Reasons 3-5
Reason 3: Clicks and sales are not the same thing
Low click-through rates have killed many successful campaigns over the years. I've seen many campaigns get pulled because of low click-through rates and then months later seen shifts in sales trends during the timeframe the online campaign was running. The problem stems from the fact that sales data typically don't have the immediacy of online ad data. So decisions get made based on what's available immediately instead of looking at the whole picture.
Reason 4: E-commerce is not the center of the economy
Online sales account for roughly 7 percent of U.S. retail sales. So, unless you're selling airline tickets or books, there's a pretty good chance that more than 90 percent of your business occurs in the offline world. It's hard to track click response to offline sales, so we tend to align our impact with e-commerce sales and miss what's happening at retail. People research online, determine their product interests and needs, but then go to retail to buy.
Reason 5: Cost-per-click comes at the cost of targeting
Since the early days of online advertising (late 90s), there's been a lot of interest in only paying for response -- thus, the advent of cost-per-click (CPC) marketing. After all, what marketer wouldn't want to only pay for response? But the problem with this approach is that all too often, CPC ads end up being targeted to people who click the most, instead of being targeted at your desired audience. The typical outcome of this type of effort is a sudden increase in response, but no noticeable increase in sales.
Now, I must admit that, at times, I use cost-per-click for my clients. But as a general rule, I do believe that CPC is the sign of a lazy media buyer. It's a media buyer's job to make sure that that our ads don't end up on an uninhabited island, but with cost-per-click, we sometimes end up on an island full of people offering a Caribbean vacation. Sure, they'll show interest because there's nothing else to do, but the last thing they need is a week at the beach. We're supposed to do the research and determine the best way to reach our audience, not turn to the publishers to let them decide.
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