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PPC is one of the fastest & best ways of advertising in the Digital Marketing  world.  
There are still many companies (CXO/Directors), including some of my clients/prospects, who are either not aware of PPC or not using PPC or have never tried it as a Digital Marketing tool; leave aside understanding & using it as a powerful Digital marketing tool.

PPC or SEM  is one of the powerful Digital Marketing tools which can generate a lot of instant traffic to your website & if planned well can generate lot of relevant leads which can easily convert into business. It is also very risky tool if you do not know what you are doing (like a Gun in a hand of a Kid), as it can burn a big hole in your pocket without any significant results to show for.

In this article, we will try to explain, what is PPC? Who should use PPC? How you should do PPC to reap the power of PPC?

What is PPC ?

PPC (Pay Per Click) is a paid advertising  in internet to bring traffic to your website, where advertiser only pays the publisher  when someone clicks on the advertisement.  The examples of PPC  are the ads that appear  on the top  or on right hand side of the search results or the banner ads that you see on top, bottom or on sides of any websites.   There are two types of  PPC - Search engine ads and Display ads.

Who should do PPC?

PPC is an integral part of Digital Marketing strategy. It can give you lot of quick business and in some cases, if you do not know what you are doing, it can burn a hole in your pocket.  So, who should do PPC as main strategy for their Digital Marketing initiatives? Here are few companies/situations where it makes sense to go for PPC:

·         Need Quick wins
·         Need lot of traffic quickly to your website
·         Have decent advertising budget
·         Need to build brand
·         To attract some traffic using keywords that you(your company/website) do not stand a                  chance to compete through SEO.

Why PPC? 

PPC has one unique advantage - instant result. It is one of the Digital Marketing tools which produces the fastest results. When you search any keyword or phrase in a search engine, based on several criteria and algorithm, search engines rank you and accordingly you are placed in the search results. In order to come higher in the search results for certain keywords, you have to optimize your site, which is called SEO, which may take at least few months.  In certain cases, it may also take few years for keywords in high demand.  Contrary to this, in PPC, if you pay (bid highest) you can come on top in few minutes. In other words, PPC is buying your way to higher ranking in the search results.

When  PPC?

If you are a new company & have recently developed the website, it would take lot of time to do SEO & get ranked in the first page of the search result. This is an ideal time for an organization to consider PPC where you can get lot of traffic  from day one.  It also makes sense for start-ups/SME with funding (Angle/1st round), who need to quickly show some good results to qualify for the next round.  PPC can give you those quick wins.  

It can also make sense for large MNC which has lot of marketing budget & wants to build a brand for their existing or new product. Using display ads or remarketing/retargeting, they can reach mass,  economically.

Where should you do PPC?

In other words,  this means, where you should spend your money? Which platform?  There are several platforms like Google Adwords, Bing/Yahoo, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter,…. etc., to name a few. You can also do display ads or banner ads in many websites. One of most important & powerful PPC platforms is Google Adwords.  However, the  other platforms like FaceBook, Linkedin, Yahoo/Bing work in the similar way, just slightly different. Each one has some advantages & disadvantages. If possible, I will cover where you should do PPC in detail, where we can discuss the pros & cons of each platform & which platform you should spend your money & why?

How to do PPC?

PPC process can be divided in to 4 parts:  

1.       Initial R&D & Planning
2.       PPC set up
3.       Management
4.       Continuous improvement

One of the questions I am often asked is, "Should you do the PPC in-house or outsource it? In a nutshell, if you have a dedicated resource who knows what he is doing, then it is OK to do it in-house, else you should outsource. Also, always look at the ROI.  If you are getting significant ROI for the PPC spend, then you can continue in-house, else outsource. One of things I propagate is that if you are doing PPC in-house & if the campaigns are well optimized; then you should challenge a marketing agency to improve the performance further & link the payment to the performance & not the total budget/spent.  If you are a SME or a start up with very limited PPC spend, it is OK to do it in house, but when you are a large organization with multiple products, services, geographies,…..etc. it gets complicated & the ideal way to handle this is to outsource.  Like the proverb goes:  Why buy a cow when you can get milk, whenever you want at an affordable price, without the pain of maintaining a cow.

To summarize, here are some advantages of PPC:

1.       Fastest way to generate business
2.       Scalable
3.       Measurable
4.       Easy to outsource & monitor the progress
5.       Excellent analytic/ reporting

It is easy to set up a PPC account & start advertising & start getting some traffic to your site, however it is difficult to optimize the campaigns & get the ROI from PPC. If you are not able to achieve the ROI from you PPC budget,  please call us  or write to us. Vaidya Consulting can help.  Click here to contact us.


