Our industry was built on PPC….

Just got to wait and hope Google accept my site.

I did have success many years ago with a very specific niche phrase but that has been overtaken entirely by other industries since the casino ban, but from that I’ve often suspected that if you have an adwords campaign for a site with google your organic rankings improve – any thoughts on this?

A search for online casino is more like 80% affiliates – top 3 position about $11 per click.

Daft words to choose if you’re an affiliate, obviously you’d be looking for much more targetted phrases, but they are doing it..

Our whole industry was built on PPC.

Maybe YOUR industry (SEO) was – but mine (affiliate) wasn’t …
I’ve only been doing it since 1999 though …
:wink-wink

To summarise do you think it is fair to say you feel that at present the costs are too high to place yourself in a profitable position and therefore the gold rush isn’t here ?

Dominique,

What would it take for you to rethink the paid search model as an effective one?

The Gooner,

I disagree. I believe that the gaming industry was built on the affiliate business model and the bulk of poker and casino sign ups through affiliates came through PPC.

What I am trying to do here is get an understanding of what people think about PPC, now that it is allowed again in Google in certain countries and then to dispel any myths or concerns you may have about it. PPC can be horrible, direct costs that hurt and cashflow problems galore, but when it goes well it can be glorious.

I wont say much now and I dont expect the guys n gals that are succeeding in the new gold rush PPC arena to chip in (not yet anyway) as their personal gold mine is almost definately sacred to them but I will say that when you play the PPC game well it can deliver obscene rewards that equate to measurable and real cash in your pocket.

if we can get the discussion going and livened up then I’ll share if you do too!

I disagree. I believe that the gaming industry was built on the affiliate business model and the bulk of poker and casino sign ups through affiliates came through PPC.

And I disagree with you. I’m basing my statement on my personal situation and years of fairly open discussion with my circle of affiliate friends.

What reference are you using for your statement?
Were you/are you a gaming affiliate?

I’ve seen the numbers from both sides and although I have a different view from you I do believe STRONGLY my statements are true

I am going to measure “good” by the only stat that ultimately matters – The Greenback!

Each search engine has a different overall demographic of users, so the comparisons I am about to make are between visitors who have clicked an organic listing compared to visitors who have clicked PPC listings.

PPC Visitor – Converts Better.
Organic Visitor – Spends more.

So as a basic overview if you are looking to gain visitors via organic search you will generally be better off going on a revenue share style deal whereas you’ll be better off going for a CPA style deal with PPC.

The above is a HUGE statement and is based on over a million players I have seen via these routes and holds true because of it.

Your mileage may vary of course