Why Am I Being Sold Paid Ads in Google?

Because it’s easy.

The answer is just that simple… almost.

It seems to me that there are a ton of companies out there that have gotten into the game of selling Pay Per Click/Google AdWords/SEM advertising on search engines and seem to have forgotten that SEO has been a better way to spend online advertising dollars for a long time.  There isn’t anything that has occurred to alter that, except that proper SEO is now significantly more difficult that ever before.

Simple equals easy.  Easy (generally) equals cheap to do.  A lack of understanding leads to big margins in doing ‘easy’ for those who don’t understand.

Understand why PPC/SEM are being pushed so hard on your business?

I recently met with a client who was pitched quite hard by Yellow Pages, the idea of doing PPC in Google.  Thank goodness my client is fairly cautious as it would have been easy to be sucked into their jargon and stats.  Don’t get me wrong, PPC definitely has it’s place, but for this client and their actual business needs/goals, coupled with their available budget, PPC is definitely a luxury that they should do without.

I always explain the difference between SEO and SEM as this… SEM is like a faucet.  When it’s turned on, the water (website traffic) flows.  When it’s off, so is the traffic.  SEO is like a flying a plane.  It takes some fuel (effort, research, testing, etc.) to get it off the ground, but once you’re in flight, it’s easy to keep the plane in the air and even if something goes wrong, you still glide back to earth.

The problem with SEM/PPC is that Google is trying to push everyone in that direction –  primarily because this is where they make 90+% of their revenue (totalling 16.5 BILLION in Q3 2014 alone!!!).  Problem for your business is, as they ‘push’ you towards PPC, the competitive level increases and since Google PPC (AdWords) is based on a competitive auction to determine the price per click, you end up paying more and more over the long-term in order to stay ahead of your competition AND to keep the same amount of traffic coming as you did previously.

Again, don’t get me wrong.  PPC is a valuable tool, but when used to supplement (or temporarily support) a proper and effective SEO campaign (by a reputable SEO service provider using the latest techniques for effective SEO results) you will be farther ahead than your competition who undoubtedly went for the sales pitch and Google quasi-money grab.

Let’s talk about what makes sense for your business and develop and actual strategy to be successful within your given budget.