Why PPC is bullshit
It's all about SEO
PPC search engine marketing is a false economy. A whole industry has formed around the idea that by buying no. 1 on google is (at some level) a guarantee of success – it’s not.
Optimisation is free
Anybody building websites should be optimising for SEO. It’s best practice (semantic markup / accessibility / usability — all those buzzwords are what SEO is). Don’t pay for technical optimisation, If you’re being told to then SEO is probably the least of your worries.
Keep the content real
Find someone who understands writing content for the web (get a recommendation from someone). It needs to be super relevant to what you want to rank well for but also needs to read well… It’s an art. A good ranking is organic and will come from you (& others) talking about your product.
People spend on recommendations
I don’t think this needs explaining, it’s a bit of a cliché so i’ll keep it short. Do a good job for others, be helpful and know what you’re talking about… It will come back to you!
Relationships are worth £1M adwords
Pick up the phone, get on Facebook, tweet, be personal, be approachable. When you meet someone you’re forming opinions about them straight away, are they trustworthy? are they cool? do we see eye to eye? could I work with them? This matters. Anyone can google for a freelancer, but if I know you & I can relate to you (and you’re good!), i’m much more likely to want to work with you.
The web isn’t just a yellow pages, it’s important to be on google. But it’s more important to start building relationships with your customers. Don’t waste money on PPC, invest in time, conversation & people.
and now to completely contradict myself…
There are certain situations where PPC can work. If you’re advertising on a controlled network within a niche (e.g. The Deck) it can be effective. You have, at some level, a knowledge of the audience, the types of sites the ads will appear on & they have a wealth of knowledge around what type of ads work etc.
Another example of when PPC can work is if you have information on your audience & the capability to tailor your ads to different demographic (chuck in some multi-varient testing etc etc). The best example of this is, of course, Facebook.