What have the PPC Advertiser and its potential PPC customers got to do with donkeys and carrots and mice and cheese? Allow Webrageous to explain…
What do donkeys love to eat? Carrots. The effective PPC Advertiser, like the donkey owner, knows exactly what his/her potential PPC customer finds attractive too and uses it to his/her advantage.
A tired donkey that’s been walking for days on end, carrying whatever kind of cargo on its back from A to B might at some point decide that it can’t go any further; it might decide that it needs to stop to rest and refuel.
Tired internet searchers, looking for the perfect product or service, sometimes become so baffled by what they should choose that they also become tired eventually too, poor little souls that they are.
The donkey’s owner needs to keep going. He is on a deadline, carrying goods to sell at the next town and if he misses the early morning crowds at the market, he’ll lose out on a lot of money. So, he dangles a carrot in front of the donkey’s nose and the donkey suddenly has more strength to carry on.
If the PPC Advertiser knows that his/her target audience is driven by price, he/she will throw online bonus and saver deals at his/her PPC customer to keep them trudging forward until conversion time.
The only thing is that a dangling carrot affords nothing to the tired donkey, so why keep walking? If you dangle impossible to beat financial deals to your PPC customer because you know they are driven by price, you must deliver the prize at some point.
Mice love cheese. Everyone knows that one of the best ways to catch a mouse is to put a piece of cheese on a metal trap and wait for hunger to do its thing.
Or is it?
Mice are clever. A lot cleverer than donkeys. What the mouse wants is the cheese, but if the cheese in your trap cannot be eaten without getting caught in the trap, then our friendly, little rodent won't even attempt to get at it. It’s as simple as that.
And now the important part...
Can your PPC customer get to the cheese (great financial deal) that you promised them?
Consider this...
If you advertise something for half price, deliver the goods at that price without any hidden charges that weren't put into the advertisement.
If your advertisement text highlights hairdryers, but you sell lots of different electrical products on your website, make sure you direct the potential customer to the page about hairdryers.
If you say on your website that all deliveries can be made to other countries, ensure that you follow through to the letter with your promise.
PPC Clients are just like donkeys following carrots or mice sniffing out cheese… they might fall for the promise of goods that are never delivered once or maybe even twice by your company, but they won’t do it forever. They will work out what you’re doing and will feel very dissatisfied with your services.
Be upfront and honest, deliver what you promise and don’t promise what you know you cannot or don't want to provide. If you follow this simple rule, loyal PPC Clients can be created and held on to. If you continue to abuse your position and fail to come through with what your client has asked you for, your online reputation will gradually kill your business and your competitors will reap the rewards of your downfall.
Take heed.
Tracey Chandler - Tracey Chandler currently writes a weekly column for non-profit organisation South American Explorers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She also ...
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