You spend a little money and buy some drugs, and they make you feel good. Then the effect wears off. You spend more money for more drugs, and feel good again. Then the effect wears off again. You find more money and buy yet more drugs. Pretty soon, you are out of money, and feel horrible, and have no drugs to make you feel better. Big problem.
The same thing can happen to even the best marketers. You start buying some Google AdWords PPC. It generates some leads. Then the sales team uses up all the leads. Then you buy some more. Then sales asks for more leads again. So, you ask your boss for more budget. You buy more leads. Sales uses all the leads and wants more... What's wrong with this picture?
The problem with this situation is that you are not building any sustainable marketing assets for your business. All you are doing is buying leads from Google that go bad very quickly. There is no leverage in your marketing model. To double in size, you need to double your marketing spend (if not even more). Nothing you are doing helps you generate more leads next month, or the month after, with less effort. You will always be working just as hard and spending just as much money, just to stay afloat.
But, what about another strategy? What about search engine optimization, blogging and social media? Well, if you spend time/money to publish a few blog articles, they will start to rank in organic (free!) search results in Google. And you don't need to pay for that. So, next month you have the 10 articles you wrote last month, plus 10 more you will write this month. The month after that you will have 20 articles from the prior two months, plus 10 more you write that month. Get the picture? Blogging and SEO are asset-centric marketing programs. You are building an asset that has a payout each and every month over time.
Social media is an asset-centric marketing strategy as well. As you build a following in Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, you build on top of what you have already done. As you attract more friends and followers to you and your company, the size of the audience you can reach increases each month. The benefit you get increases over time.
Certainly not all drugs are completely bad. Caffeine. Alcohol? Prescription drugs? When taken in moderation and managed properly, they can be part of your overall life. But only when balanced with other things. The same is true of Google AdWords PPC. I've used them. But I also leverage asset-centric marketing programs as much as possible.
Learn how to go into detox and break your addiction to the Google AdWords PPC crack. Watch this free webinar to get started --->.
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Roderick Morris 3:15 PM on June 17, 2009
Isn't Hubspot a PPC buyer?
Mike Volpe - HubSpot 3:20 PM on June 17, 2009
Yes, we buy adwords sometimes for some terms. But we try to keep our addition in check. Everything in moderation... The goal of the webinar and article is to help everyone manage thier addiction, rather than thier addiciton managing them...
Roderick Morris 3:23 PM on June 17, 2009
So what is the theory on PPC? Is it really for clicks or is it for impressions when you know you have a top 3 ranking in SEO (for instance, for a term like "Inbound Marketing")?
Stuart Foster 8:22 PM on June 17, 2009
I think PPC absolutely has a place. However, I think it needs to be tempered (which is the approach you are advocating).
For some companies who are looking to make a splash immediately and don't have time to wait for rank? It's perfect. As long as you are building organic SEO side by side.
Tom Demers 7:01 AM on June 18, 2009
Hi Mike,
Interesting post and a clever premise. As I mentioned in my message to you, I disagree with a few points, which I outlined in this post (became a bit too long for a comment :)):
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/06/18/09/paying-per-click
Thanks,
Tom
Coretta Jackson, businessethos 9:35 AM on June 18, 2009
Mike,
I also believe in using PPC in moderation, especially for entrepreneurs with small budgets.
(Investing in)... carving out organic search positions has been far more rewarding for us.
Balance is essential in all things-- which includes inbound marketing, of course.
Best,
Coretta
@corettajackson
@businessethos
Justin 10:53 PM on June 18, 2009
Great article on "To pay or not to pay" for Google AdWords. I would agree that the blogging and the rest of social media is free. Very interesting article.
Miss 2:15 PM on June 21, 2009
Well, the basic fact is that its very very hard to spend less money over time and get greater results with less work.
The core assumption of growing any business is that you have to invest, have to increase sales, have to have more employees and more leads, more customers.
Thats why social media strategies should go side by side (hand in hand?) with PPC.
Its much better to double your efforts and double your profit then to seek a balance between 2 great tools or to retain the status quo. Online advertising is still much cheaper then offline.
Support traffic with social media. But dont expect social media to replace payed search :)
Whoever tried both things, knows the exact difference in numbers of clicks and quality.
Melissa Paulik 8:21 PM on July 05, 2009
Mike,
Interesting webinar. I’ll admit that the title drew me in. I didn’t realize marketers were addicted to PPC and I just had to see for myself.
For me, the #1 point was made in about the first five minutes. PPC is a short term tactic while investing in SEO builds a foundation that will pay future dividends – even if you have to cut your budget.
Melissa