 
 
Before getting into the advantages & disadvantages of Outsourcing, first let us look into & understand what is outsourcing & why organizations outsource.

Outsourcing is a practice of transferring or contracting non-core activities (like project or business process, in full or in parts) to third party vendors or to their subsidiaries or captive offshore centers for some specific objective mostly cost benefits.  There are several types of outsourcing viz. onshore, near shore, offshore outsourcing. In the recent times few new models of outsourcing have emerged like co-sourcing, multi-sourcing, crowd-sourcing. One of my favorite is global sourcing – which means using combinations of different models like onshore and offshore and more to achieve the specific objective.

The reasons to outsource may differ from company to company but most common reason is cost benefit.  Other reasons include time saving, quick turnaround, minimizing capital investments, tax benefits, mitigating labor & union challenges, workaround for corporate/HR/ hiring policies, continuous work or development (24/7).

Outsourcing is not a recent phenomenon; it has been in existence for a long time; in fact you can find its roots in the Industrial Revolution era. The offshore outsourcing in a large scale started in the mid 20th century in the manufacturing sector when lot of electronic manufacturing was outsourced to china. IT offshore outsourcing is comparatively a recent trend, where India has taken a leading role. Why India & what are the socioeconomic impact of this offshore outsourcing on  India as well as on outsourcing country & who actually is true beneficiary, is an interesting topic to discuss later. With the latest technological collaborative tools and with the onset of pervasive Internet/cloud computing the offshore outsourcing is going to the next avatar  where the physical location  of developer is irrelevant.  This seems like a good topic for my next blog article.

For now, let us look at the Pros & Cons of  Outsourcing, here they are:

Pros of Outsourcing

  •  Time savings
  • Cost savings
  • Access to resources ( which are unavailable or difficult to find)
  • Better/consistent  Quality – using stringent SLAs
  • Risk mitigation
  • Focus on the core business
  • Increase competitiveness with faster, better & cheaper product/service
  •  24x7 Continuous work possible
  • Adoption to new technology
  • Innovation

Cons of outsourcing

  •  Language challenges
  • Cultural challenges
  • Lack of control
  • Finding the right service provider
  • Low quality – as the adage goes” you get what you pay for”
  •  IP/Data integrity
  • Lower than expected  results – because of lot of hidden costs
  • Fixing and legal cost if things go wrong

Summary

Outsourcing has become indispensable in spite of several  Geopolitical & socioeconomical  criticism and challenges.  Outsourcing is here to stay because the benefits of outsourcing outweigh the drawbacks.  To sum it up, outsourcing can increase productivity at a lower cost which can provide the required boost  to many ailing companies for their rapid recovery. 
 
 
In 1991, India embraced economic liberalization & opened up its markets to foreign investors.  Many MNCs  looked at Indian markets as a great opportunity & entered  these markets with the same products & services  which were super hit in their respective markets ( or with minor changes). Unfortunately, many companies including global giants like Coke, Sony, Kellogg’s,  Nike failed miserably (in their first attempt at least).

Why did they fail?  They failed because  they didn’t  understand the  Indian market.

India is one of the most complex countries in the world. With its financial & cultural diversity the complexity multi-folds.  Here are some of the mindboggling stats:

·         It is 2nd largest county in term of population
·         4th largest GDP in the world
·         500+million people under the age of 21
·         Economic disparity – 109 billionaire & 300 million people living under  a $1 a day.
·         28 states & 7 union territories, 23 languages,  62 socio-cultural  regions
·         400+million middle class with growing purchasing power.

Heterogeneity of India is so complex that it is some time difficult to find a common thread in likes & dislikes of Indian people.  With such diversity in the backdrop, one can understand why MNCs failed launching their existing product or services.  They have to custom tailor the products or even better have to completely innovate the products for the Indian market to be successful in this market.

In order to succeed in the Indian market, it is always advisable to  work with some India based marketing consultant/company who has understanding  of both Indian as well as western cultures/markets.  Having travelled to more than 20 countries & lived in US for more than 10 years, I appreciate & emphasize the need for thoroughly understanding both the cultures in order to succeed in the Indian market.

If you are planning to do business in India, or have already taken the plunge and are grappling with some the above mentioned challenges; need some Consultation or Advisory services please contact us or Click Here. 

 Some of the services offered by Vaidya Consulting:

·         Help you develop your India entry strategy
·         Can conduct all kinds of research & surveys, prepare reports
·         Help you with partner selection
·         Select the suitable city & state to do business & the rationale
·         Assist with the regulatory approvals
·         Selection/setting up the office
·         Running the office/ facility management
·         Help you with all the statutory requirements
·         Recruiting  from senior management  to  lower staff

Click here to read World Bank Article  on Doing Business in India