Paid advertising a waste of money?

[Webdetective]

I'm involved in some popular affiliate programs and it's been my past experience that paid advertising in general is a complete waste of money. I have therefore abandoned any further interest in it long ago and have relied 100% on search engines alone ever since, but I may revisit paid advertising. This time I will want to avoid my past mistakes and not get ripped off again. Search engines have gotten results, but mediocre at best. Somebody told me any web business who relies just on search engines is destined to one day fail.

I made the mistake of attempting questionable ezine email advertising during the post 9-11 recession. I tried PPC but gave up on that when it wasn't getting results, minimum bids kept going up, and the rules became too restrictive.

If I do revisit paid advertising, I will want to figure out what's hot and what's not. It's my understanding banner advertising has lost all it's effectiveness years ago, as most users ignore them. plain text links are actually far more effective. Popups are totally worthless. At one time, ezine advertising was effective, but that has also gone the way of banners years ago. PPC is way too expensive.

[fidibidabah]

Popups!= worthless

[clearvision]

IMHO Paid advertising is very effective if targeted well to the audience and also text listings on a heavily indexed website for the SEO aspect. Seems to have worked well for our niche.

[Procyon]

I've never done banners myself, so I can't comment on them. Paid advertising is very effective if you run highly targetted campaigns. Untargetted campaigns do a whole lot of nothing in my experience. :)

[growingdigital]

PPC is the most effective advertising campaign when done right. You really need to spend time on developing your keywords if you want it to work. How do people find your site? What types of products do you sell? What keywords show up in your weblogs? Important questions to ask yourself before investing in PPC.

Even if PPC is too competitive in your vertical, there are always hidden keyword gems that nobody is bidding on.

Plus you won't fall prey to an algo change or something in the SERPS.

Finally, don't waste your money on any kind of CPM program.

[Webdetective]

What is CPM? Click Per Minute?

I tried Overture then Google Adwords back during the post 9-11 recession with no success. One big problem with PPC, especially Google is that their rules are too restrictive. They have very strict rules on how your ads are worded and minimum CTR. If an uncompetitive underused keyword phrase drops below their minimum CTR, they suspend your ad and send you a warning notice that you may have to pay them $5.00 for "Account reactivation."

Everybody in the PPC business also keeps raising their minimum bid. First it's $0.01, then 0.05, then 10 cents. I almost think to effectively do PPC, you need to have an enormous advertising budget. PPC is definetly not for those on a tight budget.

[Procyon]

"PPC is definetly not for those on a tight budget."

Not in my experience - a small budget works just fine (that's me at the moment).

Of course, more money to throw at it always helps.

CPM = cost per thousand impressions.

[Webdetective]

The problem I've experienced with doing Google Adwords on a small budget was not meeting Google's strict minimum CTR requirements, and having them suspend my best keywords. It seemed keeping my best ads alive was the biggest battle, dealing with Google. I think it's their plan to get you to spend more money. I later tried findwhat but never had much luck there.

Which PPC program do you recommend?

I hope I'm not breaking the rules here by mentioning PPC programs by name.
Fred

[growingdigital]

Overture is the best in my opinion. Especially for those new to PPC, or just learning. Overture is easier to understand. You place a bid on a position, not a maximum cost per click, like Google.

That way you know exactly how much you are going to spend per click, and exactly what position you are going to be in.

Google AdWords is rather complicated for beginners. You bid on a maximum cost per click, and then Google determines where your ad shows based on CTR (click through rate). It is a good way for experienced PPC guys to advertise, because they can theoretically write better ad copy, and have a lower cost per click. Plus Google wins because 10 clicks x $.50, is much better than 1 click x $1.

Anyway, I would shy away from any second tier PPC providers like Enhance, FindWhat, or Kanoodle. Just stick with Overture, and Google.

[wellzy]

Overture is the best in my opinion also, followed by Adsense. I also like Overtures interface better.

wellzy

[rfung]

For the life of me, I can't figure out Overture's interface... I was able to create some campaigns, but I came back after a while and couldn't figure it out.

I feel adwords is a lot easier.

[graywolf]

I find adwords easier and much simpler to use, allthough overtures new budgeting feature helps. Large broad general terms like widget aren't going to work. Blue widgets is better, shiny blue widgets and shiny blue widgets with stripes is even better. Also send them directly to the page for shiny blue widgets with stripes, not to the homepage or even the widgets section.

PPC does give you a little bit of insurence against algo changes. You can also use it as a test platform if you can make money doing PPC you should be able to work into the regular serps as well and increase your progit margin. If it's a break even proposition, I'll usually try to go after the regular results, especialy if the merchant has a tiered commision.

I threw away a few hundred dollars before I was able to make it work for me. The real bummer is floating the money. The credit card wants the payment in 30 days, the commision check won't come for 60 days, so be prepared.