Does Paid Search Work?

Lots of small businesses are struggling with questions around online marketing.  Questions like “should I move my advertising to online paid search” and “does it really work”?

The short answer to both questions is a resounding yes. But wait, read on.

The first question – should I move my advertising online? According to a July 2010 eMarketer article, quoting the “State of Small Business Online Advertising Q2 2010” report from WebVisible, small businesses bumped their 2010 second quarter search spending by a whopping 159% over the same quarter last year. That indicates that small businesses are confident that moving to an online advertising spending format is a popular option.

The report further indicated that small businesses are purchasing more keywords as part of their PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. Our guess is that Read more »

Organic Search Vs. Paid Search (PPC)

“Which is better, organic search marketing or pay-per-click marketing?”

It’s a common question that I hear from clients quite a bit. And just as you’d expect marketers are taking sides with equally compelling arguments for and against both options.

Here are some things to think about when considering your search marketing.  It will help you not only understand the pro’s and con’s of each, but determine which is right for your business.

First some facts:

• Organic: People prefer and trust organic search results more
  • Organic search is 8.5x more likely to be clicked on than paid search results (study by Jupiter research, a Forrester company)
• Paid: Paid search converts more
  • Paid search results are 1.5x more likely to convert from search engines (study by Jupiter research, a Forrester company)

Conclusion: The opportunity from organic search is 5.66x that of paid search.

Read more »