Are Ppc Built Websites Ruining The Web? Options

[send2paul]

I sat in a seminar today and listened to a guy from a major PPC company who gave a quick run through of what his company does, (and this is the briefest of two point summaries you'll ever see!):

1. Pay for ad placement in the Google search engine results above the organic results for a whole range of keywords related to the client's product on the client's website.

2. Take a client's website, (or build a new one for them), and change it so that it becomes a landing stage for converting traffic to whatever the product is - when a user searches in Google, and clicks on the paid for ad at the top of the page.

My thoughts, (and apparently the thoughts of one of these guys clients as well!), was that the brand image of the company could somehow be lost in the redesigning of their website into a "PPC website", (even if there was a click through to the regular client's website).

On top of that, there was no mention of "what the visitor wants". Admittedly, the case study examples he showed us had very good "PPC conversion" websites - but some seemed like they weren't "in character" with the original company website.

Have I got this wrong? I mean PPC built websites sure seem like a good idea for the company involved - they get to sell their product in a more cost effective way on the web. But if the company was more than just a single, (or multi), product selling organisation - like they had a message, or a function, or a family, or some other reason why people liked that company and returned to their website, (before the PPC conversion) - would all that now be lost?

Can someone help me out with my ramblings, please?

[Autocrat]

Not sure I'm getting this properly, so please correct me if I'm wrong....

There are companies that will build a seperate site with the sole intent of selling the product that is advertised through PPC.

Does this not mean that you end up with split-content (seperate sites for different functions, though it pertains to the same company).
Apart from the possible confusion this may cause some visitors (esp. if you are right and some of these sites don't "fit" the company), won't this be potentially damaging to SERPs as well (possibly duplicate content, or mutiple domains etc.?

Would it not make more sense to have dedicated landing pages... or even entire little sub-domains for the PPC to go to?

[iamlost]

But if the company was more than just a single, (or multi), product selling organisation - like they had a message, or a function, or a family, or some other reason why people liked that company and returned to their website, (before the PPC conversion) - would all that now be lost?

Well duh!

It is what you get when you specialise: an extremely limited albeit expertly crafted process. The visitors from the ppc ads might well convert in the double digets but that is a linear ad -> landing page(s) -> conversion or bounce process.

That is why someone somewhere needs to keep an holistic eye on the company and its marketing. Yes, send2paul, there is more to success than ppc - unless you are the ppc supply company.

Yet another reason why having a firm grasp of your business model and plan is important: it allows you to view each evangelising specialist as but a part of a potential overall strategy and not as some one size fits all snake oil magic solution.

Of course the ppc guy wants all that he can leverage. That's his model and plan. The trick is not being dazzled into inappropriately accepting it as yours. Might I interest you in a round of three card monty?

[AbleReach]

It is what you get when you specialise: an extremely limited albeit expertly crafted process. The visitors from the ppc ads might well convert in the double digets but that is a linear ad -> landing page(s) -> conversion or bounce process.

Or, when you specialize without having identity glued firmly to brand, aka brand identity.

Of course the ppc guy wants all that he can leverage. That's his model and plan. The trick is not being dazzled into inappropriately accepting it as yours.

Strip off the identity and what do you have?

Do users care about identity?

If they do, after enough clickthroughs on top results would they be conditioned not to care?

Will people eventually develop a sort of banner blindness, enough to change the ROI of these made-to-sell-not-for-users destinations?

[iamlost]

Ouch. I feel like two bookends with the intervening information stripped out.

For the record I agree with AbleReach.

[send2paul]

Three card Monty? Don't know exactly what that one is, but it sounds very similar to a imaginary card game called "Montana Red Dog" as played in Alias Smith & Jones

As I said, the guy had a slick presentation, and he was talking to people who wanted to hear about the big buck. There weren't many "website orientated" people there who saw the value of a website as part of a corporate branding and marketing tool, as well as being a place that people could "use".

