Beware. I feel like rambling. This is a ramble. Personal musings. I just have to get it out.
Earlier this year, or maybe late last year, I predicted that PPC profits and sales would continue to go up dramatically. And they have.
But where has that growth come from?
Is it because online marketers are bidding more and more and running additional ads? Or is it something else?
I think that it is something else.
And that something else is a huge shift in the advertising budget of offline retailers. Now that PPC campaigns can be geographically targeted, and the average offline purchaser is doing more of their shopping online, and even searching for offline retailers online, offline advertisers can justify advertising online. In fact, I think many of them are switching their entire advertising budgets from offline sources like the yellow pages to online advertising like PPC. Doubt me? Do you have last years’ yellow pages and this years? Look at how much smaller this years’ is.
So how does that affect the online marketer? Bid prices go up. PPC revenues go up. PPC profits go up. Online marketers see this and assume that they are contributing to that increase. And I do not believe that they really are. But because they think that other marketers are spending more on PPC, they feel compelled to---even if their PPC campaigns are losing money! They figure they simply have to to keep up.
I say no. Do what makes you money, not what everyone else is doing!
So what is my prediction for 2007? PPC revenues will continue to go up, but online retailers will begin to focus more tightly on natural search engine results rankings than on PPC.
So what do you do? Go back to search engine optimization. I think too many online marketers have begun to rely too heavily on PPC and are getting cost-heavy. Fix it. Get ahead of the curve. PPC prices are going up and returns are going down.
Sean Mize is a successful offline and online entrepreneur and marketer, and is the author of “15 Steps to Internet Success“. To receive a free copy, simply follow this link: Search Engine Marketing
Are you interested in learning how to build a responsive mailing list? Click here: List Building
Source: www.isnare.com
