(A customer of products and services, not a customer of Pay Per Click!)
At a meeting yesterday, with a new client, website content, blog writing, SEO and Pay Per Click were discussed.
Pay Per Click? Not my area of expertise AT ALL.
Let me tell you the effect is has on me, as a potential customer, when I’m searching for a product or service online, using Google:
I AVOID all the search results at the very top of the page with the little yellow icon telling me it’s an ad.
I AVOID the column of search results on the right hand side of the page which I assume are also ads.
I choose the sites at the top of the rankings that are NOT (apparently) driven by Pay Per Click.
My client, though he uses PPC campaigns sporadically – trying them out for a while then turning them off for a couple of months, then trying again – was of exactly the same opinion as me.
Don’t even get me started on Facebook ads…
(I don’t!)
SO – out of my comprehensive poll of two people – that’s 100% completely ANTI pay per click, from a customer perspective.
The psychology of it? I’ve been trying to analyse it, from my own opinions. I think it’s because I object to being manipulated (ha ha ha in this day and age!) and I don’t like the idea that big players who can afford the allegedly outrageous costs for PPC seem to have an unfair advantage over the little people. This sort of search engine ranking, it seems to me, is nothing to do with the quality of the product or the service but simply a function of a marketing budget (or lack of one).
It’s like paying (or begging) for votes in a contest – so that the result is generated from a popularity contest not a reflection of merit.
Me and my innate love of the level playing field…
But it must work for businesses, mustn’t it? Why else has it become a business in itself?
I began to wonder if I really understand PPC at all, from a business perspective, so I started reading up about it and I must say I glazed over in the first twenty seconds – until I found a website with a section entitled PPC University. NOW it begins to make sense!
However, even this site admits, “Essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically.”
I’m sure this is why MY business isn’t busting out all over – doing well but could do weller!
But I’m comfortable with how I go about promoting myself.
And I’m not comfortable with the idea of PPC.
Good luck to me.
It’s a jungle out there.
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