Equally, (and perhaps confusedly as well), where a company already had a website, the PPC company built website would identify itself as the online sales pages, or some such nonsense, of the corporate website.

Banner blindness - yes, I have a tendency not to click on those paid for places - simply for that reason - they "paid for that place", and so in my thinking, it won't be a website that I want because it hasn't earned it's place in Google for all the right reasons..... whatever they may be.

[edit] - Autocrat - yes to everything! Although I think they strip all content, (articles etc that would be sitting on the "normal website"). He didn't go into too much detail about the URLs used, (and the presentation screen was to far away from to see the URLS on the screen shots). The words in the text link for the ad on the Google page may have said http://website.com, but whether the link took you to landing pages within website.com's own domain, or a domain specifically set up by the PPC company it wasn't clear. [/edit]

This post has been edited by send2paul: Jan 26 2008, 04:22 AM

[iamlost]

Three card Monty? Don't know exactly what that one is,

Oh, you innocent young man

I believe that over on your side of the pond it's called "Find The Lady".
In any case it is a common street con card trick.

As I said, the guy had a slick presentation, and he was talking to people who wanted to hear about the big buck.

Ah, a room full of pigeons ripe for the plucking...except for send2paul, who undoubtedly leaped up, tore open his shirt to reveal his secret identity as the 'the naked seo hooligan', and denounced the villains...

Banner blindness - yes, I have a tendency not to click on those paid for places - simply for that reason - they "paid for that place", and so in my thinking, it won't be a website that I want...

Ad delivery, especially banners but even contextual, is so unbelievably drably common that it has become, as you say, invisible in plain sight.

Which leaves difficult but valuable openings for sites to offer different packages themselves. So long as most stay with the easy defaults the harder routes will retain their profitability. Huzzah! Hurrah!

What I especially find unbelievable is that (1) when a ppc person talks about 'making' a certain 5 or 6-figure monthly 'profit' few ask for clarification of terms or (2) when asked for an audited net before taxes the ppc firm becomes amazingly coy.

If not a few hands of 'Monte how about I let you in on some bargain high ground real estate that what with global warming is 'sure' to be prime ocean front property...

[TryMeOut]

Interesting discussion.

We are most aware of how PPC increases the visibility of the advertisers. Regardless of how they direct their traffic to their sign-up page, landng page, etc., I firmly believe that there won't be any conversion not unless the advertiser has really something good to offer. If some PPC powered sites are making more $$$ - its not solely based on its ad campaign, but rather on their ability to meet their traffics demand with their product or service.

[A.N.Onym]

I really don't see a reason not to host the landing pages on the main site, even if they don't have links to other pages (or have just the right links down the conversion funnel).

Paul, maybe you could invite the speaker to this thread and let him clarify the questions we have raised?

This post has been edited by A.N.Onym: Jun 1 2008, 11:45 PM

[goodnewscowboy]

If the company selling PPC is talking about an optimized landing page specifically for the keyword, it makes sense to me. So I'm not sure if I understand it correctly as a lot of the comments seem negatively disposed toward this.

[AbleReach]

Any problem, from my point of view, would come from building for PPC without also considering users. Build for PPC alone and you may have a nice concentration of keywords in all the right places on a page that is so hard to look at that nobody wants to read it, even if the information is good.

Put good information on the page, arranged so that it is easy to read and skim.
To usability add crawlability - nice text links, light on the javascript
And basic accessibility - sensible and descriptive link text and image names
And also use the concrete language that helps a search engine find content - be specific about terms you want found, and use them in body text and title - [flokati rug] instead of [rug]

What about this is a "PPC" page?

Well, you might also consider putting your ads near where people will naturally be looking for something to click on next. Use pagination in a long article or a series, and add a row of ads where there is a link to "more" or "next" or "page 2" or "related posts." That's not a landing page thing. It's more of an optimization thing.


But then again, I'm a lady who has never met Monty...

...so what do I know?