Not All “Clicks” are Created Equal

Since we’re in a recession, the trend I see many advertisers taking is buying the cheapest ad program they can find with what appears to have the most amount of visibility.  That trend makes sense, given budgets are slashed and miracles need to happen using those precious dollars.  However, without the ability to track consumer behavior after they click to your site, you can’t establish what those cheap clicks are worth.  As a result, I humbly believe there are great flaws with that strategy as the quality of your audience is diminished greatly.

Audience and messaging are huge factors for what you pay for Web traffic.  The reason that Google appears to be cheaper at the $1 to $4 cost-per-click (CPC) for many real estate terms is that Google has tremendous reach to an extremely wide audience.  The one reason a Google click costs $1 CPC, or less, is due to the fact that with limited text, you might not get a qualified click.  In the end, you purchase many more clicks to get the audience you need. Remember: You pay every time someone clicks on your Google ad, whether they are person you want to attract, or not.

I invite you to complement those efforts by spending on sites that have the exact consumer you seek.  I’ll use Zillow as an example, because this is what I do.  If a consumer comes to a real estate specific site like Zillow.com, and is searching for homes, the clicks you receive are much more qualified since the content of the site and the content of your ad are closely aligned. Therefore, the click is worth more.  Compare this to the consumer on Google: they need to click more to find out more.  While a real estate specific site doesn’t have the reach Google does, the clicks on a real estate-specific site will be worth more to you because you want someone searching for real estate to find you.

To take this one step further, consider a click from a real estate site like Zillow.com vs. a click from the real estate section of your newspaper Web site.  Both have similar real estate content, yet the value of that click to your business will vary.

If you have an analytics program in place to monitor consumer behavior after you receive that click to your site and you can justify spending on low cost programs, then go ahead.  If you are just buying cheap clicks because your budget is cut, that is a flawed strategy.

Remember what your goals are.  Is it to drive a million clicks to your Web site?  Is it to generate 100 leads?  Or is it to generate sales of real estate from the 80%+ of consumers shopping real estate online?   Driving a bunch of cheap clicks doesn’t sell homes, hence the flaw in that strategy.  Then ask yourself, how many thousands of dollars did I dump into Google to try and figure out how to make it work?  Why did you do that?  Probably because you thought you had to and you thought at $1 per click, that is cheap.  Add it up and you might be frightened at the results.  Google isn’t the magic pixie dust you are looking for.

Realize that every publisher has good clicks to offer, but it is a question of what are they worth to your business.  Know that if a program is cheap, there is a reason for it. Usually, you have to reinvest several times over in order to generate a return from a low-cost initial program.  Make sure you have analytics in place to justify any program you are using, regardless of cost.