PPC fundamentally flawed for success

27th October 2017

PPC is an oft used and successful means of eliciting sales and usurping your competition, but is it efficient and worthwhile?

PPC Continues to dominate the advertising industry and provide irrefutable sales success as a result, but does it support your business in the long-term?

With any form of advertising you ultimately have to deliver it to appeal to some degree of sentiment, thus eliciting emotion and fostering trust.

The issue with PPC is not the fact that it does not target the wrong consumers – although it can – it is that it is doing so in a very insular fashion, without preparation for organic cultivation.

In the first instance, if your consumers have needed to source your business via a PPC ad, you have yet to impose and emboss your brand on them; you have not failed of course, you might be a start-up an SME without the established infrastructure to penetrate existing brand loyalty that pervades the industry, but it is an indicator that you need to.

Ultimately it should be a tertiary means of contact – after trust has been generated, and acts as a means of increasing your suitability to the consumer.

At this stage engagement should also proliferate on social media and through direct mail, but – although differing entities – the communicative style should be adjusted to compliment the mindset of the consumer.

This can be personalised at the point of harvesting data to accommodate the situation the person may be in: are they at work? On holiday? Surfing the web after work? Ultimately context is imperative to the successful implementation of advertising as a whole.

While this has always been the case, it has and continues in some quarters to be underpinned by stereotypes, but it can change quickly with more ethical advertising that deviates from this cautious tact.

With only demographical knowledge and the findings of focus groups for instance, advertising – particularly in a response sense – became very rigid and limited in its ability to target more consumers – now they are targeting less, but with greater efficiency.

The targeted metrics of PPC ensure you elicit sales, but memorability is not fostered and your ROI declines.
The targeted metrics of PPC ensure you elicit sales, but memorability is not fostered and your ROI declines.

Is this efficient though? Ultimately, as we continually enjoy the evolution of a more accommodating and reflective advertising sphere, the most successful forms of advertising focus on augmenting existing success stories to new innovation.

Print and online; TV and and video streaming; outdoor and video, all are providing added dynamism and leverage for your business to as it seeks increased awareness, resonance and responses.

The most successful means of advertising from a long-term perspective is TV sponsorship or that in general: this is driven through cohesive and complimentary emotive video that disambiguates any of the contextual confusion that may emanate from less structured media slots.

This is where the crux of the issue with PPC lies: you cannot dictate mood with PPC; influence it, nor can you emotionally connect with your potential consumers beyond a level of convenience and temporal satisfaction.

Once this ad has been displayed, clicked on and perhaps even utilised to purchase a product, you are only leading from a terminology perspective, not an emotive or cognitive one that will ensure you are searched for directly – negating the need for PPC in the first place.

Thus this means of advertising – although temporarily effective – only serves to illustrate the lack of community, rapport and resonance a consumer may have with your business.

Over a three-year period, ads that serve to sponsor specific programmes are more than six times as strong as those who serve to fill usual commercial spots.

Trust meanwhile is unparalleled in this context, with 89% of people of view sponsorship bumpers deeming them trustworthy, compared to just 39% in spots.

As you look to forge lasting relationships with those you advertise to, PPC will not suffice as trust declines.
As you look to forge lasting relationships with those you advertise to, PPC will not suffice as trust declines.

Moreover, the overall ROI is 40% higher even over a short period of time (three months), vindicating the creative direction.

With PPC, from a courtship perspective, you are only appealing to a modicum of the persuasive elements that underscore business success.

Just 8% of how someone is persuaded by something is through the words alone; it is the delivery that serves to index your business on the minds of consumers.

Thus as you look to generate true efficiency and prolonged sales potential, PPC should be used to support existing campaigns at a later date – after any initial TV, VOD or other broadcast media campaign.

Therefore, whether you are an established entity or fledgling force, the onus needs to be placed on video advertising to create the ebullient associations that will foster trust and memorability.

Focusing more resources on nascent forms of advertising like data-driven linear, or adding OTT elements to sponsorship bumpers will assist with your ability to drive response sooner, while acquiring the data you need to begin with the next stage of your engagement and CRM cultivation process.

Space City has been producing TV, online and radio commercials for 25 years, delivering sponsorship bumpers for businesses like InsureandGo and Envirofone.

Contact the team now through the free procurement service at Comp 365 and enjoy an exclusive discount on your next advertising campaign.

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