Pay Per Click future

[keywordbuys]

A question keeps popping up in my head lately triggered every time I see rising prices (absurd $5.00 per click for an SEO related keyword).

"If users knew the first few results were paid listings on most search engines, would they still click on the link?"

You have to think about the question this raises, are ethics thrown out the window under the premise of "if they don't know, and we can make money why not charge..."

Most of the people outside of our industry are amazed when I show them all of the paid listings they encounter, and most of them feel tricked. "how is this possible" they say....well if your a search engine anything's possible when you run out of options.

I think PPC is the future of SE's, but I also feel it needs either guidelines or control...something mandated either way. Soon it will get out of hand and I know, if I have to compete with SEO related keywords going for $10.00 a click I'm going to start selling dustpans.

[EliteWeb]

Ever since I was first on the web, I found out what advertisement was and I did not want it. I would always skip the paid listings and banners. Thats without any experience! Others learn, i know so many people that go past these adverts.

[brotherhood of LAN]

Perhaps if you are selling things like cars, where you have a good mark up, that you can afford such keywords? I wouldnt know but it sounds reasonable

[Mardi_Gras]

If the average profit on a visitor is
$4, than of course $5 for the term is not worth it. But if the average profit is $25, then maybe a $5 click is not such a bad deal.

The rest of the sales world operates on paid advertising. Whether we like it or not, that is the model (the only model) that seems to be generating cash on the web. How long can companies stay in business offering "free" search listings?

I guess my point is, users don't care if a listing is paid or not (arguable :)). And if they do care if it is paid, they better get used to it, because for better or worse, more and more SERPs have a price tag behind them.

I would prefer to get visitors for free, and find listings that are not paid for. But how long can that continue? Others here, like Google Guy and Alex182, know a lot more about the economics of search engines than I do. But I could not stay in business long providing my product for free. Hopefuly, we can all keep selling our current products for a reasonable cost per click and stay out of the dustpan business :)

Don

[keywordbuys]

That's exactly the point, hopefully it won't get out of hand. I touched on two subjects, unaware viewers, and excessive fees. It's true that if you pay $5.00 per click, and within 100 clicks you sell a product worth $1,000 than you've doubled your money and can afford to keep doing that, but this kind of competition allows for fewer entries on the small business level. My main complaint is that it is quite unfair that the big guys always win when it comes to paid advertising and a level playing field like Google is few and far between. My idea of the future of PPC is capped bids on an impression basis therefore allowing other companies the chance at the top spot without increasing fees.

I know I don't have all of the answers and others are going to have better insight on this subject, but this directly affects me and nearly everyone in this field that Pay's per click.

[bigjohnt]

I understand the sentiment here, but if we are going to use the web, and search engines in particular for commerce, we must play by the rules of commerce. Sometimes the big and rich have the upper hand, sometimes the small and quick. It is all about ROI, and a free market economy.
MOST of my clients can't compete on the top keywords at PPC engines, but we still get enough of a share of the market to keep a web site viable.

As far as not clicking on advertisement, well, if I was a buyer/prospect, rather than a searcher, would I click on an ad?.. heck yeah.
If I want to send someone flowers, and type in flowers, I don't want a content rich site on the history of horticulture, or gardening or arranging. I couldn't care less if an advertiser pays to get my attention or not, as long as his site satisfies my need to buy flowers.

Paid listings, when indicated as such, may even aid the info searcher in avoiding commercial sites. Searching is an iterative process.

And as a seller, who would I prefer to click? The buyer/real prospect of course. Not the info seeker. Thats the real difference between conventional advertising and the web IMHO.

I am also of the opinion that the web, and ecommerce is not immune to natural selection. Banners suffered a near total death, until the smart learned how to use them correctly. Businesses that find themselves overbidding will migrate away from PPC. And PPC bids will actually find a reasonable market value for themselves.

Or, I will also be selling dustpans. Offline.

[keywordbuys]

There are a lot of good points here. Sure some people know how to avoid paid listings, and maybe companies that bid on those high priced keywords will fade away....but not likely. If you go to Overture and type in "small business" which is a fairly general keyword, but nonetheless targeted is going for last I checked $4.97 per click by one Dell Computers of Texas. You'll also notice the nearly two dollar overbid to distance the competition...fair? sure it's fair...ethical, sure it's ethical, but is this the future? I mean overbid and outnumbered by major companies. You can be small and maneuver all you want, but we're talking about search engines and PPC's in general, and when PPC's are overrun with big players with huge accounts then it leaves the small business with crumbs...yes this is the business, and marketing isn't always fair, but I believe there has to be a better way to compete on search engines.

Good point with the "content" arguement. Sure if you're savvy enough to know the difference between paid and free and have also made the decision you don't want to read content than that's great, but still most of the people I talk to didn't even realize paid listings existed...this has to count for something. People are misinformed, and much like a monopoly the search engines control where you go, and undoubtedly the content rich site will lose out on most search engines, the big and slick sites with nothing to say and everything sell will win.

Maybe dustpans would sell ok.

[mundonet]

<...overbid and outnumbered by major companies..>

Yep, that's the future of PPC. Problem is a big corp can bid more because they not only factor in the revenue of the immediate sale but also branding & long term market share. Think of the x box case. They can overpay just to make sure you can't get in, an can also afford loosing money for a while in a given sector to kill competition and raise the price later when everybody else is dead.

Meanwhile, small & quick and grab a niche that the big guys did not found yet.