Internet Marketing

So what do horses have to do with PPC management services? Plenty! Bear with me and I’ll explain.

Back in June, 2008, there was a major horse race – the Belmont Stakes. Big Brown, who had previously won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness (and in dominant fashion), was the heavy favorite. All Big Brown had to do was win at Belmont and he would have become the first Triple Crown winner since a horse named Affirmed accomplished this feat way back in 1978.

All bets were on Big Brown. It didn’t take a lot of research for the bookies to make Big Brown the overwhelming favorite – both on the field and at the gambling booths. It was all but a foregone conclusion…the race was over before it began. Big Brown would win and win big – just like he had in his other two races.

According to conventional wisdom (and also according to Big Brown’s trainer) all the other horses did not even need to show up. This was a guarantee, a no-contest, a shoe-in (no pun intended).

Well, once again…”conventional wisdom” was wrong. Big Brown came in dead last. The winner was Da’Tara! This was the same horse who had finished 23 1/2 lengths BEHIND Big Brown in a race just three months earlier. In fact, Da’Tara was so dominant, that he beat all the horses by four lengths!

It’s a good thing horses can’t read because if they could…then Da’Tara would not have even tried. But, alas, horses CANNOT read, and Da’Tara is in the record books forever a winner of the 2008 Belmont Stakes.

No, horses can’t read, but neither can your customers. Yes, most can probably read words, but they can’t read your mind. They don’t know what you think they are supposed to know. You see…you and ever other pay per click advertiser only have 85 total characters to tell your customer about your offer in order to get the click – only about 12-16 words to tell your story – no matter who you are.

Pay per click is the “great equalizer.” It doesn’t matter how big your company is, how long you have been in business, or how many millions of dollars of sales you made last year. Customers don’t necessarily “know” that; you can’t take them for granted like Big Brown’s fans took him for granted because of his reputation. Every day, you must compete to win. You must fight. You must outsmart your competition. Heck, in many markets it’s hard enough just to get on the first page of the search results – let alone get the click – and let alone make a sale or convert a prospect into a lead!

Now, if you are a small company…you should be getting very excited about this scenario. Just like with Da’Tara…each new day brings you a shot at winning. In the pay per click game, everyone is on an even playing field. You cannot buy your way to the top. In fact, if you know what you are doing and practice smart PPC management, you may even get to the top of the page, while spending less than your competitor who is at the bottom!

Yes, some search engine may play favorites to a few previous winners, but not too much and not for too long. For you see…the customer is the one who gets the most favoritism…and that’s the way it should be.

Companies who are not on the top of their game and choose to approach PPC management like it is some sort of “set it and forget it” service will soon be going the way of Big Brown, while an upstart like Da’Tara, who sticks with it long enough to figure things out, becomes the pay per click champion of the day. If you find you can’t compete anymore, then perhaps it’s time to retire or, to consider outsourcing your PPC management services to a company who knows how to breed “champions” and has a track record for turning losing PPC campaigns into winners.