Is PPC dying?

In the world of marketing, pay-per-click advertising has been strong for a decade. Those who advertise on the search engines have found tremendous success. Google itself was built around PPC and still relies on it today as their primary source of revenue.

Is it dying? Are the days of PPC domination going away thanks to increased consumer knowledge, improved organic results, and the rise of mobile technology?

There are two answers to this. Yes, PPC as we know it is definitely dying. The click thru rates are down. The costs per click are going up. It’s becoming cost-prohibitive for many businesses to go after the more competitive keywords and turn them into positive ROI.

On the other hand, one could say that PPC is going through a major transition that is focusing on mobile. It’s not just how they appear on mobile devices. PPC is switching to be driven by mobile technology even when displayed on laptops and desktops. Also, while the costs per click on the standard competitive search terms are going up, the searching mentality is being driven more by localization. As a result, some of the best keywords are those that are lower cost. It’s no longer a matter of getting the most clicks. It’s about getting the smart clicks.

Regardless of what is happening on the business side, Google, Facebook, and Bing are heavily invested in staying ahead of the trends. The advertising dollars online continue to increase but the competition and delivery of working forms of advertising are also on the rise. They are continuously needing to innovate, to bring to the table the things that their competition cannot do.

PPC isn’t dying. It’s changing. The way we have known it for years is dying but the overall search marketing world is alive and well. It’s just getting a facelift. You may not recognize it when it’s done but it should look better… unless the facelift gets butchered as they so often are.

“PPC” image courtesy of Shutterstock.