attempts to balance near-term rewards with long-term goals. The research involved imaging people’s brains as they made choices between small but immediate rewards or larger awards that they would receive later. The study grew out of the emerging discipline of neuro economics, which investigates the mental processes that drive economic decision making. “
In a more recent article, researchers link delayed gratification with intelligence.
However, what does this have to do with SEO or PPC? A lot.
I was trying to research why after so many years, we still prefer PPC over SEO.
Browsing through blogs and forums where you can learn about affiliate marketing and promoting CPA offers I noticed that the vast majority of the advice is to focus on Adwords and Pay Per Click. I was hoping this would change with the years, but since 2002 (when I started as an affiliate) it has always been the same.
I agree PPC is probably the easiest way to get started on affiliate marketing. It is quick and “easy” and SEO is hard and takes time to see results, but once that SEO work pays off, your rewards are huge.
I’m not here to propose that you stop your PPC campaigns and focus on SEO. No … I run PPC campaigns too, but I do want to tell you why you should use a mixed approach that incorporates SEO too.
Promoting an offer using paid search has many benefits:
1. You can see immediate results.
2. You can test many different things: ads, landing pages, search positions, etc.
3. You can do geographical targeting.
4. You can track conversions easily.
Nevertheless, focusing on PPC exclusively has a major drawback … can you guess what it is?
“Anyone” can do it.
Most PPC “gurus” don’t talk about this, but the reality is that most offers you can promote have a “window” of opportunity. A time frame when you can make the most money. It is the time where the demand is high and most of your competitors haven’t caught up to it.
Once everybody starts using spy tools and bidding for the same keywords, what do you think happens to the bid prices? They rise obviously!
That is one of the reasons why you have to be constantly looking for new hot offers to promote.
Now, let me give you an alternative route.
Let’s say that you try to focus on offers around similar themes like: business opportunities, dating, etc. You then try to create content sites that provide content for those niches and promote the offers in the content.
You start by sending PPC traffic to those sites, but after you figure out what works, you start shifting part of your PPC budget to content development and promotion. It is very surprising how cheap you can get quality content and promotion these days.
If you spend $1000 a month on PPC, spend only $900 and invest the rest in content that attracts links. If you have a larger budget you might want to consider hiring a blogger that writes the content and promotes it using social media. Make sure the content and the links are well optimized for SEO and the site pages are getting indexed.
In a few days you will start getting free clicks from the search engines, clicks that you don’t need to pay for.
In a few months, your extra search engine clicks will give you an edge that will be very hard for your PPC competitors to reach.
I try to do this for every successful campaign I run, and that is why I love SEO. The return on investment is way too big to ignore.
How many of you incorporate SEO in your search marketing efforts?
You don’t do SEO … really?? why not?
45 Comments, Comment or Ping
wayne
hi Hamlet really good innovative thinking…i too follow what you say..SEO rocks….
Feb 26th, 2009
SEO Atlanta
Great blog, I just started following you on Twitter.
I agree 100%. Where PPC is a great tool for driving quick results, SEO works great for the long term with a lower ultimate price. Just because you’re getting clicks, it doesn’t mean you’re getting sales. Also, SEO levels the playing field somewhat, as someone could just outbid you on your PPC campaign however a skillfully enacted SEO campaign can deliver a constant stream of traffic and visibility.
We typically recommend a comprehensive approach to Internet Marketing, combining SEO, PPC, Viral Marketing, etc.
Feb 26th, 2009
Scott Parent
Hamlet,
Great post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think of the difference between SEO and PPC as Buying vs. Leasing. With SEO, you own your ranking. With PPC they kick you out the minute you stop making your payments.
Always great to get your take.
-Scott
Feb 26th, 2009
Hamlet Batista
Thanks a lot, wayne!
@SEOAtlanta A good search marketing mix is a very wise recommendation. Thanks for commenting!
@scott you hit the nail on the head. Thanks again for the opportunity.
Cheers
Feb 26th, 2009
LEADSExplorer
We have 4500 visitors a month with only SEO – free!
Free as long as you don’t count the hours of content writing.
Creativity pays.
Still wondering who clicks on online ads.
We don’t.
Do you?
Feb 27th, 2009
Greg
That’s really a great Thinking. Seo is rocking. The Keysearch Analytics blog has tips, tricks, advice and case studies for the search marketing industry.
