Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Pay Per Click Reaches Middle Age

Pay per click isn't going away, it's just that the best days are behind it. That summarizes the feelings of Gary Stein at ClickZ.

Pay per click isn't ready for retirement, rather between click fraud and less risky alternatives (pay per action), PPC is finding its niche as the industry's low-hanging fruit. PPC is easy to implement, has a track record of reporting tools, and for better or worse it's value is understood. PPA and more interactive ad units require additional work, so they appeal to a different audience.

But the low hanging fruit still needs to be picked, and PPC will continue to thrive in that space. The transition to other ad models (such as Linkshare's embracing PPA) will be a slow process because even in this "new" medium, there are conservative types who are resistant to investing and experimenting with other options.

PPC will be the answer for "commodity" content and large networks, while large publishers with dedicated audiences will increase their CPMs through targeted ads that match behaviors with actions. Many of these sites will also continue to run PPC ads as wells since multiple ad units are the standard.

By John Gartner at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

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