Pay-per-Click Observer

Imagine you’re trying to sell something that people can get for free. For instance, you’ve got a copy of the Constitution. It’s not THE Constitution. It’s a copy. You can get them for free just about anywhere (maybe the President should check that out?). Anyway, the copy that you have is printed on paper made exactly the same way as the original. It’s also hand-written by scholars of the period. Finally, it’s framed in UV-filtering glass and sealed inside argon gas to prevent oxidation.

Now, you’ve got to sell that via PPC.

The Constitution
Order a really nice copy
of our founding document!
www.url.com

You get the idea. Eesh. You need to let people know that you’re offering something for the discerning buyer. Still, you don’t have that much real estate. We’re constantly challenged with the art of the haiku. Let’s say you somehow pull that off…

Constitution Heirlooms
Keepsake quality copies
framed and sealed in glass
www.url.com

Still, the fact is that you haven’t (and couldn’t have) presented all the features and benefits of your product that differentiate it from the free/low-cost crowd. That has to happen on your site.

That’s why a good PPC consultant never stops at the AdWords interface. I can lead a horse to water, but the real goal is to make that horse order bottled artesian spring water for monthly overnight delivery.

PPC, like any other facet of marketing, has to take place in the context of the funnel. You need to know what you want to have happen and treat the PPC like one touch in a long series. It’s not unlike a restaurant in that the food can be delicious, but if the wine’s too cold, or the table cloth made of cheap material, the patron is likely to get turned off to the whole experience at some point.

And then you’ve lost them.

On the Internet, you’ve got far less wiggle room. The back button is right up there. There’s a line of people competing to offer alternatives to what you offer.

My advice is to either monitor closely and control what your PPC manager is doing for you with your own clear understanding of the overall process or be willing to listen to what she has to say about more than keywords and creatives. You’ll find that a good PPC consultant is really a good marketer who’s really just specialized in a particular channel. They should understand the whole marketing and sales process with a focus on how that integrates with the currently high-potential market that is pay-per-click.

If we’re any good, we’ll be just as good, in a couple of years, at the new new thing. It’ll be all the same issues wrapped by a specialized knowledge of surgically implanted nano-banners. Or something.