Google winning even with drop in PPC, time for Inbound Marketing?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Fri, Apr 16, 2010
If Google can be used as a benchmark for the state of online advertising and inbound marketing then things are looking good and getting better. For the first 3 months of 2010 Google's revenue jumped by 23% proving that business are still switching online to attract new business and increase brand awareness. The increase in 2010 is Google's strongest growth in the last six quarters. Does this mean that now is the time to follow the trend and ensure that you are found online either with PPC or Inbound Marketing?
Inbound Marketing is about getting found and it appears that people are looking and want to find you. If you compare Google's figures against those of last year, the number of people clicking on paid advertising grew by 15%. You can view this as a sign of that people are searching more online or they are not finding what they want from the natural listings. Either way it is a sign that you have to look to inbound marketing or social media to ensure you are getting found and for the right search terms.
Is Inbound Marketing the cheaper way to go? Well according to Google's results the cost per click may have risen when compared against the same quarter in 2009 by 7%. But it compare this quarter against the previous quarter the actual cost per click dropped by 4%. The drop is attributed to a shift in advertisers from into lower priced keywords away from high volume keywords. This might go hand in hand with people starting to search for longer phrases, words with 3 or more keywords.
My take away from this for inbound marketing is that companies are ramping up their investment in online advertising. They are doing this because online advertising works however eventually this will drive up the cost per click and reduce the return on investment. So the only long term solution should be a balanced strategy with the majority focused on SEO, Social Media and Inbound Marketing.
A great starting point for any inbound marketing should be a blog. So next week SiliconCloud are running a free webinar for companies where you can learn how and why to blog for your business. You can register here: Blogging for Business.