My Vote For Most Insightful post of the year 2011! Wow!

and to do both at the same time means they can eventually own both paid and organic listings.

When you think about it...which I rarely do, but he has me thinking... "content network" ads dont cost much at all... you could really save biz owners alot of money and Guarantee the results!

Im not a PPC expert in fact years ago I lost alot of money on it trying to market some affiliate program, and never quite returned, but am I wrong that content network ads could work well for small biz owners like say lawyers...?

If so I think I may give it another shot. I can see why it would be easy to sell business owners on it.

But is it effective for them...?

I wouldnt want to try getting them to spend $10.00 per click, but if content network ads work, then I could see profiting on something like this... because they are sooooo much cheaper.

Mostly , I can see that this would be a no brainer to write a successful pitch for, and sales are about successful pitches.

It's not really a matter of PPC vs SEO.

It's more of "how can I prove I can generate results in fastest way possible?"

For my clients I actually build-in $100-$200 into their monthly fees to do PPC research on the keywords BEFORE my guys even attempt to go after them. (assuming they are "doable" keywords to begin with)

If I can generate leads with PPC, then it makes sense (to me AND my clients) to proceed with a 3-6 month SEM strategy to rank for those same keywords on Google etc.

Ideally you'll actually have both PPC and SEO listings on the same front page real estate to maximize visibility...but this is maximized visibility on a keyword that has already proven to convert into paying customers.

Meanwhile my clients get to see results (i.e phone calls / buyers) from initial marketing tests without waiting for weeks / months (and annoying us in the process with "why havent I seen results yet" type questions)

I don't bother clients with the details of WHAT my guys will be doing...I just let them know "here are the results my profit systems will generate for your company...like them? Good. Here's the investment required each month."

I actually lump SEO, video marketing, etc. into one general result of "increased online exposure" which will generate leads for a fraction of what they are currently spending on traditional advertising.

At least that's my approach to it!

~Dexx

PS - Properly targeted Facebook Ads > Google in my experience so far (not to mention the built-in viral exposure benefit)

Brilliant Dexx. Awesome. I dont know why I havent thought of this approach before!

Do content network ads work? Are they still cheap?

Havent done ppc in a couple of years.

Im gonna make a pitch outta this man! You could set appointments left and right with this angle.

Thanks Iamnameless.

SEO is a better ROI than PPC in most cases. Sure SEO has to mature like a fine bottle of wine. But in the long term SEO is performing better than PPC for my business. It gets more traffic.

But for clients. It is a little bit of a different story. For small niches with low search volume PPC is a good option. But when the traffic market is larger SEO is really in a league if its own compared to any other marketing medium. Once it is up an running and decent rankings are achieved nothing really provides a better ROI than SEO. You will get more traffic with SEO than PPC normally. And to get more traffic with SEO you need to increases the rankings of the keywords that are providing traffic. I know this is easier said than done sometimes. Because SEO is usually a monthy retainer to increase your traffic by 50% costs nothing more. But to increase your PPC traffic you will pay more in clicks and more in monthly managements feed normally.

As both a business owner and an online marketing consult if i were a normal business but had the knowledge i have about online marketing i would go for SEO 90% of the time.

All good points. I do like adding the PPC into the seo plan so they still see results and think its coming from the SEO set up.

One thing that I do advise to some clients is that with SEO you can get targeted visitors w/o the fear of running out of money where as with PPC they could get clicks that wont convert, may be people messing around and there goes the budget up in smoke!

PPC --> clicks that cost that has no promise of converting.
SEO --> clicks that cost less and can remain for longer periods over time.

I agree John. I loved that post where I read it. PPC is results now. And if you create a great marketing plan behind how you approach PPC for them they will get some good leads.

Than you can upsell them on SEO and other avenues to get more leads. PPC is something they will understand and an area where you can prove that you provide quality services.