Forget Pay-per-Click:

Pay for Performance - A Marketing Discussion in Web Hosting Blog

There’s been a lot of mumbling and grumbling within the search engine marketing sector about pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which, until now, has been the small business owners’ best bet when it came to paid advertising. (Also, PPC has been one of the few options available to small business owners who lack the resources to generate organic search results.)

And so, pay per click programs proliferate. The best known is, no doubt, Google’s AdWords program – those blue skyscrapers you see stacked on the right side of Google SERPs and participant site pages. Let your web hosting provider explain - Site owners bid on keywords through the AdWords program. The more popular the keyword, the higher the cost per click. So, if you’re in the taxidermy business “taxidermy” is going to be one of the most popular keywords (query words) search engine users will enter in to the search box. As such, you might pay a buck per click for all those taxidermy aficionados who click on to your site to see what’s stuffin’.

On the other hand, you might only pay five cents for the keyword phrase “dead stuffed animals.” That’s because a lot more people will search taxidermy before dead stuffed animals.

On the other hand, you eliminate a lot of the competition, and therefore cost of PPCs using less popular keywords. Sure, fewer people will search “dead stuffed animals,” but those that do will see your link at the top of page one of the SERPs. Fewer viewers, more click-throughs.

Yeah, But What About Click Fraud?

(dripping with sarcasm) Gee, what a surprise. You mean some black hat chip jockey figured out a way to commit PPC fraud? Well, if the bad guys can hack the Department of Health and Human Services, creating a few lines of script to automatically click on the PPCs that appear on their 200 individual sites should take about five minutes.

There are numerous variations of click fraud – everything from competitor sites clicking on your links until you go broke to links that appear on obscure sites generated in some country you never hear of.

There are plenty of click fraud scams that can be implemented by a single individual. And when you think of a PPC advert as cash (it is every time someone clicks on it) it’s like leaving your wallet on the front seat of your unlocked car. It’s an easy means for competitors to subvert the PPC advertising model.

Search engines have great power and several have been caught committing what some refer to as click fraud by placing PPC links on pages that have no context to the subject of the ad. Site owners have found their PPC links on foreign language sites originating in former Soviet states – places where English isn’t even the spoken language. Organized groups pay “clickers” to click on PPC links – a penny a click. Not much dough but in some places, that’s considered a white collar job.

There are numerous click fraud detectors available, all pretty much work on the same principles: identifying sources of clicks, unusual spikes in number of clicks from a particular region and so on. The problem with this detection software is that it informs you of the fraud after the piggy bank has been cleaned out. Google does provide refunds when fraud is detected and you file a formal complaint, however. And, this search engine giant does have click fraud protection in place.

A big selling point of PPC ads is that you, the small business owner, only pay when a web user actually clicks on your link. Okay, that gets a visitor to your site, you’ve been charged for the click but the visitor doesn’t like the look of your home page and splits. No sale – and you’re out another 50 cents.

With PPC you’re more susceptible to click fraud, you’re constantly running analyses to see which ads are pulling and which aren’t and even if you get and pay for that click-through, there’s no assurance you’ll make a sale.

Pay-Per-Performance

Using the PPC advertising model, new site owners had to set aside a lot of marketing dollars to ensure that they could keep up their PPC click programs during the lean months when lots clicked, few bought.

The PPC model delivered hit-or-miss results and, if a link wasn’t pulling all you could do is tear it down and replace it. Try, try again.

Pay-per-performance ensures that, not only is your PPP ad properly placed, it also comes free unless the visitor performs a desired action – like buying something. This is a great way to see which PPP ads work and which should be jettisoned. If people are clicking but not buying, no cost to you. But it does provide some useful information about the structuring of your PPC ads.

How To Get Started

There are two ways you can go with PPP adverts. You can go through an agency that specializes in placing PPP banners and other links. These services can be pricey, however, because every placement site is handpicked by a human to be compatible with the topicality of your site.

You end up with more highly-qualified visitors but you pay.

A less expensive way to go is through the use of PPP search engines, more of which are becoming available because of the problems inherent in PPC advertising.

Several of the more popular PPP search engines include Findwhat.com, RocketLinks.com, GoTo.com and Yahoo’s Overture. Most of these PPP search engines require a minimum deposit of $25 or $50 to activate your account and get your ads placed on the SERPs

Pay-per-performance banner ads and other PPP links can also be placed automatically, keeping expensive banner ads paying their way. Two companies worth a look are PennyWeb.com and ValueClick.com for this hybrid PPP placement service.

Guarantees?

No way, man. No PPC or PPA (pay-per-action) or PPP marketing program will guarantee anything. How can they? You could be posting unreadable links, or offering products at huge margins. There are no guarantees in any paid marketing.

That’s why it’s essential that, as a small site owner, you do two things everyday:

First, check for signs of click fraud. If you don’t know what to look for (it’s pretty easy to spot and automated click fraud software triggers alarms when someone’s fiddling with your account), hire someone who knows what s/he’s doing with regard to SEO and SEM.

Second, start keeping a history of metrics – analyses of performance regardless of what “pay-per-program” you employ. Even though you’re paying for action, for performance, you’re paying extra for that more highly-qualified lead so make sure you’re getting your money’s worth – the cost-per-acquisition (CPA) factor.

One last thought. As you get to know the W3 landscape more intimately, consider switching from performance-based ads to PPC. You’ll know what pulls and what doesn’t, you’ll have the software or guardian services in place to make sure you aren’t being victimized by click fraud and you’ll save on marketing costs.

The fact is, advertising works on the web. It’s the fastest growing promotion segment, beating out TV, radio, print and billboards in percentage of growth. So, knowing that marketing is going to cost you, be smart. Start by paying for performance only to learn what works and how the whole PPC industry works.

Learn the hazards and learn from your successes. Then, when you’ve put all of the pieces together, switch over to PPC ads and save some money. Or, if those performance-based ads are more than paying for themselves (you’re lucky) simply add PPC ads to the mix – another marketing channel to reach more buyers.

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