Thanks for taking the time to write. My biggest concerns about PPC are the same concerns everyone else should have:

1) PPC is not a good marketing “value” for small companies, because by definition with PPC and its keyword bidding process, companies literally pay Market Value for every click. In order to achieve significant growth, small companies need to find marketing opportunities where they are paying significantly LESS than market value.

2) After you factor in the researchers, college students, bored web surfers, competitors and potential employees who click on PPC ads every day and have no intention of buying anything, PPC actually costs several times MORE than the market value referenced in #1 above. I read a study a few months back which conservatively estimated that 85% of all PPC clicks were either fraudulent or unintended. After almost 10 years of sitting on both sides of the PPC fence (as an advertiser and an Affiliate marketer) I have no doubt this number is accurate.

Thanks again for writing. Sorry we don’t agree—but it’s still fun to debate it

- Eric -

Some interesting thoughts here – I feel that your main issue, and a very common one, is spending money without tracking the results!

Once you did manage to put this in place you could easily see where the issues were with your campaigns. In a lot of cases it pays to have a professional company looking after your account – working on making improvements & tracking the results. However, don’t work with anyone that only reports on “hits” or “traffic” – always report on ROI (and how that fits into your business).

This isn’t just a shameless plug but I do feel strongly that your experiences may put other people off trying PPC. This is not to say it works for everyone – you need a good offering & website too!
Cheers
Ben