Will PPC Nail Social Media Advertising?

Internet Marketing, Social Media September 27th, 2009

Though Pay per click advertising has been a colossal catalyst in delivering value for Internet advertisers and creating an effective metric, in my opinion, it is also a bane.
PPC advertising has spoiled us, internet advertisers and agencies both want to use it as a blanket metric for all internet marketing initiatives. The role of Social Media Optimization or Online Reputation Management often gets diminished simply because the brand owner wants to tie in a PPC like ROI to it.

Advertisers are quickly picking up the merits of SMO and ORM, but at the same time want a commitment on the number of visitors or leads the activity will drive. The worst being PPC campaigns like timeframes and expectations – one month campaign during launch, xxxx Leads at xx$ CPC

Now there’s no harm in expecting a ROI on social media activities, but agencies should educate the advertisers on correct metric to measure this ROI, you cannot simply duplicate the metrics of PPC advertising because the advertiser is used to it and measures all internet marketing campaigns with same yardstick.

Advertisers too should clearly understand the role of Social Media & ORM and evaluate its merits for their brand. It’s not prudent to jump into it, simply because everyone else is doing it. If you are looking at driving direct traffic in quickest possible time then stick to PPC advertising.

SMO & ORM can be very powerful tools in your marketing toolbox and can augment your brand value significantly, don’t dilute them with incorrect ROI expectations
All internet marketing activities can’t be measured with one single yardstick.