SWOT Analysis of the Pay Per Click Industry – PPC Chat Streamcap

This week Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro) came up with a great discussion going over a SWOT Analysis of the Pay Per Click Industry. The following is the transcribed Streamcap from the live chat:

Q1: What do you believe to be the strengths of the PPC industry? Why?

• Ability to pinpoint ROI. Ability to test and optimize quickly and easily. – David Szetela (@Szetela)
• More immediate results and data. Ability to quickly adjust and test strategies. – Mark Kennedy (@markkennedysem)
• Data-driven. ROI-focused. High-performance. Specific targeting – people tell you what they want. - Jeremy Brown (@JBGuru)
• PPC is where consumers are actively looking for a product. – Alma Smith (@Alma_Smith)
• Adaptability and flexibility due to contstant releases, changes and roll-outs. – Nicole Mintiens (@Tregesy)
• As an advertiser? New acquisition. – Neil Sorenson (@iNeils)
• Big picture thinking. – Julie Bacchini (@NeptuneMoon)
• Perfect pull marketing – people are asking questions, we just spend a little to give the best answers. – Aaron Levy (@bigalittlea)
• Responsive campaigns with great control and targeting. – James Svoboda (@Realicity)
• More quantifiable results than other media (e.g. print, tv, radio, etc). – Leslie Drechsler (@ppcbuyers)
• Ability to execute many different strategies with measured results. – Gil Hong (@ghong_af)
• Measurability and nimble campaigns (aka quick changes). – Luke Alley (@LukeAlley)
• Quick implementation. It might not take 5 min., but you can get up and running quickly. – Jeremy Brown
• I’d say constant innovation is a huge strength. – Matt Umbro (@Matt_Umbro)
• It’s Google’s money maker so we’ll continue to see innovation in the space which is good for advertisers and PPC consultants. – Nefer Lopez (@Nefer_L)
• Analysis leads to actionable tasks. (as compared to to other channels) Always room for continued improvement. – Jesse Semchuck (@jessesem)
• Flexibility and response time. Nothing like being able to add new terms or change promotional messaging in minutes. – Jeff Loquist (@jmloquist)
• Great control and actionable data which makes ROI easily provable. Connecting businesses with customers that are looking. – Jason Manion (@JasonManion)
• It is straight forward compared to SEO and it has a fast ROI not 6 months. – Derek Ostler (@DerekOstler)
• Best way of bringing new and unique traffic to your site. Numbers to back it up. – Brian Gaspar (@BGaspar)
• For the most part it is an OCD paradise, with more actionable control than other mediums. – Bryant Garvin (@BryantGarvin)
• I’d also say a strength is that most companies can run PPC accounts and see results. – Matt Umbro
• It’s one of the few forms of advertising that lends itself and is easily available to pretty much all businesses/advertisers. – Cassie Allinger (@CassieAllinger)
• You can go as deep as you want. Want to test traffic from 70 year old, rich women, who live in a certain zip? You can. – Jesse Semchuck
• Another big strength – allows little companies to compete with the big guys (select keywords, geos, etc.) – Jeremy Brown
• Measurable, quick, have a supportive base (Google), better targeted, further reaching, can unearth useful insights. – Niki Grant (@TheNikiGrant)
• Reminds me of Chemistry class, can make changes, test and see almost instantaneous results to then make more changes/test. – Bryant Garvin
• The ability to quickly fix mistakes is also a plus. – Jeff Loquist
• PPC forced all other channels to report ROI or stop. – John Ellis (@JohnWEllis)
• PPC industry all about optimization in real-time, which raises the bar for other channels! - Emily Las (@emlas)
• A super-collaborative culture in an industry that’s competitive by nature. – PPC Associates (@PPCAssociates)
• Also, fast results. And in most non-niche industries, a very scalable marketing tool. – Jason Manion
• Meeting search intent across different devices is huge & control of spend of channel. – Nefer Lopez
• Working with Google instead of against them (SEO). I like receiving the support and insights you don’t get with other channels. – Niki Grant
• One more quick thing. Google is actually (usually) on your team. When you succeed, they succeed. – Jason Manion
• More innovative in terms of how to maximize reach. Text ads, PLA’s, Image Display, Remarketing and eventually SocMe. – Brian Gaspar

Q2: What do you believe to be the weaknesses within the PPC industry? Why?

