PPC Is Not an Investment
Thursday, February 14, 2008
There's a great article by Tameka Kee in MediaPost today about SEO providing great ROI and outperforming other marketing initiatives. It looks like the rest of the industry is finally catching on! However, what worries me is the idea that some marketers believe pay-per-click (PPC) is an investment. Now don't get me wrong; PPC is a fine business. Connors helped launch the entire industry with its PR work on Overture, after all. Yet let's be clear in that PPC is advertising. And once you stop paying, its benefits disappear. It may be a good buy with consistently high ROI that continues to bring in search traffic and provide leads, but it is not an investment. PPC is kind of like renting an apartment. You can sign a lease and move in quickly. Sometimes you can even get a month-to-month agreement. If you have any problems, you can talk to the super and (hopefully) he'll fix your place. But you are not gaining any equity. Should your landlord decide to sell the building or raise rent dramatically, you'll be stuck without a place to live. In the long term, isn't it better to buy or build your own house? SEO, on the other hand, provides compounding returns. You can build your house (or site) and then make improvements or additions. Yes, some patience and hard work is involved but don't worry, as you can still hire contractors like us to help. It will all be worthwhile when your property value (or PageRank) goes up. Then, should you choose, you can sell at a profit. There is nothing wrong with renting some keywords with PPC as long as you make sure you are saving enough to invest in your own SEO house. Labels: advertising, PageRank, PPC, ROI, seo
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