Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : PPC traffic vs. unpaid SE traffic: your thoughts?

[rusko]

stay with me here, gentelemen:
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assume that you were getting unpaid SE traffic (clicks from google searches, not adwords). furthermore, assume that the searches would be for popular mainstream keywords, such as 'web hosting' or 'reseller hosting'. (i know this isnt very realistic, the assumptions are for the sake of comparison - the field needs to be leveled so we dont compare apples to oranges here).

how would the per click value of unpaid pure SE traffic (as per assumptions/restrictions above) compare to PPC traffic, such as overture, adwords, ppcforhosts, various ppc hosting directories etc.

im trying to keep this general, so please dont go saying:'overture blows' or 'directories are crap'. im looking for an abstract comparison and valuation that is general in nature.

i know quite a few people here have high listings on some very nice keywords, while others do well with ppc. come out of your hiding and enlighten us please =]

cheers,
paul

[Aussie Bob]

Originally posted by rusko
. . . how would the per click value of unpaid pure SE traffic (as per assumptions/restrictions above) compare to PPC traffic, such as overture, adwords, ppcforhosts, various ppc hosting directories etc . . .

Much cheaper for starters but I'm not aware of any difference in quality of visitor, that comes through a PPC ad, as compared to a pure SE (unpaid) listing.

[rusko]

when you consider how much quality SEO work costs, you may find that it is not as cheap as you expected. regardless of that, i was asking about quality =]

paul

[Aussie Bob]

Oh yes, top of the line SEO work is not cheap. In the world of web hosting, you'd be [realistically] flatout getting any descent listings for excellent keywords, unless you had a nice little niche somewhere that had good keyword demand and low competition. IMO, PPC traffic for good keywords in hosting is too expensive and hard to justify.

[Nevidia]

I wouldn't say that we have taken a 100% PPC approach, but we certainly do a fair amount of advertising on PPC search engines, and directories (including Google Adwords).

I have found that, as was mentioned, unless you are intending on targetting a very specific niche market SEO work becomes very expensive, and as such we found that the PPC ads brought in enough quality traffic (with high enough ROI) to make the advertising worthwhile.

I know that Overture and some other PPC programs are VERY expensive (up to $8+ per click) for a top spot. While I think you will find that your ROI will be lower the lower your ranking/position, there are still deals to be had.

[nuthin]

certainly depends on your budget for PPC and how much you are paying a SEO to get your site listed highly in the serp's(search engine result pages) for free.

over-time you would expect the SEO work for the actual serp pages to reap the awards, as it's highly possible your site will maintain it's ranking for free, for a long period of time.

also depends on the SEO's pricing structure, do they do one-time fee? monthly fee? etc.

for PPC you will generally have to find a niche market and have a budget which allows you to continue using PPC advertising over a long period of time.

[rusko]

although i do appreciate your comments, i was not asking to compare guesstimates for ROI and cost per click for ppc or se.

i said assuming the costs were the same (or didnt exist, or were taken out of the picture - take your pick), which one would you take and why?

paul

paul

[Nevidia]

If you are assuming that the costs are the same for the two, and that each brought in (for those costs) the same number of visitors, the visitors should be equally as targetted (again assuming that you have done your SEO homework and as a result your visitors are targetted by their own searches).

[JayC]

I'd say that there's a growing concensus among search engine marketers that "motivated buyers" are more likely to click on paid listings and casual browsers or those just gathering information lean towards the "regular" listings.

[rusko]

bumpety bump =]

[armstrong]

These are actual conversion stats from my website:

Campaign Clicks Orders Revenue
Non-Campaign 4816 115 822.25
affiliate1 622 10 109.50
affiliate2 651 9 75.55
googlead1 332 5 19.75

The Non-campaign data includes all unpaid referrals (including SE traffic), and shows an average revenue of 17 cents per click. Affiliate sites brought in 15 cents per click. My google adwords were the worst, bringing in only 6 cents per click. NOTE: These tracked only initial payments; monthly rebilling revenue was not taken into account.

Because of this, I dropped adwords after two weeks.

Regards,

Apollo

[FYH_Support]

It's also useful to note that on occassion different quantities of ppc listings are displayed. For instance, from time to time Yahoo displays the Top 4 listings vs. only the Top 2 from Overture.com at the moment. Timing the additional placement opportunity could yield superior metrics given a lower cost per placement than a top 2 position. However, there is no published schedule for this, so it can be a tough strategy.

[Aussie Bob]

Originally posted by JayC
I'd say that there's a growing concensus among search engine marketers that "motivated buyers" are more likely to click on paid listings and casual browsers or those just gathering information lean towards the "regular" listings.

I'm not sure I follow you.

Are you saying that PPC listings will convert higher than a normal SE listing at say, Google?

I would have thought they would have similar conversion ratios.

[NovaW]

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
I'm not sure I follow you.

Are you saying that PPC listings will convert higher than a normal SE listing at say, Google?

I would have thought they would have similar conversion ratios.

The conversion ratio's cannot really be compared with sources that are so similar - the host is a much larger factor in conversion for any dataset you would look at, but what I think Jay is saying (and agree with) is that people that click on say adwords are probably more motivated to buy. Without any data to share I would say this is true & is what I had in mind also based on some observation.

[armstrong]

For me, those who click on PPC are much less motivated to buy from me, which is the opposite of your assumptions. Perhaps a lot of those clicks are from competitors?