Why PPC Won't Help You Generate Leads

Pay-per-click (PPC) seems like a beautiful solution to all your lead generation challenges. All you have to do is create a campaign, and boom! You’ve got more traffic, more leads, more customers! You can sit back and relax while all your goals get accomplished and you finally get noticed at work for creating this influx of leads for the sales team.

Wrong, All Wrong!

Site Traffic Doesn’t = Leads

PPC cannot solve all your lead generation deficiencies, and is most definitely not as easy as just running your ad campaign and sitting back to watch sales roll in. When considering a PPC campaign, the first question to ask yourself is what goal are you trying to reach? Almost no singular task will accomplish all your lead generation goals, especially PPC. There are pieces and processes to each area of the overarching lead generation task we have as marketers. If you are trying to generate some crazily high amount of traffic to your site, PPC can be a very powerful tool. But let me ask you this: why are you trying to generate more traffic to your website? Your answer is probably something along the lines of wanting to generate leads that hopefully convert to customers and, in turn, generate revenue. But let me state this truth for you: PPC will not help you accomplish this. Yes, you read that right.

Without first creating an experience for your leads on your website there is little value in guiding them there, for you or for them. PPC can bring an influx of visitors and sometimes, just sometimes, they are interested in your products. But if you pay for visitors to come to your website, and the only path you have for them to connect with you is your “contact us” page, PPC will mostly likely not help you. (Maybe it’ll get you a pat on the back from other departments, but that’s not your goal, is it?) The important thing to keep in mind is what do you expect visitors to do when they come to your website? Creating an experience for your users before an influx of website traffic is very important in generating leads.

Don’t Be a Horrible First Date

Paying for visitors to come to your site and then leading them to a generic “Contact Us” page is very similar to going on a blind date that your friend convinced you to go on, and during that same date being proposed to. While this scenario can be quite flattering, it is heavily masked with a whole lot of CREEPY!

Don’t scare your visitors away before taking the opportunity to teach them why they should stick around. As with a first date, you want to find out if you have mutual interests, if that person is cool to talk to and if you might want a second date. Even though most people see first dates as a lot of work (which they are), this process is vital to keeping that person around and not sending them running in the other direction.

How to Flatter on The First Date

First and foremost, when you get visitors to your website, you want to make sure you have quality content for them. This gives them value for visiting your website and helps them to learn if your company can help them with their needs. Instead of forcing the connection between you and your leads, help them to see why you are such a great match. (And if you’re not, don’t get upset. There are other fish in the sea!) This opportunity also allows you to learn more about them. Doesn’t this sound like dating? Remember, focus on the learning and leave all the awkward at home. Don't waste your money, time, and energy on PPC before you have a surplus of quality content to offer your leads. This way, when they visit your website, they can get all the education they need to know you are the one before you propose.

Are you looking for more ways to generate leads? Thinking about dumping your budget into PPC? Before you do that, we recommend chatting with a Marketing Specialist, which might change your mind on where to focus your efforts. Oh, and if you have any questions on pre- marriage proposal strategies, we are always open to chatting with you about that as well.