Do we really need to use Google

I was talking with a client whose online advertising campaign I have managed for a while. When explaining all the inherent difficulties keeping ads running on Google Adwords (quality score, keywords going inactive, etc) he asked “do we really need to use Google then?” I thought this was an interesting question and wasn’t sure how to respond to it. In fact, I kept thinking about it long after the conversation. Everyone has different goals and objectives with their PPC ads, but I finally concluded that for me, the answer was no. While I would never want to voluntarily stop using them, I didn’t necessarily need them.

Could I survive, even thrive without using Adwords at all? Absolutely. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if it came down to it, I could make a nice affiliate living with any 1 of the big 3 PPC engines by itself. Putting all your eggs in the same basket is never good. Even with Google’s domination of the market, they don’t own all the clicks in search. In fact, when you combine MSN and Yahoo into one category, it’s a big enough volume to rival Google in some niches.

Each PPC engine is unique in its traffic, ad CTRs, and ultimately conversion rates, so you really need to become an expert in all of them to gain maximum advantage in this game. That’s not even to mention all the 2^nd tier engines out there. So if you told me I could never run another Adwords ad, I would have to scramble for sure, but I’m confident that I could make it without Google.