To PPC or Not to PPC? That is the Question… : Boston Logic

To PPC or Not to PPC? That is the Question…

The Story of an AdWords Inquiry

A potential client came our way recently, (we'll call him John), interested in our online marketing services. He said he was looking to spend $2000/month to advertise his commercial property brokerage, targeting folks who want to sell apartment buildings, hotels, and office buildings in certain markets. So he asked us,

With a $2,000/month budget in mind, how would you suggest I proceed?

We thought our response to John was worthy of sharing as it may shed a little light on the issue of when (or if) it makes sense to invest in PPC (pay-per-click) Advertising - so here's how we responded:

Dear John,

The reality is that a $2k/month SEO campaign might be in our wheel-house, but usually we're working with clients who use our Sequoia platform to implement said campaign. If you're just looking to spend $2,000 on AdWords, that's a very low budget for us, or any professional marketing firm to manage successfully. We really aim to work with clients who can spend $5k/month or more, managing the campaign at a 20% industry-standard fee. To be frank - your set budget would not allow us to produce the results we'd want to provide for you.

In general, when potential clients come to us with a budget in your range, we council them to focus on SEO, if at all possible. Of course, this requires a longer view. SEO can be a very lucrative investment, but it does require some time to germinate and take effect. It's like building a house - you have to buy land, find a contractor, work with an architect, permit, break ground, build, fit, finish, and them move in. PPC is more like renting a house. You can move in tomorrow and start seeing results. That said, when you "invest" in PPC, you don't actually have an investment, you're renting some space on Google. SEO, once established, will pay dividends for years to come. And the more you invest in SEO - like investing in your home - the more value you have.

To conclude, a consistent investment in SEO is additive and is the best strategy for you. A monthly PPC ad buy will get you roughly the same thing this month and next. More quantitatively speaking, if you invest $2,000/month in PPC at an average of $2/click, you get 1,000 clicks per month. That's it. If you invest $2000/month in SEO, you'll get a few hundred clicks/month at the start. In a few months, you'll be getting 1,000 clicks per month, then 1,500, then 2,000, and so on. So, the same ad buy will, in time, produce a cheaper/lower cost-per-click.

John then replied, "So what do you recommend I do?"

Keen on serving John's needs and finding him an appropriate solution, we proposed two options:

1) We'd get you on our Sequoia platform, built to help real estate brokerages and agents leverage technology and the web, and to run online marketing campaigns successfully. This would cost less than $5,000 and would take about a month. (The Sequoia platform also carries a monthly license fee which would run you about $250/month).

We'd then start running an SEO campaign for you at roughly $1200-1800/month. You'd start to see results in 4-6 months and growth from there.

2) If you want to spend $2k/month on PPC and not commit to our platform, you might try either Yodle.com or posting the project on Craigslist, for example, where folks can bid to work with you. (Your set budget really puts you in the "Freelancer price range" as few marketing firms or agencies would willingly take on such a small ad buy). The sole practitioner or Freelancer would likely charge you some fee - like 20% - to manage the ad buy. I don't personally know anyone who does this. Up here in Boston, everyone with any online marketing chops has a job, and they're pretty hard to find. That said, since you'll be searching farther and wider than just Boston, you can probably find a qualified professional to run a campaign for you in lots of places who would be happy to make $400/month. Obviously, if you take this route, you'll want to be thorough in your pre-qualification of this provider. Check references, ask them to show you performance numbers of campaigns they've run, etc.

John remains undecided, but we hope he chooses the comprehensive Sequoia solution!

Watch a quick video about how the Sequoia platform could help your business thrive online, or contact us today for a consultation.

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