His first two questions were:

Do Traffic Exchanges Really Work? and Can You Really Expect Good Marketing Results from Twitter?

Today’s question is:

Is Google Adwords still the top marketing tool?  What else brings good results (besides SEO)?

First off, I’m going to make a couple of assumptions about the question.  1. It seems to me that you are referring to online marketing tools, and 2) that you want quick results (don’t we all!).

I’m sure that we could assemble 100 people in a room and we would have about 100 different answers to what the top marketing tool might be.

Adwords is Google’s version of pay-per-click advertising, also referred to as paid placement.  The other major search engines, Yahoo and Bing, also offer paid placement, so I’ll lump them all together to answer this question.

Pay-per-click definitely has a place in your marketing toolbox, but in my opinion, it’s not the top tool.  From where I stand (and I’m a bit biased), Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is one of the best ways to attract qualified visitors to your site, for the money.

In a recent article, Is Pay-Per-Click Losing It’s Charm?, I mention the fact that the percentage of clicks in the paid placement area of the search engine results page (SERP) has dropped dramatically over the last few years.

I believe this is because more and more people realize that they are ads and therefore prefer to click on the natural results that the search engines believe are relevant, not just the advertisers.

My approach to online marketing is a more holistic one, that includes small business websites and blogs, article marketing, link building and directory listings, email marketing, social networking, social bookmarking and local business profiles.

I believe if you focus your energy on providing good content that your target market can benefit from and you spend a little time each and every day in all of the areas mentioned above, over time, you will build a strong following and loyal customers.

My approach may not bring a million visitors to your site tomorrow, but it will certainly build a strong foundation so you can attract a million visitors down the road.

If anyone else has thoughts to add, please leave them in the comments below.

To your success!

Follow Me on Twitter

Related Posts:

• Generating Traffic and Targeting Niches
• Is Pay-Per-Click Losing It’s Charm?
• Google Rolls Out Social Search
• Small Business SEO Just Got More Affordable
• Search Engine Optimization – URL Structure

The comScore article presents the fact that search queries have increased 68% over the past two years, but search ad clicks have only gone up 18% in the same period.

The comScore article goes on to suggest that one reason is:

“that the search engines have been working hard to improve the searcher experience and reduce the importance of less relevant advertisers…To help confirm this hypothesis we looked into the rate at which searchers clicked on paid ads and found that the rate hasn’t changed”

and two:

“An analysis of comScore data shows that search queries are actually getting longer and that as searchers become more experienced they are using more words per search query. And this apparently reduces the likelihood that an advertiser has bid to have his/her ad included in the results page from these longer queries”

The TechCrunch article suggests that one of the biggest reasons for the decline is there are simply fewer big players that spend a lot of money on paid placement.  However, the only companies mentioned are the big retailers like Sharper Image and Wickes Furniture and Macy’s.  This is just in the retail sector.  What about all the service businesses and B2B companies still advertising?

I agree that there has been a big decline in the number of advertisers but I think both of these articles are missing something.

First, I disagree with comScore that the rate at which searchers click on paid ads hasn’t changed.  In the MarketingSherpa 2009 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide, there is a chart that shows that only 3.1% to 6.8% of clicks take place in the paid placement area of the search engine results page (SERPS).  That is a huge decline from a similar report I read in early 2007 that put the number of clicks in the paid placement area between 14 and 17%.  I can’t put my finger on the report at the moment but when I do I will update this post.

I agree that longer search string queries have reduced the number of paid ads being shown, but that is really secondary to the reason people aren’t clicking on those ads.  Its because longer search queries bring back more relevant results and the searcher doesn’t have to rely on ads to find what he wants.

I also believe that more people realize that the listings on the right and at the top of the SERPS are ads and just don’t click on them as often.  Searchers are getting smarter and they realize there’s a very good chance they are going to find what they want in the natural search results.

I’d love to hear your comments.

Related Posts:

• Is Google Adwords Still The Top Marketing Tool?
• Generating Traffic and Targeting Niches