• Operate at the mercy of search engines *cough* adwords *cough*. They say “Jump,” we say, “How high?” – Nicole Mintiens
  • I would say this is more of a threat to PPC, but we’ll get into that later. – Matt Umbro
• The engine’s business plans aren’t always aligned with mine. – Heather Cooan
• Increasing complexity. – David Szetela
• Escalating costs for advertisers. Some already have thin margins. Goes against Google’s efforts to continually increase CPC. – Neil Sorenson
• It’s Google’s world. Also, there is still a lack of supply in terms of skilled labor. – Jeremy Brown
• Tough to get good results unless you have experience. For example, SMBs who try it on their own. – Mark Kennedy
• Everyone has the same tools – can’t think outside the box too much. Quality score dictating everything. – Niki Grant
• Increased competition makes it harder for new entrants, especially small businesses. – David Szetela
• Having PPC blinders on – often don’t see the big picture when it comes to the overall business. – Rick Galan (@RickGalan)
• Perceived lack of knowledge of Reps. I should not know more than my rep…or they are hiding info. – Jeff Loquist
• The temptation of a “Set it and forget it” lifestyle, and the reality of that idea for businesses without PPC dedication. – Nate Knox (@nateknox)
• Definitely the competition and increasing CPC, which make PPC out of question for some companies. – Jason Manion
• Competition is brutal. Google is pretty much a monopoly. – Robert Brady (@robert_brady)
• As innovative as they are with changes, negative impact associated with changes. ie. disable even ad rotations. – Brian Gaspar
• If you don’t double check your settings or make a typo in your budget… consequences can be dire. – Gil Hong
• Chicken little-ing. We as an industry freak out at every change, when most are just slight mods to what’s worked for years. – Aaron Levy
• PPC weakness = only 24 hours in a day. – Emily Las
• Learning curve for SMB advertisers can be overwhelming and they jump ship before seeing how effective PPC can be. – Nefer Lopez
• The Ad Platforms grow revenue for themselves by increasing competition, which hurts advertisers with the decisions they make. – James Svoboda
• When you pay more, you get better results. Unfair advantages for bigger advertisers. Google doesn’t care about your ROI. – Jesse Semchuck
• Also, silo-ing. We often forget that we’re a tactic, not a strategy. Part of the marketing mix, not the whole thing. – Aaron Levy
• PPC is measured much more stringently than other media channels like “tv." – Bryant Garvin
• Change is a constant. – Stephanie Cockerl (@nextSTEPH)
• The playing field is getting more even, making it harder and harder to earn ROI. – Alma Smith
• This is where Threats can be mistaken for Weaknesses, but a feel of disconnect between adwords and their users. – Brian Gaspar
• Battling the poor reputation due to the lack of skilled labor can be tough. Business get burned. – Heather Cooan (@HeatherCooan)
• The ppcers get down in the weeds of their own program, and often make decisions that are great for ppc, not for the biz. – Rick Galan
• PPC is a constant education process. It’s not spam or scams. Advertising is not bad. Only “bad” advertising is bad. – John Ellis
• Attrition is huge in this space. Hire fast, but fire fast as well. – Brian Gaspar
• Dare I say … Sometimes this industry is too focused on ROI, and less focused on goals. ROI is not the bottom line for all advertisers, esp w/in a larger marketing strategy. Focus on goals = success. – Cassie Allinger
• PPC landscape is dynamic and we are control freaks (or “hyper detail oriented” if you take offense)! – Emily Las
• We do not have parallel goals and a mutually beneficial relationship with the ad platforms. – James Svoboda
• Understanding (or lack thereof) of seasonality shifts as it impacts month over month performance. – Brian Gaspar
• Also a little too easy to piggyback on a competing brand’s name/hard work. – PPC Associates
• Lack of transparency with the ever elusive & highly sought after “10″ Quality Score. – Nefer Lopez
  • QS is a strength and weakness. Many advertisers get frustrated with lack of transparency. – Jeremy Brown
    • QS understanding is a strength but lack of those who understand is a major weekness. – Heather Cooan
• Lack of understanding about LTV and how that affects bidding. At least for some of my accounts. – Jesse Semchuck
• Thousands can be spent on SEO, but spend $500 on PPC and the ROI is questioned within hours. - John Ellis
  • I do believe SEO is becoming more revenue focused with clients wanting to see the bottom line. – Matt Umbro
• A large number of spammers and MFA site creators still gaming the system. – Leslie Drechsler
• No guarantee of where ad will place on page.. “Why aren’t we in the yellow box?” – Stephanie Cockerl

Q3: What do you believe to be the opportunities within the PPC industry? Why?

