Instant Noodles, Burnt Pot

 

What’s the best thing about instant noodles? It’s that they’re instant. Would you still like them if they took all day to prepare? Probably not. But we love instant noodles because they’re quick and they’re satisfying.

Sponsored search, aka PPC, can be kind of like instant noodles, too. You can get satisfying results fairly quickly. That’s because with PPC you can measure your results, figure out what’s working and what’s not, make adjustments, measure again, and keep focusing your ad campaign until it’s working the way you want. For marketers, it’s an awesome tool because you can measure the results on a very detailed level and make changes instantly.

Organic search is more like PPC in slow motion. You might get some quick wins early on, but organic – like the word implies – is not something you can just manufacture out of thin air. The cool thing about a well run organic campaign is that once you have a properly optimized web site and you’ve achieved good search engine positioning, SEO is the gift that keeps on giving. In other words, great bang for the buck over the long term. And of course, SEO campaigns can be measured, too.

Some people might think PPC campaigns are not worth considering, because it’s too expensive or doesn’t apply in the B2B market. Well, that’s a longer discussion, but Enquiro Research has done some fascinating studies on the brand lift of search that might give you some insight into the potential gains of running both organic and sponsored searches simultaneously.

Of course, a PPC campaign that is not managed well can certainly burn up your budget in no time; I’m talking daily ad budgets that are spent before lunch time. No noodles for you. And it’s easy to waste money on head keywords that everybody’s bidding on, and miss out on really affordable long tail phrases that no one’s fussing about. The right long tail or even torso phrases can sometimes bring you a much better qualified lead, too.

Whether it’s organic or sponsored search, do what you can to make sure your company is visible on the web. Your customers, and potential customers, are using search engines regularly to find a company just like yours.