Mar 9th, 2009
peter bordes
Hamlet
as always this is a very good post. i have often wondered why people treat SEO and PPC as separate methodologies when they are very effective used together. I spoke to someone yesterday who knows both. Yet did not think about how to use them as a combined system and optimize from the data generated from them.
Why is that? btw here is a great post from @Affmeter for those reading this series about getting started using PPC http://affzilla.com/2009/03/13/your-new-ppc-motto-split-track/
its a good compliment post to this info. Look forward to your next post n this series, and seeing you in nyc soon!
Mar 15th, 2009
Joan Damico
I completely agree with you, Hamlet. I think PPC has its advantages, but shouldn’t be done in lieu of natural SEO. In fact, I just read a study on how most Fortune 500 cos., despite spending a collective $51 million per day on PPC, are basically invisible in organic search. Here’s a link to the Search Engine Land article http://tinyurl.com/c8nrnl
Mar 16th, 2009
John Le Fevre
So many people effuse about PPC but with 30 percent click-fraud PPC is ripe for sending companies bankrupt very quickly. While PPC allows you to target geographically, or to test landing pages and promote special offers, ROI needs to be closely monitored.
Once your site has been SEO’d properly and is being updated on a regular basis with fresh, topical material and being regularly crawled there is a smaller requirement for PPC.
IMHO the only people who stress PPC, PPC, PPC are those who benefits from creating PPC campaigns. If you are going to pay $10, $20, or $50 per click, then you need to ensure your conversion rate is extremely high to justify that.
SEO might bring you a lot of unwanted traffic, but it’s free traffic once the job has been done. And it keeps bringing you free traffic whereas the traffic from PPC stops as soon as the campaign stops or money runs out.
The biggets winners from PPC are PPC campaigners and the search engine companies.
John, Bangkok, Thailand
Mar 16th, 2009
Tom
Agree with John Le Fevre’s ROI concerns regarding PPC. Relying on PPC alone may plug the hole to keep the boat afloat, but it will remain anchored and go nowhere. SEO and getting your site on page one of natural searches in as many of your business’ keyword niches as possible will allow your boat & business to reach a destination under its own power.
PPC has its place and uses and can expose you to new customers that you might not reach otherwise. But, relying on PPC alone is a losing proposition. Been there, and have a closet full of T-shirts.
Tom
Mar 17th, 2009
Organic Visits
In my thought, if you have new website, use long tail keywords in SEO and potential keywords in PPC.
Mar 17th, 2009
Daniel Tunkelang
Hamlet, nice post, but “anyone” can do SEO too, and it’s hard not to read your post just substituting SEO for PPC in the critique.
Perhaps you could explain to your readers that SEO isn’t just a matter of cosmetic, mechanical changes to a site, but rather a holistic approach to emphasizing the unique value proposition of your site in a way that search engines “get” it. Actually, even a PPC strategy needs to reflect that same value proposition, or you’ll really pay heavily for ill-suited keywords.
Real SEO has to start with real content and then works on the best way to present it to the search engines. Otherwise you’re just putting lipstick on a pig, which anyone can do, but it doesn’t do them any good.
Mar 17th, 2009
Listorbit
If SEO is working fine no need for PPC. But for instant and seasonal offer and engage visitors in your product and service.
Mar 18th, 2009
Peter Bordes
Daniel
I agree on all your points. Especially with the “holistic” approach. In today’s world we need to use multiple relevant methods that feed and optimize each other.
The same in ad targeting. I could never understand WHY contextual and behavioral targeting were treated as separate methods. There was an argument that context and behavior cancel out each other. I disagree. They are directly related, and when we experimented with this we saw very relevant results.
The same goes for SEO/PPC along with real content! SEO for the site and then targeted PPC into sections of content give a 10x in results
Mar 18th, 2009
Cindy Yerkie
Great article. We use mainly SEO and not paid ads. This has resulted in great traffic and sales leads. Plus once you have the content and optimization in place its there to enjoy with minor refreshes from time to time. We would love to incorporate paid ads but we are doing so well in natural results it is hard to justify. Also since our site was in place we noticed increases in search within a month and it has risen steadily over the last three years. It pays to SEO.
Mar 18th, 2009
Hamlet Batista
Thanks everyone for your comments.
