Compared to other advertising vehicles such as newspapers, billboards, TV, & radio, paid search is a relatively new marketing channel. One of the biggest advantages paid search has over more traditional advertising, is the ability to measure performance. With paid search, you can understand where your ROI is coming from down to the keyword level. This transparency drives more informed decision making on budget allocation. This is one of the primary reasons advertisers are allocating fewer dollars to traditional advertising, and moving more money into digital marketing.
Paid search also has advantages over other online marketing vehicles such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Unlike SEO which can take months for desired keywords to rank on the first page, advertisers can create a PPC campaign, and literally have targeted traffic coming to your website within a few hours. This advantage allows advertisers to begin generating revenue in a very short period of time.
This immediate data collection also enables advertisers to test and measure various components of their website and other marketing assets that would have taken months through other marketing vehicles. This rapid data collection allows advertisers to optimize their online assets and make money more quickly.