• Hopefully a stronger competitor to Google. – Mark Kennedy
• Expansion into SocMe with increased exposure on Google SERP’s coupled with new extensions. – Brian Gaspar
• Continued advancement from Google and Bing. Facebook and other channels will get more mature. New channels too. – Jeremy Brown
• Increasing complexity = job security for practitioners. – David Szetela
• Continued growth of online video advertising as businesses shift from traditional TV/cable buys. – Timothy Jensen (@timothyjjensen)
• It’s constantly changing, which constantly opens new opportunities for learning & improvement. – Cassie Allinger
• The opportunities to be a trend setter among your competitors with new google features and strategies. – Gil Hong
• More and more marketing budget going to online. – Robert Brady
• BingAds growth in traffic. Facebook & LinkedIn platform inovations. – James Svoboda
• Much better call tracking provided by Google and Bing – if advertisers could see revenue associated with phone calls. – Matt Umbro
• Learning. PPC has come a log way with #ppcchat and other resources, but can still be improved upon. – Jeff Loquist
• Applying CPC model to other stuff besides just search. Display networks are starting to catch on, so much more fun than IO’s. – Aaron Levy
• Using other avenues besides AdWords. We have had great success with FB and others like criteo etc. – Derek Ostler
• More insights with Google Analytics integeration into AdWords. – Brian Gaspar
• Also, cross device tracking/cheap attribution modeling. Lets SMB’s see the landscape rather than the last click. – Aaron Levy
• Services that offer real solutions to Google’s push to increase CPC. Negative keyword crowd sourcing and accurate call tracking. – Jesse Semchuck
• Competitors to YouTube and cleaner ties to video marketing. The AdWords/YouTube UI is still too limited. – PPC Associates
• Multi-channel attribution and integrated behavioral retargeting on the CPC model. This stuff is so cool! – Heather Cooan
• Broadening definition of PPC – retargeting, feeds, etc. – Ginny Marvin (@GinnyMarvin)
• Increasing mastery of other areas (rather than traditional SERP text ad). Display, mobile, video, product ads, remarketing, etc. – Jason Manion
• Always more opportunity in offering more transparency. (attn: Google). – Emily Las
• Greater cooperation with SEO. Strictly PPC shops that don’t do Organic search are missing a great symbiotic relationship. – Michael Wiegand (@mwiegand) 
• Better understanding of relationship between PPC and other marketing sources. – Jeff Loquist
  • I was going to say: better understanding of the buyer cycle & customer lifetime values. Key is “better understanding” – Cassie Allinger
    • Agreed. buyer cycles, attribution modeling from devices..we could spend a day listing them, methinks. – Jeff Loquist
• I see mobile being bigger and bigger every minute too! - Derek Ostler
• Major opportunity lies in applying PPC tactics, real-time optimization power to other channels. Why should any message be static? – Emily Las
• Better and less creepy personalization of ads across channels. – Julie Bacchini
• A great opportunity lies within education – creating college courses/internships around PPC. – Matt Umbro
  • That would be huge. Pushing to get an intern. Knowledge is power, true value is sharing it with others. – Brian Gaspar
• Major opp in using PPC data to inform larger decisions. The focus group concept makes PPC vital to overall mktg efforts. – Emily Las
• Google connecting the dots between devices and closing the gap in tracking consumer behavior. Kinda scary, tho. – Nefer Lopez
• While #HeroConf is great, the ability to create more regionally based PPC specific conferences and trade shows. – Brian Gaspar
• As G continues to take away insights into search trends (not-provided), PPC becomes a critical gateway to that information. – Cassie Allinger
• I’d love to see how Google integrates Wallet, w/ G+ and AdWords gel’ing together. – Nefer Lopez

Q4: What do you believe to be the threats within the PPC industry? Why?

