Why use Pay Per Clicks?

Because they work.

If your online business is a direct response business that sells products or services directly from the web then Pay Per Click(PPC) can be a quick and cost effective way to reach customers.

If you want to simply generate leads you can use pay per click advertising to bring potential leads to a qualification page to collect data and qualify your leads.

There are many benifits of Pay Per Click advertising but there are also many pitfalls. If your business is not able to control the cost of new customer acquisitions then the PPC campaign will not produce ROI(Return on Investment).

I would agree in that.
However, imo the best SEM (search engine marketing) campaigns combine PPC with traditional SEO.

IMO the perfect SEM campaign has the major keywords coming up in the top 5 of regular SERPS and minor keywords promoted through PPC.

The best ROI is always going to be with traditional SEO. Where do you honestly think most will click when searching on Google. The adwords or the top 5 normal results?
Clearly the majority of users are going to go for one of the top 5. So then you have to consider the ROI equation which even with the extortionate charges that some traditional SEO companies charge, will almost always provide more bang for the buck than a PPC scheme where you have a charge per month and as soon as you stop.,. so do your hits. Not so with traditional SEO where you can go up to a year without touching a site and stil be in the top 10. No prizes for understanding that traditional SEO offers the best ROI.
However, for niche keywords, and for secondary keywords, it is much more efficient to use PPC. Where the two methods also combine is when there is a need for date/time specific content to be promoted. As we know traditional SEO will not produce instant results. It can take up to 3-4 months or longer to reap the benefits of a good SEO campaign. PPC on the other hand wil produce traffic normally within 24 hours.
So the wise webmaster will start a traditional SEO campaign, and also start a ppc campaign for the SAME terms. As soon as the traditional campaign starts producing top 5 results the PPC campaign then should get channeled to secondary terms. I hope you are following me on this lol.

So really you cant say PPC is better than traditional SEO or the other way round. The most effective SEM campaigns use both. Albeit there needs to be a decent online marketing budget.

You are correct Webby, I did not mean to give the impression that PPC is better than traditional SEO just that it does work if you know how to use it.

It is very important to combine them both for effective SEM. :grin:

I have used google adwords for a couple of years. When I first started there my site was new, small in size and I didn't know much about SEO. I got almost all of my business from them.

Now, I have a larger site and have dabbled a little SEO work into it and usually rank in the top 5 positions in the SERPs... as a result my adwords bill has gone down. I think that this supports webby's idea that searchers will click in the regular results and if they don't find what they are looking for they will then turn to the adwords.

Then to gain popularity for a new website, adwords is the priority

Depends what you mean by popularity. Popular sites have great content, will get bookmarked and linked to. A site of course however needs to be found first. If it ranks well then you dont need adwords. If its brand new adwords can be used to get it found but you wont get anywhere close to the cick through rate you would with t a top 5 listing in the normal serps. Adwords can add up to a lot of money over the months you run a campaign. I tend only to use them on time sensitive websites and for minor keywords where a website doesnt have the content to optimize traditionally (I'm not a doorway page fan).

To be popular though, a site with great content will eventually rise above the crap in the noirmal serps due to the link popularity side of the google algorithm. I've seen some horribly optimized sites that make top 10. they are there because they have great content that gets a lot of links. Enough links (with the ideal link text). Will give top rankings.

Hi All,

I also agree with all the above statements!

I think that PPC Search Engines does work if you know how to use them. They give you highly targeted traffic at a cost effective rate!

I also think they are a good source for earning some extra money as they pay per click and not per sale. Some also pays straight away with a low minimum or monthly with no a minimum payout.

Webby your right i like all the points made makes alot of sense thats for sure and with adwords you would be surprised as to how much the price of your campaign can build up i would suggest try using other methods before starting a full campaign unless your domain name and keywords are limited or not really featured on your site then the adwords is probably a good start to give your site that lil push it needs also a simple thing like updating the news and content on your site daily would help alot you would be surprised as to just how much.

BTW, Google adwords is great for capitalizing on current trends. For example those who sell virus software should the second a new virus solution is found, do an adword campaign on it.
There is also of course seasonal items such as Easter eggs, christmas decoration, christmas cards, major sports event products (sponsorship) and all kinds of other time sensitive terms that could mean extra revenue to your business. Top online marketing managers will know when new products or services are being launched in advance and will plan their campaigns in advance. Tradional seo means a lot more further planning. There is an article on SEOChat I wrote which covers seasonal and time sensitive traditional optimizing here if interested.

Basically its a balance and it has to be well timed.

Alan

But I learn that too many links from the same site may render one's website being scrapped in the Google search listings. Such as the signature to every post a member makes. If it accumulates to a great number, Google may consider it spam I guess. I myself am very worried about the possible outcome.

The thing is I wonder what is the number of links Google's algorithm may be set to tolerate ? Any comments ?

Well, I dont think there is any truth in this, otherwise competitors would simply develop pages with hundreds/thousands of links in the hope to get a site penalized. Logically it really cant be the case that a site would be penalized for having too many links from one site (not to be confused with cross linking which is reciprocal). I was referring to many inks from differering domains above.

Hi there. Im new, been around for about a week or so. Im trying to write an article on the difference between SEO and PPC, but i need some of the basic information about these two techniques. Being the newbie that i am, i am still learning about all these technical terms and jargon, so i was wondering if anyone new of some good sites with in depth information about SEO and PPC or SEO vs PPC, or if anyone has any information they can give me for me to use in my report, i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much

....When Rabbit Howls....