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Why do 47 UK tech PR firms bother with Google advertising when nobody clicks?

Google says 47 UK PR firms are bidding on the keyword term “technology PR”. Google also says that the number one ranked advertiser on the phrase will get zero click throughs? A waste of time?

According to Google’s own figures, there are currently 47 UK PR firms who are bidding on the phrase “technology PR”. Given that there are around 53 searches per day in the UK on the term, you might think this makes it worthwhile for these firms to invest some time and energy on the exercise.  Google also suggests that in order to gain a number one advertiser slot, you’d need to be paying in the region of £6 per click through.

However, based on Google’s own Adword Traffic Estimator tool, the number one ranked advertiser can expect to get zero click throughs.  (The reason why the CPC rate is so high even though there is no click through interest is explained here).

Which suggests that Google advertising for this particular term is a waste of time.  In fact, it is a similar story with related terms such as “technology public relations”, “IT PR”, etc.

But what about natural search rankings? Isn’t this good news for Speed Communications whose page currently ranks number one? (or rather, the old Rainier home page URL – this now asks browsers to click through to the new Speed home page). Again, based on average rates, this should result in this particular page receiving an average maximum of 22 click throughs per day.  Then again, according to Microsoft’s Commercial Intent tool, only 1 in 4 searchers on the term “technology PR” are potential buyers – the other 75pc are informational browsers (rival PR firms as per Wadds recent post?).

Still, even 5 possible leads per day can’t be bad for Speed. And maybe some of those informational browsers may turn into paying customers at some point (or employees).

However, the validity of this exercise hinges upon the data provided by Google. Are none of the 47 current Google Adwords advertisers getting any click throughs? It would be good to know (don’t need people to reveal actual numbers – just whether the above analysis bears out any resemblance to reality). Given that many of the claims for the accountability of online PR will be based upon clients and agencies trusting this kind of data, I for one am all ears.

8 replies on “Why do 47 UK tech PR firms bother with Google advertising when nobody clicks?”

@wadds You should do a 301 redirect on the old homepage. Two reasons:

1. It’ll let Google know that you’ve moved URLs so it will start placing more emphasis on speedcommunications.com

2. It takes one step (click) out of the process

Another nice SEO analysis Andrew.

Having had some feedback from some of the tech PR firms advertising, some have pointed out that the Google Traffic Estimator is based on DAILY expected click throughs. Seems that advertisers do get click throughs, but only a few per week at most ie you need at least 7 click throughs per week to get a 1 per day average – anything less than this and Google translates it as zero.

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