Companies have adopted two methods in online advertising.  The first is by natural search wherein a particular firm contacts a search engine provider such as Google and puts up generic terms that describe the former’s products or services.  The search engine site then selects these unbranded terms called keywords and indexes them.

Online viewers use these keywords to eventually find the product or service that they are searching for.  The second method in internet advertising is called paid search wherein a company posts its ad on a search engine, and pays only its advertising costs based on the items that are actually selected by online viewers.  Among these paid search ads, one scheme that has attracted lots of internet marketers is the Pay per Click (PPC) online advertising.

PPCs (Pay-Per-Click) has gained popularity for many companies because this enables them to post ads on online search engines and they only pay advertising costs based on the ads that viewers personally view for more information.  Online viewers literally use the computer mouse to point to the said ads and “click” on these, hence the word Pay per Click.  This seems less costly than other online ads and many firms have already used it.  The said advertising scheme has become so popular that many advertisers have suggested that natural search ads be replaced by PPCs.  Online marketers have used them in achieving top rankings in viewership percentages in the internet.

Based on online marketing studies, PPCs can never be regarded as substitutes for natural searches.

The primary reason is because the masses are more familiar on natural search websites compared to PPCs.  A typical online viewer does not usually go to paid search sites; they prefer natural searches because these are easier to access.  They just type the keyword of the item that they are looking, and immediately find hundreds of links.

Since it has the widest domain in internet users, a company should focus on natural search ads to popularize its products or services.  Even if you will spend more at first, you will save money in the long run.  Previously unknown brands as well as recently introduced products have become famous overnight due to natural searches.

On the other hand, focusing on paid search promotions such as PPC may be thrift in the beginning but costly in the long run.  Most of the online viewers typically shun these ads because they seem to be over-commercialized.  Others may become bored if you don’t update these ad promotions.  Hence, you need to spend more in these forms of advertising for a relatively long period of time.

A good example that clearly describes the results of natural search and PPC advertising is the experience by the owner of an online copywriting business.  Within two years, both his natural search and paid search ad expenses amounted to $6,000.  However, after five years, the former costs only $9,000 while the latter has rose up to $15,000.  This is clear proof the natural search advertising is more practical in the long run.

Tags: cost of ppc, internet traffic, natural search, natural serach ranking, ppc v natural search, search engine, seo, seo optimization, serp, traffic, website traffic