Growing number of merchants choose PPC

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing may not be as buzzworthy as mobile or social marketing, but large numbers of merchants continue to push more ad dollars into PPC. According to The 2nd Annual Pay Per Click Stress Survey about 65% of the merchants surveyed have been using PPC ad platforms for three or more years.

by Kristina Knight

The survey was a joint effort between NetElixir and the e-tailing group.

“Merchants have invested in PPC long enough for it to be considered an accepted and established marketing tool,” observes Lauren Freedman, president of the e-tailing group. “Although merchants are getting more seasoned and innovative, knowledge levels and sophistication required to maintain and grow this valuable area can be stressful.”

According to the survey 31% of those surveyed said at least 10% of their online orders come via PPC ad platforms; about 56% say 11% to 40% of online orders are thanks to PPC efforts.

Still there is room for improvement for PPC campaigns. According to the survey advertisers need to have better goals and objectives when outlining a PPC campaign to ensure campaigns are at peak performance. Because many marketers have a small staff set aside for PPC campaigns the time spent in creating effective PPC efforts is smaller than other online marketing efforts.

The survey found that 93% of marketers have in-house PPC staffs of three or fewer employees. This has led several firms to outsource PPC campaigns.