Why PPC is a CFO’s Best Friend, Even in Lead-Gen

Marketing impact is difficult to measure. No, it’s not, if you’re in digital marketing where nearly everything is tracked, measured, and optimized. However, that mantra is oft repeated to this day. Most recently an article (http://linkd.in/14Yrg5k) on LinkedIn was the latest to argue this. One line stood out:
3) Marketing Impact is often hard to measure. Marketing is more art than science. It’s hard to know whether all those millions of dollars spent have led to increase in real sales. And when a downturn comes, the marketing budget is often the first to be cut.
esqueletog
I believe in Science.
Now, I’m no Picasso, though my PPC account’s are works of art according to my mother, but PPC is becoming more and more a science. The metrics to track, patterns to find, and correlations to be made are nearly endless. To name a few we can track impressions, clicks, cost per click, cost, leads, phone calls, pageviews, visit duration, bounce rate, how your breath smells(just kidding), what you’re thinking(also kidding), and quality of leads. Yes, even quality of leads. While lead generation PPC isn’t something new to the industry, it’s something that can be difficult for most business to implement.
PPC is becoming more and more a science.
Tracking quality of leads doesn’t have to be hard though; once you have the proper elements in place it’s a matter of digging into the data like any other metric. What are those elements you say? Here are few of them:
  • Breakdown of the sales funnel – Leads aren’t just closed or not closed. Many fall in between as they are nurtured to closing. You must determine what those leads are worth as they move along the pipeline. What’s the quality of each lead?
  • Proper tracking in CRM – is your sales team tracking all leads as they move? This is key to knowing what’s going on.
  • CRM and PPC account integration – how are you getting that beautiful data back into your PPC account? Automation is best suited for that. Want to know how we are doing it? Call me! 877-873-9298 ext. 703. 🙂
  • Adjust your account daily for each lead’s status – 3rd party tools are best suited to make these changes.
All marketing channels may not be easy to track and measure, but in the world of digital that job is much easier. PPC is one of those marketing channels that you can track down to the penny and know what has happened. If you’re a CFO, you CAN know if PPC has increased real sales, and during a downturn will be the last to be cut. *Photo courtesy of www.tapology.com*

4 thoughts on “Why PPC is a CFO’s Best Friend, Even in Lead-Gen

  1. Three Ladders Marketing says:

    Very true, one of the greatest benefits of digital marketing is its granular ability to track. Crazy how companies will continue to spend money in blind media buys (offline) when they haven’t maxed out their digital media – when ROI is everything.

  2. Para juego says:

    information you provide is true, I also have the same opinion with you. Provincial People’s Committee now the abuse of power that the people do not care. unpleasant. I mean, thank you for sharing

  3. Jason Weaver says:

    What I’m waiting for is a tool that helps you find and take action on these metrics: track impressions, clicks, cost per click, cost, leads, phone calls, pageviews, visit duration, bounce rate. And then lets you do the hard things like writing the ads. Even Wordsteam doesn’t say anything about bounce rates.You left out a few things that seem worth wild like time of day and paid vs organic. It’s a merge of stat/automation and humans.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *