7 Reasons Why PPC Doesn’t Work

Pay Per Click marketing doesn't work. Like most things, when they are done incorrectly, they don't work.

Here are 7 reasons why PPC doesn't work. A deficiency in any one or more of the reasons can and/or will lead to a failing PPC campaign.

1. Effort

How many times have you been successful without effort? Likely not many. Successful PPC campaigns are the same, they take time and effort. If you're not prepared to focus on PPC and put in the time it takes to succeed, then you're setting yourself up for failure.

Don't "dabble" in PPC. You need to make a committed effort to making it work. You can't expect your keywords to do your work, it's up to you. Your keywords, placements and creatives are the vehicle that delivers visitors to your site, what you do with those visitors from there is up to you.

Be prepared to commit full effort to your PPC campaign by developing a PPC strategy, carving out a keyword niche and creating a conversion funnel. Once the campaign has been running for a while use the statistical data to optimize your campaign, and be prepared to optimize often.

2. Skills

You don't need to be an expert to create a successful PPC campaign, but you will need some skills. In order to create a successful PPC campaign you need to be able to sell, use your creativity, interpret and understand statistical data, use Excel and have an understanding of how the PPC advertising platforms work.

The PPC skill set is a diversified and unique set of skills that very few people will have in their toolbox. So, be prepared to borrow knowledge from others, ask questions, read and be prepared to learn, and learn continuously. Any PPC newb will quickly learn that Excel skills are going to be imperative to your success, so if you don't know Excel, take a course!

3. Goals

If you don't define your goals you'll never know if you achieved them. You need to define what it is you want to get out of your PPC campaign. There's some action you want from your campaign, it might be more traffic, leads, sales, downloads, etc., but what do those goals equate to? Before you can know you need to find out your target cost per acquisition (CPA). Your CPA is the cost you are willing to pay in order to achieve one action.

Once you've determined your target CPA you can begin to define some of your other goals, like target keyword bid, click through rate, conversion rate, etc. You'll need to be prepared to modify your goals, you'll be learning as you go and so your goals will change along the way.

4. Scope

How big will your campaign be? If you don't define the scope of your campaign early on it's easy to get carried away and create a campaign that's way too big and unmanageable. In order to maximize your learning for your set budget you need to start small, not so small that you don't get any traffic, but small enough that you can get enough traffic from all your keywords and creatives and actually learn what's working.

Remember, just because there are 1,000's of potential keywords in your market it doesn't mean you should advertise on all of them. Take the time to find out which are the most targeted and likely to be successful for you. Make time to define your scope and keep it small at the start, you can and should expand it later on.

5. Relevance

Ads are just answers. Recently the Inside Adwords blog wrote an entry about the fact that Ads are just answers. This is so true. When a user searches in Google they are looking for an answer, and if the ad is relevant enough, the ad is the answer!

In order to be that answer you need to write a compelling ad and structure your campaign in a way that leads to your ad being more relevant than your competition. Being relevant will give you better click through rates, better quality scores and cheaper clicks. Failing to be relevant will lead to failure.

6. Friction

Friction is anything that stands in the way of a conversion. It could be poor copywriting, unappealing images, lack of a call to action, buttons that suck, cumbersome forms etc.

Why not just give the user what they want? Tell them, "sign up here", "buy this now". Help your users navigate their way into your conversion funnel. Make buttons look like buttons, tell them what to do, create easy to complete forms and make it clear what you want them to do on your page and then allow them to do it!

7. Emotions

Don't become emotionally attached to any part of your campaign. The keywords that you think are "fun" or the elements of your landing page that you think are pretty, might be the exact parts of your campaign that suck. You need to keep an open mind and realize that some of your ideas and recommendations don't work. But, don't see it as a bad thing, the real expert will recognize the problem and correct it.

If your landing page sucks, it sucks. Don't blame the users or the keywords for failing, recognize that they don't work and fix them. Let the results of the campaign determine the successes and don't try to force your ideas to be successful. Your campaign will tell you what works, listen to it and adjust accordingly.