Hands up who’s doing PPC (pay per click) advertising? You know, Google AdWords and the like? Hmm, that’s quite a lot of you. And I see a few of you, even at fairly small companies, spending as much as you ever did on print advertising – and the monthly expenditure is rising too. So perhaps we need to take stock of where we are.

In 7 Signs Your PPC Campaigns Needs Optimization on the Marketing Optimization Blog the author contends that you’re probably not doing AdWords as efficiently as you might, and I’m sure you’ll be big enough to admit that’s probably the case.

The thing about AdWords is that whilst it can be used simply to drive traffic to your website (and that’s all many people are using it for), it can also be quite an expensive way of doing that. Those fifty-pence clicks add up if you’re just sending people to your website and not taking them so a highly-targeted page, with a great call to action, that you’re measuring accurately.

On the other hand, for specific campaigns (like distributing certain catalogues and data sheets, or sending out invitations, or even generating sales calls), the combination of an AdWords campaign and a targeted landing page is dynamite. We have a number of new products coming out here at Business Marketing Online in the new year, and one of them will be just perfect for those of you who are spending money on AdWords but want to see it generate real sales leads. To find out more, send me an email – chris@bmon.co.uk – and I’ll make sure you’re one of the group who get an advanced look at what we’re doing in the spring.