‘If you don’t want to be found…”
Written on January 26, 2007
Stefanos Vasdekis wrote a very interesting blog titled “Your ads are not reaching me“. Claiming how marketing companies are wasting their money advertising in, among others, PPC (pay-per-click) marketing.
Mr Vasdekis claims that he does not watch TV, read magazines or newspapers, listen to the radio and is deliberately late when visiting the cinema to miss all the adverts. (Makes me wonder how he knows there is a new movie out).
Vasdekis carries on to say that if he was to search for a hotel to stay for a weekend away he would instead of viewing the PPC ads would try to find a suitable hotel through the organic search results, and if an acceptable hotel is not found he would redefine his search and try again.
If we are to believe that Vasdekis is in the majority it could signal an end to PPC Marketing as we know it, and revitalise the importance of SEO marketing.
However in my opinion its the old saying ‘If you do not want to be found …’
One of the important themes of marketing and advertising is you are trying to sell a product/service to someone who is looking for it. The majority of people do not alienate themselves from the world by viewing it with blinkers on.
The minority of people who do, are generally not profitable to an organisation.
I’m sure the debate between which area of Internet Marketing is more important SEO or PPC will rage on.
Written by Neil Hancock [Internet Marketing Consultant] Prodo Ltd
Filed in: Search Engine Marketing.
Advertising works based on statistics. So there are definitely some people which are not reached by most ads. They are few but with community based services these people increase all the time. It’s like viral / word-of-mouth marketing vs advertising. Many new services are successful only because they created a buzz due to the high quality and value they offer to the users. The point is how will advertising evolve to adapt to this new reality. PPC won’t be dying anytime soon. On the other hand there will be many new services which will enjoy great success with a zero advertising budget, just because of social networking.
January 26, 2007 @ 1:07 pm