PPC a favorite for e-tailers

Online retailers are finding that pay-per-click (PPC)and SEO programs are the best way to maximize their return on investment for advertising. According to a new study, e-tailers are pushing more of their advertising budgets into PPC advertising. They are also hoping that organic search results will boost revenue.

by Kristina Knight

“Search has become mainstream over the past two years,” said Greg Jarboe, president of digital marketing firm SEO-PR LLC and a member of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (via Internet Retailer). “Compared to other types of marketing, retailers like search because it delivers more pre-qualified buyers who are motivated to find a product or service and then make a purchase.”

According to the study,82% of online merchants say PPC spending will at least stay the same through 2007. 75% indicate that search is performing better than other marketing efforts and 30% say that at least 50% of sales are the results of search engine marketing.

With search leading their marketing efforts, e-tailers must be producing campaigns out of their offices, right? Wrong. Most say they produce PPC campaigns in-house and only about 26% say they use an agency or other PPC program to create and manage their marketing efforts.

Between organic search and PPC campaigns, marketers are finding it is more cost effective to keep these efforts in-house and are learning that fine-tuning this form of advertising is an on-going prospect. Many e-tailers are looking for ways to cull their keywords lists and to maximize the keywords that make that final cut.