PPC vs Maximising Social Media

PPC vs Maximising  Social Media and SEO – good questions and discussion come of this topic!

Tweet Twins are unashamedly Social Media and SEO fans – through effective keyword use, link strategies and using Social Media to create useful, interactive, entertaining content and the ‘secret sauce’ tools!  Besides it is far more fun, creative and cost-effective producing audio, video, articles and gettng it out there on Social Media networks than buying a PPC (Google Adwords) campaign.

I run several businesses, so when the Google Adwords resellers telemarket or a website company calls I am intrigued. They have no idea I work in the online sector. I can check how genuine and accurate the info exchange really is, learning from them or check out the angles they use in their pitch!

By golly one of them was really good at selling! The telemarketer sold ‘the mystery of online success’ then shimmied into the land of [paraphrased!] ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’, so well. If I’d not known what questions to ask I’d been totally hooked and booked into a Google Adwords campaign which would not have suited my objectives or my budget, but appealed to my desire for greater clicks. The cat was out of the bag when I was told that my competitor had cancelled future PPC campaigns. My thoughts ‘Why, if the only other option is SEO? Low ROI on clicks?’ Then came the telemarketer’s punchline: ‘SEO is so very expensive that an Adwords campaign makes sense, doesn’t it?’. Ah, no! My reason? As for chosen keywords, specific pages consistently (and long term) rank on page 1 for natural search in either position #1, #2 or #3 – free of charge, with changes appearing in Google’s SERP’s often within 24 hours.

Furthermore it turns out that the PPC campaign was going to be managed at maximum daily. I expect PPC to be actively managed daily not every few days. So what advantage would I or anyone else have in using this major reseller? So resellers, if you want my business, do your homework!

So why would we and wouldn’t we buy a PPC (Google Adwords) campaign? How does PPC vs Maximising Social Media fit?

Strategic reasons for using PPC (swiftly followed by reasons to use Social Media):
1. Brand new site, instant presence & traffic needed (less than 24 hours) while waiting for the natural search to kick in
2. Defining benchmarks before undertaking new campaign work
3. Test specific keywords through Adwords
4. Combined with SEO. Creating traffic for keywords not targeted in the SEO campaigns. Be sure of the ROI first!
5. Click trading (though a contentious topic among paid search suppliers)
6. Healthy budget available for experimentation and risk levels
7. Quality content does not feature in the online objectives

Strategic reasons for using Social Media (my favoured reasons):
1. No budget (no brainer!) so need to create content and Social Media (in-house)
2. Have budget available to outsource quality content
3. As a brand positioning strategy and customer-centric focus – the desire to give visitors quality content rather than advertising
4. Desire to build link juice and valuable long lasting inbound links
5. Desire to encourage repeat site visits based on quality content leading to site/blog loyalty
6. Cost effectiveness and ROI. How much would it cost to buy 250,000 hits vs create content that virally leads traffic to your site?

Just remember:
1. There are many ways to drive traffic to a website other than Adwords and other paid search
2. Some say there can be up to 9 losses for every win in Adwords (PPC) campaigns
3. Careful keyword selection is vital for successful paid or SEO strategy. It will make or break a campaign.
4. Use the best SEO tools available e.g. Market Samurai, Wordtracker or others
5. Many people look for information online and are at varying stages of the buying cycle. Just because they click they are not necessarily a buyer but you still pay for the PPC click.
6. There is far greater longevity for your brand, traffic generation and potential to create trusting customer relationships through creating and posting quality content. Ads are just ads. Prospects seek quality information and a trusting relationship before they will buy from YOU.
7. Consider how PPC fits with your strategic plans? Does PPC enhance or compromise these strategies?

Tweet Twins make it easy for companies to learn how to implement Social Media through Social Media seminars, Social Media workshops, Social Media strategy and Social Media implementation. An example is the ‘From Hands Up to Hands on’ Hands On Social Media Bootcamp Workshop. Book into the next Workshop. We want to help you maximise your Social Media and SEO.

Posted by Jenny Wilmshurst, Tweet Twins
- Social Media Training, Social Media Seminars,  
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