Wow. I’m surprise all the feedback is favorable to my suggestion. I was expecting some affiliates to be rooting for PPC alone. Nice!
Daniel – I really enjoyed your comment and that is an excellent explanation of the true value of search marketing as a whole. People (and search engines) visit sites (and leave sites) because of the content. Focus elsewhere and you will see only short term results.
Mar 18th, 2009
James
Well you should actually do both because if your site has good SEO your pay per click on both Google and Yahoo will go down per click.
Mar 19th, 2009
Mike
I definitely agree with the mixed SEO/PPC theory…but…I want to point out a few things to rattle around in the old noodle.
I too started PPC in its earliest days. And even with the Google gods looming found Yahoo’s old search platform to be superior for ‘jamming’ the competition and ‘enjoying the spread’ – very much like trading on wall street. (If you look at the release of Panama, Yahoo’s latest PPC platform, you can watch a steady drop in market-share as a result).
To Hamlet’s point, short-term/long-term payoff will ever be the Marketing golden rhetoric – which is better? My argument is simply this – determining which is better is completely based on what it is you’re trying to sell. SEO, multivariate testing, aesthetic refinements all makle the customer experience richer and promote higher traffic over time and even boosts in repeat/retained business; but it doesn’t work with every model. And the time it takes to become fully vested in different arts of SEO typically outwieghs the cost of outsourcing your SEO needs.
PPC gives immediate and direct control and requires only intermediate skill for 80% of the work. It also is tremendously easier to sell to the budget authorities within your organization during a upside down economy.
The cost comparison when considering research, training, resource availability, and program costs really shows that in the vast majority of cases, SEO vs. PPC is a wash.
I am droning on to advocate both practices rather than alienate either of them. It is critical that savvy marketers consider the benefits of both SPECIFIC to the objectives at the time.
PPC is like being in a fraternity or sorority in college – it guarantees some sort of sort of immediate social or popularity boost…for a cost. SEO is like being in a garage band that earns street cred with the indie crown after burning through two singers, three guitarists and bad drummer.
Both can get you seen…often times at the same parties…but both have their inherent dangers of misdirection and un-responsibility.
Mar 19th, 2009
nickycakes
Sorry, but quick results is not the only reason why PPC is better. SEO can’t even come close to the scale that PPC can. It’s nearly impossible to scale SEO no matter how long you wait for your pathetic results. I’ve only ever heard of one person who made more than 10k a day on SEO and that was if you averaged out the sale of his giant financial affiliate site. I know dozens of people who make well over 10k a day with PPC who used to do SEO and gave up because it’s simply not even close to as profitable.
Mar 24th, 2009
Mady
I agree with u nickycakes,
I do PPC and get much much more sales than out SEO team, and there are 3 people team doing SEO, where as its just me doing PPC
It is always good to have both,
SEO cannot come anywhere near PPC and one of the main reason is GOOGLE the great don’t like it, you can keep optimizing your website juts to find one day that it is banned, also it is very difficult to come up in SEO but very easy to go down
Mar 25th, 2009
Evan
Both should be focused on at the same time to get the most out of search!
Mar 25th, 2009
Peter Bordes
Good point Nicky. that’s why i am a “BOTH” camper. the only issue with ppc is the rising cost of keywords in certain categories. so SEO and SEM and off set each other.
Mar 26th, 2009
Bill Egan
Is there a better process for measure ROI for SEO projects vs PPC which is so easy to measure?
A major issue with seo seems to be that many service providers do work on a retainer basis with little hard measures to benchmark the results achieved.
Mar 26th, 2009
Charlie Madison
Wow, SEO is great man. I tried to my affiliate and it works. I got twice the payings that I get for a ppc. It really shows.
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Charlie Madison
SEO
Mar 27th, 2009
Jaime
SEO Rules!
Not to mention the incremental efficiencies good SEO will bring to your PPC campaigns by giving you valuable learnings on keywords and copy development and by improving your quality score, bringing your CPC down.
Mar 27th, 2009
Hamlet Batista
WOW. Great feedback. Thanks nicky and mady for sharing your opposing view points. I’ll write a follow up post to respond more properly.
Bill, tracking the ROI of SEO is possible for merchants by using Google Analytics or any other top Analytics package. For affiliate you need to customize prosper202 or build something custom. Customizing prosper is definitely easier.
Mar 27th, 2009
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Feb 21st, 2010
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