Finance Merchants get their PPC so wrong!
It amazes me just how much money some finance merchants are wasting on bad PPC. By bad PPC I mean bidding on terms which simply have no chance of converting, and which can even negatively affect the brand.
For instance, type ‘loan shark’ into Google and you get scores of paid results. One of which is Tesco Finance.
Type in ‘loan deal for (insert favourite footballer’s name here)’ and you get loads of paid results including Ocean Finance.
Type in ‘The Loan Ranger’ (a common mis-spelling) – well done YesLoansUK, you have no competition for that term. It won’t convert for you though.
Type in ‘debt of Liverpool FC’ – loads of debt management services paying to appear here, but the user was not looking for you!
Type in ‘third world debt’ - UK Debt Advice Line – why are you prepared to lose money like this?!
I could list hundreds more examples of shoddy PPC techniques which cost finance merchants hundreds of thousands of pounds. This is not limited to bad choice of keywords but also ad position, titles, descriptions and URLs. Don’t get me started on the landing pages, some of which have simply no chance of converting. I get the impression that many finance merchants outsource their PPC to agencies who must be paid regardless of conversions, encouraging this kind of scattergun approach to PPC.
It is this kind of wastefulness which allows finance affiliates like me to make a profit in this competitive industry, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much!!
If you have an opinion on this, please leave a comment below.
I think you are right Mike, a search agency is normally paid a percentage of spend so they are going to advise a client to spend as much as they can. I am a massive fan of affiliates carrying out this activity, they are concerned with conversions and not just traffic. PPC in my mind should stand for Pay Per Conversion, that’s all anyone should be concerned with.