• PPC is ultimately ruled by Google’s domination & ability to make any changes they want to AdWords. – Timothy Jensen
• Google offering PPC management (service or tools). – Robert Brady
• Attribution, again! Once we get more data, may find that traditional paid search has less value than we believe. – Aaron Levy
• Privacy laws, paranoia could easily spill into eliminating tools we rely on to target users. – Alma Smith
• Automation threatening to commoditize the industry and devalue intuition/innovative human thought. – PPC Associates
• For industry strength– did anyone mention PPC by definition. We pay for clicks Lower risk, higher returns, etc. – Emily Las
• Loss of control. Without beating a dead horse (cough* #enhanced campaigns *couch). – Jeff Loquist
• Ever increasing CPC pushing all but the largest advertisers out. Should be place to level field a bit ideally. – Julie Bacchini
• The growing complexity of PPC makes it that much harder/necessary to explain it well to the client. – Gil Hong
• Google entering their own services in some PPC niches. – Mark Kennedy
• Google killing their Golden Goose on accident. New technologies/services that work completely differently. – Jeremy Brown
• Google’s inability to police it’s own ads can ruin it for valid advertisers. – Jesse Semchuck
• Increased CPC for Search Keywords & Long-Tail shrinking is making PPC not viable for some. Social & SEO can be more attractive. – James Svoboda
• Algorithms taking all the jobs. – Sam Owen (@SamOwenPPC)
  • I’m not overly concerned with algos. They don’t replace humans…they just make it easier for smart humans to scale. – Jeremy Brown
• The assumption by G that advertisers want everything automated, or shall I say enhanced? – Cassie Allinger
• How Google perceives themselves in this space. Changing Ad Review policies can impact revenue from these ads. – Brian Gaspar
• More of a granular threat, but not being able to exclude specific search partners. – Matt Umbro
• Such a high % of market share in the hands of one company… Always a threat. – Emily Las
• As shown by ECs, we’re at the behest of a monopoly. If they change something, we have to change tact entirely (perhaps). – Peter Hughes
• The prices could go up a lot and hurt the small business owner and make it harder for them to have Success at it. – Derek Ostler
• Automation to PPC accounts by Google and their comparison products showing in search results are big threats. – Laura McDonald (@lauramcdonald0)
• We should be able to exclude search partners at some point. Legacy contracts will eventually expire. – Jeremy Brown
• People who value automation over human insight are a bigger threat than the algorithms themselves. – Emily Las
  • Agree completely. The people that believe in a magic ‘easy’ button really don’t have a clue. – Jeremy Brown
• Last vs. first click, OK. PPC plays a part in first click, there’s value. No Partial Attribution that’s a threat. – Brian Gaspar
• If @BingAds copies everything that Google does instead of trying to innovate in the advertising side of things. – Bryant Garvin
  • Given how Bing has been outperforming Google for me lately, may not be such a bad thing. – Brian Gaspar
• Another threat is people/clients who take Google’s advice as gospel. You know they make $ off these insights…right? – Emily Las
• Continued dumbing down of Adwords. – Julie Bacchini
• Bing being the largest threat to Google. – Nefer Lopez
  • But not a threat to the industry. Would simply shift inventory. – Luke Alley
• Google complacency in thinking they know what’s best for my clients. – Leslie Drechsler
• How PPC revenue is tracked & measured. AdWords Conv Code, Analytics, ERP/Revenue platform. Could be hard to get 1:1 numbers. – Brian Gaspar

Q5: After conducting this SWOT analysis, what is your number one takeaway (can come from any aspect of the analysis)?

• Be ready and willing for change. – Luke Alley
• Diversity your PPC Advertising if budget allows. AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn. – James Svoboda
• Education is key. Understanding what is available & sharing will be our biggest asset. – Jeff Loquist
• That no matter the size of the biz, you really need a PPC manager if your going to use this channel. It’s getting more complex. – Mark Kennedy
  • And you need to determine if you want an in-house resource for it or outsource it to a 3rd party agency. Or combat by making it another part of someone’s job. Needs dedicated prioritization. – Brian Gaspar
• PPC is still a vibrant industry that hasn’t fully-matured yet. Will it look different in the future? Yes. – Jeremy Brown
• Same thing from performing any SWOT. Industry is ever changing. Have to make Weaknesses Strengths and Threats Opportunities. – Brian Gaspar
• Provide organizational value outside the PPC silo. – Robert Brady
• Stay on your toes, diversify your traffic and budgets, make sure PPC goals align with company goals. – Jesse Semchuck
• Because of measurement tools, fast data flow, targeting abilities etc., PPC still rules the ROI roost. – David Szetela
• Keep thinking “beyond the click” – that is a big part of what makes us valuable. – Julie Bacchini
• Keep the strengths & opportunities top-of-mind when the weaknesses/threats are getting you down! – Emily Las
• Keep moving and stay alert. Opportunities and threats are everywhere. – George Gilmer (@GeorgeGilmer)
• As Google increases CPC, smaller businesses need to find their niche keyword groups in order to compete. Win by being an expert. – Jesse Semchuck
• We’re all gonna have jobs for a very, very long time. – Aaron Levy
• Combine automation w/ human insight. Algorithms augment and amplify the real pros, not replace them. Give benefit beyond bidding. – Chris Haleua (@chrishaleua)

Resources

• Google AdWords Editor (version as of today’s PPCChat 9.9.0)
• Microsoft adCenter Desktop
• http://www.google.com/ads/answers/
• PPCChat Member List (Twitter)
• adCenter Feature Suggestion
• Bing Keyword Research Tool

More PPC Chats

Don’t forget to stay tuned for the next #PPCchat on Tuesday at 12 noon Eastern, 9 am Pacific and 5pm in the UK. Same Chat time, same Chat channel.

Participants

Check out the PPC Chat Twitter list to see and connect with all current and prior participants.

Gathering the Strenghs of PPC in the Streamcap

This is a guest post by Paul Kragthorpe; WebRanking SEM Manager in Minneapolis, Minnesota, #PPCChat Streamcap Grabber, SEO Blog Author. Connect with me @PaulKragthorpe, and Google Plus.
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Tags: Pay-Per-Click (PPC), ppcchat, swot

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 at 6:02 pm by Paul Kragthorpe and is filed under Pay-Per-Click (PPC), PPC Chat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.