Here at Scorpion Design, we spend a great deal of time and effort each week dispelling the various myths and outright lies heard by clients about advertising with Pay Per Click. These rumors or misguided beliefs are typically started by other search engine marketing companies that have very little or no experience in PPC marketing. To help everyone understand each of these, we have compiled the latest and greatest from those that we have heard most often and have helped to explain them in more detail.
Myth: Very few people click on paid ads
Truth: This one couldn't be more wrong, and we have hundreds of law firms that would tell you the same thing. Studies have shown that as many as 20% of website visitors are delivered by pay per click ads. Moreover, when extremely detailed or "long tailed" search phrases are used, it is often the paid ads that deliver the most relevant result for the user. In instances like this, searchers are seeking out the most qualified website for their search. Many times organic listings deliver few if any relevant results for the user leaving the paid ads as the go-to result.
Myth: Click fraud will drive up your costs and deliver unqualified visitors
Truth: This is probably the most common fear that has been propagated by the media and offline advertisers. Several years ago the search engines didn't have the necessary tools to track users and log their clicks the way they do now. And while there are still a handful of irrelevant clicks that take place each month within most campaigns, the practice is nothing remotely close to the prevalent nature some people would have you believe.
In recent years, Google has lead the way with an aggressive algorithm that has nearly eradicated click fraud practices. The techniques being used today include logging each person's computer IP address, search queries, time, dates and frequency of clicks to your ads. Moreover, Google will only charge the advertiser once per day, per ad. If a trend is noticed by the same computer IP address hitting the ads day after day or within common frequency, they will block that user's future clicks and refund any monies paid by the advertiser.
Myth: My Competitors will exhaust my daily budget before any legitimate viewers can see it.
Truth: Competitor clicks are tracked like all other traffic delivered to your campaign. Google will log the user's IP address and refund abusive or repetitive click practices when a pattern is establised.
Myth: PPC advertising companies want you to spend more money so they can earn more
Truth: While some companies charge fees based on a percentage of your firm's monthly budget towards your ad spending, Scorpion Design does not. This would be an obvious conflict of interest because it would lead to us encouraging you to spend more money so that we could earn that much more. Our fees, however are based on a flat rate regardless of your monthly spend. This means that our management fees do not increase even if you are devoting a higher budget to your ads.
Myth: My ads will show up in obscure places to include other websites and blogs
Truth: Another scare tactic. Pay Per Click ads set up by Scorpion Design only run through the root search engine (Google.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com) or their search network affiliates (AOL, Earthlink, Netscape, Ask.com, etc.).
Myth: Pay Per Click ads don't cover all of the keywords that people might be searching
Truth: This myth should actually be turned around. As a matter of fact, PPC ads cover more keywords and phrase iterations than organic results could possibly come close to. This is particularly true with broad based keyword phrases like "bankruptcy lawyer" or "auto accident attorney" where specific geographic qualifiers may not be used. Because PPC ads are most commonly submitted as "Phrase match" or "Broad match" keyword groups, they will display your ads under numerous contexts of the word or phrase thereby allowing you to blanket the entire spectrum of how people search.
- This article was published by Brian Blades, a Certified Expert in the field of PPC marketing. Brian leads Scorpion Design's team of Google Certified Company members and has attended numerous Advanced Google AdWords Seminars and has been specially trained by the staff at Google headquarters as part of its hand selected Authorized Reseller network.
Contact Brian by email at Brian@ScorpionDesign.com or by calling (866) 332-3230 to get started on your search engine marketing campaign.
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