I know this is a broad question that we’ve discussed before. And I know pay-per-click search engine marketing is working well for many people in many niches. But one person who’s been successfully selling information products for over 20 years told me recently that PPC isn’t working well for him and his colleagues anymore.
Here’s My Situation…
I have two potential information products in two different niches (not how to make money) that I know quite a bit about. Both would be a combination of e-book/audio/check lists, and I would sell one for about $17 and the other for $27 or $37.
In neither niche do I want to spend much time doing Third Tribe Marketing stuff: writing regularly on a blog, commenting on other blogs, becoming a well-known authority, etc. I want to create the products, build a simple site for each, do an occasional blog post for SEO purposes, write a couple of ezinearticles.com articles, issue a couple of press releases – and get the bulk of the traffic through PPC.
I’m not asking you to tell me how to do PPC. I already know a bit about it, and I’d learn a lot more before I started. And yes, I have a Google Adwords account and have been using it to do keyword research and get traffic estimates for given cost-per-click, etc. And I understand basic relationships between cost-per-click, closing ratios, the cost of the product, and profit/loss.
I’m Asking You…
What’s been your personal experience with pay-per-click over the last year or so? Are you making money with it? Have your closing ratios increased or decreased? Has the cost per click of your important search terms gone up or down?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Haven’t really had that much of an experience on PPC. Earlier this year I ran a campaign that I thought would generate a ton of leads and ultimately converting to sales. Had about $100 under my belt for a budget and it all ran out in less than 6 days. Did not bother to look at my stats, because all I know is that it only generated one sale. End result was a minor loss (good thing). One thing you might consider is Sponsored Tweets. Good thing about is that you can set your price and not worry about it going up or down, unless of course you are not happy with the return and want to boost it up a notch.
DiTesco´s last blog ..I Will Make Money Online For You For Only 5
DiTesco, thanks for sharing your experience. I’ll consider sponsored tweets.
Hi John,
Unfortunately, I do not have much experience with this either. But, I wanted to leave a note to thank you for identifying the things you already know about as it gives me more to research and learn about.
Have a great day!
mark´s last blog ..The 7links Challenge To Write A Sneeze Page
Mark, thanks for dropping by.
Apparently very few others have significant experience either…
I don’t have much experience with PPC, but I have been playing around with it via Adwords, LinkedIn Ads, and StumbleUpon Ads using free credits / promo codes. One thing I notice is even when they get clicks / visits, they do not turn into conversions, at least not for my purposes, whereas the visits from keyword searches in the organic listings do much better. I have heard that ads get a small percent of clicks compared to organic listings when it comes to Google.
Kristi@Blogging Tips´s last blog ..SEO Infographic – Link Building Data Visualization
Kristi, thanks for sharing your experience.
I asked a similar question inside the Third Tribe Marketing forum. The only reply from someone actually using PPC now was positive.
That’s a great question John! I think this is becoming a hot topic because it has become a bit more expensive to use Google PPC.
I’ve used it the past for some time and for my particular market was seeing very little ROI so I dropped it like a bad apple. Haven’t used in the past year, so unfortunately can’t give you feedback on that. I’m curious to read though what others have experienced.
It seems to me from what I’ve read lately that businesses (in particular small guys like us) are looking towards the less “conventional”, yet powerful, methods such as guest posting, article marketing and social networking to help drive traffic to their sites.
I’ve also played with Facebook advertising in the past…didn’t go so great either, but it was very cheap in comparison. I’ve heard things have changed quite a bit recently in this area, I’m planning to try it out again with my new site.
Good luck!
Michele, thanks for sharing your experience. From what I’ve seen and read so far, PPC isn’t working for many people, although some are making money with it.
And I’m a big believer in the Third Tribe Marketing approach of building authority through blogs and social networking; I just don’t have the time to do that for these two products.
Hi John,
How goes it? When I started in on your post, I thought you were going into the “AdSense” thing. I did that for about a year. I made 89 cents.
As for AdWords, spent $600.00 one time and got nothing. Opps ……. time to move on to something besides Google!
Someone’s making money, just not me! I have a sneaking feeling that Google is the one who is making all the money.
Jeffrey Morgan´s last blog ..Bloggers Market WordPress Secrets – At Last!
I have not started my PPC campaign, but will be doing so soon since I have $100 adword credit from hostgator to use.
I think it comes down to having a well converting sales page before even attempting to attract visitors through PPC.
My experience with adwords tells me that like keyword research, it’s those who thoroughly do their homework first and write good copy in their ads who are going to make money from it.
Alex´s last blog ..Article Marketing Part 2 – Quality vs Quantity
Alex, I agree that it will be very important to have good copy and also good ads. I’ll likely move forward soon with my product and begin selling it through PPC.
Pay per click has been great success for myself. As long as you work to get good ideas up that people will click on, PPC should definitely help with getting traffic to your site.
Rachel@ web design Chicago´s last blog ..For Conversion Optimization- Choose Your Words Carefully
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