Currently, one of the hot topics of discussion in the SEO world is social marketing versus PPC advertising. Or to be more specific, click ads for a fee versus organic, naturally indexed search engine optimization methods. Though a viable option if looking for immediate exposure for your cosmetic or plastic surgery practice, Pay Per Click (PPC) can become a costly, expensive proposition, often times resulting in high amounts of fraudulent clicks. Ultimately, cosmeticSEO.com does not recommend PPC as a long term option that returns meaningful or substantial ROI. Rather, we advocate building and implementing a highly customized marketing kit driving visitors to your site.
Consider the following daunting statistics when comparing "white hat" SEO tactics and social marketing versus PPC advertising, before embarking on a long-term PPC campaign for your cosmetic or plastic surgery practice:
- Most academics and consultants who study online advertising estimate that 10% to 15% of ad clicks are fake, representing roughly $1 billion in annual billings.
- A BusinessWeek investigation
has revealed a thriving click-fraud underground populated by swarms of small-time players, making detection arduous and extremely difficult. - In some cases, "clickbot" software generates page hits automatically and anonymously.
- Participants from Kentucky to China and all over the globe speak of making money ranging from $25 to several thousand dollars a month apiece; cash they wouldn't receive if search engines were as successful at blocking fraud as they claim.
- There are parties who create complex robots to generate thousands of clicks, while spoofing IP addresses in order to fleece their own advertisers and avoid detection.
The major search engines have aggressively fought PPC fraud, and to be fair, have been reasonably successful for the most part. The main concern is simply the large amount of fraudulent schemes being purported against PPC campaigns makes it a difficult and complex issue to fully solve. Thus, CosmteicSEO.com advocates a long-term, highly sustainable SEO marketing campaign utilizing various tools such as social marketing vs PPC advertising.