Do you have an effective way of measuring the ROI of your pay per click campaigns? Is it just a simple matter of taking your expenditures and subtracting them from your revenues? Not really.
There are other things to think about. What is the cost of acquisition per lead? Are you using PPC to generate leads or to close sales? There is a big difference in how you measure your ROI.
If you are closing sales then you’ll go through so many clicks before you get a sale. Not everyone who clicks through will make the purchase. Some people will not purchase until a second, third, or fourth visit. How do you know that returning visitors to your site were not first captured by a pay per click ad that they clicked through? You can’t always know.
For lead generation, the cost of acquiring a lead may seem low if you make an offer on your landing page and get a high number of click-throughs that convert. But are those leads then turning into conversions down the road? A lead by itself doesn’t earn you any revenue. Are you marketing by e-mail to those leads? Is there an expense associated with your marketing and following up with those leads? That needs to be factored in.
In essence, any attempt to touch base with your customer beyond the PPC ad and landing page must be included in the calculation for you ROI. Don’t forget that.
